John McEntire (born April 9, 1970 in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...

) is an American recording engineer, producer,

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western bands that play rock, pop, jazz, or R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeeping and embellishing the musical timbre. The drummer' ...

and multi-instrumentalist, based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

. He is a member of both

Tortoise Tortoises () are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin: ''tortoise''). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like ot ...

and the Sea and Cake. McEntire started playing drums at age 10. Throughout high school, he performed in marching bands and studied privately for seven years. He went on to attend Oberlin Conservatory initially as a percussion major, but eventually switched to study in the school's then newly created program for Technology in Music and Related Arts.

Musical career

McEntire is currently a member of

, The Sea and Cake, and The Red Krayola. His drumming work as a sideman can be heard on recordings, such as ''Since'' by Richard Buckner, ''Enantiodromia'' and ''Life on the Fly'' by Azita, ''

Near-Life Experience ''Near-Life Experience'' is the third studio album by Boston alternative rock band Come, released in May 1996 on Matador Records in the US and on Domino Records in the UK. __TOC__ History After Come's 1994 release ''Don't Ask Don't Tell,'' bassi ...

'' by Come, ''Kernel'' by

Seam Seam may refer to: Science and technology * Seam (geology), a stratum of coal or mineral that is economically viable; a bed or a distinct layer of vein of rock in other layers of rock * Seam (metallurgy), a metalworking process the joins the ends ...

, ''Chicago Wednesday'' by Jandek, and ''The Spectrum Between'' by David Grubbs. While attending Oberlin, he briefly played with Mark Edwards in My Dad Is Dead in 1988, and then joined Bastro with David Grubbs and Bundy K. Brown in 1989. In 1991, he relocated along with Grubbs and Brown to Chicago where they changed their musical direction and became the first incarnation of Gastr Del Sol. Their debut album, ''The Serpentine Similar'', was released in 1993. McEntire and Brown left to play in Tortoise in 1994, yet McEntire continued to make contributions to Gastr Del Sol's later recordings and performances. McEntire had also played in

, The Stokastikats,

Stereolab Stereolab are an Anglo-French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's music combines influences from krautrock, lounge and 1960s pop music, often incorporating a re ...

, and The Oily Bloodmen. He was a principal musician on

Jim O'Rourke James O'Rourke may refer to: Sports * Jim O'Rourke (baseball) (1850–1919), American baseball player and Hall of Fame inductee * Jimmy O'Rourke (baseball) (1883–1955), American baseball player, son of the Hall of Fame inductee * James O'Rourk ...

's Terminal Pharmacy and has appeared on many other solo O'Rourke projects.

Production/engineering work

As a producer and engineer, McEntire has mixed and remixed recordings by many artists. He also owns and operates Soma Electronic Music Studios in

Nevada City, California Nevada City (originally, ''Ustumah'', a Nisenan village; later, Nevada, Deer Creek Dry Diggins, and Caldwell's Upper Store) is the county seat of Nevada County, California, United States, northeast of Sacramento, southwest of Reno and northea ...

, to which he relocated in 2018 after 25 years in the Wicker Park neighborhood of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and then a brief stint in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

. He produces and engineers most of the recordings for his own bands, as well as many of the solo efforts by bandmates Sam Prekop, Archer Prewitt, Jeff Parker, and

Doug McCombs Douglas McCombs is an American musician who plays bass and guitar with the instrumental rock band Tortoise and leads the instrumental band Brokeback. He is also the longtime bassist for the rock band Eleventh Dream Day. In 1997, he formed Pullm ...

. He has also engineered, produced, and/or mixed albums and tracks for many artists including:

Bell Orchestre Bell Orchestre is a six-piece instrumental band from Montreal. It was formed in 1999 by multi-instrumentalist Richard Parry and violinist Sarah Neufeld. Both also joined Arcade Fire. They were joined in Bell Orchestre by Michael Feuerstack (ste ...

, Bright Eyes, Bobby Conn, Teenage Fanclub, Sylvain Chauveau, Kaki King,

Tom Ze Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

, The Ex,

Smog Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words '' smoke'' and ''fog'' to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then in ...

, Trans Am, Eleventh Dream Day,

Cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...

, Antibalas,

Innaway Innaway was an American psychedelic rock band from Southern California formed in 2001. In 2002, their demo was pressed in limited quantities by German label Audiolith Records but there wasn't a US release until 2005 when Some Records released a ...

, The For Carnation, Dianogah,

U.S. Maple U.S. Maple was an American noise rock band. The group formed in Chicago in 1995. The band consists of Al Johnson (lead singer), Mark Shippy (guitarist), Pat Samson (drummer), and Todd Rittmann (guitarist). History Formation and first single U.S ...

Chicago Underground Duo Chicago Underground is an avant-garde jazz ensemble formed in Chicago in 1997 based around the core duo of cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer/percussionist Chad Taylor. They have recorded and performed as the Chicago Underground Duo, Trio, Qu ...

Spookey Ruben Spookey Ruben (born Alan Deil) is a Canadian musician, producer, songwriter, composer, and filmmaker. Best known for his song and music video "These Days Are Old", Spookey's songwriting and eccentric production techniques often contrast high and ...

, Blur, Pivot,

The Fiery Furnaces The Fiery Furnaces are an United States, American indie rock band, formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, New York.. - ''In 2000 they moved Brooklyn... and began playing as the Fiery Furnaces late in the year''. - Allmusic The band's primary members are Matt ...

The Car Is on Fire The Car Is on Fire was a three-piece pop outfit from Warsaw, Poland. The band was formed in early 2002 and took its name from the first words on Godspeed You! Black Emperor's album '' F♯ A♯ ∞''. In May 2005 the debut, self-titled albu ...

, Small Sins,

Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed by Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Canning (vocals, bass) in 1999. Alongside Drew and Canning, the othe ...

Coldcut Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Matt Black and Jonathan More. Credited as pioneers for pop sampling in the 1980s, Coldcut are also considered the first stars of UK electronic dance music due to their innovative style, ...

Spoon A spoon is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl (also known as a head), oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery (sometimes called flatware in the United States), especially as part of a table setting, place setting, it is used ...

Jaga Jazzist Jaga Jazzist (also known as Jaga) is a Norwegian experimental jazz band, that rose to prominence when the BBC named their second album, ''A Livingroom Hush'' (Smalltown Supersound/Ninja Tune), the best jazz album of 2002. (in Norwegian) Biograph ...

, Great 3, Yo La Tengo, Pia Fraus and most recently, La Ciencia Simple. McEntire is a pioneering user of modern

digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integra ...

software, first employing

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture ( sound design, audio post-prod ...

on the 1997 The Sea and Cake album '' The Fawn'' and then on Stereolab's '' Dots and Loops'', released later the same year.

References

External links

John McEntire, Pushing Tortoise
interview
John McEntire, Rock Reaching
interview * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McEntire, John 1970 births Living people Musicians from Portland, Oregon Oberlin College alumni American indie rock musicians Record producers from Oregon 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Tortoise (band) members Bastro members The Sea and Cake members Red Krayola members Gastr del Sol members 21st-century American drummers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians