Mark Millar has been playing the guitar for a long time, influenced by the likes of Mark Knopfler, JJ Cale and a lot of old blues CDs. After years of roaming the country with several bands, Mark retreated to the safety of the studio, recording for other artists and doing bits and pieces of his own songs but never quite finishing them...until 2019. First came the old tracks, finally finished and coaxed into the light, culminating in the release of his first solo album, 'On the Journey'. His second album, 'Take Me to the River' was released at the end of 2020 and has gained over a quarter of a million streams on Spotify alone. Since, then, Mark has continued writing and releasing new songs.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hello Mark Millar, it's a pleasure to speak with you. What first got you into music?
I’d played some instruments when I was a kid (piano and cello, believe it or not) but I wasn’t very motivated and spent most of my time avoiding them and doing other things. When I was 16, my cousin showed me a few riffs on the guitar and I was hooked - for some reason (maybe all those childhood music lessons) I seemed to be able to pick things up really easily on the guitar, and before long I was in a band with a group of friends from school. We managed to get some local gigs. I’m sure we were terrible, but we loved it and kept doing it for the next fourteen years!
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
It's not easy finding time for everything! Family comes first, and there’s always a need to pay the bills and put food on the table, so until such times as my sales are a lot bigger than they are now, music always has to be slotted in where it can… I’m very pragmatic about my music career - if it works, it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t! So from that perspective, I see it as something to enjoy and not worry too much about making it ‘big’!
'The Great Adventure' is your most recent single. Can you tell us about its history and whether anything remarkable happened during its creation?
It was written and recorded in a single afternoon as a birthday gift for my wife. She wasn’t looking forward to being a particular age, so I thought I’d try to get her to look at things from a different perspective! It's a pretty simple song (there’s only so much you can do in an afternoon). I came back to it a few weeks later with a view to developing it further before releasing it, but it felt just right as it was - sometimes it's better to keep things simple, rather than overcomplicate them for no good reason. Maybe there's a life lesson there!
Tell me about the biggest difficulty you've ever gotten yourself into.
I’m like everyone else - there have been ups and downs, love and loss - nothing worse than anyone else on the planet. We’re all in the same boat, and I guess that’s what lies behind most of my songs. What does it mean to be human? How do we cope with it? Where’s does our hope lie for the future?
You live in United Kingdom. What do you enjoy best about this country?
I live in Edinburgh, Scotland – it’s a beautiful, ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it’s definitely one of my favourite places in the world. In general, I love the sense of history in the UK – it permeates everything. It also has some spectacular scenery too. It’s a pity the weather is so unpredictable!
Does your family share your interest in music? What are their thoughts on your work?
Yes – we’re all into music in our own ways – our tastes aren’t always the same but there’s a big overlap. They’re always very kind and supportive about my songs though, even if they’re not all the sort of thing that they’d usually listen to.
Can you describe your finest performance in your career? How do you recall it?
It’s funny, but some of the most enjoyable or successful gigs I’ve done have been more about the audience than me! I just love playing guitar, so any chance I get to record or play with other people is a high point for me.
Do you have any interests outside from music? If so, could you please introduce us to them?
By the time you focus on family, work and music there’s not a lot of time for much else! I’m
Who is your dream musician with whom to work, and why?
My first and main influence on guitar was Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits. I was mesmerised by the way he played, the emotion he injected into just a few notes, and how the guitar interplayed with the vocals. It's because of those Dire Straits albums that I’m playing guitar today, so it has always been a dream of mine to play guitar with him.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m planning on releasing my third album in 2023. I’m not exactly sure when in 2023, but I think I’d like to get it out there by the summer. I’v got the material, it’s just a matter of finishing it!