Marks distinctive voice and songwriting style clearly defines the band so I had to find out what makes his songs tick. Heres what he had to say......

Name:
Mark Parker

URL (if any):
www.theliarsbench.com

Main genre:
Folk rock

Years writing:
Since 1990

What comes first, words or music:
In 98% of cases the music and hummed melody come first. The other 2% would be (and this has been a recent thing) when I have revisited some old songs and instead of chucking them Ive looked at the lyrics and said to myself "Hey, they're still alright, I might just hang onto them". I then construct new music to accomodate the words.

Why do you write:
Basically, I write for myself. That might sound selfish but what I mean is that I don't write to please others in a formulated way (and Im only really talking about lyrics here) where the intention is to impress someone else into liking me or my song because of some try-hard, ingratiated, winsome theme or style. I write to observe or to comment on life and I do it in a way that basically must please or satisfy me first.

How do you write:
Several ways. Firstly it is important to know what kind of a songwriter you are. Are you a singer/songwriter? Are you a collaborator? Do you just write songs for other people? Secondly you need to understand the limitations that your situation presents. Because I'm primarily a singer/songwriter ina band environment my two limitations are my acoustic guitar playing and my vocal style

What I write and come up with are determined by the fact that I have to be able to play it and sing it at the same time. In the band situation though, it is becoming increasingly more the case of me being a collaborative songwriter (someone else comes up with the musical arrangement and I have the lyrics and the melody to go with it). I really find it helpful to have the music recorded as an instrumental so I can spend time on my own working repetitively on the melody and words.

What inspires you:
The work of other great songwriters. Just because a lot of these people are 'stars' doesn't mean that they're not normal human beings like us and that they are commenting on and are relaying a lot of the same experiences that we have.

Don't feel that just because someone else has said it that it cant be said again. The challenge here is to say it well in your own original way.

Most important aspect of songwriting:
Every songwriter will have a different answer for this question but for me it's the message. For me, because I love wordsmithy and substance it's incredibly important not to be glib.

I sometimes think of songwriting as a bottleneck. The message must be established and narrowed down to the point where it will fit, metaphorically, through the small space of the bottleneck but once through into the big space inside the bottle you can be free to expand and explode your ideas to give the message it's vitality, colour and meaning.

Advice for beginners:
Listen to music, lots of good music. Learn to recognise what it is that makes a song good or ask yourself (when you hear a song that you like) what it is that makes you like it. I do this all the time. I'll be struck by a song and I'll step back and analyse why I was impacted by that song. From that I usually learn something that I can use in my own songs.

Sometimes I have been puzzled by seemingly simple songs like "Jesus" by Cat Stevens or "Two Knights and Maidens" by The Crash Test Dummies and it's only after pulling it to bits that I realise that there is a bit of a mad timing change on re-entry into a verse or something. Whether the musicians or the producer came up with that you can't tell but its added interest and imagination to the song that I have picked up on and liked.

Main strengths and weaknesses:
Like Ive said before, it's important to realise what kind of songwriter you are. Within that are the kind of songs you will tend to write, I'm not sure how much it's possible to change that.

For my part, I am a backbeat writer. A lot of my songs are mellow but even the uptempo ones are backbeat songs. They lean back and they groove and they have a great feel but they're not really forceful. All I can figure is that the songs seem to be the end product of the kind of writer I am. I listen to a fair bit of backbeat music but I also listen to a heck of a lot of frontbeat music that I love and analyse deeply that doesnt influence my style whatsoever. That is why songwriters will find their own style in time with the understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses (limitations).

Songwriting goals:
Most of my songwriting goals are actually being realised. Right now we are playing original music consistantly in cover band territory. We have been doing this for the last twelve months and we still booked up six months in advance. To me this says one thing. It says that the public is judging our music and are blessing it.

The public, the punters are the real judges of the music that we create. Sure, the success (at the moment) is local but it only needs to be amplified to become national and beyond and so far we have the blessing of the people that can make that happen - the public