| Peter J. Moore | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupations | Producer |
Peter Joseph Moore is a Canadian music producer who was first recognized for his innovative recordings of the Cowboy Junkies, produced on a shoestring budget.[1]
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In 1976, Peter, and a few other students, started the campus radio broadcast station CHRW-FM, while at the University of Western Ontario ("UWO") in London, Ontario. He was the on-air DJ for the new music program covering the Punk rock and New Wave scene.
At that time most records from the current artists were imported from England, which created a problem fulfilling the radio's "33% Canadian content" obligation. Since there were very few Canadian releases, Moore started recording the live shows of local and touring Canadian punk rock bands at his own expense and playing them on his radio show, "The Simon Less Radio Program". In 1979, while still studying for a degree in anthropology, Peter founded a record label called Silent Head Records and provided a rehearsal space in his own rented house for the local punk scene.
By 1981, his self-taught producing/engineering skills had reached a professional level and he branched out into other forms of music such as jazz and classical. After graduating UWO in 1982, he founded MDI Productions (incorporated in 1986) and moved his operation to Toronto.
In Toronto, Peter continued to produce rock, jazz, and classical recordings as well as film and TV scores. In 1985, he was approached by Adcom Electronics, Canada’s largest professional video supplier, to create and manage a new audio division. His duties included designing and outfitting professional music, film, and television studios throughout Canada such as Film House, CBC Toronto, Pathe, Manta, CBC Montreal, Sounds Interchange, Eastern, PFA, Sound House, CBC Vancouver (exceeding sales 1.8 million in his last year, 1989).
In 1988, Moore produced the now famous one-microphone recording Trinity Sessions by the Cowboy Junkies. The album was released in early 1988 on Latent Records in Canada, and re-released worldwide in 1989 by RCA New York. It was recorded at Toronto, Ontario's Church of the Holy Trinity on November 27, 1987, using one ambisonic stereo microphone connected to a Beta VCR. It became an international success story selling more than 1.5 million copies in the first year.[1] He left his employment at Adcom and has been producing, mastering and restoring music full time ever since.
He was the music producer/engineer/mixer for the 1996 movie Hard Core Logo. He wrote three of the songs and co-wrote with Swamp Baby the rest of the songs acted out by Hard Core Logo to playback. His work on Hard Core Logo won him, and his co-writers, the 1996 Genie Award for Original Song.[2]
More recently, Moore has been noted as a Master at re-mastering analog media for the digital age. When a long-lost tape of Joni Mitchell's was found, her Amchitka benefit concert for the birth of Greenpeace, it was brought to Moore who "painstakingly restored each minute of the 40-year-old tapes." [3]
"His credits include Neil Young, Garth Hudson, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Oscar Peterson, Diana Krall, Neko Case, Bruce Cockburn, Murray MacLauchlan, Finger Eleven, Sloan, and hundreds of others. Won 3 Grammy Awards, nominated for 4th this year (Neko Case). Won 2 Genie's, Won 2 Gemini's. Nominated twice for a Juno." [4]