Background
Steven W. Marker was born in Mamaroneck, New York on March 16, 1959.
Steven W. Marker was born in Mamaroneck, New York on March 16, 1959.
He graduated from Rye Neck High School in Mamaroneck. Foreign higher education, Marker attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison for a degree in film.
He spent most of his childhood and his teens in Mamaroneck, New New York 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.
Marker co-founded Madison"s Smart Studios with Butch Vig in 1983, and maintained a production career engineering and mixing records until he formed with Vig and Vig"s bandmate in Spooner, Duke Erikson, in 1994. He famously spotted Angelfish singer Shirley Manson"s music video on Music Television"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 popular 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".
(1995) Beautiful (2001) Absolute (2007) Steve Marker served as the record producer, or co-producer on the following records: 1984: Killdozer – Intellectuals Are the Shoeshine Boys of the Ruling Elite 1985: Killdozer – Snakeboy 1992: Gumball – Wisconsin Hayride 1993: The Heart Throbs – Vertical Smile 1995: – 1998: – Version 2.0 2001: – Beautiful 2005: – Bleed Like Maine 2012: – Not Your Kind of People He also engineered the following records: 1987: Tar Babies – Fried Milk 1989: Killdozer – Twelve Point Buck 1990: Poopshovel – I Came, I Saw, I Had A Hotdog 1992: L7 – Bricks Are Heavy.