Producer, record label owner, and recording artist Tom Rothrock has played an integral part in the careers of Elliott Smith, James Blunt, and Beck before launching a solo career with the 2006 album Resonator. Beck's breakthrough hit, "Loser," was originally released on Bong Load Custom Records, a label Rothrock formed in the early '90s with fellow producers/musicians Rob Schnapf and Bradshaw Lambert. Rothrock and Schnapf went on to record Beck's platinum-selling debut, Mellow Gold, with another producer, Carl Stephenson. Rothrock and Schnapf also handled production for the track "Ramshackle" on Beck's 1996 album Odelay, and a year later the pair were nominated for an Oscar for their recording of Elliott Smith's "Miss Misery," featured in Gus Van Sant's film Good Will Hunting. Smith's 1997 album Either/Or and his 1998 effort XO were also helmed by the duo, and two years later they were responsible for the crisp sound of Richard Thompson's Mock Tudor. Their work on the Supreme Beings of Leisure's 2000 self-titled album found them firmly in command of the trip-hop sound. In 2002 Rothrock worked on the heralded About a Boy soundtrack with Badly Drawn Boy and in 2004 he composed the incidental music for the Michael Mann film Collateral. His work on James Blunt's 2005 album Back to Bedlam helped earn Blunt five Grammy nominations that year. In 2006 he began his solo career with the full-length and entirely instrumental Resonator, named after a type of acoustic guitar with a metal center that's often referred to by its brand name, Dobro. The Bong Load Custom Records label was revived to release the album. ~ David Jeffries