Mark Ellis (record producer)
Mark Ellis a.k.a
Flood (born 1960) is a
British post punk/
alternative rock record producer, known for his cutting-edge electronic sound, which seamlessly blends synthetic and organic elements.
Some of his biggest collaborations include
U2,
Depeche Mode,
The Smashing Pumpkins,
Nitzer Ebb,
Nine Inch Nails,
The Jesus & Mary Chain,
Erasure,
Curve,
Anna Domino,
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and
PJ Harvey.
Not much is publicly known about Flood's personal life.He was born in
Manchester U.K. in 1960.
Flood's music career began in the late 1970's. In 1978, he got a job as a runner at
London's Morgan Studios.
In 1981, Flood went on to work solo, scoring his first major studio project as an assistant
audio engineer on
New Order's debut
Movement. He went on to work alongside
Soft Cell,
Psychic TV, and
Cabaret Voltaire before helming his first true production project with
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on
The Firstborn Is Dead and
Kicking Against the Pricks and with
Erasure on
Wonderland (1986),
The Circus (1987).
1987 saw Flood's first big commercial break when he
engineered U2's
The Joshua Tree alongside producer
Brian Eno. 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. He then went on to work again with
U2 on
Achtung Baby.
In 1993, Flood graduated from engineering
U2's albums to producing them, sharing duties with
Brian Eno on
Zooropa; this same year he also reunited with
Depeche Mode on their
Songs of Faith and Devotion album. In 1994, he worked again with
Nine Inch Nails, this time on the ground-breaking
The Downward Spiral.
1995 put Flood with two new bands,
The Smashing Pumpkins for
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and
PJ Harvey for
To Bring You My Love - albums that were smash hits that year. Shortly thereafter, he assisted producer
Nellee Hooper on
The Sneaker Pimps's
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 mixed
Erasure's
Loveboat.
In 2002, he co-produced
I To Sky, by
JJ72.
Summer 2005 saw him mixing
a-ha's eighth album,
Analogue, which was released in November 2005.
In late 2005 and early 2006, Flood also worked on mixing
Placebo's new album,
Meds, which was released in March 2006.
He has also begun production on
The Killers' new album, due out in October of 2006.
* In 1987, Flood remixed Swiss pop star
Stephan Eicher's French-language hit song "Combien de Temps".
*Ackney, Jason.
Flood. Music.com.
18 June 2004. Accessed
12 April 2005. [
1].
*Beyda, Adam.
Flood. Interview with Mark Ellis, excerpted from Music Producers. 2nd Edition. Accessed
12 April 2005. [
2]
*http://www.sibcorp.com/writehitsongs/flood1.html
*
Flood biography on artistdirect.com