User:Jon.West.Wood/sandbox

{{Infobox musical artist }}
 * name               = Joe Fossard
 * image              = [[File:Joe Fossard in 1997 during production of the Ithaka album Stellafly at Estúdios Valentim de Carvalho Lisbon Portugal photograph by Ithaka Darin Pappas.jpg|thumb|Joe Fossard in Lisbon, Portugal (1997)]]| caption             =
 * birth_name         =
 * alias              = 16 Tons, Rockhead
 * birth_date         = August 1969 | birth_place         = Blackburn, U.K.
 * death_date         =
 * origin             =
 * instrument         = Computer, synthesizers, mixing desk
 * genre              = Alternative rock, {Indie rock]], Alternative hip hop
 * occupation         = Music producer, songwriter, sound engineer
 * years_active       = 1986–present
 * label              = {{hlist|EMI Records|Valentim de Carvalho, Zona Musica}}
 * associated_acts    = Bradford (band), Ewan Butler, Primitive Reason, General D, Blind Zero, Ithaka, Democrash
 * website            = {{url|https://www.discogs.com/artist/275647-Joe-Fossard}}
 * background         = producer, songwriter, remix artists, sound engineer

Joe Fossard is a music producer, sound technician, songwriter and sonic artist from Blackburn, an industrial city located in Lancashire, England. Fossard has produced projects within several different musical genres including Indie rock, Alternative rock, Hip hop, Alternative hip hop and Trip hop. Most of the artists have been Portuguese, or have been based in Portugal, where Fossard resided for many years. He has also created remixes for a handful of artists under his aliases, 16 Tons and Rockhead.

In 2016, he was included among the Top 30 music producers active in Portugal by Revista Blitz, music magazine.

Career
Active with live concert mixing from an early age in his native Blackburn and specifically doing the sound for most of the illegal Acid house raves in Blackburn during 1989 and 1990. As he told The Guardian in a May 2020 article, “I classed myself as an audio terrorist,” he says. “Breaking into somewhere, doing the sound – it was a real challenge, a massive responsibility.” In 2019, in collaboration with artist-in-residence Jaimie Holman, Joe Fossard made a sonic archive installation entitled "Flashback" for The British Textile Biennial that involved capturing the sound of rooms and reproducing them in a sonic art form accompanied by a graphical representation from technical data gathered. In this case, the spaces utilized were the very same warehouses he broke into to set up sound systems for Blackburn raves 30 years earlier.

Fossard had his beginning in the sound studio as a recording engineer on the single release "Skin Storm" by the band Bradford, featuring vocalist Ian Michael Hodgson and guitarist Ewan Butler, both from his home town of Blackburn. The song charted independently in U.K. and two years later was covered by Morrissey.

Fossard moved to Lisbon, Portugal in 1994, where he mixed live concerts and continued working as a studio sound technician. Within a couple of years, he began producing full-length albums (and sometimes co-writing songs) with national and international artists for independent labels as well as for major multinational franchises such as EMI Records. He has also created remixes for a handful of artists under his aliases, 16 Tons and Rockhead.

Flowers And The Color Of Paint (1995)
The first full-length album Fossard worked on was Flowers And The Color Of Paint by Californian alternative hip hop artist and spoken-word poet Ithaka (or Ithaka Darin Pappas), who lived and recorded in Portugal in the mid-nineties. Fossard, along with co-producer/co-writer DJ Grizzly, sculpted songs created from samples of tracks from Grizzly's diverse vinyl collection, then utilizing additional guest vocalists and live musicians for many songs to add further dimension for Ithaka to then vocalize his story-songs on. Guests performers on Flowers And The Color Of Paint included; singers Marta Dias and Ninicha, rappers General D and Lince and guitarist Joao Paulo Feliciano (from the Indie Rock band Tina & The Top Ten). Several members of the Portuguese acid jazz band Cool Hipnoise also participated, among them; Tiago Gomes (Guitar), Francisco Rebelo (bass), Nuno Reis (trumpet) and Paulo Muiños (tenor saxophone).

The album, Flowers And The Color Of Paint released by MoviePlay Records was not a big commercial success, but it was well received by the critics and was nominated for three 1995 Blitz Awards (The Portuguese Grammy) for "Best Album", "Best New Artist" and "Best Male Vocalist" (Ithaka). That year, two songs from the record, "Pigeon Lady" and the title track "Flowers And The Color Of Paint" (featuring Ninicha) appeared in G-Land Pro, a surfing documentary produced by Quiksilver starring world champion surfers Tom Carroll and Kelly Slater surfing on the island of Java. In 1997, another song from the album, "Escape From The City Of Angels" (featuring Marta Dias) was used in the soundtrack of filmmaker Antoine Fuqua's directorial debut The Replacement Killers (for Universal Pictures). The starred renowned actors Chow Yun Fat, Mira Sorvino, Clifton Collins Jr. and Michael Rooker.

In an end of the decade retrospective about national music, the leading Portuguese newspaper Jornal Público considered Flowers And The Color Of Paint to be one of the most influential records released there in the 1990s. In a 2017 article in the magazine Rimas E Batidas, it was noted that Flowers And The Color Of Paint was the most expensive 'Portuguese' hip hop record selling on the online marketplace Discogs, selling for up to 59€ per copy.

Alternative Prison (1996)
In 1996, Joe Fossard produced the album Alternative Prison by Primitive Reason, an international alternative cross-over rock band based in Lisbon. The band at the time included member Guillermo de Llera (bass and voice), Jorge Felizardo (drums), Brian Jackson (main voice), Mark Cain (sax) and Mikas Ventura (guitar). With all members from diverse backgrounds both musically and culturally, the fusion of rap, punk, hardcore, reggae, ska, African rhythms, funk, tribal was a challenge Fossard met with enthusiasm, resulting in a hyper-dimensional record that created several radio hits in Portugal, and beyond such as; "Seven Fingered Friend", "So You Say" and "Devil in June".

Alternative Prison's success led to a lucrative tour of the Iberian Peninsula and two major awards at the 1996 Blitz Premios, "Best New Group" and "Best Single" for their marijuana tribute tune "Seven Fingered Friend"

Kanimambo (1997)
In 1997, Joe Fossard produced the album Kanimambo for General D, an artist originally from ex-Portuguese colony Mozambique, Africa, immigrating to Lisbon at a young age. Considered the "The Godfather Of Portuguese Hip Hop", General D was the first hip hop artist in Portugual to release a record of any kind (the e.p. "PortuKKKal É Um Erro" in 1994 followed by his album "Pé na Tchôn, Karapinha Na Céu" both for EMI Records.  https://www.muralsonoro.com/mural-sonoro-pt/tag/Soraia+Sim%C3%B5es

Joe Fossard recorded, Kanimambo (General D's his second full-length album) at Regiestúdio in Lisbon. The project featured several guest performers including the legendary António Chainho on Portuguese Guitar for the song, "Hora Di Bai". Nuno Guerreiro contributed vocals on a politically-oriented track entitled, "Xanana Gusmão". The percussionist, Netos Do N'Gumbé performed on the song, "Respeito". Lyrics for the song, "Rappi Ta Doddo" were written by Brazilian superstar Gabriel O Pensador. And singer Marta Dias and Ithaka (contributing vocals/lyrics) appeared on the song, "Ekos do Passado". General D toured extensively with this album nationally and also performed in Spain and France. 331877

Stellafly (1997)
In 1997, Joe Fossard worked with Ithaka on his second album, entitled Stellafly, this time not only as chief producer but also as a co-writer of the music. Along with longtime friend from Blackburn, guitarist Ewan Butler from the band Bradford (who had also recently moved to Portugal) the two co-wrote the musical elements backing most of the songs on the 17-track, 80-minute record.

The resulting record, again based on Ithaka Darin Pappas' semi-autobiographical short-story lyricism, (musically backed by Fossard and Butler's compositions), was critically acclaimed in Portugal, being nominated for four Blitz Awards (The Portuguese Grammy) (including "Best Album" and "Best Single" for the song Seabra Is Mad - as well as being considered the national "Album Of The Year" by the country's number one national newspaper  Público. A live tour of Portugal and two dates at the prestigious Printemps de Bourges in France followed, but soon afterward, Ithaka returned to the United Stated to begin recording a new record with Los Angeles producers, never returning full-time to Europe to record or perform. However, a decade later, the Drum and bass, surf guitar, story song Seabra Is Mad from the Stellafly album, with Butler on electric guitar (musically co-written by Ewan Butler and Joe Fossard) appeared in the best selling video game Xbox 360 game NBA 2K7.

List of Records Produced by Joe Fossard (incomplete)

 * 1995 "Flowers And The Color Of Paint" by Ithaka for Movie Play Records [Portugal]
 * 1995 "Even Dogs Like It" by Red Bean for Moneylands Portugal [Portugal]
 * 1996 "Flexogravity" by Blind Zero and Mind Da Gap for Valentim de Carvalho
 * 1996 "Alternative Prison" by Primitive Reason - União Lisboa Edições
 * 1997 "Kanimambo" by General D - for EMI Records [Portugal]
 * 1997 "Stellafly" by Ithaka - for Nortesul Records Valentim de Carvalho
 * 1998 "Baza Não Baza" by Kussondulola - full-length album EMI Records
 * 1998 Cumum by 3 Tristes Tigres - full-length album EMI Records {Portugal]
 * 2002 "Low Frequency Cool" by LF Cool - for Zona Musica
 * 2006 "Mighty Sounds Pristine" by Bypass for Borland Records [Portugal]
 * 2011 "Stanzas For Sail" by Fifth House - Winterbird Recordings [UK]
 * 2013 "Touched By The Hand Of Nobby Bobson" by Mardigras Bombers [UK]
 * 2015 Democrash by Democrash [Portugal]
 * 2019 "Arc" (live album) by Vasco Martins

Remixes by Joe Fossard

 * 1998 "Seabra Is Mad" by Ithaka (Rockhead Mix) Nortesul Records Valentim de Carvalho
 * 2001 "B.Com.1" by Coldfinger (16 Tons Remix) Nortesul Records Valentim de Carvalho
 * 2016 "Red/Black" by Alex FX (16 Tons Remix) Dead Motion Records
 * 2018 "Malifest" by The Gift (16 Tons Remix) La Folie Records