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Dave Fortman | |
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![]() Fortman in 2016 | |
Background information | |
Born | Orlando, Florida, U.S. | July 11, 1967
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Occupation(s) |
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Instrument(s) |
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Years active | 1989–present |
Member of | Ugly Kid Joe |
Website | davefortman |
Dave Fortman (born July 11, 1967) is an American record producer and musician. He is the guitarist for rock band Ugly Kid Joe, and has done production work for bands such as Godsmack, Superjoint Ritual, Snot, Atomship, Eyehategod, Mudvayne, Otep, Slipknot, and Simple Plan. He also worked on both of Evanescence's multi-platinum selling albums The Open Door and Fallen .
Fortman was born in Orlando, Florida. His mother Marge Ann Singleton Fortman was a kindergarten teacher and his father Jon Richey Fortman a retired biology professor. In Covington, Louisiana, he was a trumpet player in marching band for junior high school. He joined with two other musicians John Licali and John McNeely in 1984 to form the band SX while in high school. In 1990, the band relocated to Los Angeles to search for a record deal leading to Fortman joining the band Sugartooth in the same year.
Through Sugartooth's lawyer Dennis Rider who was then Ugly Kid Joe's manager, Fortman met Ugly Kid Joe frontman Whitfield Crane and guitarist Klaus Eichstadt.
Fortman joined Ugly Kid Joe in 1992 and played guitar on their multi-platinum-selling album America's Least Wanted . He also wrote the song "Busy Bee". Fortman played and wrote with Ugly Kid Joe until their demise in 1997, including multiple songwriting credits on the albums Menace to Sobriety and Motel California .
After the band reformed in 2011, Fortman played guitar and produced their most recent EP Stairway to Hell in 2012 as well as their full-length album Uglier Than They Used ta Be in 2015. [1]
In the summer of 2017, Fortman rejoined Ugly Kid Joe on the road for their European tour for the first time since 1997. During the tour, he performed with Amy Lee of Evanescence on stage at Graspop in Belgium when she sang "Cats in the Cradle" with the band. [2] He toured with Ugly Kid Joe on their tour of Australia in December 2017 and an "Americas Least Wanted Anniversary tour" in Europe in April 2018. [3]
Following the demise of Ugly Kid Joe in 1997, Fortman relocated back to Covington, Louisiana to start a small recording studio with longtime friend Gene Joanen called Balance Studios. [4] Some of his early recording and productions included Phil Anselmo's Superjoint Ritual, Crowbar and Soilent Green. In 2001, Fortman recorded a demo for a local band 12 Stones. The demo quickly got recognition and eventually led to a record deal with Wind Up Records. Wind Up hired Jay Baumgardner and Fortman to co-produce their debut album. [5] In 2002, Wind Up's owners Alan and Diana Meltzer hired Fortman to produce Evanescence, a then-unknown band from Little Rock, Arkansas.
In March 2003, Evanescence's album Fallen was released and went on to sell 17 million copies worldwide with four Grammy nominations, including Song of the Year for "Bring Me to Life" and Record of the Year. The album has been certified platinum in 33 countries. In the summer of 2004, Fortman produced Mudvayne's Lost and Found which debuted at number 2 on the Billboard charts [6] and sold over 1 million copies. It is the band's most successful album to date. Later that same year, he went into the studio with Amy Lee to make the second Evanescence record The Open Door . The album was released in 2006 and debuted at number 1 in the US, Australia, Germany, Greece, and Switzerland and went on to sell more than 7 million copies worldwide.
In late 2007, Fortman was hired to produce Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone , which upon its release in 2009 spawned five singles, including "Snuff" and "Psychosocial". The album went on to sell over 1 million copies in the US and over 2 million worldwide. In late 2009, Fortman was reunited with Ugly Kid Joe drummer Shannon Larkin, now drummer of Godsmack, when he was hired to produce Godsmack's record The Oracle . The album was certified gold in 2011.
Fortman reunited with Godsmack in 2014 for the follow-up album 1000 HP as well as producing vocals and mixing Godsmack frontman Sully Erna's solo album entitled Hometown Life in 2016.
Year | Artist | Album | Role |
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2001 | Crowbar | Sonic Excess in Its Purest Form | Producer |
2003 | Boysetsfire | Tomorrow Come Today | Producer |
Evanescence | Fallen | Producer | |
2005 | Mudvayne | Lost and Found | Producer |
2006 | Evanescence | The Open Door | Producer |
2008 | Mudvayne | The New Game | Producer |
Slipknot | All Hope Is Gone | Producer | |
Simple Plan | Simple Plan | Producer | |
2010 | Godsmack | The Oracle | Producer |
2014 | 1000HP | Producer | |
2023 | Lighting Up the Sky | Mixer | |
Godsmack is an American rock band from Lawrence, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. The band is composed of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Sully Erna, bassist Robbie Merrill, lead guitarist Tony Rombola and drummer Shannon Larkin. Since its formation, Godsmack has released eight studio albums, one EP, four DVDs, one compilation album, and one live album.
Faceless is the third studio album by American rock band Godsmack. It's the first album to feature drummer Shannon Larkin, former drummer for Ugly Kid Joe. The album was released on April 8, 2003.
Evanescence is an American rock band founded in 1994 by singer and keyboardist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody in Little Rock, Arkansas. After releasing independent EPs as a duo in the late '90s and a demo CD, Evanescence released their debut studio album, Fallen, on Wind-up Records in 2003. Propelled by the success of hit singles like "Bring Me to Life" and "My Immortal", Fallen sold more than four million copies in the US by January 2004, garnering Evanescence two Grammy Awards out of six nominations. The band released their first live album and concert DVD, Anywhere but Home, in 2004, which sold over one million copies worldwide.
Alternative metal is a genre of heavy metal music that combines heavy metal with influences from alternative rock and other genres not normally associated with metal. Alternative metal bands are often characterized by heavily downtuned, mid-paced guitar riffs, a mixture of accessible melodic vocals and harsh vocals and sometimes unconventional sounds within other heavy metal styles. The term has been in use since the 1980s, although it came into prominence in the 1990s.
Mudvayne is an American heavy metal band formed in Peoria, Illinois, in 1996. Known for their sonic experimentation, face and body paint, masks and uniforms, the band has sold over five million records worldwide. The group consists of guitarist Greg Tribbett, drummer Matthew McDonough, lead vocalist Chad Gray, and bassist Ryan Martinie. The band became popular in the late-1990s Peoria underground music scene, and they found success with the single "Dig" from their debut album L.D. 50 (2000). After releasing four more albums and touring relentlessly for nearly a decade, Mudvayne went on hiatus in 2010. They reunited in 2021 and continue to perform live.
Fallen is the debut studio album by American rock band Evanescence, released on March 4, 2003 by Wind-up Records. Co-founders singer and pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody began writing and recording songs as Evanescence in 1994, and after releasing two EPs and a demo CD, they signed to Wind-up in January 2001. Several of the songs from their earlier independent releases feature on Fallen. The album was recorded between August and December 2002 in several studios in California. It is Evanescence's only studio album to feature Moody, who left the band in October 2003.
Ugly Kid Joe is an American hard rock band from Isla Vista, California, formed in 1989. The band's name spoofs the glam metal band Pretty Boy Floyd's name.
Lost and Found is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Mudvayne. The album was released on April 12, 2005. The album had major success in the U.S., debuting at number 2 and being certified gold by the RIAA shortly afterward. It has sold about 1,000,000 copies as of August 2014 and is the band's most successful album to date.
Sugartooth is an alternative rock band that was formed in the early 1990s.
Sonny Mayo is an American guitarist.
The Open Door is the second studio album by American rock band Evanescence, released on September 25, 2006, by Wind-up Records. Amy Lee had full creative control of the record, incorporating new elements into their previous musical styles, including her classical influences, homemade sounds, industrial rock, symphonic metal, progressive rock, electronica and the use of choirs on several songs. The album was written in the course of 18 months, and the recording process was delayed as a result of guitarist Terry Balsamo's stroke. Most of the songs were co-composed by Lee and Balsamo, with production handled by Dave Fortman.
Cordell Crockett is an American rock musician. Crockett is a multi-instrument artist known for playing bass guitar and singing backing vocals for the band Ugly Kid Joe from 1991 until they disbanded in 1997, and again since their reunion in 2010.
Sound Farm Studio & Recording Environment was a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) full-service recording studio and production facility with an attached residence located in Jamaica, Iowa, built in 2003. Matthew Sepanic, owner, producer and engineer; worked on projects by Slipknot (All Hope is Gone, Iowa, Murderdolls, and Stone Sour amongst others. He also co-produced and engineered The Envy Corps's debut album Dwell which was released in 2008 on Mercury Records/Vertigo Records. The band recorded and resided at Sound Farm in late 2006 and early 2007.
Another Animal was an American rock supergroup formed by members of Godsmack, Ugly Kid Joe, and Dropbox.
The New Game is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Mudvayne. It was released on November 18, 2008, by Epic Records, and its first single, "Do What You Do", began receiving airplay on September 23, 2008. The album debuted and peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, selling 48,000 copies in its first week, and more than 215,000 copies in the United States as of August 2009.
The Crash of '47 is the first studio album released by the American alternative metal band Atomship. It was released on May 4, 2004 and was produced by Dave Fortman. The song "Time for People" was released on the Wind-Up soundtrack for the movie The Punisher. Two singles were released from The Crash of '47: "Pencil Fight" and "Withered".
Mudvayne is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Mudvayne, released on December 21, 2009, it was the band's final album before entering an eleven-year hiatus in 2010. The material from the album was recorded simultaneously with the material that appeared on The New Game. "Beautiful and Strange", a single from the band, was made available for streaming on the band's website and MySpace page on October 7, 2009. There was no tour to support the album, which had little promotion; sales were also weak.
The Oracle is the fifth studio album by American rock band Godsmack, released in the United States on May 4, 2010. It is the first Godsmack album to be produced by Dave Fortman. The Oracle marks the first Godsmack studio album to be released since 2006's IV. It received generally favorable critical reviews and became the band's third consecutive album to reach number one on the Billboard 200.
1000 hp, stylized as 1000HP, is the sixth studio album by American rock band Godsmack. It is a follow-up to the band's 2010 gold-selling album The Oracle and was released on August 5, 2014.
This article summarizes the events related to rock music for the year of 2010.