Recording Icons / Creative Spaces: The Creative World of Mark Howard

By Mark Howard and Christopher Howard

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ECW Press
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781778520358

Mark Howard

Mark Howard lives in the beautiful rolling hills of rural Pennsylvania in the USA. Writing began as a part time distraction, covering the antics of local critters, and the world around him. It was an interesting way of maintaining sanity during the long winters, and had less of an impact on his health than consuming red wine to pass the time. It evolved since then into a passion, allowing him to share experiences he has had around the world, from Africa to Europe, to the USA, and elsewhere. In his latest book he takes a very personal look at a horrific political system which destroyed lives, and considers whether it was not as much a personal choice by many, as it was a political ideology.

Book preview

Foreword

For the past THIRTY years, Mark Howard has made records with some of the most influential artists of our time. His methods are unique, from mixing interesting locations to record in, to installing his portable studio, to capturing a vibe in the room without intimidating the artist with all kinds of technology.

His style of mixing architecture and interior design with technology has produced a unique sound for all of his records. In these locations around the world, Mark constructs an atmosphere that has allowed for the creation of some of the most influential records of our time.

From the New Orleans swamp studio he built for the Neville Brothers’ Yellow Moon, to the opulent ballroom at the Paramour estate for Lucinda Williams’s World without Tears; from Bob Dylan’s Time out of Mind at the Teatro studio in Oxnard, California, to Neil Young and Robert Plant at the Bella Vista estate in Los Angeles and Joni Mitchell at her home in Bel-Air — come look behind the curtains and see these artists at work in these one-of-a-kind locations.

YOU HAD TO BE THERE.

— Mark Howard

The Paramour Studio

Los Angeles

The back of a large pink Mediterranean house, with patio, reflected into a swimming pool.A long pink hall, with an angel statue on a pedestal in front of windows at the end of it.A semicircle of soundboards and other recording equipment in a softly lit room with an ornate wooden ceiling, wrought-iron chandeliers, and a fireplace. Two red velvet armchairs face the recording area.A silver electric guitar leaning against a cushion in a dim room lit by candles.A piano, an electric guitar leaning on an amp, and an acoustic guitar on a stand, in a dim candlelit room. Behind the piano, a large arched window is open to reveal a city skyline at night.The same wood-ceilinged room from a different perspective: the recording area is centered, and we see guitars laid on the carpet in the foreground, and more seating, lit with lamps and candles, to either side.A different perspective on the dining room, furnished in warm red and gold tones.A dining room, with a red tablecloth and a large hand sculpture on the table, shot from down the hall, through two archways. Both rooms are hung with a lit wrought-iron chandelier.

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