MARK RUEBERY
BIOGRAPHY
In a world where today's pop stars are mostly the product of style over content, where clever studio trickery presides over natural born talent, Mark Ruebery is a glaring sore thumb, a black sheep with a brooding stare that his future fans may well be happy to swim in.
Mark is all about the voice, the craft, the songs.
"I've been writing them my whole life," he says. "Writing songs and playing my own music is all I've ever wanted to do."
Mark was born in Newport, Wales, his father a fanatic of rock 'n' roll who introduced him, while still very young and impressionable, to the Beatles, the Stones and ELO "and I loved them all."
Under his father's encouragement, Mark began to get musical. By seven years old he was sitting before the piano and trying to get the hang of it. The piano, as he notes today, was all well and good, "a beautiful instrument", but two years later, when he was presented with his first guitar, something within him seemed instinctively to click.
"It just felt somehow...right," he says, smiling at the memory. It was soon to feel righter still: at the age of 11, his parents bought him an electric guitar. "It looked amazing," he begins, his eyes beginning to grow wide. "And then I plugged it in. Wow. Right there, I was hooked."
It was this key moment in his young life that would lead to right here, right now, and Mark's debut album, Because Of You, a love letter to music, to the women he has won and lost along the way, and an album where memorable melody after memorable melody takes flight and soars with the confidence of one who knows precisely what he is doing, and what he is capable of.
"I've been gearing up for this record for a long time," he confides. And how much of himself has he invested into it? He grins now, because what he says next isn't so much an
admission as it is a boast. "All of me, I'm afraid. Every last ounce."
By the age of 14, Mark was already the star of his school band, Hi Frequency. By now obsessed with the output of Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, of Queen and Guns N' Roses, he took the opportunities afforded him through this very seriously indeed. Before long, the band were entering local talent shows, and winning.
Two years later, by now solo, he was playing local clubs and pubs, and was also acting and singing in locally produced musicals. At 18, he enrolled in the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where he took a classical course, and it is here this rock fan developed a serious appreciation of jazz.
"I was still listening to Guns N' Roses," he points out, "but now I was listening to George Benson. Amazing guitarist, George Benson"
Since he graduated, Mark has continued to make music his life. He has taught guitar in a succession of schools across the country and, by now a noted multi-instrumentalist, has been an in-demand session musician for a variety of Welsh acts. A prolific songwriter, he has performed his songs at the Brecon Jazz Festival, Liverpool's Cavern Club, the Raglan Festival, the Green Belt Festival and, with the band The Sails, some of New York's more notable venues. He has received accolades from a clutch of industry bigwigs, among them BMG A&R man Nick Raymond and the legendary Muff Winwood, confirmation to him that he was headed in the right direction.
Ultimately, however, Mark has decided to do things himself on his debut album, writing and co-producing the record himself, playing almost all the instruments, and releasing the record independently, thereby maintaining his unswerving focus and an impressive devotion to his cause.
The gamble has paid off, as 'Because Of You', recorded at Rockfield Studios (Queen, Coldplay, Oasis), is a richly impassioned record of emotive songs, each delivered in a rich, oak-soaked voice full of yearning and real passion. 'Something Opens Windows', a track about leaving your past behind and throwing yourself headlong into the future, boasts such an affecting chorus. 'Burning Inside' is similarly robust, a grown-up song about love and passion that could stand alongside those of any of his childhood heroes, and 'It Goes And Comes Around' is the kind of number that could make your average British motorway instantly transformed into Route 66, an anthem made for driving with the window down, foot to the floor, this will be the first single.
"Lyrically, it is mostly a reflective album," he says, "songs about my life, my private life. The songs don't necessarily suggest I'm unlucky in love, just that, um, I haven't met the right woman yet. But they are not bitter, the songs; I'm not out for revenge. If anything, I want these songs to sound optimistic, because that is what they are very much fuelled by - optimism."
Mark Ruebery a singer whose quiet confidence needs no showy accolades, no supporting artifice and little need for the hollow rattle of empty hype.
His debut album is, in every sense, the album of his life. It is good, very good, and it's the introduction of a major new voice in music.
BIOGRAPHY
In a world where today's pop stars are mostly the product of style over content, where clever studio trickery presides over natural born talent, Mark Ruebery is a glaring sore thumb, a black sheep with a brooding stare that his future fans may well be happy to swim in.
Mark is all about the voice, the craft, the songs.
"I've been writing them my whole life," he says. "Writing songs and playing my own music is all I've ever wanted to do."
Mark was born in Newport, Wales, his father a fanatic of rock 'n' roll who introduced him, while still very young and impressionable, to the Beatles, the Stones and ELO "and I loved them all."
Under his father's encouragement, Mark began to get musical. By seven years old he was sitting before the piano and trying to get the hang of it. The piano, as he notes today, was all well and good, "a beautiful instrument", but two years later, when he was presented with his first guitar, something within him seemed instinctively to click.
"It just felt somehow...right," he says, smiling at the memory. It was soon to feel righter still: at the age of 11, his parents bought him an electric guitar. "It looked amazing," he begins, his eyes beginning to grow wide. "And then I plugged it in. Wow. Right there, I was hooked."
It was this key moment in his young life that would lead to right here, right now, and Mark's debut album, Because Of You, a love letter to music, to the women he has won and lost along the way, and an album where memorable melody after memorable melody takes flight and soars with the confidence of one who knows precisely what he is doing, and what he is capable of.
"I've been gearing up for this record for a long time," he confides. And how much of himself has he invested into it? He grins now, because what he says next isn't so much an
admission as it is a boast. "All of me, I'm afraid. Every last ounce."
By the age of 14, Mark was already the star of his school band, Hi Frequency. By now obsessed with the output of Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, of Queen and Guns N' Roses, he took the opportunities afforded him through this very seriously indeed. Before long, the band were entering local talent shows, and winning.
Two years later, by now solo, he was playing local clubs and pubs, and was also acting and singing in locally produced musicals. At 18, he enrolled in the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where he took a classical course, and it is here this rock fan developed a serious appreciation of jazz.
"I was still listening to Guns N' Roses," he points out, "but now I was listening to George Benson. Amazing guitarist, George Benson"
Since he graduated, Mark has continued to make music his life. He has taught guitar in a succession of schools across the country and, by now a noted multi-instrumentalist, has been an in-demand session musician for a variety of Welsh acts. A prolific songwriter, he has performed his songs at the Brecon Jazz Festival, Liverpool's Cavern Club, the Raglan Festival, the Green Belt Festival and, with the band The Sails, some of New York's more notable venues. He has received accolades from a clutch of industry bigwigs, among them BMG A&R man Nick Raymond and the legendary Muff Winwood, confirmation to him that he was headed in the right direction.
Ultimately, however, Mark has decided to do things himself on his debut album, writing and co-producing the record himself, playing almost all the instruments, and releasing the record independently, thereby maintaining his unswerving focus and an impressive devotion to his cause.
The gamble has paid off, as 'Because Of You', recorded at Rockfield Studios (Queen, Coldplay, Oasis), is a richly impassioned record of emotive songs, each delivered in a rich, oak-soaked voice full of yearning and real passion. 'Something Opens Windows', a track about leaving your past behind and throwing yourself headlong into the future, boasts such an affecting chorus. 'Burning Inside' is similarly robust, a grown-up song about love and passion that could stand alongside those of any of his childhood heroes, and 'It Goes And Comes Around' is the kind of number that could make your average British motorway instantly transformed into Route 66, an anthem made for driving with the window down, foot to the floor, this will be the first single.
"Lyrically, it is mostly a reflective album," he says, "songs about my life, my private life. The songs don't necessarily suggest I'm unlucky in love, just that, um, I haven't met the right woman yet. But they are not bitter, the songs; I'm not out for revenge. If anything, I want these songs to sound optimistic, because that is what they are very much fuelled by - optimism."
Mark Ruebery a singer whose quiet confidence needs no showy accolades, no supporting artifice and little need for the hollow rattle of empty hype.
His debut album is, in every sense, the album of his life. It is good, very good, and it's the introduction of a major new voice in music.
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Members
Mark RueberyFor all enquiries contact:-
mikelongley@murrayandsonmanagement.tv
Type of music
Rock
