Gary Marks and Jim Scott, Mixing Engineer

Grammy-winning mixing engineer Jim Scott mixed seven of the nine songs on Gary Marks's 2007 album A Whisper Can Change the World, at his own studio in Los Angeles. Scott is known for his work with Tom Petty, Sting, The Dixie Chicks, The Rolling Stones, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, among many others, and is one of the most widely credited mixing engineers in American rock and Americana recording.

Marks wrote, "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 night after that I wrote a song. That happened seven nights in a row. Suddenly, I had an album.

The rehearsals 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 they wouldn't let me. We kept trying different things until I came up with a cool bass line for the verse, and eventually told my drummer, Greg Donskov, to literally just 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 and cool 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."

Three Days, Take It or Leave It

At his music attorney's request, Marks called Jim Scott's agent. Marks was told Scott only worked with artists signed to a label. So Marks offered the agent a deal: "Listen to just one track. If you don't love it, don't call me back and I'll never bother you again."

Two days later the agent called Marks and said, "Who are you? Why aren't you signed to a label? Jim loved the song, send the other tracks."

Scott agreed to mix the album, but he was initially booked solid for the rest of the year. The following week, his next project with the band Matchbox Twenty was delayed a few days while they were still tracking. So Scott told Marks he had exactly three free days, take them or wait twelve months. Marks flew to Los Angeles and had what he said was "one of the most extraordinary musical experiences of my life." They met at Scott's studio in Ventura and created some of the best mixes in Marks's catalog.