Anthony Lawrence Cohen (4 June 1957 – 2 August 2017) was an Australian music record producer and sound engineer.

[1]: 1  The family moved to Mentone, along with younger brother Martin, where Cohen was enrolled at St Bede's College for his secondary education.

[1]: 3–5  Cohen started to play the drums when the family had moved to the neighbouring suburb of Cheltenham and formed a friendship with fellow aspiring drummer, Chris Thompson.

[1]: 15  In April of the following year he was working as an assistant record producer, alongside Molly Meldrum, on Perth's glam rock group, Supernaut's lead single, "I Like It Both Ways" (May 1976).

[2] Cohen produced the group's associated self-titled album, which appeared in November of that year, and its follow-up single, "Too Hot to Touch" (September).

[3] In July 1976, Cohen and fellow engineer, Ian MacKenzie, met with Meldrum to organise the production of the pop group, the Ferrets' debut album, Dreams of a Love: "It was all a bit of Elton John, a bit of the 'Real Thing', [Meldrum] called us in for a production meeting 9:00 in the morning at his place and he was still in bed [...] and putting the music on [...] very, very loud and then proceeds to shout at you over the top of it, and we were all sitting there sort of terrified thinking, what on earth is he saying?

"[1]: 137 Cohen reflected on his early work with Cave, in an interview with Richard Fidler in September 2006, "[it] was all very experimental then, because we were all learning – I fell in love with this new way of recording... because there were no rules.

We were looking for sounds that made your fillings drop out rather than pleasant pop tunes, so we got to do crazy things like find concrete stairwells and abuse equipment, so it was all very attractive for me.

Some of it didn't work, but as history has shown Nick really honed his craft, he's done some brilliant records... some of the early stuff was a bit rough but it was a learning curve then.

"[4] Ed Nimmervoll, an Australian music journalist and editor of Rock Australia Magazine, recalled "Nick Cave's Birthday Party were allowed to take up some of the studio time slack.

"[12] A long-term working relationship had also been established with Tex Perkins, starting with the singer's alternative rock group, Beasts of Bourbon's 1984 album, The Axeman's Jazz.

[3][13] According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, "Legend has it that the session was fuelled by 72 cans of beer and one bottle of Scotch, and that it only ended when the band members began passing out!

In the following year he was their engineer, producer and mixer for a five-track EP, Just Right, which had been recorded live at the Prince of Wales Hotel in May 1991 by Cohen's childhood friend, Chris Thompson.

He was nominated at the ARIA Music Awards of 1993 for Producer of the Year for that album and for "Get Thee to a Nunnery", a track on TISM's EP, The Beasts of Suburban (20 July 1992).

[15] Over the previous 18 months – the eligibility period – Cohen had produced Let Love In (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 18 April 1994),[16] You Wanna Be There But You Don't Wanna Travel (Dave Graney 'n' the Coral Snakes, June 1994), Parables for Wooden Ears (Powderfinger, 18 July 1994), Livin' Lazy (Maurice Frawley and Working Class Ringos, 1994), Three Legged Dog (the Cruel Sea, April 1995),[17] Kim Salmon and the Surrealists (Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, April 1995) and Mouth to Mouth (the Blackeyed Susans, July 1995).

He died unexpectedly before the album's sessions concluded, and Augie March leader Glenn Richards stated "It still amazes me that we got a chance to work with the man.

[1]: 137 Early in 1991, Cohen began a relationship with Astrid Munday, a vocalist for country music groups Killer Sheep and then Desert Boot.

[1]: 157  At the ARIA Music Awards of 1995 he had a hypoglycaemic event, "just as they announced my name so I was in the suit and everything and sweat was just dripping off me so I had to go and hide up the back and Molly was standing on the seat going 'Where are you?

[18][23] Although no cause of death was reported, his sibling recalled, "Tony lived a hard life with drugs and alcohol playing a big part of his professional career.

"[18] Upon the inclusion of Cohen's work in the Australian Music Vault, his mother Margaret stated, "it wasn't until his untimely death, that I was made aware of the esteem that he was held in by so many people.