John Switzer

John Switzer is a Toronto-based independent record producer. He has produced records for Jane Siberry, Andrew Cash, The Grievous Angels, Rita Chiarelli, and The Waltons, among many others. He was voted Producer of the Year at the 1986 Casby Awards for Jane Siberry’s The Speckless Sky album, and was awarded a gold record for that same album. In 1994, The Waltons’ Lik My Trakter album was certified gold. He was voted Best Recording Producer in the 1996 NOW magazine Reader’s Poll (!?) and was awarded the 1996 Porcupine Award for Producer of the Year. Touch the Earth and Sky, by Native-Canadian singer-songwriter Vern Cheechoo, released in 1999, was nominated for a JUNO award in the “Best Music of Aboriginal Canada Recording” category and garnered Switzer a “Best Producer/Engineer” trophy at the 2000 Aboriginal Music Awards.Switzer has also worked in film as Music Consultant and Music Director for Patricia Rozema’s White Room and I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, and produced the song score for ZERO PATIENCE, “a musical about AIDS” by John Greyson.Recent recording projects include Spirit and Stone, the 14th album from the venerable Tamarack, and Songs of Work and Freedom from The Brothers Cosmoline, which was nominated for a 2001 JUNO. 2002 saw the release of the JUNO nominated Spirit World, Solid Wood by NWT singer Leela Gilday, winner of three awards, including Best Folk Album, at the 2002 Aboriginal Music Awards. Released internationally in August 2004 on Nettwerk Records, the Switzer-produced album Jimson Weed , by Winnipeg band Nathan, was nominated for a 2005 JUNO award for “Best Roots/Traditional Album”, nominated for “Outstanding Independent Album” and “Outstanding Roots Album” at the Western Canada Music Awards, and received the award for “Best Album–Contemporary” at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.