Catherine Marks: Women ‘are getting the recognition they deserve’ at MPGs

The MPG Awards Producer of the Year nominee Catherine Marks and Breakthrough Engineer of the Year nominee Steph Marziano spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Jenni Murray ahead of the ceremony at Grovesnor House on Park Lane on 1 March.

For the first time, nearly a quarter of the 2018 MPG Awards nominees are female and Catherine Marks explained, when asked by presenter Jenni Murray why there has a been a rise in the number of women up for awards, that female producers are finally "getting the recognition" they deserve.

“We all started at a similar time around 10 years ago and it takes a while to get that recognition and now we are just getting that recognition we deserve," she said.

When asked to what extent the industry is becoming more equal, Marziano explained that "it is changing more and more, especially at university level".

"There are more women studying it and there are even more assistant engineers that are women so in the last five or so years I’ve definitely seen an increase. The numbers are still low but it’s getting better."

The shortlists for each of the MPG 2018 Awards categories (in no particular order) are as follows:

UK Producer Of The Year

Catherine Marks
Charlie Andrew
Tom Dalgety

Recording Engineer Of The Year, sponsored by AMS Neve

Manon Grandjean
Matt Wiggins
Avril Mackintosh

Mix Engineer Of The Year, sponsored by Solid State Logic

Cenzo Townshend
David Wrench
Mark ‘Spike’ Stent

Re-mixer Of The Year, sponsored by Novation

Ewan Pearson
Matthew Herbert
UNKLE

Breakthrough Producer Of the Year, sponsored by Focusrite

Ben Baptie
Guy Massey
Jolyon Thomas

Self-Producing Artist Of The Year, sponsored by Spitfire Audio

Brian Eno
Glass Animals (Dave Bayley)
Sleaford Mods (Jason Williamson & Andrew Fearn)

Breakthrough Engineer Of The Year, sponsored by Genelec

Jake Gordon
Marta Salogni
Steph Marziano

International Producer Of The Year, sponsored by British Grove Studios

Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee
Lorde
T Bone Burnett

Mastering Engineer Of The Year, sponsored by Miloco Studios

Barry Grint
Mandy Parnell
Matt Colton

UK Album Of The Year, sponsored by Universal Audio

alt-J: ‘RELAXER’
Glass Animals: ‘How To Be A Human Being’
Royal Blood: ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’

UK Single Song Release Of The Year, sponsored by Shure

Arcade Fire: ‘Everything Now’
Harry Styles: ‘Sign Of The Times’
Royal Blood: ‘Lights Out’

The A&R Award

Adele White
Ben Durling
Jane Third

Studio Of The Year, sponsored by RME

Abbey Road Studios
RAK Studios
Strongroom Studios