PRODUCER PROFILE.

For most of their 10-year career, Sheffield-based producers Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby haves been relatively low profile. However, a batch of diverse projects this year -- from the Lighthouse Family to The Pretenders -- is ensuring the duo's name is gaining wider recognition for their unique position in the producer spectrum.

"We actually won a Grammy for best reggae album of 1998 [Ziggy Marley] -- although we didn't actually know about it until the awards arrived at our studio after the event," recalls Jonathan Quarmby, reflecting the low-key past of their working practices.

After inheriting a Sheffield studio some 10 years ago, Bacon and quarmby have been involved developing a number of grass roots acts, alongside producing more widely recognised material for the likes of Finley Quaye and the Longpigs.

"Because we were in Sheffield people wouldn't necessarily come to us, so we would get into developing things," says Bacon. "We worked with the Longpigs, did the demos and got them a deal. A year later we produced the album. Gomez were also one of the bands we pioneered and championed through the industry," he adds.

"We had the scenario where we were developing pre-Britpop bands in the UK, but at the same time going to Europe and doing things like Love Parade. We also did an album of our own material that came out on Belgian label R&S -- they probably thought it was two 17-year-old kids, not two blokes from Sheffield. From that point onwards we attracted a lot more interest," says Quarmby.

The team say that the roots of the duo's current projects lie with work for Audioweb, for whom they produced the debut album. "Although it didn't happen commercially, it did make a wave within ...