Positive Embedded era article from an interview with Mark in the Tsunami Brisbane magazine.

Author: [Not credited]

Date: May 2004, Issue 52.

Original URL: http://www.tsunamimag.com/pages/interviews.html

Article Text

“I’m extremely leathery and quite cynical about the music industry to be honest… (but) I still have a deep and enduring love of the sport.”

MARK SEYMOUR

Mark Seymour has recently completed and his third solo album Embedded. Having just released his third solo album, Mark admits, “It’s early days yet, but we’re getting some good feedback”.

Having fronted the Hunters And Collectors for almost twenty years, Mark Seymour decided to leave one of the most enduring Australian rock bands of the 1980’s to pursue a solo career in 1998. It would be a logical to assume that it was a challenge for Seymour to remove himself from the success of Hunters And Collectors. However, he explains that his choice to pursue a solo career was quite simple. “I was actually just doing some acoustic shows in Melbourne roughly around that time and I got a taste for it, so I just kept doing it really.”

Hunters And Collectors seminal pop rock captured the hearts of many a pub patron, so it follows that the band’s tunes feature strongly in many a pub rock cover band’s repertoire. Mark openly admits, “I’m not really aware of it to be honest. I do what I do and if they want to do cover versions of Hunters And Collectors’ tunes, then all power to them. As long as they pay me royalties, which isn’t guaranteed of course, given the nature of this business. I don’t really have any feeling about it to be honest.”

Discussing the progression of the writing and recording of his latest solo record Embedded, Mark explains, “I noticed a few people who were moving into my street who were fairly eccentric and indulging in odd activities at times. So I decided to try and document things in a fairly perverse and ironic way and they ended up in song form. I recorded the album at a friend’s house in a little place called Carnegie. I tried to keep the recording process as relaxed as possible. Normally, you know, traditionally there’s a fat record company executive looming over your shoulder questioning the commercial validity of the material. But I’ve reached a point in my life where, if I am going to continue to keep writing and recording material, I just won’t work under those conditions anymore. I’ve tried to work with people I like in a congenial environment as much as possible,” he affirms rather scornfully.

“There are a lot of co-writes on this record, which is new territory for me,” admits Mark. Despite being a new approach for Seymour, he is far from being apprehensive about the songwriting process. “I’m extremely leathery and quite cynical about the music industry to be honest. So having said that, I am fully cognitive of what to expect and it never goes the way you plan you know. I still have a deep and enduring love of the sport. I love to perform and write songs and I try to make them as intelligent and exciting as possible. Hopefully there will be people out there in the market place who are interested in music that actually has something to say.”

Mark Seymour will be performing tunes from his new record Embedded, at Downtown Gilhooleys, Brisbane (May 27), Four Mile Creek Hotel, Strathpine (May 28), The Mooloolaba Surf Club (May 29) and Gilhooleys, Gold Coast (May 30).

Comments

A reputable source indicates that the unnamed author had not heard “Embedded” and was given the story “at the last minute”.