Martin Birch

Martin Birch is a British former music producer and sound engineer, who became renowned for engineering and producing albums by the British rock bands Deep Purple and Iron Maiden.

Career

Martin Birch was born on December 27, 1948. He began his career in music as an audio engineer with Jeff Beck, Fleetwood Mac and Deep Purple, producing and engineering eleven albums for the latter. In 1980, coming from the "Deep Purple camp",[1] he was called upon by Black Sabbath for Heaven and Hell; their previous albums had been self-produced and they were happy to let Birch, who had worked with Ronnie James Dio before, produce them.[2] His "bright midrange" on the album is especially noted.[3] In 1981 he began a long tenure working exclusively with Iron Maiden, producing and engineering Killers and retiring from working with other bands for a while.[3]

Birch has also produced and engineered albums for numerous artists, such as Deep Purple-related projects (Rainbow, Paice Ashton Lord, Whitesnake, Roger Glover, Jon Lord), but also Wayne County & the Electric Chairs. On Fleetwood Mac's album Mystery to Me (1973) he is also credited playing acoustic guitar.

The song "Hard Lovin' Man" from the Deep Purple album Deep Purple in Rock is dedicated to him : "For Martin Birch - catalyst".[2]

He retired in 1992, after producing Iron Maiden's Fear of the Dark album. Birch appears in Iron Maiden's music video "Holy Smoke".

Selected discography

Sources: Martin Birch at artistdirect.com, Discogs

Fleetwood Mac

Deep Purple

Jon Lord

Wishbone Ash

Rainbow

Whitesnake

Black Sabbath

Blue Öyster Cult

Iron Maiden

Other artists

References

  1. ↑ McIver, Joel. Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Music Sales. p. 215. ISBN 9780857120281. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  2. ↑ Mudrian, Albert (2009). Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces. Da Capo. pp. 8–9. ISBN 9780786749621. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  3. 1 2 Popoff, Martin (2012). "The Albums: Killers". In Neil Daniels. Iron Maiden: The Ultimate Unauthorized History of the Beast. Voyageur. pp. 38–. ISBN 9780760342213. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  4. ↑ Deming, Mark. "Classic Albums: Deep Purple - Machine Head (2002)". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  5. 1 2 Begrand, Adrien (14 June 2005). "Iron Maiden's Live After Death". PopMatters. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
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