62 – 2024
Most every note you hear in all of this came through me, over decades. I’ve been banging on one instrument or another since my first plastic drum kit at age 4, our upright piano at 6, and a guitar at 7. I started recording at about age 10, and have been doing so in one form or another for the ensuing 50+ years. There was next to no income from it at all, ever… but that was never the point. I did so because it was built into me like breathing.
Most of those recordings remained unheard – for good reason – they were never good enough for a real release. One could rightfully call it the longest training period in history. Even now, these are home recordings.
The obvious question is why? And the answer, as best as I can figure, is art for art’s sake. I do it because I was meant to.
It’s not a full-time job, by any means. Life and love and children and relationships and keeping the lights on have all filled my days and nights, with music taking somewhat of a backseat to it all. I have no regrets, because at this stage of my life, I find them counterproductive. Here I am, and forward I go.
Over the past 4 years or so, I have experienced a renewed push in making music. It was greatly helped by adopting my first real DAW (digital audio workstation – completely computer-based composing, recording and mixing) in 2012. Once I got my sea legs with such a system, it enabled me to make music way more efficiently, and starting in 2017, release a new album about every three years. This one falls right in line.
I wanted to do something a little special for my 62nd spin around the sun. And seeing as next to no one has heard my music, and there are songs I love that remain unheard – or never properly recorded to begin with – I decided to make 62. There are 21 new tracks here. There are old and new recordings here… some written over the past three years, and some written as early as my twenties. Every piece of music here has been worked or reworked just for this release – either a new recording, a remix or a remaster.
I wanted 62 to reflect a little bit of everything I am musically. I love all kinds of music – not being easily categorized is just fine with me, and 62 reflects that. As I’ve always said – I have never made music to cater to anyone – I record what I want to hear, period.
Even more reason that I’m delighted to put 62 into your hands and ears. It all comes from my heart, and if something here touches you, then I am beyond grateful.
Much love and light from here to there.
M
Reviews:
“…an amazing piece of art.”
Dave Lee – The Bugcast
Santa Claus is Back in Town – 2023
A little bit of holiday cheer from MM to you and yours.
Let It Go – 2020
Quite unlike any other MM album, but as varied as they come – Let It Go features 7 new MM songs and 2 vintage covers.
Let It Go was written and recorded by MM between 2007 and 2020, in Haverstraw and Kingston, NY
All tracks arranged, produced and engineered by MM at home. Sax recorded by Eli Winograd at Lone Pine Road Studio, Kingston, NY.
Bass, drums, guitars, keys, percussion and vocals by MM, except:
The lovely Lara Hope
Vocals
Into Each Life
The equally lovely Erik Lawrence
Sax
Let It Go and Lover, Please
The Uber-talented Neil Alexander
Piano
Into Each Life
Listener reviews:
“Evokes memories of the joy of the days when you brought an LP home in your sticky little hands, slid it out of the sleeve and put it on the turntable.
Wonderful stuff.”
“There are no fillers here at all – just well written and produced tracks that won’t fail to impress anybody who loves great music.”
Born Wired – 2017
“I grew up listening to, and loving, all kinds of music,” says Mark Marshall. “But somewhere in my preteens I got bitten hard by rock ’n’ roll—so I decided to devote a whole album to the little monster.”
That album is Born Wired, his third. And, just like the very genre that inspired it, it’s quite a monster itself. One that bites as hard as the sounds it’s creator absorbed while coming of age, in the glory days of glam and classic rock.
Cohesive, classic, and just the right amount of eclectic, Born Wired is the sound of a seasoned vocalist, songwriter, record maker, and musician hitting his creative peak. Directly, through both his own pen and playing, he returns some love to the amazing music that has led him here.
Reviews:
“Mark Marshall has been making music for decades and, on albums like this, it shows. He always stays true to a classic rock feel but, he’s definitely not afraid of change. He’s got a few ballads, a few ragers, and a host of everything in between. No matter what style he chooses though, he simply refuses to stray away from one thing: Catchy hooks and excellent lyricism.”
Darius McGrew
IndieBandGuru
“I was discussing original music with another music pal the other day and he said there’s this old musical adage (I think he said it was something jazz great Miles Davis once said) that you shouldn’t try to sound like anyone else, you should try to sound like yourself. Then there’s the kicker P.S. where he says something to the effect like ‘but finding yourself musically can take 20 years’. I think I understand that after 5+ years of writing songs, and I also think it’s quite possible there are plenty of people who make music who never quite get there, I’m certainly not.
One guy who sounds like he has gotten there is Mark Marshall. You hear it all over on his new studio album Born Wired. Bowie meets T.Rex and they all drink a bit too much coffee before the sessions. But just a bit. The result is his contemporary high energy rock n roll that brings the melodic hard rock of the late 70s screaming into the present, and Mr. Marshall is your tour guide.”
Peter Cotsis
Born Wired doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but, rather, it acts as a love letter to a bygone era when hard rock was the business, and business was booming. Songs such as “Another Night,” “Funk Hard,” and “Girls Like You” act as a nostalgic harkening back to the reckless abandon, party-on spirit of the 1970s.
Mike Campbell
Chronogram Magazine
The Other New Eye – 2013
32 Tracks of MM! Includes the original New Eye album in its’ entirety. Well over two hours of music.
More information on the Other New Eye here.
