MARK GARDENER

[ Interview with Mark Gardener by Diego Centurión. Photographs: Julian Hayr, Steve Gullick and Matt Draper. ]

MARK GARDENER TAKES US FOR A RIDE AND BEYOND

An ever-active Mark Gardener gave us the chance to ask him a few questions about the new single he just released, “Chained” in collaboration with 2Square, also known as Stephan Haeri of Telepopmusik from France. But his well-known career with his band Ride and his countless collaboration gives way to these questions...

Hi Mark! Thank you for giving us this opportunity to ask you these questions. It is a pleasure for us to have you in our magazine.

For starters, I'd like you to tell us where this pandemic found you.

The pandemic has found me between home and my studio in Oxfordshire.

I’m most mainly in my studio and have been able to continue to work as lots of the work I’m being sent files to mix and produce without the people. I’ve actually been the busiest I have ever been in my life over the past 3 months. Working crazy long hours from morning until the early hours of the next morning!

It’s all good though as it’s all music and I love being in my studio.

I’ve also sometimes been visiting an ancient elevated old roadway close to the studio called The Ridgeway. It’s beautiful and has panoramic views around Oxfordshire and is a great place to have ear breaks and clear my mind and think a little.

We go back in time and you look at yourself in that beginning with RIDE in the 80s and your dreams within music, that dream of your future. Paraphrasing a song from that project "The Animalhouse" and precisely from the album "Ready to Receive". What happened to the future?

The Future is unwritten! It was my dream to be in music. It was my dream to build a studio like the one I have now built and work in. That dream to build a studio space I could work in took a long time to achieve but I got there in the end. Being a professional musician happened very quickly with Ride. I also wanted to travel lots and see the World as people, places and different cultures and language really interest me.

It is impossible not to ask about RIDE. Are there any news?

Not much at the moment. We finished the World tour in February just before the Pandemic kicked in. We have taken some time to rest and recover from that. I needed this time to work in my studio and get the studio build finished with an extension and get lots of new music work coming in. Like many bands at the moment it will be hard for Ride to survive without any live shows? Spotify and streaming services are terrible for bands and survival. That model has to change as it’s so difficult now for bands to get any income to keep going and develop their talents. More bands

should use Bandcamp and if people want their favourite bands to continue then they should support them on platforms such as Bandcamp as some income does actually go to the artists.

Your new collaboration is the reason for this interview, but speaking of collaborations, you have worked with many artists and in very different musics, just to name a few with Robin Guthrie, Ulrich Schnauss or Goldrush, up to The Brian Jonestown Massacre or the Surfin Chaos de Iguana Lovers, without forgetting the Pure Phase Ensemble. What are you looking for when choosing collaboration?

Most of the time these people ask me to collaborate. I enjoy working with different artists. It keeps me fresh and I like the challenge of creating something interesting and unique with people.

The new single "Chained". I have

read that it was a few weeks of intense work in Paris with Stephan Haeri. Tell us how and when is this collaboration born?

We had a mutual DJ friend in Paris called Melanie Bauer. She connected me with Stephan. I spent a week in Stephan’s studio apartment with him in Paris and three tracks were created. I will release the other tracks soon.

Tell us about the lyric. I read that reflects a specific time in your life.

Yes it was a time in Oxford after Ride

had crashed and before I moved to the Medieaval wilds of France for four years. My house and life had turned into a night club and nonstop party. I had not dealt with the fall out of having been in a successful band and then it crashed and then there was nothing. I liked to party but all was getting out of hand. Escaping to the wilds of France was a good move for me after that time.

You recently released the video for “Chained”. Please tell us about it.

Shauna McLarnon connected me with Dariy Karyakin and he forward a video

idea that was perfect for the song. He re shot that video and added the shadowy demons and it was perfect. I hate and have problems with lots of videos but when they work they really work and I think this worked really well. I would like to work more with Dariy maybe for the next releases of these songs with Stephan.

You said that this is one of the collaborations that you have made that you like the most. Tell us about that feeling.

Yes I love it. It’s timeless and really interesting. I love all the sounds and the drum break and the jazzy kind of piano feel. It fits with how I would like to work with sounds and these kind of elements for future solo and collaboration work. Stephan pushed my vocal into a different kind of feel and place and I loved working with Stephan and I love Paris. Paris is a very inspirational and creative city for me.

I know there are two more songs from that collaboration. When are you planning to release it?

Soon I think !?!?!

Quarantine has stopped the course of things in real time, but not in virtual. Are you working on something new?

I’ve just been working with a couple of artists who are signed to Alan Mcgees Creation 23 label they are Charlie Clark and Christian Pattemore. I mastered Charlies’ album and I have remixed and produced a single for Christian. Alan is still finding amazing new artists and music and it’s been great working with Alan again. I’m also starting work on a solo album. I’ve also been working with other artists in the

studio... Leani Kaleido, Magic Seas I’m also about to mix an album for an Australian band called ‘Shiva And The Hazards’ and I also recently mastered a fantastic single for a band from Glasgow called ‘Kundalini Genie’. Kundalini genie and their mixer / producer Jason Shaw will be coming to the studio in September and we will all do more work together… I’ve also been producing a few Podcasts with astronauts and some really interesting people so yes I ‘ve been busy !!!

I know that you have been in Argentina and Chile a few years ago. Will we ever see you from these sides again?

I certainly hope so. I’ve really enjoyed my visits to South America. I look forward to coming back. I was quite ill the last time I was in Argentina so I would like to come back to Argentina and be well and play more music. I met lots of great people when I was last in Argentina.

To end this interview and thank you for the time spent. I would like you to tell your fans what you want. Stay safe …Thanks for the support and I look forward to hopefully seeing you again soon

Thanks Mark it was a pleasure and an honor to be able to ask you these questions!

You’re very welcome X