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U2: ATOMIC |
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U2 Producer: Flood / aka: Mark Ellis
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. Several rumors describe the origin of Ellis' ubitquitous pseudonym, "Flood". Two
are worth mentioning: 1. It was given to him due to his strategy of keeping studio hands and musicians
awake through the "constant brewing" of tea. [1] 2. Future Music Magazine stated in 1994 that it was
because he constantly spilled tea in the studio. 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 set the Flood in motion with three successful bands, The Smashing Pumpkins with Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the The Charlatans with Between 10th And 11th , and PJ Harvey with 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. |