| Flood | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Mark Ellis |
| Born | 1960 London, UK |
| Occupation(s) | Producer, Audio Engineer |
| Years active | 1978 - Present |
Mark Ellis, better known as Flood, is a British post punk/alternative rock record producer whose work often blends synthetic and organic elements. Some of his most well-known collaborations include Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, U2, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Sound, Erasure, Curve, Nitzer Ebb, The Killers, and PJ Harvey.
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Biography
Flood attended St Olave's Grammar School in Orpington. His first credited work was on a New Order album in 1981, Movement. (He should not be confused with the Mark Ellis who played bass for The Lambrettas.)
Pseudonym
Several rumors describe the origin of Ellis' ubiquitous pseudonym, "Flood." Two are worth mentioning:
- It was given to him when he was a studio assistant due to his strategy of keeping studio hands and musicians awake through the "constant brewing" of tea. [1]
- Future Music Magazine stated in 1994 that it was because he constantly spilled tea in the studio.
Career
Flood's music career began in 1978, when he got a job as a runner at London's Morgan Studios. In September 1980, he was guitarist for the band 'Seven Hertz', who recorded, produced and released a cassette album under the title 'Forbidden Frequency'. The album comprised seven original songs and was originally scheduled to also feature a cover version of The Velvet Underground's song "White Light/White Heat", until the song's publishers denied permission. In 1981, Flood went on to work solo, scoring his first major studio project as an assistant engineer on New Order's debut, Movement. He went on to work alongside Soft Cell, Psychic TV, and Cabaret Voltaire, also engineering Ministry's With Sympathy, before helming his first true production project with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on From Her to Eternity (1983-1984). This was followed by The Firstborn Is Dead (1984), Kicking Against the Pricks (1985-1986), Your Funeral... My Trial (1986), Tender Prey (1987-1988) and The Good Son (1989). For Erasure, he engineered on Wonderland (1986) and The Circus (1987). 1987 saw Flood's first big commercial break when he engineered U2's The Joshua Tree alongside producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. From there, he worked with The Silencers on A Blues for Buddha, Nine Inch Nails on Pretty Hate Machine, Depeche Mode on Violator, and Pop Will Eat Itself on This is the Day, This is the Hour, This is This. In 1991 he then went on to work again with U2 on Achtung Baby, along with Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite. 1992 saw Flood producing the The Charlatans on their second album, Between 10th And 11th. Meeting a lukewarm reception when released, the album is now generally much more appreciated. In 1993, Flood graduated from engineering U2's albums to producing them, sharing duties with Brian Eno on Zooropa. The same year he also reunited with Depeche Mode for the album Songs of Faith and Devotion. In 1994, he worked again with Nine Inch Nails, this time on the groundbreaking The Downward Spiral. In 1995 Flood worked with two very successful bands — The Smashing Pumpkins, with Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, sharing production duties with long time collaborator Alan Moulder, and PJ Harvey, with To Bring You My Love — albums that were big hits that year. Shortly thereafter, he assisted producer Nellee Hooper on The Sneaker Pimps' Becoming X. In 1997, Flood teamed up with U2 once again to produce Pop. The next year, he assisted Billy Corgan and Brad Wood on The Smashing Pumpkins's Adore and co-produced PJ Harvey's album Is This Desire?. In 2000, he co-produced Machina/The Machines of God, by The Smashing Pumpkins, with Corgan. He also co-produced Erasure's Loveboat with the members of Erasure. In 2002 he co-produced I To Sky, by JJ72. In 2003 he featured on Gary Numan's Hybrid album where he re-worked the track "Cars". In 2004 he produced London based The Duke Spirit's debut album "Cuts Across The Land", which, due to financial issues with their record company City Rockers, was not released until a year later (on Polydor). In the same year co-produced U2's 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb'. The Summer of 2005 saw him mixing a-ha's eighth album, Analogue, which was released in November 2005. Another album he produced in 2005 was Any Minute Now by Soulwax. In late 2005 and early 2006, Flood also worked on mixing Placebo's new album, Meds, which was released in March 2006. In 2006 he co-produced The Killers' new album, Sam's Town with fellow English producer/engineer Alan Moulder. Sam's Town was released in the United Kingdom on October 2, 2006 and in North America on October 3, 2006. In late 2006 Flood remixed the debut single by Dark Room Notes, "Love Like Nicotine", which was released in June 2007. At the beginning of 2007, he co-produced PJ Harvey's album White Chalk with John Parish and PJ Harvey (released in September 2007). He also recently produced the forthcoming Goldfrapp album, called Seventh Tree, which will be released in February 2008. In late November Flood will be flying to Iceland to help produce Sigur Ros's new album [2]
References
- Ackney, Jason. Flood. Music.com. 18 June 2004. Accessed 12 April 2005. [3].
- Beyda, Adam. Flood. Interview with Mark Ellis, excerpted from Music Producers. 2nd Edition. Accessed 12 April 2005. [4]
