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
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