Mark's Bio

So when did I first start playing music?  That’s complicated.  It’s tempting to say I started playing music in the 6th grade band. I mean, that’s definitely when I first began learning how to read and play music.  My band career consisted of twelve years of middle school, high school, and college bands.  The thing is, while I really enjoyed all the various concert bands, marching bands, jazz bands, and pep bands, I never really felt like I was making music.  I can’t say exactly why.  Maybe because it always seemed like I was just pushing the right buttons at the right time, part of some complex machine where the individual parts don’t experience the bigger picture.

I would have to say I really started playing music when I first picked up a guitar at a church youth retreat.  I remember sitting there for hours just strumming away, totally amazed that I could play songs I knew, and create new ones.  It was so simple yet so powerful; no conductor, no sheet music, not even notes.  It’s like someone took the blindfold off and I instantly knew how to create music.  It wasn’t a random event.  Ever since I had acknowledged Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was 12 years old, I knew that, some day, God would call upon me to participate in His ministry.

Mark