Mike Flicker (born 1950) is an American

music producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

who has numerous credits on music and film projects. He is critically acclaimed for his work with

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

.Lefsetz, Bob (6 October 2004) "The Lefsetz Letter"
provided by Rhino Records, accessed 7 October 2008

Early career

Flicker's career began at age sixteen in Los Angeles when his band,

The Zoo ''The Zoo'' is a one-act comic opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by B. C. Stephenson, writing under the pen name of Bolton Rowe. It premiered on 5 June 1875 at the St James's Theatre in London (as an afterpiece to W. S. Gi ...

, was given a contract in 1968 by

Bell Records Bell Records was an American record label founded in 1952 in New York City by Arthur Shimkin, the owner of the children's record label Golden Records, and initially a unit of Pocket Books, after the rights to the name were acquired from Benn ...

(which later became

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

). They were one of the youngest groups ever signed to a major label at that time. The Zoo included Flicker on drums along with

Howard Leese Howard M. Leese (June 13, 1951) is an American guitarist, record producer, and musical director who played with Heart as guitarist and keyboardist for 23 years (1975 through 1998). He continues to record and tour as a solo artist, and as guitar ...

on guitar and keyboards. After relocating to

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

in 1971, Flicker was hired as chief engineer at Aragon Studios (later renamed

Mushroom Studios Mushroom Studios was a music recording facility located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with a long history in Canadian music. It has now been relocated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The studio hosted the recording of many classic albums ...

), which became the premier state-of-the-art studio in western

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. 1975 proved to be a fateful year for Flicker with his discovery, signing, and production of the band

. Flicker received the Canadian

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

for Producer of the Year for his production on Heart's debut album, ''

Dreamboat Annie ''Dreamboat Annie'' is the debut studio album by American rock band Heart. At the time, the band was based in Vancouver, British Columbia; the album was recorded in Vancouver and first released in Canada by the local label Mushroom Records in S ...

''.

Producer

Flicker established himself as a major independent producer with artists that included

Poco In software engineering, a plain old CLR object, or plain old class object (POCO) is a simple object created in the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) that is unencumbered by inheritance or attributes. This is often used in opposition to the comp ...

Al Stewart Alastair Ian Stewart (born 5 September 1945) is a British singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s. He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs wi ...

Randy Meisner Randall Herman Meisner (March 8, 1946 – July 26, 2023) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and founding member of both Eagles and Poco. Throughout his professional musical career, both as group member and session musician, his main r ...

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

Wendy Waldman Wendy Waldman (born Wendy Steiner on November 29, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Biography Early life Waldman grew up in the Los Angeles area and was raised in a musical environment. Her father Fred Steiner was a ...

and Trooper, one of the five top-selling Canadian bands of all time. Flicker's diverse career in the music, technology and film-television industries culminated in the 1991 formation of Mike Flicker Music Services, where he continues to contribute his leadership in successful service to the film, television and ancillary entertainment industries.

Personal life

On June 18, 2006, Flicker was married to Lyudmila Bateryakova, who was born in Penza, Russia. She is called Luda, the Russian diminutive of Lyudmila, by her family and friends. They have two children: daughter Samantha (from a previous marriage) and son Anton born in 1992.

References and notes

External links

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(Small) picture of Mike Flicker
1950 births Record producers from California American rock drummers American music directors Living people Heart (band) 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Jack Richardson Producer of the Year Award winners Drummers from California {{US-record-producer-stub

Early career

Producer

Personal life

See also

References and notes

External links