Mark Moffatt - Producer Engineer at Festival Records Studio Pyrmont
Mark was a great guy to work with and after leaving his position at Festival he returned on many occassions to record on our classic Neve console. I first met & worked alongside Mark in 1986 and over the years and put together many digital edits on Marks projects that were linked to the Festival & Mushroom recoding artist. Mark did send me some pictures a couple of years ago of the boardroom that i was looking for. Last time i phycically had a chat was at the Powerhouse museum celebrating 50 years of Festival Records / Festival Mushroom Records. I do recall editing with him on Yothu Yindi and dance pop yodelling track called Audio Murphy Inc. featuring Melinda - Tighten Up Your Pants.
Sadly I found that Mark had passed when i saw the special on Rage over the weekend. Rage dedicated over 1 hour tribute to Marks catalogue. He produced many songs and albums including Tim Finn’s Escapade, Mondo Rock Chemistry, The Saints I'm Stranded, John Farnham, Jenny Morris Body and Soul and Shiver, Mental As Anything Cyclone Raymond, Yothu Yindi Tribal Voice and Eurogliders This Island and Absolutely, plus The Monitors in his long list of work.
Mark Moffatt produced an astonishing 15 ARIA Hall of Fame inductees.
On the very day of his passing, Australian magazine The Music released an article hailing Moffatt as “an unsung hero of Australian music.” From The Saints to Keith Urban to Tim Finn to Yothu Yindi and well beyond, Mark Moffatt has influenced the Aussie—and world—music sphere in innumerable ways, and done so with the quiet confidence that only he could bring.
Below at bottom of page is Mark at Festival Studio A in the 90s.
Mark Moffatt was great friends with all the studio staff over the years and will be missing by all the Festival Family.
On the very day of his passing, Australian magazine The Music released an article hailing Moffatt as “an unsung hero of Australian music.” From The Saints to Keith Urban to Tim Finn to Yothu Yindi and well beyond, Mark Moffatt has influenced the Aussie—and world—music sphere in innumerable ways, and done so with the quiet confidence that only he could bring.
The below content was lifted from Marks Facebook page.
t’s an extremely sad day in Nashville, and in this difficult time, Mark’s wife, Lindsey, asked that this be posted on this page:
Mark Moffatt, lifelong musician and producer who devoted his life to music, died Friday, September 6, 2024 at age 74 in Nashville, Tennessee. He had battled pancreatic cancer for a more than a year.
As much as Moffatt loved his music, his first love was his family. He is survived by his wife, Lindsey, step-daughter Dana and two granddaughters—the loves of his life—his son Geordie, and extended family in Australia.
Moffatt was one of the most experienced and respected producers to emerge from Australia. He was also an accomplished musician, engineer, writer and a Grammy nominee. Producing more tracks in the APRA Top 30 Songs of All Time than any other single producer, Moffatt produced an astonishing 15 ARIA Hall of Fame inductees.
A proud Australian, Moffatt chased his musical passions from his hometown of Maryborough to Brisbane, then hopped a boat to the UK to work on London’s famed Denmark Street for several years. When he found himself back in Brisbane in 1976, the stars aligned and Moffatt's production of The Saints’ “I’m Stranded” kicked his burgeoning career into overdrive.
Production stints with EMI and TCS Studios in Melbourne led him to Sydney in 1980, where he became Festival Records’ in-house producer, working on some of the biggest names in Australian music for more than a decade.
Moffatt relocated to Nashville in 1996 and quickly became part of its prolific music scene, helping countless Aussie artists as a mentor, producer, studio musician, and all-around coach. A fresh-faced Aussie artist coming to Nashville could find no better cheerleader and teacher than Mark Moffatt.
Moffatt’s overriding focus for the past two decades has been to bridge the international divide on behalf of the Americana Music Association, serving as its Board President for three terms, and educating everyone in his musical orbit on the complexities and history of this storied genre of music. He was a founding board member of the Americana Music Foundation, served for ten years as APRA’s Nashville Ambassador, and was awarded the CMA Global Achievement Award for his remarkable international efforts.
At the time of his death, Moffatt was putting the finishing touches on a full album for KILO, a band he formed with Australian rock singer John “Swanee” Swan, for which they have already released several music videos.
On the very day of his passing, Australian magazine The Music released an article hailing Moffatt as “an unsung hero of Australian music.” From The Saints to Keith Urban to Tim Finn to Yothu Yindi and well beyond, Mark Moffatt has influenced the Aussie—and world—music sphere in innumerable ways, and done so with the quiet confidence that only he could bring.
Another great article to read is from Noise 11 by Paul Cashmere,
https://www.noise11.com/news/r-i-p-mark-moffatt-at-age-74-breaking-news-202409
