Flood

From SPCodex, The Smashing Pumpkins wiki
Mark "Flood" Ellis
Flood at the mixing console during the Mellon Collie sessions
Background information
Birth nameMark Ellis
Born (1960-08-16) August 16, 1960 (age 63)
London, England
ArtistsThe Smashing Pumpkins
RoleProducer, engineer
Years active1994–2000
WikipediaFlood (producer)

Mark Ellis (born 16 August 1960), known by his professional pseudonym Flood, is a British record producer and audio engineer[1] who worked with The Smashing Pumpkins from 1995 through the 2000 breakup. Other major acts Flood has worked with include New Order, U2, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

In 1995, Flood co-produced the diamond-selling Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness with longtime collaborator Alan Moulder. In 1997, he assisted Billy Corgan and Brad Wood on 1998's Adore., and then co-produced Machina/The Machines of God with Billy Corgan in 2000.

Production style[edit | edit source]

Billy Corgan, who worked with Flood on three albums, said in a Guitar Center interview, "Flood's incredible. Flood is a tremendous producer. Flood is very masterful with the sonics, but where he really shines is he's a great idea person. And I don't mean like he tells you, "Oh, put this chorus here." It's more like he can see an ambiance of the song that you don't necessarily see and he would really fight with us – not negative a fight, just he would really kind of push us to say there's another vibe here that you can get to."[2]

Pseudonym[edit | edit source]

According to producer Mark Freegard, Ellis' pseudonym, "Flood," was given to him by producer Chris Tsangarides during Ellis' early days at Morgan Studios and while The Cure was there recording. As a young studio runner, Ellis was responsible for responding to numerous requests from the recording artists and staff for tea and bacon sandwiches. Ellis kept up with the numerous requests for tea while the other runner remained largely unavailable, leading to Tsangarides nicknaming them "Flood" and "Drought," respectively.[3]

Production credits[edit | edit source]

Year Album
1995 Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
1996 The Aeroplane Flies High Sampler
1996 The Aeroplane Flies High
1996 Zero
1998 Adore
1999 The Smashing Pumpkins 1991–1998
2000 Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music
2000 Machina/The Machines of God
2001 Get Ready
2001 Judas O
2001 Rotten Apples

Studio sessions[edit | edit source]

Session Artist Album(s)
March 15-16 1994 – Gravity Studios The Smashing Pumpkins Billy's Gravity Demos I The Aeroplane Flies High
March-August 1995 – Pumpkinland and Chicago Recording Company The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
March 2-3, 1995 – Pumpkinland The Smashing Pumpkins 666
May 31, 1995 – Chicago Recording Company The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
July 25, 1995 – Chicago Recording Company The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
August 1995 – The Village Recorder The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
November 1998-September 1999 – Pumpkinland The Smashing Pumpkins Machina/The Machines of God
July 2000 – Chicago Recording Company The Smashing Pumpkins
October 1999 – The Village Recorder The Smashing Pumpkins Machina/The Machines of God
November 2000 – Chicago Recording Company The Smashing Pumpkins

References[edit | edit source]

  1. "Flood | Biography & History". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  2. "Guitar Center Interviews Billy Corgan Archived 2 January 2012 at the w:Wayback Machine"
  3. "Spend $40,000 building a studio, and get it all back!". Audiomasterclass.com. Retrieved 3 November 2019.