Hottest Record – Theme Park – Two Hours

Ben Hillier has developed a reputation over the last 15 years as production pioneer. Ben has produced and mixed albums intimately with artists and songwriters including Blur, Elbow, Depeche Mode, The Horrors, U2 and Doves, as well as Patrick Wolf, Marianne Faithfull, Brendan Benson and Graham Coxon.

Ben is a classically trained musician and graduate of Goldsmiths. Ben’s early career began as one of the UK’s leading programmer and engineers. Ben further developed his musical talents working with likes of Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne amongst others.

Ben is best-known for his original approach to production. The ‘Think Tank’ album for Blur was created in a studio created and Built by Ben and the band in a palace in Morocco. Ben also transformed an abandoned schoolhouse on the banks of Loch Ness to record the album ‘Some Cities’ for Doves.

Ben has as developed a skill for finding and nurturing artists from the outset. Over the last couple of years Ben has been working with two incredible female artists. The first, signed to Mute Records, is Beth Jean Houghton, the quirky singer songwriter from Newcastle (“Glam Folk Genius, A Legend in the Making” say NME). The second is Nadine Shah (a cross between PJ Harvey/ Bassey/Piaf) who Ben has been writing with intensively and has now completed her stunning debut album, which is due for release later this year.

Further to setting up studios in foreign lands, Ben has also created an incredible studio with Miloco. He had great ambitions for the old storeroom at Miloco’s studio complex in South London where he turned it into an original and unique tracking space. Until that point, Ben really felt that there was a distinct lack of inspiring studios in London and he wanted to create something entirely different, a space not so clinical and technical. His plan was to explore the idea of not using a separate control room – hence making a more relaxed and creative environment for the artist. Ben has certainly achieved what he set out to and The Pool is now one of the most sought after recording studios in London!

Following his production of Depeche Mode’s ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ record, Ben has turned his hand to mixing. Ben has a different approach to others as he tends to record everything into Pro Tools, send out of separate outputs and then put it through an analogue desk to do outboard compression and EQ when he mixes – basically treating Pro Tools like a tape machine. He then takes the mix and records it on to half-inch tape and Pro Tools simultaneously; therefore this gives him and the artist more choice. He has mixed entire albums for Editors and The Magic Numbers as well as the stunning debut for The Villager’s ‘Becoming A Jackal’, which was Mercury and Q Award nominated. More recently he has mixed albums for We Have Band, as well as the two forthcoming albums for Graham Coxon.

As proven so eloquently in our previous issue’s gorgeous cover story, Miss Houghton is a firecracker to contend with – small yet mighty and very headstrong, when she explodes, she covers her debut album in iridescent sparks that take your breath away. Floating like a geordie Joni Mitchell over the cosmic folky cloud of her accompanying Hooves, it would seem that her breathy vocals fall softly like snowflakes, dusting their musical landscape with a blanket of angelic delicateness. But as it thaws, it reveals a harsher side to Houghton’s mischievous personality. It’s a wicked streak that runs through ‘Yours Truly…’ and one that tantalises. As the album’s opening lines fittingly warn: “I knew a bird with words so sweet / That they would god damn rot your teeth”.