Chris Hughes (record producer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chris Hughes is a British record producer and musician probably best known for his work with Tears for Fears, Adam and the Ants, Howard Jones and Propaganda. He often shared production credits with Ian Stanley.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Career
2 References
3 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Career

Chris Hughes' career began in the late 1970s with his production of Dalek I's Compass Kum'pas. In a roundabout way this led to his joining Adam and the Ants where, at the height of their success, he was involved as both drummer and producer under the pseudonym "Merrick", instrumental in forging the band's distinctive drum sound.

His unique production style resulted in him being voted 1981's Album Producer Of The Year by Music Week for his work on the best-selling album Kings of the Wild Frontier.

After leaving Adam and the Ants in 1982, Hughes concentrated his energies on production, often collaborating with Ian Stanley. His list of credits includes several essential 80s pop and synth acts, notably Tears for Fears hugely successful albums The Hurting and Songs from the Big Chair, Howard Jones's Cross That Line, Propaganda's 1234, The Cars frontman Ric Ocasek's solo album This Side of Paradise, Wang Chung's top 20 single Dance Hall Days and Red Box's top 3 single Lean On Me, as well as work with Lloyd Cole, Robert Plant (Fate Of Nations), Paul McCartney (tracks on the #1 album Flowers in the Dirt), Enya and Peter Gabriel.

In 1994 he realized an unexpected pet project as his Avant-garde instrumental solo album Shift: From the music of Steve Reich was released on the Fontana label on February the 7th. The project had been germinating as an idea since 1972 when, as a young gun, his father took him to see the European premiere of minimalist composer Steve Reich's Drumming at the Hayward Gallery, London. The trip had a deep impact on Chris. In the mid-80s, he first had the idea of producing the record for Reich himself. A meeting with Reich in the late 80s served to intensify Chris' enthusiasm. The idea finally evolved into the series of variations on Reich's early compositions that became the Shift CD.

"I've never thought for a minute that 'Shift' was a digression from the other things I've been involved with," Chris commented. "It seems like a natural extension to my other work in that it happens to be the thing I am totally committed to at this time."

Aside from his mainstream production/engineering career, Hughes continues composing interesting minimalist music. In 2000 he appeared on the compilation Minimalist 2, a collaborative project of 60 one-minute tracks by as many artists, a project led by Morgan Fisher 20 years after the first instalment.