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Mark Gardener
Flaws Of Perception
Rhapsody
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 90s English band Ride starting out circa 1988 means that its front man Mark Gardener has been writing, singing, performing live...for almost twenty years. Mark’s work is as beautiful today as it was seminal back then. Ride’s members parted ways in 1996 and whilst it is often difficult or impossible to carve out a successful solo career from the ashes of a critically acclaimed band, adaptability and versatility have been Mark’s most in demand qualities ever since.
From working with American Psychedelic outfit The Brian Jonestown Massacre to being a regular guest of French Electro/ Techno Rock band Rinoçérôse, his recent solo album, ‘These Beautiful Ghosts’ demonstrate how gifted this man really is.
Luckily for us there is a lot more to come...
After witnessing an amazing performance at this year’s Dream Machine Festival I am compelled to find out more about Mr Gardener’s musical career, ongoing passion for music and get an answer to that forever asked question:
“ Will Ride ever reform ? “.
It is with determined gusto that I make the pilgrimage to Oxford and no stones are left unturned.
Florence: You always seem to be extremely busy so please tell us about your various current projects.
 Mark: My solo record ‘These Beautiful Ghosts’ feels current as it’s still being slowly released around the world. Also I’ve been collaborating on a project called 2Square, with Stephan Haeri from French band Télépopmusik. I stayed in Paris with him for about a week and we worked together on three songs which I am really happy with and it’s all soon to be released. I’ve just done a song with an electronic artist called Silver Surfer who is based in Berlin. Also one song to be part of an album with Robin Guthrie, [Cocteau Twins], and I am hoping that towards the end of the year when we both have a bit more time we can make an album together. That would be great as I am a big big fan of The Cocteau Twins. During the Ride period we have crossed paths a lot, sometimes working with the same people.
Recently Robin was doing a small tour of picture houses in England with a show called “Lumière”, where he was playing his soundtrack to the film “Mysterious Skin” and he requested for me to do some DJing one night and we got talking about projects and that was that!
Robin and his French wife are very dear friends now.
Also having a home studio I am now doing a lot of mixing for other groups and I really enjoy that.
Florence: That means that you’re not the guy on stage all the time, you’re behind the scene and maybe it means less pressure. Did you need that ?
Mark: Because of the state of music these days, I have been forced to look at different ways to make a living. It’s great because it pushes you into other areas of work. Of course I love to play and be the guy on stage, to play gigs is a buzz which is why I still do it but at the same time I am also getting a real buzz from being more in the background and working with all these different bands.
Florence: How do you approach their material ?
Mark: Taking something that sounds ok and mixing it until, hopefully, you make it sound really good by the end is exciting. Whichever way I approach it, whether it’s my song or other people’s songs is the same thing, it’s a journey into the music to then try and get something out of it and balance it out in a way that it really works. I really love that and I love working from home.
You can spend so long on the road that it’s nice to have something going on in a place that isn’t moving!
Florence: So a lot of mixing and collaborations for you right now!
Mark: I really enjoy collaborations as well because after having been in a band for seven- eight years solidly with the same group of people, which was great but could feel a little stifling at times, it’s great to feel a bit more freedom of movement. To collaborate with different people is wonderful because you learn something different from every person you work with.
You learn about yourself and the way you do things. Sometimes you get these lovely clashes of styles and that’s why I enjoyed doing more electronic based projects because I am not coming from that area.
It’s quite nice when you get my background, [known as the whole ‘shoegaze’, noisy guitar thing], clashing with more forward thinking electronic music. At the end of the day if you’re still making music then you’re hoping to still make something interesting which is hard because so much music has gone before, but you always hope that what you’re doing sounds a little fresh and appealing.
I think that it’s really hard to be original anymore but you need to reflect on what is going on around you now, which is fed from life as we know it. Inspiration is all around as well as what’s happened in the past.
Florence: You’ve mentioned learning from people you work with.
Is there anybody in particular who has taught you a lot ?
Mark: Names that spring to mind immediately would be Sam Williams whom I worked with on The Animal House project. He taught me a lot about production and it’s ongoing as I think that he is a fantastic mixer and arranger, just a fantastic all round musician really.
Just two days with Robin Guthrie taught me plenty with the way he works in the studio. Stephan as well. Again a very different way of working, very thought-provoking where he would get me to throw vocals at him and then he would pretty much chop up words, vocal melodies and lines and put them in a completely different timing or a different melody and then I would go back and re-sing it.
He is someone who takes your voice away from you, puts it in another way and then gives it back to you. That’s good because instinctively you do things in the same way and you would never have placed the vocals like he’s doing, so you’re learning something about yourself.
Jack Riley who was a lyricist with The Beach Boys...I learned so much from Jack about singing and song writing. About the importance of lyrics and words. How to get weight into your work.
Most recently I have worked with Anton Newcombe on some tracks and that’s another good teacher.
In the early days working with Andy, playing guitar and writing songs...the whole Ride experience was a learning curve.
Florence: Never mind how long you have been in this business you keep on learning but that’s not the case for everyone.
Mark: I like that feeling and it keeps things appealing..
I’m still trying to learn French, it’s very difficult but exciting.
Music has always been fascinating to me and from any music you like, it be classical or modern, you will take something on board.
Somehow it inspires you and things ‘go in’, you absorb things, put it through ‘your filter’ and then it filters out in another way.
Florence: Tell me more about your work with Anton.
People have been patiently, and at times impatiently waiting for a new release from The Brian Jonestown Massacre so let’s have a behind the scene point of view.
Mark: That was very recent. I spent four days in Iceland with Anton, in Reykjavik. Two days in a bar and two days in a studio!
We got to the studio about 4 pm on the Sunday and worked throughout the night until it was finished the following day. We came out with a couple of songs.
I really liked Anton’s way of working. Before we got to the studio there was nothing, we weren’t carrying work on anything that existed before.
He wanted to make something happen very spontaneously by us being together in the same room. From my point of view if you’ve come to work with someone, you’ve got to respect and give them space in the way they do things, and especially Anton who’s straight in and is playing everything then you work out where you are going to fit in all that. I was very conscious about not to interfere if he was on a roll or if he had a vision, you just have to run with that.
At the right times he would ask for me to throw some vocals or for some ideas. I did one set of vocals on one track and actually I am not really sure what I am singing about but it had a vibe and it was good because it was just one take. Completely spontaneous to the music that I was hearing in the studio.
We also did another track with me doing some sweet harmonies to his rougher main vocals which I think works very well.
A lot of the time in the bar was about listening to the rest of the music he was doing and getting in the zone which I think is really important before getting to work.
It was a really great experience and Anton is someone who helped me redirect my mind to what was good about the way that I used to work and have worked in the past. He was very good, probably unconsciously, at reflecting back to me something very strong and that will definitely influence the next music that I make.
Florence: So are we to expect a departure from your latest offering ?
Mark: ‘These Beautiful Ghosts’ is a more acoustic album that I really wanted to get out of my system and also because at that time I didn’t really have a band around me so I needed something that I could play solo as well as with a band. But I couldn’t rely on having a band, it was just that situation at that time.
The next music I make will be a lot more electric and experimental. You never know when it’s your last record or your last gig and if the next record turns out to be the last one I ever make then it seems right to go out with a bang!
Even with Ride I have always reacted against the fact that you naturally do things in a certain way for a long time. Logically the next thing you try to write should be done differently. It keeps things interesting to you and hopefully to the people as well. Unfortunately with Ride we lost a lot of people because they couldn’t understand why we didn’t make five albums that sounded like ‘Nowhere’ but then again people who discovered Ride later thought that was all right.
Actually we are not so keen on ‘Nowhere’!
Florence: You can’t please all of the people all of the time.
Mark: Exactly!
For sure my next album will not sound like my last one.
I will write it in the way that I always write but sonically it will be different.
Florence: You also are in a different place now.
By your own admission ‘These Beautiful Ghosts’ was “ the sound of a man losing his mind in France. “
You seem very together right now!
Mark: I was very isolated and I needn’t to do that for a while.
The next release will reflect the very good feeling about being back in Oxford, a place where the whole journey started. I am here and it works.
Maybe that’s it, you go all the way around the houses, the world, only to end up back where you started. It’s strange but maybe you need to do that to realise that a lot of things you are running away from are things that you actually need to deal with within yourself. Things come with you so changing places and countries doesn’t solve the problems.
I’ve got a whole renewed feeling about being back here and I’m ready to spend time in my studio.
The problem with France is that it was such a beautiful place that it wasn’t helping me get to work. It was just nice to sit on the terrace, have a smoke, listen to music and watch the world go by really slowly.
It was beautiful and it did me a world of good but I am back!
TO BE CONTINUED...
Words & photos: Florence ACHERY
www.myspace.com/markgardener
www.markgardener.com |
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