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ARTICLES |
The Belper News 2nd July 2008
The Peak Advertiser 14th June 2008
The Derbyshire Times 4th October 2007
The Derby Evening Telegraph 29th September 2007
The Belper News 3rd October 2007
The Matlock Mercury 24th January 2008
The Derby Evening Telegraph 17th January 2008
The Derbyshire Times 24th January 2008
Holbrook songsmith awaits his Technicolor moment (By Nick Bannister)
(published in Holbrook Village Magazine 0ct / Nov 2006)
For those who have discovered Holbrook-born songwriter Mark Lilley’s confessional, folk-infused pop the collective sense must be that he might just be on the verge of bigger things. His debut album ‘the opening titles’ created some promising critical profile on its release – drawing the praise of local folk-hero and former Holbrook resident John Tams.
Now, two years and God knows how many man-hours in his Belper home studio later, Mr Lilley is preparing to unleash the follow-up.
To those who embraced the innocent sweetness of ‘the opening titles’ the second album, ‘Picture without a frame’, might confound their expectations. Mark promises an “avant-garde” suite of explicit, dark and honest songs drawing on personal traumas such as the death of his father and a friend’s battle with anorexia, but leavened with some optimistic love songs. It will be, Mark says, “a Technicolor painting in gouache” to the simple sketches of his debut. Fans have obviously been treated to early previews – Mark says they regard it as a “defining moment.”
A former pupil of Kilburn Junior School and John Flamsteed Community School in Denby, 35-year-old Mark was always interested in playing and writing music but he took art as a career option and became a graphic artist after graduating from Barnsley College of Art and Design. Then he started working as a resident sound engineer, arranger and producer at Derbyshire’s Meadow Farm Recording Studio near Ripley, met John Tams, learned guitar and got serious about his craft.
“Tams introduced me to the folk scene,” says Mark. “I found it was the perfect platform to learn performing in front of a regular captive audience. For someone who was singing original songs rather than traditional material, I was welcomed with open arms and made many good friends along the way." “Folk music hasn't really influenced my musical direction as a writer. I've always done my own thing and just tried to be me. That's probably my failing as there isn't a hook to hang me on.”
If you really wanted to hang Mark Lilley on a hook, you could begin by looking at his eclectic musical tastes, which include John Denver, Stephen ‘Tin-Tin’ Duffy and The Beatles, and use those signposts to neatly file him under a particular musical genre. But his music does tend to defy any neat classifications, so Mark’s own description - English Country Pop – probably does the job perfectly well.
“I try to write songs that are universal, ensuring I don't alienate people,” he says. “But there are numerous references to our country and even Derbyshire in my work, these references are often ambiguous but they are there.” Perhaps the least ambiguous local reference in Mark’s work is “John Flamsteed’s kids did”, an effervescent and inspirational pop tribute to the Denby luminary who became the first Astronomer Royal. The song was a commission from Denby Parish Council to mark the opening of the village’s John Flamsteed revolving star map monument and planetarium heritage centre in 2002. Belper gets a namecheck on another track on ‘the opening titles.’
Mark currently juggles his status as a part-time songwriter with that of part-time librarian. “I consider myself very lucky in that respect,” he says. “Music, like acting, is either feast or famine and although artists are supposed to 'suffer for their art', it's always nice to have security and a roof over my head. Oh, and eat too.”
When he’s not dividing his time between library shelves and his home recording studio – built with the help of older brother Matthew and dubbed ‘the Lilley Pad’ – he can sometimes be found enjoying ‘setting the world to right nights' at The Wheel, The Dead Poets and The Spotted Cow with fellow band member and former Holbrook resident Paul Northridge and other friends and family.
As for next moves and musical ambitions: “Critical acclaim is all I desire really but unfortunately that doesn't always walk hand in hand with riches,” Mark says. “Yes, the debut album received uplifting reviews from the press but didn't pay the bills. You can't have everything I suppose."
“I think Ernest Hemingway once said ‘the great thing is to last and get your work done.’ Well I'm still here, I'm still recording, the second album is almost complete and I've nearly written the third album. What more could I ask for?”
That second album, ‘Picture without a frame’, is due to be available Christmas 2006. The debut album 'the opening titles' is currently available on the high street and web through www.reveal-records.com and Mark’s own website www.marklilley.info.
Website author : Rachel Wagner PULLFOCUS DESIGN copyright 2003 / 04 / 05 / 06 / 07 / 08 Mark Lilley