Google Mark Radice songwriter

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: Most of the time I am the "song doctor"...."what this hook needs? Is an A minor." I also produce, I'm really good at figuring out what's wrong that the artist may constantly do over and over again until I point it out and then they're like "oh.... hey, you're right."

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?

A: One of my favorites was writing with Cheap Trick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_Edge_(Cheap_Trick_album) we wrote 16 songs together, 8 made it to the record.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: https://www.icepak29.com/ building a website for a "Chill" CD that I put together with Bill Packard over the last 6 months, just now starting to drop into Itunes, Apple Music, Spotify, etc

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: Tim High

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: LOVE analog, way warmer, but digital is easier but not as good.

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: I promise (holds hand over heart, salute with other hand) that you will sound better than you did before you decided to hire me or your money back. But you can't go around playing it for everybody if I give you your money back, that's not fair.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: When it's done and people are happy that it sounds like it does.

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: Are you available? My answer depends on, oh let's see....if I'm available.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: That after a ten hour mix people listen as if it somehow has just magically appeared from out of the sky and they say "that's nice" and smile

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: How serious are you about hiring me because I'm not into wishy washy. If we're gonna do it, let's do it.

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: I've been doing this my whole life it's second nature. And I have perfect pitch, which is a blessing when I'm trying to tune but a curse when the refrigerator and an airplane are both slightly under B flat. Ya wanna borrow it from me? I'd love to rent it out. Drawback? I can never listen to a pop, rock or Country song without knowing how to play it just by listening to it.

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: Wait didn't I answer this earlier? OK but five pieces of GEAR....let's see. A snow shovel, floss, a lawn mower, a washing machine and most definitely a speedboat.

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: I started at age 7, signed to RCA records. No really go read about it in wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Radice

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: T shirt, jeans. Wait you mean musically? Kind of Beatles/Elton John/Bruce Hornsby/Steely Dan/Deodato

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: Taylor Swift because she's still cute and sells ALOT and we could date and she could write a breakup song about me, then I'll write one about her and then we can see which song the World believes is more accurate..

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Lyrically, if I can guess what you're gonna rhyme with next then you haven't thought long enough about the line.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: I usually don't work on music when I don't have to because to me it's really , I mean REALLY.... my job. People have asked me, "if you were on a desert island and could have only one CD, what would it be?" and I say "Sounds Of The Ocean".

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Songwriting. I'm pushing 5,500 of them. No, really. After a while they all just seem like donuts in the garage. Nowadays I only write for "targets"....something i know is definitely gonna be used for something. I wrote 160 songs for Sesame Street from 2005 to 2011 because I knew they would automatically be played in 80 countries.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: All the stuff people forget to bring.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Coffee. Lots of it. I like to start music work at 5am because that gives me 4 full hours before the phone starts to ring.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: The usual home studio with all the bells and whistles necessary to not have to go somewhere and try and explain what I'm going for and then getting a second hand version of what I could have done myself.

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: As far as being inspired? I think I'm past that. The closest I have come to "liking" something is Dirty Loops, but I have always admired and listened to Mozart. I think he's gonna be big. And Shostakovitch