Mark WIth The Sea is the moniker of Ballarat performer Marc Oswin. Marc’s original songs are richly crafted and he has been performing them locally for 13 years. Marc has led 3 bands in Ballarat in the last 14 years – ‘SuperEgo’, ‘X’s&O’s’, and the more recent, ‘Mark With The Sea’. He has performed extensively as a solo artist.
Rex Hardware caught up with Marc, recorded a song, took some photos and had a chat – on a wet Wednesday night on a bridge in Ballarat.
Hear the whole interview with Mark WIth The Sea on Soundcloud
When Marc started playing guitar mainly “…to meet girls..” he says, “I wanted to write songs, I wanted to be in a band, so that’s how I learnt was by actually writing, writing my own songs.” After a short stint with Smurf artist Steve Nimmo in the local rock outfit ‘SuperEgo’, Marc had a brief hiatus from music following the closure of the local music palace, The Bridge Mall Inn. He remembers his name on the chalkboard being in a photo in the paper announcing it was closing down. Marc’s first ever solo gig was at The Bridge Mall Inn, where he played a Something For Kate song in a soundcheck in front of one of the band members, having no idea they were in the pub listening.
Around 2007 Marc formed acoustic/indy band ‘X’s&O’s’ with Holly, Perry, Paul and Geoff, who went on to play many live shows over 5 years. There are several tracks from X’s&O’s live on youtube from this time, produced by the UBlive unit.
Video of X’s&O’s at The Courthouse Theatre, Ballarat
In 2011, Marc delivered a memorable and spine-tingling solo performance of a brand new song, ‘Kind of Girl’, written from the perspective of the mind of a serial killer. He appeared alongside Paige Duggan, Juan Alban, Freya Hollick, The Underminers, Cam Ross, Aaron Matthews and Joe Eascott for the first ever ‘Ballarat Songwriters Night”. It featured 8 of Ballarat’s finest songwriters, each performing 4 songs and being interviewed by Amy Tsilamanis.
In 2013 Marc and the band have folded ‘X’s&O’s’, and a new band debuted at The City of Ballarat’s ‘Summer Sundays’ Concert in January. The band leapt out of the box and performed to a 1000 strong audience. Members of legendary Melbourne roots band ‘Zydeco Jump’ watched the entire performance and started their gig with a spoken rave about how much they had enjoyed the set.
In May 2013 the band appeared live online for UBlive/Live on Lydiard with local stalwarts Matt Malone and Matheson. The newly formed and augmented band features Aaron Matthews on vocals and electric guitar and Heath McCurdy on Keyboard.
Mark with The Sea performing ‘Bows and Arrows’ on UBlive
Mark WIth The Sea have a Debut LP ’13 Years which is available online and from JB HiFi Ballarat
Buy the LP ’13 Years 🙂
http://markwiththesea.bandcamp.com/