Enigmatic yet ubiquitous,
Flood was among the most acclaimed British producers of the post-punk era, his extensive output including albums by
U2,
Depeche Mode, and
the Smashing Pumpkins. Born Mark Ellis (he reportedly acquired the name
Flood due to his efforts to keep everyone in the studio awake by constantly brewing tea), his music career began playing bass in the mod revival band
the Lambrettas; concurrently he accepted a job as a runner in a London recording facility, swiftly moving up through the ranks to become the house engineer. From there he went freelance, scoring his first major credit as an assistant engineer on
New Order's 1981 debut album,
Movement. Work with
Soft Cell,
Psychic TV,
Cabaret Voltaire, and
Associates followed before
Flood moved into production, helming records from
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (
The Firstborn Is Dead,
Kicking Against the Pricks) and
Erasure (
Wonderland,
The Circus).
Flood's affiliation with
U2 began in 1987 when he engineered the group's blockbuster
Joshua Tree album. His subsequent production work -- on records including
Nine Inch Nails'
Pretty Hate Machine,
Depeche Mode's
Violator, and
Pop Will Eat Itself's
This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This -- further honed his hard-edged, signature electronic sound. In between engineering
U2's
Achtung Baby LP,
Flood produced
Nitzer Ebb's
Ebbhead and
the Charlatans'
Between 10th and 11th, followed by
Curve's acclaimed Doppelganger. Finally, with 1993's
Zooropa, he graduated from engineering
U2 to producing the group, sharing his duties with
Brian Eno.
Depeche Mode's
Songs of Faith and Devotion followed a year later, and in 1995
Flood helmed two of the year's most talked-about releases,
PJ Harvey's
To Bring You My Love and
the Smashing Pumpkins' epic
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. He resurfaced in 1997 with
U2's
Pop. ~ Jason Ankeny