John Critchley

John has produced and recorded a wide range of both established and breaking new artists. He has produced multiple Juno nominated and Polaris Prize short listed albums including Elliott BROOD “Mountain Meadows”, Dan Mangan “Nice, Nice, Very Nice”, Amelia Curran “Spectators”, The Once “Departures”, Cris Derksen “Orchestral Powwow”, winning a Juno with the Elliott BROOD album “Days into Years”.

John initially became known in the music world as the driving force behind the influential Canadian band, 13 Engines. John was the singer and lead guitarist in the band and produced several of their albums. The Engines recorded and toured extensively for over a decade, creating a body of work on the EMI and Nocturnal labels. Their album “Perpetual Motion Machine” (co-produced by John), was voted one of the top 50 records of all time by a Canadian artist in a national poll of music critics published by Chart Magazine.

In 2000, John released a solo CD "Crooked Mile," on the SoundKing/Outside imprint to critical acclaim.

In addition to his rock and roll education, John has studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Music and at York University. John has composed original music for multiple short and feature films and documentary television. His songs have been featured in multiple feature films.

Green Door Studios

Located between Roncesvalles Village and Parkdale Parkdale in Toronto’s West End, Green Door Studios was founded in 2002. The studio itself is housed in a converted 100- year- old brick building that, believed to have once been a blacksmith’s workshop. The immediate surrounding area is today a residential neighbourhood, so the studio has a very calm and hidden away feel to it and yet Queen St. West is only a block away.

When the building was purchased in 2001, the old brick walls were crumbling, the floor was oil and dirt, the roof was caving in, and the dilapidated wooden barn doors were falling off their hinges. After the structure was resuscitated, what is now the live room was the first part of the studio to be built. At a size of 14x30 ft with 10 ft ceilings, this room originally accommodated both performers and recorders. The adjacent control room was completed in the fall of 2005 and is 12 x 22 ft with 11ft ceilings. An 8x11 additional isolation room was added in 2012.

Martin Pilchner provided design assistance.

Two colourful features remain from the original building; the red and orange brick walls and the distinctive green colour of the front entrance.