New Jersey-born producer Roger Moutenot made his career as an anachronism: a Nashville-based producer/engineer who had no interest in recording country music. Beginning with a decade of studio work in Manhattan studios with both mainstream and avant-garde acts, Moutenot slowly built a clientele of idiosyncratic rock bands, including Sleater-Kinney, and a long-standing relationship with indie stalwarts Yo La Tengo.

Raised in Cliffside Park, NJ -- with a view of the Manhattan skyline -- Moutenot built a basement studio for his own band and was soon recording outfits from neighboring towns. Graduating from high school in 1975, he attended the Institute of Audio Research in New York and scammed his way into a job at Manhattan's Skyline Studios by pretending to be a carpenter. Progressively, he earned jobs there as a tape operator, an assistant, and by the late '80s, the studio's chief engineer, where he worked with bands like Laurie Anderson, They Might Be Giants, and 10,000 Maniacs.

When Chic's Nile Rodgers booked one of his periodic six-month stays, Moutenot went freelance. He worked at the Chung King House of Metal on projects for Run-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys, and elsewhere engineered for the cream of the flourishing downtown avant-garde scene, including jazz musicians like John Zorn and Don Byron. In 1993, he produced Painful, the sixth album for Yo La Tengo, beginning a fruitful relationship that has resulted in some seven full-lengths to date, including the band's most popular and critically acclaimed albums 1997's I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and 2000's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out.

In 1994, he relocated to Nashville, where he steadfastly avoided country projects, and at first had trouble bringing previous collaborators to Tennessee. A chance collaboration with singer/songwriter/producer Paula Cole led to 1996's double-platinum, Grammy-nominated This Fire. As his work with Yo La Tengo continued at Nashville's Alex the Great studios with its full complement of vintage organs, Moutenot rebuilt his client list. He produced albums for Joseph Arthur, Nashville indie staples Lambchop, popsters Beulah, and recorded more mainstream fare, like songwriter Josh Rouse, as well as a Grammy-nominated album by Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. His credits grew to include Lou Reed, Rosanne Cash, John Cale, and others. In the early 2000s, Moutenot opened his own Haptown studio in Nashville. ~ Jesse Jarnow, Rovi