Emlyn Crowther

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Emlyn Crowther (born 2 October 1949 in Dunedin, New Zealand) was the drummer of Split Enz from July 1974 to November 1976.

Before joining the Enz, Crowther played trumpet in an air training corp band but swapped to drums later on. Moved to Auckland in 1969 and played drums in a couple of covers bands and Alastair Riddell's band, Orb. Riddell was at one stage a possible replacement for Phil Judd when he left Split Enz in 1977.

As well as drumming on the first two Enz albums, Crowther (by this stage known as Emlyn), was an electronics and live sound expert who also built the synthesizers used on Mental Notes.

Crowther invented the Hotcake guitar distortion pedal in 1976, which have openly been used by Noel Gallagher (of Oasis, The Melvins, Sonic Youth, Neil Finn, Chris Knox and Dave Mitchell (of the 3Ds<http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Study/9077/hotcake.htmlreferences/>. After Split Enz, Crowther drummed in a few local bands, does live mixing work for New Zealand band The Mutton Birds and was involved with a sound company between 1980-90. He currently resides in Auckland with his wife, two teenage daughters and a young son, and runs a company named Crowther Audio, manufacturing effects pedals and other equipment.