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A brief NEW biography from Mark himself covering his musical origins and influences as well as a look at his past, present and future musical endeavors:
"I had my first drum lessons at age 7 in Los Angeles. We had moved the year before from Detroit MI, where I was born. My first lessons were out of the Buddy Rich book. As a typical 7 year old boy, I did not practice that much. I had my little practice pad, but was more interested in banging on the suitcases I set up for a drum set. There was no particular kind of music I liked, but was interested in all kinds. I have memories of the first Monkee’s album that my Dad bought us the minute it came out to Rubber Soul by the Beatles. My parents were listening to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and it became a favorite of mine. As time moved on, I was drawn to athletic interests like baseball and basketball, with not too much time for the drums. I wish I had some of that time back, but I guess everything works out for a reason.
"I played in the school bands all the way from elementary school through high school. I was also jamming with other guys I could find. I used to play with a friend of mine who played the sax. We used to play really bad versions of Chicago’s first album. I loved the sound, but we were horrible. "When I was around 12 I got a job at the local music store in San Jose, where I was taking lessons and handing out music flyers in exchange for cymbals. I met many of the guys who worked at the music store and was asked if I wanted to jam with them outside of the store. These guys were much older than me, all living together in the quintessential “jam pad”. If you can visualize it, I was a 12-year old kid being driven over to these veteran guy’s jam pad with my little blue sparkle drum set. This was my first experience with loud amps and stuff. A bit intimidating, but I liked it. My poor Dad, who had a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering was playing roadie for his 12-year-old son. "My parents were always supportive of my drumming. As long as I practiced and showed interest, I had my lessons. I actually never had a professional kit until I was 12. I spent much time with a practice pad. I recall one occasion when I got a snare drum that came with the lessons and became very frustrated so I decided it was cool to plant the sticks through the drum head. Well, this didn’t go over very well with my parents and the lessons were put on hold. "For the next few years I played with various cover bands playing a few originals. We did everything from heavy stuff to commercial music. This was a big learning experience. I still really wasn’t giving the drums the time and effort I should have. "While playing in a local band, I met Bill Tsamis and I joined him with the Warlord band. We would spend hours of just playing guitar and drums. This is when the serious dedication started to kick in. It was a very musically liberating experience. I was able to really stretch and grow musically. "Bill and I decided to move to L.A. to follow our dreams. We moved into a small part of a big building in North Hollywood. We auditioned singers for what seemed like years and could never find our man. We recorded a couple of albums and a self-produced video and things just sort of fell apart. The first album “Deliver Us” was done for $800. It was an eight-track recording with the two bass drums and the bass merged on to one track. So much for high tech recording." Page 2