David Tickle

“There was no clear objective with what the next album was going to be,” says Tickle. “It wasn’t like it started out and it was gonna be this specific focus. Prince would literally write a song a day and every three days or so we would go and do a full production on something. If you listen to the album, there’s actually quite a difference in the context of the songs themselves, and even in production and sonic value. That’s because when you worked with Prince what happened was he would say, ‘David. I’ve got a song. Get a studio’ - maybe after a show one night, or we may have a couple of days off. We'd start with the drum machine and I wouldn't leave the studio until it was mixed. Right from the first bass drum being printed. That could be 24, 48 hours, and on a couple of occasions we got into about 72, 76 hours. Without going to sleep. That was his thing. You go in, you start it, and you don't leave until it's done. And that moment in time is encapsulated.”

“Some of it is raggedy,” says Tickle. “It doesn’t sound like it was done super high end in a studio, particularly at that time, when a lot of stuff was very pristinely recorded. That’s why everything is so unique. We’d go in, do a song and once it was done, we’d leave it.”

Tickle will be working with Nikki’s Wives in late 2019.

“They had more input,” agrees David Tickle. “Prince would put down a drum machine, do some kind of guide vocal, because he may not have figured out all of his vocal moves yet, then say to Wendy and Lisa, ‘Hey, you go and put background vocals on this’ and we'd build the thing up for him.”

In 2000, Tickle built the 120-track Avalon Studios at Kauai, Hawaii, where he mixed many 5.1 surround DTS records notably The Police's Greatest Hits album, Sting's ...Nothing Like the Sun and Ten Summoner's Tales, Sheryl Crow's album The Globe Sessions, and John Hiatt's album Bring the Family.

Despite the problems with Split Enz, Neil Finn made tentative plans to use Tickle again, this time as an engineer, on the first Crowded House album, which began recording in 1985. Ultimately, the album was produced by Mitchell Froom at a studio selected by Tickle, with Tickle receiving a higher payment than Froom in recognition of his experience. No fewer than five engineers were used on the album, but Tickle himself was not one of them. He did not engineer any of the finished album, and his name does not appear in the album credits or the extensive "thanks to" section.

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.

By mid-1980, Tickle was back in Melbourne to record a follow-up to True Colours. The band, however, were dismayed to find their wonder kid had undergone a dramatic change. Chunn explains:

Later in the 1980s, Tickle produced hit singles and albums for several Canadian acts. Production credits during this era include Canadian and US chart hits by Red Rider (including "Human Race"), the first album by Platinum Blonde, which featured the Canadian hit singles "Doesn't Really Matter" and "Not In Love", and two albums by Gowan, which featured his Canadian top-10 hits "A Criminal Mind" and "Moonlight Desires" and "Strange Animal".

Tickle continued to work as a producer during the late 1980s and 1990s, with credits on albums by Joan Armatrading, Belinda Carlisle, Toni Childs, and Joe Cocker among others. His biggest international successes were as producer of the Divinyls' hit 1991 single "I Touch Myself", and as the sole producer of 4 Non Blondes' only hit, 1993's "What's Up?". He also engineered all the studio tracks at A&M Studios, Los Angeles, of the best-selling U2 album Rattle and Hum (1988), and mixed The Police's archival 1995 album Live!.

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:

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.

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.

David Tickle (born 6 September 1959) is a British record producer and engineer. 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 the international hit for 4 Non Blondes "What's Up?". As an engineer, mixer or co-producer, has worked on best-selling albums by Blondie and U2. As a mixing engineer, he worked on several hit 1980s releases by Prince.

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 British charts in 1976 and 1977.