Clients
Kelly "Mr. Chill" Hoppe (Mr. Chill & The Witnesses, Big Sugar)
Let me put it this way: We tracked "Mr. Chill's Cold Testament" @ the Sharktank with Mark, Patrick Ballantyne producing. When I was mixing the album @ Willie Nelson's Pedernales Studios down in TX with Gordie Johnson, I asked Gordie how he would grade the Shark's engineering/tracking of our tunes. Keep in mind GJ didn't know Mark, had no bias one way or the other. Without hesitation, he said "A plus", and mentioned that he was especially skilled in the area of getting great drum-kit sounds. Gordie is a well-respected, veteran record engineer/producer. His credits include Gov't Mule, Joel Plaskett, Wide Mouth Mason, Taj Mahal, and the Black Crowes, just to name a select few. So, in my humble opinion that would rank as high praise for Mark. I would second Patrick Ballantyne's description of Mark's attributes. I'll just add that he is totally professional and courteous, though not a stodgy dude by any means, and makes his studio a "playing" environment, not a "working" environment, which I think is key in the creative studio process. And there's always a pot of green tea hapnin', a nice touch, I'd say. As an aside, "Sharktank" was what we dubbed his space (it was below groundlevel, and he was, well, um, the "Shark") when we were workin' on the CD, and was glad to see it became 'official' as the name of his studio a few months later. Least that's how I remember it!