Instruments Guitar, keyboards Role Musician Years active 1978–present Music group Garbage (Since 1994) | Movies Garbage: Absolute Garbage Name Steve Marker | |
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Born March 16, 1959 (age 65)
Mamaroneck, New York, US ( 1959-03-16 ) Genres Rock, alternative rock, electronic rock Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter, record producer, remixer Labels Geffen Records,
A&E Records Similar People Duke Erikson, Butch Vig, Shirley Manson, Billy Bush, Paul Simonon | ||
Associated acts Fire Town, Garbage | ||
Garbage s butch vig and steve marker talk producing
Steve Marker (born March 16, 1959) is an American musician and record producer, best known internationally as the guitarist of the Madison, Wisconsin-based alternative rock band Garbage.
Contents
- Garbage s butch vig and steve marker talk producing
- Early life
- Career
- Personal life
- Garbage
- Production career
- References
Early life
Steven W. Marker was born in Mamaroneck, New York on March 16, 1959. He spent most of his childhood and his teens in Mamaroneck, New York. At the age of 6, his parents bought him drums; but, at 12, he shifted instruments and took up the guitar. He graduated from Rye Neck High School in Mamaroneck.
For higher education, Marker attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison for a degree in film. There, he met Butch Vig, who played with the band Spooner. In 1979 the group was trying to figure out how to record a 7-inch single and Marker had grown an interest in musical producing, he bought a four-track reel-to-reel deck, which complemented by Vig's microphones became a home studio in Marker's basement. Marker and Vig also started a small label, Boat Records, to release records of both Spooner and other bands they liked.
Career
Marker co-founded Madison's Smart Studios with Butch Vig in 1983, and maintained a production career engineering and mixing records until he formed Garbage with Vig and Vig's bandmate in Spooner, Duke Erikson, in 1994. He famously spotted Angelfish singer Shirley Manson's music video on MTV's 120 Minutes, which led to her joining the group, as Marker felt that Manson differed from the high pitched and screechy female singers of the 1990s and "was more like the voices that we loved growing up, which was more Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde – sort of that classic pop sound – maybe Dusty Springfield."
Marker stated that his musical style is not influenced by "the guys that played twenty minute solos", stating he always preferred "guitar parts that sort of work melodically more in a Beatles sense", with artists such as Tom Petty, Keith Richards, The Pretenders and Robert Fripp. Marker considered that his background as a producer helped develop a type of playing where "you're not there to show off, to show how brilliant you are or draw attention to yourself. You're there to make the song work in whatever way is necessary", stating that the guitar "is there to serve the song".
Personal life
Marker is married, and has a daughter named Ruby (born March 2000). After living for 25 years in Madison, following Garbage's hiatus in 2005, Marker relocated to Carbondale, Colorado with his family.
Garbage
Studio albums
Compilation albums and EPs
Production career
Steve Marker served as the record producer, or co-producer on the following records:
He also engineered the following records: