Interview: John Lenard Burnett, Audio Entrepreneur: 22nd July 2004

Media Man Australia continues it's exposé on the media and multimedia world.

In this revealing interview, we talk with John Burnett about his career, and the amazing career he has enjoyed.

This is part 2 of a series on Lenard Audio, and the man behind this extraordinary Australian company.

1. What's your background?

(A) Until the age of seven I was surrounded by some of Australia's top jazz musicians. My father, a pianist created musical arrangements and many bands rehearsed at our home. The music they played inspired my life; I slept under the piano. But my father was also an alcoholic, which resulted in my mother leaving him. She moved to the northern part of Australia, and we lived an alternate lifestyle, amongst aboriginal communities and mining towns. My attachment to music was now only through technology. I gravitated to electronic engineers, learning anything I could about technology. I discovered that through radio I could listen to music anywhere in the world.

After finishing school I moved to Brisbane and did an apprenticeship under Tony Troughton. Tony had been a senior engineer of Western Electric UK, who participated in pioneering the technology for multi-track recording, and large-scale active sound systems for cinemas and auditoriums. I was lucky to be formally trained in audio and electro-acoustic engineering.

2. How did you get your break in the business?

(A) Tony Troughton and his son were also musicians. We custom built amplification for many bands under the name of Vase. Tony was in his 50s and not interested in the emerging rock industry. Brisbane was the Australian capital of rock in the early 60s. Lobby Lloyd and the Purple Hearts was the top band at the time. Later the Purple Hearts moved to Melbourne; I moved to Sydney.

On arriving in Sydney I found the doors shut. Retailers and traditional amp manufacturers were territorial. They imported or copied overseas products and had no interest in advancing the technology or supplying what bands wanted. It was simply a business. Bruce Brown in Brookvale, serviced equipment for bands. We formed an arrangement in which the service was split and I received space to make amplifiers.

Bruce had a passion for recording and he formed a partnership with Duncan McGuire. They set up a small recording studio, consisting of a 4-track machine made from two stereo heads joined together, a 1950s EMI mastering machine, and a homemade mixing console. Bruce had an excellent talent for improvisation.

The opening of their 'Pro-sound Studio' coincided with the release of the Beatles 'Sergeant Peppers' and every pot-smoking muso was there. You could get high just driving down Condamine Street. Bruce did not tolerate drug use and that led to conflicts; his partnership with Duncan broke up.

Bruce went on to ATA and Albert studios and became one of the most successful recording engineers in Australia. I formed a close friendship with Duncan who at the time was also the bass player with Doug Parkinson and the Questions. With Duncan I was able to finalise the designs. The excellent musicianship of the Questions, coupled with the high performance of the Lenard amps enabled the Questions to become the number one band in Sydney.

High-energy blues was the dominant music at that time. Lenard amps were higher performing than the imported brands, including Fender and Marshall. Within 4 years Lenard Audio became the largest manufacturer of sound equipment in Australia, supplying bands, rock festivals and concerts with the best sound around.

3. You were largely responsible for establishing SAE (School of Audio Engineering)...how much contribution did you make, and what is a summary as to why you are no longer in partnership with Tom Misner?

(A) Yes, the concept of an education institute as an extension of Lenard Audio was planed as far back as 1974. The Institute was to include a school for audio engineering, recording and electronics. Unfortunately the original Lenard Audio did not survive long enough for the institute to be formed, which is another story. At the time of starting the school with Tom, I was bankrupt. I had to entrust Tom with the business registration and financial accounts. Tom was in the commercial contract cleaning business and had no background in the music or entertainment industry, but had a desire to own a recording studio.

Second: Why am I no longer in partnership with Tom?

A good place to start would be to read Tom's biography 'The Misner Factor' by Robert Alexander. BRW (Business Review Weekly) also gives a condemning account of the Misner factor in its feature article 'A wrong way to the top' by Kath Walters. Tom has given an entertaining version as to the beginning of the school. This is why the true story no matter how difficult needs to be told.

I'm tired of hearing those who defend Tom as being a victim of character assassination. Truth is something we may all have our own versions of, but this story is a tragedy of a perverse society for which we are all responsible.

In his book 'The Misner factor' Tom proudly boasts about how dishonesty enabled him to become wealthy. Fear associated with criminal behaviour does not exist in Tom. This is why some people admire him, and many others including myself are no longer associated or in partnership with him.

Shortly after starting the school, Tom acquired an Ampex 8 track-recording machine, which apparently had been stolen. As senior partner I made him remove it from the school premises. The shock of discovering I was managing a school with someone who functioned at this level was for me overwhelming. In a meeting we had a few years ago he said, "You didn't have what it takes". He was absolutely right. But nothing could have prepared me for what happened next….

I was responsible for the training, but behind the scenes Tom independently held court with the young students, boasting of his fame. He claimed he was an honorary member of the Audio Engineering Society of New York, authorized to give students he approved of, a license to record in any studio in the world. He also claimed he had recorded the Beatles, and personally knew The Rolling Stones.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing" he said, "You've got to tell them what they want to hear". Approximately a third of the students were young and naive, and believed their God had arrived and started worshiping him.

Tom saw that many students wanted to believe anything he told them, especially about his greatness. The capacity to make a lot of money could easily be exploited. He then hotly opposed the high technical standard I had established, and reneged on practical training. This also was to cover the fact that he had no practical experience himself.

The senior students were outraged, and stopped paying further fees until the problem was dealt with. I decided to put Tom in front of a class, to face reality. This decision of mine was a disaster, to Tom this was an opportunity. To the students he boasted that he had just returned from the US where he had been recording the latest Eagles album. (You could hear a pin drop). A few of the older students later phoned Eagles management in the US, Abby Road Studios in London, Audio Engineering Society of New York, EMI and ABC radio 2JJ. They could find no evidence that he was known or had any experience in the industry. When the senior students confronted Tom, there was uproar. Tom 'The Misner Factor' simply went into overdrive and did a runner.

I was bankrupt as a result of loosing Lenard, and therefore the school was in Tom's name. Nobody in the industry knew who Tom was, and now he's disappeared with the student's money.

The ABC radio 2JJ management (now tripleJ) who supported me in starting the school felt I had compromised them into supporting a fraudulent enterprise. They threatened to assist the students to take legal action against me, for the return of their fees, which Tom had taken, including putting the matter to air, to insure the school be closed down. I was given a week to have the matter cleared up. At the last moment, Tin Pan Ally Studios associated with the ABC, took responsibility and allocated time free of charge, so I could complete the student's practical training. The condition being that I break all association with Tom.

How do we look at this story? What would you have done if you were John or Tom? From being a contract cleaner who only dreamed of being in the entertainment industry, now a deity to many naive young students who would do anything for him.

Over time, politics, big business and media, made lying a virtue. The 80s became known as the era of 'greed is good', and has not looked back. It is often questioned whether social conditioning traps us, in which we have no choice. I am trapped in out-dated beliefs, that honesty and word of mouth have power over lies and false advertising. Others are trapped in just getting what they can for themselves. Society has since chosen, which one of us it now identifies with 'The Misner Factor'. In the recent meeting I had with Tom he also said, "You overreacted, nobody listened to that stupid 2JJ station anyway".

There is still no institute that teaches audio and electro-acoustic engineering correctly at a high technical standard. The result being that the trend of how (audio) technology is used is driven by marketing, not by educated understanding. This also suits many companies that sell equipment.

4. Who are some of the best people and bands that you have had the pleasure of working with over the years?

(A) I would like to say Andy Warhol, Sigmund Freud and Julius Caesar. But the problem is I hate people who remember names, which is what these three must have had in common, for how else could they have become so popular.

The number of bands supplied with Lenard amps during the 60s and 70s was countless, and many became friends. The names that come to mind are the few, who were kind of heart, always there for others, but have passed on. The one who symbolically represents this for many at that time, and remained in our hearts, was and always will be, Duncan McGuire.

5. Why does the industry and the media, need re educating?

(A) I could write a five hundred-page answer for this question, (but I'll keep it short just for you).

Understanding enables us to create. To limit understanding by identifying with marketed trends, brand names, model numbers, acronyms, superficial use of computer programs and playing with knobs; is repetition. This is not to say that repetition isn't enjoyable and has its place, but not to confuse it with understanding.

One can learn to play an instrument by repeating the mechanical exercises. To educate one self, is to understand the structure behind a particular discipline (music) enabling us to create with it. To re-educate is to remove confusion, often, where repetition has become mistaken for education.

6. What role should the Australian government take in overseeing the multimedia (audio and video) training industry?

(A) The question could be more simply put as; what role should government have in education full stop? By being correctly educated at school, also makes it difficult for us to exploit or be exploited.

Our society is based on capitalism. Capitalism including all other forms of 'ism's is where the description (marketing), attains to greater economic importance than the described. For how else could one profit, or bear unfair influence over others? Economic capitalism views the environment including its people, as an asset that can be taken from (including education), constrained only by limitations of law.

A truly democratic society would view the environment including its people, as a liability that must be repaid. For a genuine democracy to work, education would have to represent the greatest economic liability.

An intelligently educated society requires minimal rules and regulations, therefore becoming efficient, respecting the second law of thermal dynamics (environment). Science and art are its highest achievement, integrity its highest virtue. For only within education, do science, art and integrity have meaning. Any society that is ill educated and ill informed cannot be democratic and therefore by this nature of impoverishment, must be dishonest.

7. What do you consider the highlights of your career?

(A) I have never thought of what I do as a career, otherwise I would have been in the public/civil service. What I do is a way of life; musicians/artists describe it in a similar manner. Financial reward makes life easier, but does not change what we do.

I was talking to a major supplier of sound and lighting, about being disappointed. "You were at the top of the industry," he said, "when it was exciting to be in it (mid 60s to 70s) now it is just business, mostly shit". The Ourimbah rock festival was the first in Australia 1970. We thought we were about to change the world. Nothing could change the highlight of our belief at that time. But later when faced with disappointment, we forget the highlights and need a friend to remind us.

8. Talk us through the highs and lows of the business.

(A) Through music we are all connected and related. The highest high I experience, is to create technology, which enables music to be heard as the artist intended, with the crystal clarity. The lowest low is to be trapped with those who view this business as a means to exploit the greatest profit.

9. How did you bounce back from bankruptcy?

(A) One does not bounce back from bankruptcy. The original Lenard Audio was taken by legal predatory action in 1974. I could not at the time understand how human beings could do this to each other. The worst part was being denied legal recourse and forced into bankruptcy. After many years Lenard Audio is again my family business.

Only through time do we see that injustice is not personal but a reflection of society, shared by many. However nothing could prepare me for what was about to unfold a few years later starting SAE.

10. What do you do on a day-to-day basis?

(A) I've always wanted to say 'abject poverty and misery' but nobody would believe. Monty Python did a great skit about living in a shoebox. What we do on a day-to-day basis is often routine and the results only appear in time. The factory I am now negotiating a joint venture with, hopefully will soon make available to the world, products I have been designing, on a day-to-day basis.

11. Do tell us about your plans to publish a book on your career?

(A) 'One man's journey' which is a challenging story that we can all identify with; in a world that has adopted competitive behaviour rather than creative co-operation, as its quest for security. Exposure to indigenous culture early in my life enriches the story. Best not to reveal anymore until released.

12. Why does the industry attract such large egos and people whose ethics is questionable?

(A) Yep that's show biz! The entertainment industry like no other attracts a disproportional number of people with large egos and questionable ethics. Andy Warhol gave insightful views to this question. Often what people identify with and admire is what they project (and transfer) on to 'popular' entertainers. But underlying this question is the need to look at why many people in society identify with pop culture, consumerism and religions etc to give their lives meaning. This is the easiest sector of society to exploit, because, one only needs to (market) feed them what they want to believe or hear.

13. What media attention have you attracted through your career?

(A) From the previous question; nil, but hopefully this may change.

14. How do you make a positive difference?

(A) This question is a paradox for all. Our society views economic wealth (not truth) as the most positive difference we can make to our lives. To make a positive difference in our relationships with others and the environment, we would need to look at truth. Not using truth to represent our beliefs, but to view truth as the ability to 'see what is false'.

15. How do you achieve balance between your professional and personal life?

(A) Why do we separate the personal from the professional? This also means to behave differently with friends/family than with those we don't know or work with. Who invented this notion and why? To remove the personal from the professional also removes accountability and honesty. If we have separated them, how then can we balance them? I am willing to go further into this if you wish.

17. What motivates you?

(A) Surf.

18. What technical equipment do you work with?

(A) This is a great opportunity to describe a Frankenstein laboratory. But surprisingly very little. A simple microscope was all that was necessary to take humanity from the dark ages into a modern technological world. The electronic equivalent of the microscope is the oscilloscope.

Lenard Audio is a team of good friends and family, excellent in their crafts. My responsibility in the team is product innovation. Rod Elliott specialises in electronic research and has the roll of surrounding himself with scientific instruments with random flashing lights.

19. How does the Internet assist you and your business?

(A) There are endless philosophical pontifications about the Internet's value to humanity. If one lives superficially, it will definitely extend ones superficial existence. If one wishes to communicate with new people and dogs they don't know, there is an endless supply. If one wants to be smarter, one can be a smarter smart arse. But if one wishes to be more related, it leads no further than getting it off with a keyboard and computer screen. Outside of wasting endless hours, its greatest asset is educational information and the continuous surf report.

20. Who do you see as the industries most respected companies to do business with?

(A) In law a company is an autonomous structure. Company articles of association describe how the spoils are to be divvied, but exclude morals, ethics or human values. Our capitalist society only respect companies that return profit. There are those whose identity is attached to the company, where employees are wage slaves to time, shackled by rules and regulations, devoid of respect. There is an old humorous saying about companies. "The first generation establishes the company. The second generation builds it up. The third generation pisses it away".

The initial conditions of how a company is established tend to bias the integrity of trading behaviour. Companies are dependant on the people within them, similar to a large family. Companies that treats you as a family member are a joy to trade with, and refer.

21. What are your current projects?

(A) Never-endingly tend to my adorable partner; otherwise I'd be in big trouble.

22. What do you do to relax?

(A) Sex Drugs Rock n Roll! No probably not quite anymore.....Surf, write and listen to music with family and friends.

...end.

Editors note: John Lenard Burnett is an innovator in audio engineering, and is leading the way in both technical and ethical ways of doing business in the mysterious and often misunderstood world of audio engineering and innovation.

Interview - John Lenard Burnett: 17th July 2004

Links:

Websites

Lenard Audio

Media

Fairfax

BRW

Julius Media

Dora Media Productions - About The Author - Robert Charles Alexander

Articles

Media and Philosophy - 'Money is the symbol of exchange in human relationships', by John Lenard Burnett

Media Man Australia

The Legal System!