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{{Short description|American musician and drummer}}{{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Musicians -->
| name = John Kiffmeyer
| image = John Kiffmeyer 1990.png
| caption = Kiffmeyer performing with [[Green Day]] on May 10, 1990 at [[Pinole Valley High School]]
| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name = =
| alias = Al Sobrante
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1969|07|11|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = [[El Sobrante, Contra Costa County, California|El Sobrante, California]], U.S.
| instrument = Drums
| genre = {{hlist|[[Punk rock]]|[[pop punk]]|[[alternative rock]]}}
| occupation = {{hlist|Musician|cinematographer|songwriter}}
| years_active = {{hlist|1986–1995, 2015 (musician)|1995–present (cinematographer)}}
| label = [[Lookout Records|Lookout!]]
| past_member_of = {{hlist|[[Green Day]]|[[Isocracy (band)|Isocracy]]|[[Green Day]]|The Ne'er Do Wells}}
| website = =
}}
'''John Kiffmeyer''' (born July 11, 1969), known professionally as '''Al Sobrante''', is an American [[cinematographer]] and retired musician and songwriter. He is best known as the firstformer drummer for the [[punk rock]] band [[Green Day]], leaving in 1990 and replaced by [[Tré Cool]].<ref name="Kimpel2006">{{cite book|last=Kimpel|first=Dan|title=How they made it: true stories of how music's biggest stars went from start to stardom!|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wDyd16CHUu4C&pg=PA47|access-date=July 31, 2010|date=May 1, 2006|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|isbn=978-0-634-07642-8|page=47}}</ref> His stage name is a reference to his hometown, [[El Sobrante, Contra Costa County, California|El Sobrante]].<ref name="Small 2005">{{cite book|last1=Small|first1=Doug|title=Omnibus Presents the Story of Green Day|url=https://archive.org/details/omnibuspresspres00smal|url-access=registration|date=2005|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=9780825634086 }}</ref>{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/omnibuspresspres00smal/page/12 12]}}
 
==Biography==
John Kiffmeyer was born in [[El Sobrante, Contra Costa County, California|El Sobrante, California]] on July 11, 1969. His first exposure in the punk scene was as the drummer of the band [[Isocracy (band)|Isocracy]].<ref name="Small 2005" />{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/omnibuspresspres00smal/page/12 12]}} The group was popular in the [[East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)|East Bay]], and mainstays at the famed club, [[924 Gilman Street]]. He chose his stage name '''Al Sobrante''' for an evident pun on his birthplace.
 
Kiffmeyer is most well known for his time in [[Green Day]]; after Isocracy broke up, he joined [[Mike Dirnt]] and [[Billie Joe Armstrong]] in 1987 to replace original drummer Raj Punjabi and join '''Sweet Children''', which was later renamed '''Green Day'''.<ref name="Small 2005" />{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/omnibuspresspres00smal/page/12 12]}} Because of his experience and knowledge of the underground community, Kiffmeyer was able to get the young band on its feet by placing calls to friends, among them prominent figure of the East Bay [[Larry Livermore]]. The first few performances took place at [[Contra Costa College]], where Kiffmeyer was a journalism student. On the strength of an early performance, Livermore vowed to release a Green Day record on his [[Lookout! Records]]. The group's first full-length effort, 1990 album ''[[39/Smooth]]'', would feature a Kiffmeyer original, "I Was There", which documented the band at that place in time. Being a fan of [[Ozzy Osbourne]], he inspired the mini-covers of some famous songs, such as "[[I Don't Know (Ozzy Osbourne song)|I Don't Know]]" by Osbourne and "[[Sweet Home Alabama]]" by [[Lynyrd Skynyrd]] during the bridge of "Disappearing Boy", a practice that is still carried out today.
 
In 1990, he attended college at [[HumboldtCalifornia State Polytechnic University, Humboldt]] in [[Arcata, California]].<ref name="Small 2005" />{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/omnibuspresspres00smal/page/17 17]}} While Kiffmeyer was attending college, Green Day members Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt accepted drummer [[Tré Cool]] into the band, which Kiffmeyer "graciously accepted".<ref name="Small 2005" />{{rp|[https://archive.org/details/omnibuspresspres00smal/page/19 19]}} In 1991, he worked as [[executive producer]] for the Green Day album ''[[Kerplunk (album)|Kerplunk]]'', released that year. Kiffmeyer later joined the band [[The Hi-Fives|The Ne'er Do Wells]], leaving abruptly in 1994. Following a stint with punk band '''The Ritalins''', he became manager of '''The Shruggs''' until their split. In 1998 he was the executive producer of ''The Great Lost Trouble Makers Album'' by '''The Troublemakers''', a [[garage rock]] band from [[Sacramento, California]]. {{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}
 
He now lives in [[San Francisco, California]] and is married to experimental filmmaker and [[San Francisco State University]] professor Greta Snider. He works as a [[Director of Photography]], specializing in [[green screen]] and producing mainly commercial work.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}
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===Production discography===
* Green Day -– ''[[Kerplunk (album)|Kerplunk]]'' (1991) as Executive Producer
* [[Screeching Weasel]] -– ''[[My Brain Hurts]]'' (1991)
* The Trouble Makers -– ''The Great Lost Trouble Makers Album'' (1998) <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://api.discogs.com/artists/444932|title=Al Sobrante|website=Discogs|language=en|access-date=2019-09-25}}</ref>
 
==References==
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