#111 James Ellis Ford: producing Depeche Mode, Blur, and Pet Shop Boys, "sometimes it feels totally surreal"

Sign up for London / Bristol / Manchester Scuba live shows! scubaoficial.io/live What's it like to mediate a disagreement between members of one of the biggest bands in history? And to do that while you're trying to produce their new record? This is a question which is answered in this week's episode, in which our guest is one of the most prolific producers of Big UK Acts of the last two decades. As well as being a member of Simian Mobile Disco , James Ford (occasionally with his middle name included) has a production credits list which includes Depeche Mode , Blur , Arctic Monkeys , Pet Shop Boys , and Beth Gibbons . If that's not going to yield some good podcast content, then the blame should fall squarely on the host. We discuss the role of the record producer today, as well as how that role has changed over time. Regular questions like the one about AI are covered. And we also get into detail about some specific projects, including the making of the brand new Pet Shop Boys record in James' home studio. This is a highly illuminating discussion on a topic that isn't particularly well understood. One of the best episodes so far, and a worthy follow-up to Steve Davis last week! If you're into what we're doing here on the pod then you can support the show on Patreon! There are two tiers - "Solidarity" for $4 a month, which features the show without ads, regular bonus podcasts, and extra content. And "Musicality" which for a mere $10 a month gets you all the music we release on Hotflush and affiliate labels AND other music too, some of which never comes out anywhere else. You can also make a one-off donation to the podcast using a credit or debit card, with Paypal, or your Ethereum wallet! Head over to scubaofficial.io/support . Plus there's also a private area for Patreon supporters in the Hotflush Discord Server ... but anyone can join the conversation in the public channels. Listen to the music discussed on the show via the Not A Diving Podcast Spotify playlist Follow Scuba: twitter instagram bandcamp spotify apple music beatport Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.