David Tickle

David Tickle (born 6 September 1959) is a British record producer and engineer.

Tickle was born on 6 September 1959 in Guildford, Surrey, the only son of a university professor father and an artistic mother.

By his own account, he was mixing Red Buddha concerts at the age of 16, and mixed three singles for pop-rock quartet Liverpool Express, which achieved modest success on the UK Singles Chart in 1976 and 1977.

Through a friend he was introduced to New Zealand band Split Enz and laid down some tracks with them in a Manchester studio in early 1978.

He was hired soon after by Terry Melcher for a job at Ringo Starr's Ring O' Records label, and appointed the in-house engineer for the label's newly-acquired recording facility, Startling Studios, at Tittenhurst Park, John Lennon's former house and studio near Ascot, Berkshire.

Tickle helped convert the studio from 16- to 24-track and lived on-site, later telling one interviewer "It was a great mansion, an 82-acre house, I was the only one to live there full time. I lived like a lord. Cooks, maids, the whole thing".

At Startling Studios, Tickle produced a further session with Split Enz, recording "I See Red", a punk-influenced single that became a hit in Australia and New Zealand.

Although the band was keen to have Tickle produce their third album, Frenzy, they were overruled by their Australian management, who wanted a more experienced producer, and American Mallory Earl was drafted in.

The band always regretted the decision, sensing Earl's work had failed to reach the levels of intensity and creativity their earlier sessions with Tickle had achieved.

In 1978, Tickle responded to an advertisement offering work for "the best engineer in England, money no object".

The ad had been placed by noted producer Mike Chapman, whose run of hits in Britain was almost over and who was by now working in New York with Blondie on their breakthrough Parallel Lines album.

Tickle was hired as a trainee producer and contributed mixing and engineering duties to Chapman's first US hits: Blondie's "Heart of Glass", The Knack's "My Sharona" and Exile's "Kiss You All Over".

The experience provided Tickle with even more skills as a pop/rock producer.

In October 1979, Tickle reconvened with Split Enz, this time in Melbourne, Australia, to record what would become their breakthrough, multi-platinum album, True Colours, which included the single "I Got You".

In the wake of their unsatisfying Frenzy album, the band was adamant their next record would be a Tickle production.

As recording progressed and Tickle's strategy became clearer – creating more space in their sound over resolute drum tracks – the band became convinced the album would be a turning point.

In his history of the band, Mike Chunn says:

Tickle's production had fostered a less frenetic, more layered and ordered musicality on the band; people who were new to the band or who had been unable to assimilate them previously found the space and economy much easier to digest.

The hooks were now prominent, almost naked, and the sparser rhythm tracks allowed lyrics to be heard.

As a producer, he is noted for his work with Split Enz, and in Canada, for his mid-1980s work with Red Rider, Platinum Blonde and Gowan.

He later produced Joe Cocker, The Divinyls "I Touch Myself", and was signed to produce the international hit for 4 Non Blondes "What's Up?".

As an engineer or mixer, Tickle worked on best-selling albums by Blondie and U2.

As a mixing engineer, he worked on several hit 1980s releases by Prince.

By mid-1980, Tickle was back in Melbourne to record a follow-up to True Colours.

This was a different situation to True Colours.

The previous album was recorded by a band and producer both poised to crack their respective, mid-level reputations wide open and that is exactly what happened.

And while Split Enz, then in their late twenties and quite ready for huge success, had absorbed the attention and heady acclaim in an orderly fashion.

According to the radio documentary Enzology, Tickle particularly clashed heads with Tim Finn.

In an interview for the program, Tickle said that in the wake of "I Got You"'s success, Finn sought greater involvement in the engineering process.

Tickle never worked with Split Enz again, though he did produce the Practical Jokers album for The Swingers, the band formed by Split Enz co-founder Phil Judd.

(Judd, however, was not a member of Split Enz while Tickle was their producer.) The Swingers' album included the major Australian/New Zealand hit single "Counting The Beat".

In 1981, Tickle was hired by the Stiff label to remix the single "Is Vic There?" by London new wave cult band Department S.

He produced a fatter, slicker pop sound.

David Tickle really didn't understand where we were coming from.

He'd lived in America during the London punk explosion.

I tried to do everything in one take, with as few over dubs as possible.

We'd be sitting eating lunch in the community kitchen and he and the producer would be extolling the virtues of The Dark Side of the Moon and we'd be talking about Kraftwerk and The Sex Pistols.

He really didn't get it.

But that said, it could have come out a lot worse.

We just kept the overdubs to a minimum.