“It’s not where it’s from, it’s where it’s at for me,” Mark Gardener coolly says of working on other bands’ material from the calm, white light of his Oxford, UK-based attic studio. Gardener has spent the last two decades in the business of creating music. His success as a musician has led the way to a career in mixing and record production that involves his own home studio, Dungeon Studios and Turan Audio mastering studio, all based in Oxford.

Gardener’s transition to the studio was a natural one that stems from his passion for creating exciting music. “I got into music as a result of listening to great records,” he explains. “In the early Ride days we produced our own records and we worked with the likes of Alan Moulder, John Leckie and Mark Waterman. The band was really focused on how we wanted our records to sound, but we didn’t know the proper studio techniques, so the people we worked with in the early days took more of an engineering role. They had some input in the creative process, but not much because we were always driven on that front. I have been interested in production for a long time and whenever we had Ride B sides I would sit in on sessions at studios like Abbey Road and do a bit of mixing.

“I’ve always learned by throwing myself into it and it is also a result of working with amazing producers and taking what they were doing on board. For example, I’ve worked with Sam Williams – we did the Animal House project. He and the likes of Jack Rieley and John Leckie taught me a lot. The real magic for me about being in Ride was making records and that whole process of getting them to a point where you can sit back and say, ‘that is amazing’.”

From the Dungeon to the attic
The industry has dramatically changed since Gardener’s days in Ride, when budgets were much fatter than current slimmed down figures. As such, he usually uses Dungeon Studios for tracking and his home studio, OX-4-Sound, for mixing, overdubs and vocals and to provide a relaxed space where time and money are insignificant. An Apple G5 with Logic Pro 8 is the main mix engine of the room, which is complemented by outboard from Joe Meek, an Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor, TL Audio C1 Dual Valve Compressor and a host of Universal Audio, Waves plugins and a Focusrite Liquid channel with vintage preamp emulation.

“Ride had some pretty serious budgets, because at the time you were paying a thousand pounds a day and that was generally considered to be the only way to make records,” he explains. “Those big, expensive studios are amazing and although there are some quality issues that result from working in the box instead, they are minimal. You can have the best of both worlds with how you record and add warmth with outboard gear, but I love mixing in the box.

“The lovely thing about mixing is that it’s always the long part of the process and I love to walk away from something and come back to it with fresh ears. You can do that in a home situation. In the old days if you left the room the board was cleared and you had to live with the final mix.

“With my home studio I can and always do come back to mixes. It gives me a chance to live with a mix and give it a final tweak. It also gives bands the opportunity to check their music on their own systems. In the old days you’d be checking things on a studio’s stereo that you were not tuned into. Once you get used to mixing in the same room you know where to fill in and how to accommodate without feeling financial constraints, which really helps the creative process.”

Axes and vox
A major selling point to working with Gardener is having access to his collection of vintage guitars. “Part of the service is that clients can get their hands on some of the old Ride guitars. I have a John Lennon 12-string modified with a full-size neck, a six-string Rickenbacker, a vintage Gibson 330, Les Paul, Fender Jazz bass, two Martin acoustics and some great amps. When it comes to guitars I am more traditional. Some amp and guitar configurations are so perfect that I just need to put a mic in front of them and they sound brilliant.”

A vocalist by trade, Gardener has a method of producing great vocal tracks that he learned in part from Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins. “I try to create general ambience using delays rather than reverb. Although I like that big, airy quality, reverb can get bit messy. Delays give you a real feeling of space and depth but you are not noticing the effect so much. I do try and keep things as organic and natural as possible.
“If I am recording vocals I have some Joe Meek compressors that I love because they warm the signals up for recording, along with theTL Audio compressor and the Distressor, which I love for vocals and drums. I also use the Distressor to smash up an ambient and well-placed drum room mic to get that John Bonham Led Zep drum sound. I spent a lot of money on the UAD-1e Extreme Pack, which gives you great plugins (Neve, Pultec, 1176, Fairchild) for mixing. They can make such a difference, especially the Fairchild 670 compressor plugin. You hear that across a lot of my mixes. I use it in the same way that The Beatles used the old Fairchild outboard.”

Surf’s up
Gardener has sat alongside many great producers, but working with Beach Boys producer Jack Rieley had a significant influence on the way he approaches mixing music. “From Rieley I learned how to keep things calm, keep an overview of the content you are dealing with and make it say something. We are all influenced by the past, but it needs to have a view to the future. There are inspirations all around us if you have your channels open.

“Rieley really taught me, as an engineer, to try and de-stress the bands and make their work easier. When you are enveloped in the creative and writing processes you can start to go mad. It is good to have someone pull things out of you and say, ‘that is good, now leave it’. Over-analysis can equal paralysis. Sometimes it is more of a feel thing. I like hearing mistakes sometimes because it makes a song or instrument sound like it is coming from a human.

“To me you can get really overly anal about the whole digital vs analog debate. Of course there is still a difference, but I think this is the only way we can make records these days and still make a living doing it. And it is really enjoyable. That big money thing has gone out of it and in some ways it is better. If you get overly analytical it can just drain the life out of things. It is important to try and keep a flow going and not to lose sight of the fact that, at the end of the day, it is just rock and roll.”

Stage to the studio

Mark Gardener has worked on many projects of late, several of which are just staring to hit the airwaves. His recent mixing and production projects include work with Bastila, Curbs, Axel and the Farmers, The Early Days, Tristan and the Troubadours, yé-yé, Union Jackals, Dusty and the Dreaming Spires, Jack Pescod, Gaia River, Chantelle Pike and Jade Hamzelou. In addition to ongoing studio work with other bands and on his own material, he will also serve as the musical director for the concerts that will be staged around the UK and beyond for the movie (Upside Down) that celebrates the 25th anniversary of his alma mater label, Creation Records.
www.markgardener.com