Alan Moulder was born in
Boston, Lincolnshire, England. From an early age, Moulder had an interest in music, listing among his favorite artists
Cream, The Beatles, and the
Bee Gees. The first album he ever bought was
Electric Warrior by
T. Rex, and was immediately impressed by the quality of that album's recording. He joined his first band as a teenager and recorded a demo in a local studio; it was there that he realized that it had been the production that he had so enjoyed on that T. Rex record, and discovered that he was more interested in music engineering than in performing.
Moulder's musical career truly started in the early
1980s, at
Trident Studios in
London. As an assistant engineer, he worked with influential producers like
Jean Michel Jarre, drawing from them great familiarity with electronic sounds and textures. Also an engineer at Trident was
Flood, with whom Moulder would often collaborate in the future. Moulder assisted in a recording session of
Flood's, with
The Jesus and Mary Chain, and found that the often fractious and troublesome band enjoyed working with him. The Mary Chain invited Moulder to engineer their live sounds and, eventually, to engineer their 1989 album
Automatic. The album's production was praised for its combination of thick, noisy guitar with a polished, listener-friendly tone, and the Mary Chain's label,
Creation Records, soon had Moulder producing records for
Ride, My Bloody Valentine, and
Swervedriver.
After working on the
Glider and
Tremolo EPs for My Bloody Valentine, Moulder was approached nearly simultaneously by two bands who were fans of that group. In 1992, he engineered the Smashing Pumpkins'
Siamese Dream, and
Ride's Going Blank Again. Then, in 1994, he engineered
Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral, which would become a landmark album of the '90s.
His work with
Nine Inch Nails led to his engineering several albums for
Trent Reznor's Nothing Records, including
Prick's eponymous album and
Marilyn Manson's debut,
Portrait of an American Family. In 1995, he would again collaborate with the Smashing Pumpkins, co-producing with Flood their double album
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
In 1992, Moulder also co-produced female duo
Shakespears Sister's second album
Hormonally Yours, which became one of the biggest sellers in the UK and Europe that year.
During the 1990's, Moulder also worked extensively with now-defunct British alternative band
Curve.
In 1996, he worked with
Moby on
Animal Rights and
The Cure on
Wild Mood Swings, and the next year worked again with Flood, this time on U2's electronic album
Pop. 1998 saw Moulder mixing
Monster Magnet's Powertrip. 1999 saw Moulder and Reznor in the studio together again; Moulder co-produced, mixed, and engineered Nine Inch Nails' critically acclaimed
The Fragile. Another album with the Smashing Pumpkins,
Machina/The Machines of God, followed in 2000, along with a remix album for Nine Inch Nails, the debut by
A Perfect Circle, Mer de Noms, and Monster Magnet's
God Says No.
2003 saw him guesting as a producer on
Gary Numan's album
Hybrid alongside other names such as
Flood, Andy Gray and
Curve.
In 2005, Moulder produced Smashing Pumpkins frontman
Billy Corgan's solo debut
TheFutureEmbrace along with another Nine Inch Nails album,
With Teeth, and mixed the debut album
Hot Fuss by
New Wave revivalists
The Killers and
Any Minute Now by
Soulwax.
In 2006, he worked with the Killers once more, co-producing their second album
Sam's Town. The same year, he also mixed the album
Ten Silver Drops by
Secret Machines and
Movie Monster by
Sound Team. He also produced
Dying To Say This To You by The Sounds.
Most recently, Moulder worked with Trent Reznor to produce the Nine Inch Nails album
Year Zero, as well as
The Wolfmen (debut album tracks), and
Blonde Redhead, to produce their new album
23.
Moulder also mixed
Puscifer's debut album
V Is for Vagina, and
Saul Williams' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
Alan Moulder is married to former
Curve lead singer
Toni Halliday.
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