Mark S. Berry
- Producer
- Music Department
- Executive
Originally from Brooklyn, NYC, Mark began his music career at the Institute of Audio Research (IAR) in New York City in the summer of 1970. At the young age of 16, Mark was commuting into Manhattan, NYC at night, learning the inside ropes of making records and recording up & coming basement bands. After graduating from IAR and high school in the same year, 1972, Mark was drawn to the Brit sound and was off to London, England, where he soon arrived on the doorsteps of AIR Studios, one of the world's most renowned recording facilities, owned by Sir George Martin. I just flew over and started walking the streets of London looking for a job, stopping in every studio that I took off the back of my favorite albums. he remembers.
THE BEGINNING Mark soon met Nigel Walker, who was working as an assistant to producer John Punter on an Alan Clarke (lead singer of The Hollies) solo project at AIR Studios. That ended up being my first job in the business, working with John Punter and Sir George Martin, getting cigarettes & coffee for the guys and just watching & listening in the background, absorbing everything. Not only did Mark gain a considerable amount of expertise in engineering and mixing records but also invaluable experience in classic rock production and orchestral techniques working as an assistant under Sir George Martin. Sir George was responsible for producing arguably the most influential band in the history of rock 'n' roll, The Beatles.
Working with Sir George Martin started out simply recording classical records in the different cathedrals around London for the chamber choir group The King's Singers. He soon began setting up and assisting on various George Martin and Paul McCartney sessions.
Mark's experience led to his first major engineering assignment; Carly Simon's No Secrets album, which included the international smash, You're So Vain (YES, he does know who it's about !!!) , and would become his very first of many engineering & mixing credits. Hanging out with Mick Jagger for the background vocals on You're So Vain and then going over to Olympic Studios for the mixing of the Rolling Stones live '72 tour tapes was certainly the highlight of his early years, and all before the age of 19. However, this was only the beginning for Mark. I'd say the most amazing session had to be Live and Let Die, performed by Sir Paul McCartney and Wings, They had a 63 piece orchestra in there and I felt like I had emptied every ashtray known to man before the end of that one. (In fact, Live and Let Die is one of the very few songs from the Bond films to be nominated for a Best Song Oscar.)
Mark also assisted and worked on several projects such as the groundbreaking Roll Over Beethoven for Electric Light Orchestra, Grand Hotel for Procal Harem, Climax Blues Band and Live - Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple. During his tenure at AIR studios, Mark worked under the tutelage of renowned British rock engineer/producers such as Bill Price (Sex Pistols), John Punter (Japan, Reflex, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music), Steve Nye (Roxy Music), Alan Harris (T-Rex, Marc Bolan, Mott The Hoople), Geoff Emerick (The Beatles), Chris Thomas (Elton John, The Pretenders, Pink Floyd, INXS), Jeff Lynne (ELO, Tom Petty, Traveling Wilburys), Martin Birch (Iron Maiden, Deep Purple) and Tony Visconti (David Bowie) to name a few.
RETURN TO NEW YORK: THE BIRTH OF HIP HOP TO INDEPENDENT ENGINEER/PRODUCER With some celebrated credits in hand, Mark returned to the states in the mid 70s. He began freelancing around New York as an assistant at some of the top recording studios like Electric Lady, Record Plant and the Hit Factory. In 1976, Mark was approached with the position of Staff Engineer and in-house A&R/producer for Vanguard Records (Joan Baez, Buffy Saint-Marie, Country Joe & the Fish) where he worked for nearly twelve years.
While at Vanguard Studios, Mark continued to engineer & mix outside projects for several of New York's top dance/pop producers and became heavily involved in the early 80's New York hip-hop movement working with artists and producers such as Soul Sonic Force (Looking For The Perfect Beat), Planet Patrol (Play At Your Own Risk), Awesome Foursome (Funky Soul Makosa), New Edition (Candy Girl), DJ Jellybean, Arthur Baker, Freeze (AEIOU), Eddie O'Loughlin (Next Plateau Records), John Robie, C-Bank (One More Shot), Tommy Silverman (Tommy Boy Records), Importe 12 Records, Man Parrish (the groundbreaking Hip Hop Be Bop) and many, many more.
During this time Mark felt the explosive pulse of New York City street rhythms and his A&R skills directed him to discovering and producing up & coming dance acts, such as Alisha, who after enormous success with Vanguard Records went onto sign with multi-national labels RCA and MCA/Universal, respectively. International deals that Mark put together for her. Mark's hit productions for Alisha included the #1 dance singles All Night Passion and Too Turned On along with the international pop smash Baby Talk, which went on to become a worldwide chart-topping hit, remaining on the Billboard pop charts for over four months. Alisha became the most successful Pop/Dance act on Vanguard, selling in excess of 2M albums and 12' dance records worldwide along with numerous Billboard charting singles.
In 2019 Mark was inducted into the Legends of Vinyl, Hall of Fame for his body of work as a Dance Producer, Engineer & Remixer.
THE MID 80S: DANCE REMIXES & ROCK PRODUCTIONS Mark moved into the area of 7' radio and 12' dance & rock mixing and re-mixing for major multi-platinum artists such as David Bowie (Never Let Me Down), Duran Duran (Meet el Presidente), Talk Talk (Lifes What You Make It), Cameo (She's Strange), Toto (Theme from Dune), Yes (Rhythm of Love), Billy Idol (Flesh for Fantasy), Boy George (Livin' My Life Soundtrack), Kool & The Gang (She's Fresh), Stephanie Mills (Medicine Song), Jimmy Barnes (Seven Days), Animotion (Obsession), Joan Jett (Cherry Bomb & Good Music album w/Rick Rubin), to name a few. During this time, Mark's ahead of the times engineering & mixing skills contributed significantly to the international success of these acts.
Mark's New York entertainment attorney and longtime friend, Paul D. Schindler, Esq. (Madonna, Joan Jett, Kiss, Rick Rubin, Russell Simmons, Def Jam Records) of the Grubman, Indursky & Schindler law firm (at the time) put a meeting together with label executive/client Michael Gudinski. At that time Michael was the founder/president of Australia's largest independent record company, Mushroom Records & Frontier Touring. Mark went onto produce and mix multi-platinum records for some of Australia's biggest acts including; Kids In The Kitchen, Pseudo Echo, Jimmy Barnes, Indecent Obsession, Collette, Eurogliders, Machinations.Since its founding, AMG Visuals, spearheaded by AMG EVP Duane Farley, has Executive Produced, Financed or Distributed several feature-length films including; the live concert documentary 'Drake: Homecoming' (AMC Specticast/Rap-a-Lot/James Prince), 'The Sacrifice Game' (AMC/Shudder/Red Sea Media), 'Bloodline Killer' (Vertical Entertainment) along with the 'Sweat It Out' documentary, a history of the Australian Pub Rock scene of the 60/70's; and has almost an equal amount in development, under production or completed but not yet released
He is currently conquering the eardrums of record executives internationally with his latest productions.
THE BEGINNING Mark soon met Nigel Walker, who was working as an assistant to producer John Punter on an Alan Clarke (lead singer of The Hollies) solo project at AIR Studios. That ended up being my first job in the business, working with John Punter and Sir George Martin, getting cigarettes & coffee for the guys and just watching & listening in the background, absorbing everything. Not only did Mark gain a considerable amount of expertise in engineering and mixing records but also invaluable experience in classic rock production and orchestral techniques working as an assistant under Sir George Martin. Sir George was responsible for producing arguably the most influential band in the history of rock 'n' roll, The Beatles.
Working with Sir George Martin started out simply recording classical records in the different cathedrals around London for the chamber choir group The King's Singers. He soon began setting up and assisting on various George Martin and Paul McCartney sessions.
Mark's experience led to his first major engineering assignment; Carly Simon's No Secrets album, which included the international smash, You're So Vain (YES, he does know who it's about !!!) , and would become his very first of many engineering & mixing credits. Hanging out with Mick Jagger for the background vocals on You're So Vain and then going over to Olympic Studios for the mixing of the Rolling Stones live '72 tour tapes was certainly the highlight of his early years, and all before the age of 19. However, this was only the beginning for Mark. I'd say the most amazing session had to be Live and Let Die, performed by Sir Paul McCartney and Wings, They had a 63 piece orchestra in there and I felt like I had emptied every ashtray known to man before the end of that one. (In fact, Live and Let Die is one of the very few songs from the Bond films to be nominated for a Best Song Oscar.)
Mark also assisted and worked on several projects such as the groundbreaking Roll Over Beethoven for Electric Light Orchestra, Grand Hotel for Procal Harem, Climax Blues Band and Live - Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple. During his tenure at AIR studios, Mark worked under the tutelage of renowned British rock engineer/producers such as Bill Price (Sex Pistols), John Punter (Japan, Reflex, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music), Steve Nye (Roxy Music), Alan Harris (T-Rex, Marc Bolan, Mott The Hoople), Geoff Emerick (The Beatles), Chris Thomas (Elton John, The Pretenders, Pink Floyd, INXS), Jeff Lynne (ELO, Tom Petty, Traveling Wilburys), Martin Birch (Iron Maiden, Deep Purple) and Tony Visconti (David Bowie) to name a few.
RETURN TO NEW YORK: THE BIRTH OF HIP HOP TO INDEPENDENT ENGINEER/PRODUCER With some celebrated credits in hand, Mark returned to the states in the mid 70s. He began freelancing around New York as an assistant at some of the top recording studios like Electric Lady, Record Plant and the Hit Factory. In 1976, Mark was approached with the position of Staff Engineer and in-house A&R/producer for Vanguard Records (Joan Baez, Buffy Saint-Marie, Country Joe & the Fish) where he worked for nearly twelve years.
While at Vanguard Studios, Mark continued to engineer & mix outside projects for several of New York's top dance/pop producers and became heavily involved in the early 80's New York hip-hop movement working with artists and producers such as Soul Sonic Force (Looking For The Perfect Beat), Planet Patrol (Play At Your Own Risk), Awesome Foursome (Funky Soul Makosa), New Edition (Candy Girl), DJ Jellybean, Arthur Baker, Freeze (AEIOU), Eddie O'Loughlin (Next Plateau Records), John Robie, C-Bank (One More Shot), Tommy Silverman (Tommy Boy Records), Importe 12 Records, Man Parrish (the groundbreaking Hip Hop Be Bop) and many, many more.
During this time Mark felt the explosive pulse of New York City street rhythms and his A&R skills directed him to discovering and producing up & coming dance acts, such as Alisha, who after enormous success with Vanguard Records went onto sign with multi-national labels RCA and MCA/Universal, respectively. International deals that Mark put together for her. Mark's hit productions for Alisha included the #1 dance singles All Night Passion and Too Turned On along with the international pop smash Baby Talk, which went on to become a worldwide chart-topping hit, remaining on the Billboard pop charts for over four months. Alisha became the most successful Pop/Dance act on Vanguard, selling in excess of 2M albums and 12' dance records worldwide along with numerous Billboard charting singles.
In 2019 Mark was inducted into the Legends of Vinyl, Hall of Fame for his body of work as a Dance Producer, Engineer & Remixer.
THE MID 80S: DANCE REMIXES & ROCK PRODUCTIONS Mark moved into the area of 7' radio and 12' dance & rock mixing and re-mixing for major multi-platinum artists such as David Bowie (Never Let Me Down), Duran Duran (Meet el Presidente), Talk Talk (Lifes What You Make It), Cameo (She's Strange), Toto (Theme from Dune), Yes (Rhythm of Love), Billy Idol (Flesh for Fantasy), Boy George (Livin' My Life Soundtrack), Kool & The Gang (She's Fresh), Stephanie Mills (Medicine Song), Jimmy Barnes (Seven Days), Animotion (Obsession), Joan Jett (Cherry Bomb & Good Music album w/Rick Rubin), to name a few. During this time, Mark's ahead of the times engineering & mixing skills contributed significantly to the international success of these acts.
Mark's New York entertainment attorney and longtime friend, Paul D. Schindler, Esq. (Madonna, Joan Jett, Kiss, Rick Rubin, Russell Simmons, Def Jam Records) of the Grubman, Indursky & Schindler law firm (at the time) put a meeting together with label executive/client Michael Gudinski. At that time Michael was the founder/president of Australia's largest independent record company, Mushroom Records & Frontier Touring. Mark went onto produce and mix multi-platinum records for some of Australia's biggest acts including; Kids In The Kitchen, Pseudo Echo, Jimmy Barnes, Indecent Obsession, Collette, Eurogliders, Machinations.Since its founding, AMG Visuals, spearheaded by AMG EVP Duane Farley, has Executive Produced, Financed or Distributed several feature-length films including; the live concert documentary 'Drake: Homecoming' (AMC Specticast/Rap-a-Lot/James Prince), 'The Sacrifice Game' (AMC/Shudder/Red Sea Media), 'Bloodline Killer' (Vertical Entertainment) along with the 'Sweat It Out' documentary, a history of the Australian Pub Rock scene of the 60/70's; and has almost an equal amount in development, under production or completed but not yet released
He is currently conquering the eardrums of record executives internationally with his latest productions.