Catherine Marks had simply graduated together with her grasp’s diploma in structure, however earlier than launching that profession she needed to take a stab at one other ardour: music. So the Australian took off for six months, moved to London and obtained a job at a recording studio.
“I began making tea there,” she says with a light-weight chortle. Quick-forward almost 20 years, and it’s clear Marks made the fitting resolution. She skilled and labored alongside Grammy-winning creatives Flood and Alan Moulder, and went on to work with Alanis Morissette, St. Vincent, The Killers, Wolf Alice, The Wombats, Foals and extra.
This yr she’s been nominated for 3 Grammys, due to her work on the report, the extremely regarded debut album by boygenius (the paradoxically named indie supergroup consisting of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus). Marks, who produced and engineered the report, is up for report of the yr for “Not Robust Sufficient” and greatest engineered album (non-classical), and will make Grammy historical past Feb. 4 together with her nom for album of the yr.
“I didn’t even know that was going to occur,” Marks says of her triple nom. “I used to be kind of like, ‘I’d like to go, however would I even be invited?’ I might have a good time for ‘the boys,’ ” as she refers back to the band, “however little previous me attending to go to the Grammys, I don’t know.”
The few feminine producers who’ve gained album of the yr have been artists who self-produced their very own initiatives, together with Lauryn Hill, Taylor Swift and Arcade Hearth’s Régine Chassagne and Sarah Neufeld. Singer Autumn Rowe gained the award for co-producing two tracks on Jon Batiste’s We Are and Imogen Heap gained for co-producing a tune on Swift’s 1989 — and people had been in years when the Grammys awarded all producers on an album. Now, nominees have to supply not less than 20 % of an album to be nominated or win. Marks, in distinction, produced all 12 tracks on the report alongside boygenius.
A latest USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative examine reported that solely 3.4 % of producers had been ladies in 2022. No lady has ever gained the Grammys’ coveted non-classical producer of the yr award within the present’s 65-year-history.
When she’s requested concerning the lack of feminine producers in music, Marks has some theories. “Once I began, I used to be the one one. So I’m wondering if it was a case of ‘You possibly can’t be what you possibly can’t see,’ ” she says. Marks notes that, culturally, the studio generally is a powerful place for girls. “I positively by no means noticed it or skilled or perceived it that method, however I feel it may be a reasonably brutal state of affairs.”
Greater than three-quarters of girls in music say they’ve been handled in a different way due to their gender, based on the Girls within the Combine examine revealed by The Recording Academy, Arizona State College and the Berklee Institute for Inventive Entrepreneurship final yr. The examine additionally reported that ladies within the business are overworked and underpaid.
Marks is happy about altering the tune on the upcoming Grammys, which is dominated by feminine nominees within the high three classes, amongst them Swift, SZA, Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey, Janelle Monáe, Dua Lipa and Victoria Monét. And although Marks is the one non-artist feminine producer up for album of the yr, a number of feminine engineers are additionally up for the prize, together with Sarah Tudzin (boygenius), Jayda Love (Monáe), Yáng Tan (Monáe) and Laura Sisk, who engineered albums by Swift, Del Rey and Batiste, and is a triple nominee within the massive class.
“It’s altering rather a lot,” Marks says of the business. “I feel you will note that shift as a result of the ladies who’re beginning, or have began within the final 5 to 10 years, their names will begin developing.”
Extra will comply with of their wake, Marks predicts. “Different younger engineers and producers will go, ‘Oh my God, I may do this, too,’ as a result of there’s extra visibility.”
Marks’ work on Manchester Orchestra’s A Black Mile to the Floor is what caught the eye of boygenius. The band initially needed Marks to combine their self-titled 2018 EP, however she wasn’t accessible. They known as once more once they had been engaged on their full-length debut.
“It was among the finest recording experiences I’ve ever had,” Marks says. “I used to be always in awe of them. It was grasp and I loved the curler coaster of feelings by means of the method of us capturing and wrestling the songs into form.
“And, oh, by the way in which, they only occurred to be three of one of the best songwriters on this planet,” she says.
Marks desires to make one thing clear — “I might by no means wish to simply be chosen to do one thing due to my gender” — however she provides: “On the identical time, it’s fucking superior that there are such a lot of extra ladies and gender-expansive [artists] who’re becoming a member of the business and combating for a safer house, combating for a greater working tradition, a extra inclusive studio tradition.
“There’s a lot extra to do, however I wish to have a good time the modifications which have occurred as a result of I now have this superb group of producers and engineers who appear to be me.”
This story first appeared within the Nov. 29 situation of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.