Mark S. Berry

Attack Group of Companies is a seven-year old music, film and television production company founded by award-winning record producer/re-mix engineer Mark S. Berry in 1997. Mark has over 35 international Gold & Platinum record awards and his production /mixing / engineering credits include some of the biggest names in the Canadian and worldwide music industry such as David Bowie, Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Boy George, The Killjoys, I Mother Earth, Kool & the Gang, Yes, The Headstones, Voivod, Burton Cummings, Cameo, Talk Talk and many more international stars. Mark is at the forefront when it comes to producing/developing new and emerging talent on the international music scene.

Originally from Brooklyn, Mark began his music career at the Institute of Audio Research (IAR) in New York City in 1972. At the young age of 17, Mark was commuting into Manhattan at night, learning the inside ropes of making records and recording up and coming basement bands. After graduating from IAR, Mark was drawn to the Brit sound and flew to London, England, where he soon arrived on the doorsteps of AIR Studios, one of the world's most popular recording facilities. "I just flew over and started walking the streets of London looking for a job, stopping in every studio that I took off the back of my favorite albums," he remembers. Mark soon met Nigel Walker, who was working as an assistant to producer, John Punter, on an Alan Clarke (lead singer of The Hollies) solo project at AIR. "That ended up being my first job in the business, working with John Punter. Getting cigarettes and coffee for the guys and just watching and listening in the background, absorbing everything." Not only did Mark gain a considerable amount of expertise in engineering and mixing records but also invaluable experience in classic rock production and orchestral techniques working as an assistant to Sir George Martin. Sir George also co-owned AIR, and was responsible for producing arguably the most influential band in the history of rock 'n' roll, The Beatles. Working with George started out simply recording classical records in the different cathedrals around London for the chamber choir group The Kings Singers. He soon began setting up and assisting on various George Martin and Paul McCartney sessions.

Mark's experience led to his first major assignment; Carly Simon's No Secrets album, which included the worldwide smash, You're So Vain, and would be his very first engineering credit. Hanging out with Mick Jagger for the background vocals on Your So Vain and then going over to Olympic studios for the mixing of their live ë72 tour tapes was certainly the highlight of his early years, and all before the age of 19. However, this was only the beginning for Mark. "I'd say the most amazing session had to be Live and Let Die. Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings, "They had a 63 piece orchestra in there and I felt like I had emptied every ashtray known to man before the end of that one." (In fact, Live and Let Die is one of the very few songs from the Bond films to be nominated for a Best Song Oscar.)

Mark also assisted and worked on several projects such as the groundbreaking Roll Over Beethoven for Electric Light Orchestra, Grand Hotel for Procal Harem, Climax Blues Band and Live - Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple. During his tenure at AIR studios, Mark worked under the tutelage of renowned British rock engineers/producers such as Bill Price (Sex Pistols), John Punter (Japan, Reflex, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music), Steve Nye (Roxy Music), Alan Harris (T-Rex, Marc Bolan, Mott The Hoople), Geoff Emerick (The Beatles), Chris Thomas (Elton John, The Pretenders, Pink Floyd, INXS), Jeff Lynne (ELO, Tom Petty, Traveling Wilburys), Martin Birch (Iron Maiden, Deep Purple) and Tony Visconti (David Bowie) to name a few.

With some celebrated credits in hand, Mark returned to the states in the mid 70's. He began freelancing around New York at some of the top recording studios like Electric Lady, Record Plant and the Hit Factory. In 1977, Mark was approached with the position of Staff Engineer and in-house A&R/producer for Vanguard Records (Joan Baez, Buffy Saint-Marie, Country Joe & the Fish) where he worked for over nine years.

While at Vanguard Studios, Mark continued to engineer and mix projects for several of New York's top dance/pop producers and became heavily involved in the early 80's New York hip-hop movement working with artists and producers such as Soul Sonic Force (Looking For The Perfect Beat), Planet Patrol (Play At Your Own Risk), Awesome Foursome (Funky Soul Makosa), New Edition (Candy Girl), Jellybean, Arthur Baker, Freeze (AEIOU), Eddie O'Loughlin (Next Plateau), John Robie, C-Bank (One More Shot), Tommy Silverman (Tommy Boy Records), Importe 12 Records, Man Parrish (the groundbreaking Hip Hop Be Bop) and many more.

During this time Mark felt the explosive pulse of New York City street rhythms and his A&R skills directed him to discovering and producing up & coming dance acts such as Alisha, who after enormous success with Vanguard Records went onto sign with multi-national labels RCA and MCA/Universal, respectively. Deals that Mark put together for her. Mark's hit productions for Alisha included the #1 dance singles "All Night Passion" and "Too Turned On" along with the international pop smash "Baby Talk," which went on to become a worldwide chart-topping hit, remaining on the Billboard pop charts for over four months. Alisha became the most successful Pop/Dance act on Vanguard, selling in excess of 2M units worldwide.

The mid 90's saw the advent of the Internet. This got Mark to thinking that it was control of media content that would determine the future of the entertainment industry. I guess he was rightÖ With start up capital from a small publishing company controlled by Canadian media giant Alliance Atlantis, he went on to release, via Attack, some of the very records he was hired to produce, along with securing them insertions in some of the biggest TV shows and feature length films in the entertainment business. While creating quite a buzz with his new talent (that the majors were as usual ignoring) Mark was putting together international licensing and insertion deals for masters that he was involved with either as a producer, co-publisher or master owner. The birth of Attack.

Attack Group of Companies' record division comprises labels operating in virtually every part of the contemporary music scene. From pop to dance, reggae to rock, new age to techno, they have an aggressive A&R policy that sees no boundaries, and has spawned chart entries around the world. Artists signed to Attack Records include: Kelly Jay, the new record by Malik Yusef feat/Kanye West & Common, Australian Faye Marie Ellis, No Alternative, Jeffery Brothers Band, Texas Christian star Krista Remmers-Morgan (duet feat/ Canadian Idol Gary Beals), along with KidzAttack division, The Maghoolies Children's Music Network catalog and The Ellery Mysteries Children's catalog (144 masters). Many of these acts have high profile insertions for film and television already taking place including The Matrix Reloaded, Dawson's Creek, Rozwell, MTV, ESPN and the recent Samuel Jackson hit movie and soundtrack Coach Carter.

Recorded Product now includes DVD releases by Attack Filmworks and it's extreme sports division, Overdrive Xtreme, enabling Attack to combine sales and distribution functions for these releases along with a solid schedule of new product, which crosses all musical and sports genres.

It's joint venture with KartAttack Go-Kart Racing DVD series, (Michael Schumacher endorsed) is sure to be a long-term association, which will yield multiple DVD content for the Overdrive extreme sports division. With the acquisition of GTV (Graffiti Television) Attack now controls a 10 volume DVD series on the worldwide phenomenon of graffiti. Ancillary benefits of this acquisition has created GTV Television series and recently partnered with a major television production company in Canada to produce this exciting new urban lifestyle cable TV series already being shot on the streets of New York and Los Angeles. This partnership has also yielded a 90-minute documentary on graffiti entitled The Writing on the Wall: Real American Graffiti.

It's joint venture with Explorer Imports has created access to one of the largest independent reggae catalogues and makes them collectively the fastest growing reggae label with music and DVD releases in Canada. With an unrivalled catalogue as well as a busy release schedule of new albums from artists such as platinum hit-makers Chaka Demus & Pliers, Marvia Providence, Everton Blender and Frankie Wilmot. Scheduled DVD releases include the Sting Reggae Concert series (21 years) one of the largest Reggae concerts in the world held annually in Jamaica.

As usual, all music copyrights and masters utilized in Attack DVD titles, television series and film soundtracks are from it's music publishing division Attackin' Tunes, administered for the world by Cherry Lane Music Publishing (Black Eyed Peas, Elvis Presley, John Denver, The Passion of the Christ) allowing vertical integration and complete control of their assets. They continue to pursue partnerships with filmmaker's for utilization of their music publishing assets in films and continue to seek broadcast and license deals for it's entire DVD catalogue, worldwide.

Attack Group controls worldwide licensing and broadcast rights to all Attack Filmworks and Overdrive Xtreme visual and audio content. Its global distribution network for Recorded Product is now well developed, with key distribution partners (USA & Canada) setup worldwide and continue to create new opportunities for sales, especially in Europe and the Far East. With a seamless range of operations across the entire entertainment spectrum with knowledge and connections to match, the Attack Group of Companies is uniquely placed to exploit the immense market potential of itís DVD and CD content.