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 A lifelong musician,
I, Mark Dodge, spent a decade in the basement,
a decade on the road, and a
couple of decades playing and sorting it all out afterward. My mom started me on piano lessons at age 8, which only lasted a couple of years, and then
I asked Santa for a guitar. Just about this same time, my cousin let me have
his old set of drums, and the stage was set. I would spend my days in heavy
playing rotation, cranking
 up the hi-fi and playing along on drums, then
spending an hour or so playing guitar, followed
by a turn on the piano, which now sported a "sound-on-sound" reel-to-reel tape
recorder. This went on for hours every day. Then the bands started happening,
beginning with the Manchesters in 6th grade. The
list of old bands and musical
experiences - long and fairly irrelevant. (Mark's current
bands) OK, one of my bands opened the show for Mel
T illis
in 1980, but mostly we played in clubs 6 nights a week and helped
sell a lot of beer and liquor over the years. Just a few left turns shy of the Rock &
Roll Hall of Fame. Aside from being bandleader for a few pro bands, I have at
times been been hired as a guitarist, drummer, bassist, and keyboard player. But
now, free from the constraints
 of
the road, music reveals itself in a small but efficient studio, and the
decreasingly infrequent live gig. Sure,
there's good equipment here, both digital and analog,
quality instruments, a modest list of fine gear that really has little to do
with the end product compared to ear, groove, and soul. Great music has been made using
lesser tools. And vice-versa. Old bands, new gear, OK, but can the boy play?
Mark's Current Bands
Old Band Memory-Bile
In Defense of Multi-instrumentalism:
Early on, I decided to become a musical generalist (even before
I knew the
word generalist). Even though I started playing piano at age 8 and
guitar at age 10, I played drums in my first band in the 6th grade, using a set
that my cousin gave me. I made a conscious decision one day that I would
continue to play guitar, piano and drums, rather than focus on one or two
instruments. I knew it would take a lot longer to "get good" on all three, but
the decision was made. A seemingly-endless string of bands later, I'm somewhat closer to "good,"
and still striving. And I still have that old drum set, but these days I spend
more time on the computer, either recording and mixing records,
editing photographs or doing stuff a lot
like this ...
For chit-chat, email mark at
bigquack.com
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