Tom Rothrock

Producer, record label owner, and recording artist Tom Rothrock has played an integral part in the careers of <a href="spotify:artist:2ApaG60P4r0yhBoDCGD8YG">Elliott Smith</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7KMqksf0UMdyA0UCf4R3ux">James Blunt</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:3vbKDsSS70ZX9D2OcvbZmS">Beck</a> before launching a solo career with the 2006 album Resonator. <a href="spotify:artist:3vbKDsSS70ZX9D2OcvbZmS">Beck</a>'s breakthrough hit, "Loser," was originally released on Bong Load Custom Records, a label Rothrock formed in the early '90s with fellow producers/musicians Rob Schnapf and Bradshaw Lambert. Rothrock and Schnapf went on to record <a href="spotify:artist:3vbKDsSS70ZX9D2OcvbZmS">Beck</a>'s platinum-selling debut, Mellow Gold, with another producer, Carl Stephenson. Rothrock and Schnapf also handled production for the track "Ramshackle" on <a href="spotify:artist:3vbKDsSS70ZX9D2OcvbZmS">Beck</a>'s 1996 album Odelay, and a year later the pair were nominated for an Oscar for their recording of <a href="spotify:artist:2ApaG60P4r0yhBoDCGD8YG">Elliott Smith</a>'s "Miss Misery," featured in <a href="spotify:artist:1iokknnSrYMMhGHYgZDUMB">Gus Van Sant</a>'s film Good Will Hunting. <a href="spotify:artist:2ApaG60P4r0yhBoDCGD8YG">Smith</a>'s 1997 album Either/Or and his 1998 effort XO were also helmed by the duo, and two years later they were responsible for the crisp sound of <a href="spotify:artist:5w75MoT8FfcGOMgjgrj1cz">Richard Thompson</a>'s Mock Tudor. Their work on <a href="spotify:artist:1fMiEUAUshtCFawy3aD0oD">the Supreme Beings of Leisure</a>'s 2000 self-titled album found them firmly in command of the trip-hop sound. In 2002 Rothrock worked on the heralded About a Boy soundtrack with <a href="spotify:artist:244fcyNSuyhbRlMGfMbYrO">Badly Drawn Boy</a> and in 2004 he composed the incidental music for the <a href="spotify:artist:7AypNU6l8yt6eA4mG6vVL2">Michael Mann</a> film Collateral. His work on <a href="spotify:artist:7KMqksf0UMdyA0UCf4R3ux">James Blunt</a>'s 2005 album Back to Bedlam helped earn <a href="spotify:artist:7KMqksf0UMdyA0UCf4R3ux">Blunt</a> five Grammy nominations that year. In 2006 he began his solo career with the full-length and entirely instrumental Resonator, named after a type of acoustic guitar with a metal center that's often referred to by its brand name, Dobro. The Bong Load Custom Records label was revived to release the album. ~ David Jeffries, Rovi