Reinhold Mack
Born (1949-08-25) 25 August 1949 (age 74)
Germany
Occupation(s)Music producer

Reinhold Mack (also known as Mack, born 25 August 1949) is a German record producer and engineer. He is best known for his collaborations with Electric Light Orchestra, Queen,[1] Sparks, and Chinaski (CZ).

Biography

Early life and education

Mack grew up in Munich, West Germany, and was classically trained on piano, clarinet and acoustic guitar. At the age of fourteen, he discovered the electric guitar, playing in cover bands before being drafted into the West German Army. When Mack came home following his military service, he learned that his parents had gotten rid of his music equipment, and he decided to seek work at a recording studio.[2]

Career

In 1970, Mack began working at Union Studios in Munich, recording commercials and oom-pah music before advancing to work with more notable artists such as Ivan Rebroff, Peter Alexander and Amon Düül.[2] While at Union Studios, Mack was approached by Giorgio Moroder to mix a song for Scottish singer Lulu and, pleased with the results, asked Mack to come work for him full-time in his small 16-track recording studio in the basement of the 23-story Arabella Hochhaus hotel/apartment building. With Mack's help, Moroder's studio would expand to become Musicland Studios.[2]

At Musicland's first session in 1973, Mack assisted producer Tony Visconti in recording sessions for Marc Bolan and T. Rex for their album Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow, and later assisted on the Rolling Stones' It's Only Rock 'n Roll and Black and Blue, Deep Purple's Stormbringer and Come Taste the Band, and Led Zeppelin's Presence.[2]

Mack first worked with Electric Light Orchestra in 1975 while engineering during recording sessions for Face the Music,[2] the start of a working relationship that would span six years and the band's next five studio albums. Mack also worked with Queen[1] and Sparks,[3] with the Queen album The Game garnering Mack and the band a Grammy Award nomination for Producer of the Year in 1981.[4][5]

In 1998, Mack founded Nightjar, a company originally focused on producing and remastering music for surround sound formats. In 1999, he transferred the company, which now produces content for multimedia, video, animation, and sound, to his sons Julian and Felix.[3]

Legacy

Mack and wife Ingrid's third son, John Frederick Mack, was named by Freddie Mercury and was a godson of both Mercury and Queen bass guitarist John Deacon.[6][7]

Mack is referenced in the lyrics of the Queen song "Dragon Attack" on their 1980 album The Game, which he produced with the band: "gonna use my stack/it's gotta be Mack".[8]

Selected discography

Albums worked on as sound engineer:

Albums produced or co-produced by Mack:

References

  1. ^ a b "Bit of Rough Stuff". Evening Times. 9 February 1990. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e Buskin, Richard (September 2013). "Classic Tracks: Electric Light Orchestra 'Don't Bring Me Down'". Sound On Sound. SOS Publications Group. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b Larry Crane (January 2011). "Reinhold Mack: ELO, Queen, Black Sabbath & T. Rex". Tape Op (81): 34–47. Archived from the original on 15 July 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  4. ^ "Here's complete list of the Grammy nominees". Eugene Register-Guard. No. 121. Eugene, Oregon: Guard Publishing. 21 February 1981. p. 36.
  5. ^ "Awards & Shows – Grammy Awards 1981". Awardsandshows.com. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  6. ^ "澳门新甫京娱乐娱城平台(中国)维基百科". Catonthewall.net. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  7. ^ Chilton, Martin (10 December 2020). "He Was Music: Reinhold Mack On Working With Freddie Mercury". Udiscovermusic.com. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Allmusic: Queen – Dragon Attack Lyrics". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2014.

External links

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