A Whisper Can Change the World (2007): A Gary Marks Album Mixed by Jim Scott
Privately released album by Gary Marks, American singer-songwriter, recording artist, and author.
What the Press Said About "Sky High"
Stereo Embers Magazine: “Stereo Embers Exclusive Premiere – ‘Sky High’ from the Ever-Prolific Singer-Songwriter Gary Marks’ Newest Album ‘A Whisper Can Change the World’,” June 2026
“We here at SEM cannot help but both marvel at the artistry inherent and simply let ourselves be drawn in to its intrinsic humanity no matter how many times we keep hitting ‘play’ which at last count was somewhere north of twenty.”
In 2007, I released my 8th album, A Whisper Can Change the World. All but two of the songs were mixed by the Grammy award-winning mixing engineer, Jim Scott at his studio in L.A. Here is how all that came about:
Seven Songs in Seven Nights
The album itself was written in a unique way. I wrote the title track after watching a strange clip on the news one night: A river in Ohio had caught fire. I was in disbelief. How could water catch fire?
But then my songwriting hit pause. I had three young children at home and my days became busy being a dad. Then one afternoon months later, while the kids were at school, I wrote a song called Anything.
Every day after that I wrote a song. That happened seven nights in a row. Suddenly, I had an album.
The rehearsals with the L.A. studio band I handpicked were fun and easy. Except I had a hard time finding a drum part for the title track. In fact, I almost dropped the song from the album. But the guys wouldn't let me. We kept trying different things. I came up with a cool bass line for the verse, and eventually I told my drummer, Greg Donskov, to literally take a drum solo over the entire song! Of course, he found restraint while doing it, and that song suddenly became as quirky and weird as I originally hoped it would be.
We recorded the tracks at my friend Bobby's studio, which was about the size of twenty matchboxes.
Mixed by Jim Scott and Mark Needham
Jim Scott heard the tracks and agreed to mix the album. The problem was he was booked through the rest of the year. But the following week his next project with the band Matchbox Twenty was delayed because they were still tracking. Jim called and said he had only three free days. Take them, or I'd have to wait a year. So I flew to L.A., walked into his amazing studio, and had one of the most extraordinary musical experiences of my life.
Because of his brilliant work, and the work of the amazing Mark Needham, who mixed the last two songs after Jim ran out of time—this is one of my best sounding albums. Listen through headphones!
I worked with Mark Needham again on my next album, From Here (2010).
A Whisper Can Change the World on Musicbrainz
A Whisper Can Change the World on Discogs
A Whisper Can Change the World on Spotify