“I’m going to give you an emotional and personal warm-up to a fantastic and powerful performance from the mighty Anathema!” Singer/songwriter Mark Kelson enthuses about the special acoustic gig he is playing on Saturday 31st October at The Corner Hotel supporting Anathema for the Melbourne show on their Australian and New Zealand Tour (Metropolis Touring).
Kelson has a longstanding and close friendship with the Anathema lads, as he explains. “Well, yes, it seems my relationship with Anathema in some form or another has been ongoing for more than ten years. My first album with The Eternal back in 2004, featured a guest appearance with original Anathema vocalist Darren White. [White also joined The Eternal onstage at The Central Club, for his first performance of Anathema material in many moons. -TH.] I had a long term friendship with Duncan Patterson (bassist/songwriter) since the late 90s, which later lead to us forming a band called Alternative 4. We recorded two albums together and completed two European tours. We suffered some creative differences during the making of the second album, which I was engineering and performing on in Ireland. This later resulted in my vocals being replaced, although I believe a lot of my guitar work still remains. My band, The Eternal, has performed with Anathema in Mexico back in 2009, and again last year at the Corner Hotel, which leads us to this solo show with them this year. I have had quite lovely times with Jamie Cavanagh (bass/programming), Vincent Cavanagh (vocals/guitar) and Lee Helen Douglas (vocals) on these occasions. We just seem to hit it off! Which is great when you think this is a band I was listening to when I was 17 and 18 years old! Twenty years later they seem to have become a recurring part of my life!”
Anathema have engaged different artists to support along each stop on their tour. To make things really interesting, all of the artists are known for performing amplified shows – “rock” by some definition – and each has adapted their repertoire to a one off acoustic rendition. To secure the Melbourne slot, Mark Kelson certainly has a lot of material to choose from; The Eternal have five full-length studio albums, and he also has his solo album Resurgence to draw on. “Well, we are doing eight songs from my career; two from Resurgence, and six from The Eternal’s back catalogue. Even on a stripped back set, I do try and pick material from different albums. To not give to much away, I can say, if you are familiar with my material there will be a few of the staples that people expect to hear, as well as one or two songs that have not been performed before. So this should make for a interesting and slightly different set.”
Cover art for the solo album ‘Resurgence’ by singer/songwriter Mark Kelson.
Of course, the selection of songs is just the first step to assembling an unplugged set – the real work is crafting arrangements with different instrumentation, and different driving elements. “With the album versions being so sonically big, and some being rather long, arrangements had to be changed, focusing more on the key melodies. I left a lot of room for the cello to take the melodic lead as Francesca is such a fluent and expressive player. So a lot of the key melodies are lead by cello and my vocal. Emily also takes lead vocal on a few tracks I would normally do. I just wanted this show to be different from anything else I have done. Although I have done acoustic shows solo before, getting others musically involved is new to me, so I’m trying to have some fun with it.”
As many songwriters will know, it can be both challenging and liberating to pare songs back to their essence. “I dabbled in acoustic shows over the last few years while taking a ‘creative break’ from The Eternal. I did two acoustic mini-tours of Japan just by myself. So I had to learn to strip my material right back to nothing but a vocal and guitar. This was a little exposing in some ways, as I write material that can be quite dense sonically. But I think if a song can’t stand up with just the basic elements, it might not be that great of a song to begin with. So as a songwriter, I think it is important to look back at your material, and look at the elements that make that song stand up on its own. Although I have dabbled in doom, progressive rock, gothic rock, avant garde, and world music, I’m quite happy to see that the core of a lot of material is still ‘song’ based. Creating my solo album, Resurgence, I would record bits and pieces acoustically into my iPhone – just collect them – a lot of that album is written like that. The Only Way Out Is In and Ocean Blue were pretty much written acoustically. I do have a slightly different way of writing for The Eternal, but I still try to start from a hook or a theme that leads the song. Under all the sonic enhancements, there is still a simple and emotive song that can stand alone.”
Mark Kelson & Francesca Mountfort in rehearsal for an acoustic show supporting Anathema at The Corner Hotel.
On the 31st Mark is being joined on stage by some talented musicians – singer Emily A. Saaen, and cellist Francesca Mountfort – who are contributing their unique musical sensibilities and personalities to the unplugged show. “I am very excited to be joined on stage by these two amazing women! My creative relationship with Emily goes back to around 2007. She is from Russia originally and immigrated to Australia three years ago with her husband. We originally worked together on Duncan Patterson’s Íon project, and then she contributed vocals to the third The Eternal album Kartika back in 2007/2008. When she first got to Australia, she also contributed vocals to the most recent The Eternal album When The Circle of Light Begins To Fade. So she has been an on going musical partner, you could say. I have only recently connected with Francesca – and I am glad I have! She is an extremely talented cellist, she is about to release her fourth solo album under the name Nervous Doll Dancing, and she has also joined my dear friends Nick and Naomi in their band Dandelion Wine. She is bringing a very expressive, Avant Garde & slightly spontaneous element to the set. She is also an extremely lovely person and Emily and myself just enjoy her company. I feel very lucky right now to be working with these two talented and accomplished ladies!”
Francesca Mountfort, Mark Kelson, and Emily A. Saaen.
Mark is quite the creative dynamo, always working on his next project, and 2015 is no exception to the rule. “I often wonder what is wrong with me? Hahaha! But, yes! I keep making music and soldiering on! I do have a few projects in the pipe line – in my spare time, which is not much, unfortunately. I am working on my second solo album currently titled Under City Skylines which is a fairly different piece for me, it’s very ‘soundscapey’ and more ‘movements’ than songs. I still expect this album is quite a while off as its very different for me, and I’m trying to experiment as much as I can. I have also recently got The Eternal out of hibernation, and we are in the early stages of working on out sixth studio album. We are also trying to break out and do something quite different on this one. I expect we may take this in a heavier and darker direction that we have even previously gone.”
Mark also sometimes donnes the hat of producer/engineer, and somehow manages to fit that in around his own music and a ‘day job’ in graphic design. “I am still producing and engineering bands as time permits. I recently finished an EP for local band, Numerator, which I think sounds really cool. I am currently talking with a couple of bands about hitting the studio over the next few months, one for an album, and one for an EP. Both with music quite different than my own, but that’s always awesome. I love to challenge myself. I expect I’ll be more behind the scenes in the coming months, putting the new The Eternal album together over summer…”
Mark Kelson with his band The Eternal.
Metropolis Touring presents Anathema’s acoustic Australia & New Zealand Tour 2015:
- Anathema Australia and New Zealand Tour website
- Anathema Australia and New Zealand Tour Facebook Event Page
Find Mark Kelson online:
