Music Recording & Reproduction
Recording Icons / Creative Spaces
The Creative World of Mark Howard
- Publisher
- ECW Press
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2022
- Category
- Recording & Reproduction, Celebrity
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781770416765
- Publish Date
- Nov 2022
- List Price
- $49.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781778520358
- Publish Date
- Nov 2022
- List Price
- $21.99
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Visual portraits of the iconic spaces where your favorite records were recorded
Mark Howard has worked with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, R.E.M., Willie Nelson, U2, the Neville Brothers, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Marianne Faithfull, and the Tragically Hip
Producer Mark Howard has always made unique records. For Howard, it’s not just about the recording process — making great music is also about creating unique, comfortable environments designed to bring out the best in the artist. To this end, he’s spent a career seeking out architecturally remarkable spaces in which to make albums. In Recording Icons / Creative Spaces, you’re invited behind the curtain to watch these music industry legends create. Using a non-invasive photographic approach, employing a Nikon time-lapse camera to capture these in-studio moments, Howard captures the hits as they happened, in a treasure trove of non-posed, natural images. You’re invited to travel the world with him and watch as he creates the beautiful spaces and inspiring atmosphere where the magic of classics by Bob Dylan, U2, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and many more actually happened.
About the authors
Contributor Notes
Mark Howard is a producer and recording engineer. He’s worked with countless multi-million-selling-record artists, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Waits, the Tragically Hip, Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson, Marianne Faithfull, Emmylou Harris, Peter Gabriel, R.E.M., and the Neville Brothers. He was born in Manchester, England, in 1964 and came to Hamilton, ON, at the age of two. He currently lives in Cape Breton, NS, overlooking the ocean and has been cancer-free for the last year.
Excerpt: Recording Icons / Creative Spaces: The Creative World of Mark Howard (by (author) Mark Howard; with Christopher Howard)
In the spring of 2000, I was riding around the Silver Lake neighborhood on my Harley-Davidson when I saw a beautiful old mansion. It sat at the top of the hill on a street called Micheltorena. It looked like some kind of convent. I noticed a set of big gates that had been left open, so I pulled in to see what was inside — that was when I met Dana Hollister, the owner of the Paramour. I asked her what she was doing with the estate. She explained that she was trying to turn it into a boutique hotel. Dana also mentioned she’d been hosting weddings and had movies being filmed there.
Dana gave me a brief history of the estate and told me it was once owned by a famous silent screen star called Antonio Moreno. Antonio had married one of the wealthiest women in Los Angeles at the time. Her name was Daisy Canfield of the Canfield–Doheny oil family. Her father had built the estate for them as their wedding gift. It was designed by the famous architect Robert D. Farquhar, who had also designed the Pentagon.
I told her I’d love to make some records in there, and she said that she would like that, too. So, I made a deal with her. I made a record with Lucinda Williams there called World Without Tears and started a record there with Tom Waits called Real Gone.
Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan, Eddie Vedder, Sheryl Crow, Billy Bob Thornton, Avril Lavigne, and Vic Chestnutt all came through there to make music. It was like a music sanctuary.
Editorial Reviews
“Recording Icons / Creative Spaces captures the energy behind recording and performing in so many exotic spaces. It will inspire readers to think out of the box, and hopefully try out a remote setup with their gear in unintimidating, non-traditional, and informal spaces like Mark has.” — Tape Op Magazine