Matt Marks

horn, keyboards, electronics

mattmarks@alarmwillsound.com

I was born in Downey, California in 1980 to a pair of race car-driving parents. Downey is known as the fast-food capital of the world. A close suburb of L.A., its claim to fame is that it has the world's oldest McDonalds; the first Taco Bell was in Downey as well. I believe I was a rather dull child, my interests being mainly television, video games, and comic books. Later on in life I would scour my memories looking for early signs of talent, inspiration, and/or eccentricities but would come up with nothing more interesting than that I liked to bite microphones whenever they were given to me.

My earliest educational memory is of arguing with a boy at my preschool over whether the name of his favorite color was "Yellow" or "Lellow". I was totally right. The first sign that I might have a smattering of musical talent came was when I was 8. I was riding in the car with my mom and sister Suzanne and the radio station was set to Power 106, the local station that played hip hop, R&B, and deep house. They were advertising for their big show: Powerhouse '88. I asked my mom and Suzanne if they were planning to go to Powerhouse '88 and they looked at me as if I was speaking in tongues. Apparently they had been wholly unaware of the radio at all.

Soon after I began taking piano lessons and noticed that I had a knack for memorizing three-line piano pieces. An early favorite was The Villain. It provided lyrics as well: "Got to catch the Viiiiiiiiil-a-a-a-ain, Lock him up in Priiiiiiiiis-o-o-o-on!"

At the end of the 5th grade I had my assembly at the middle school down the street to introduce us to our new teachers and classes. The East Middle School Advanced Band was present and the band director, who would the following year often show his frustration at me by aiming and throwing batons at me, introduced us to the instruments of the orchestra. When he came to the french horn I noticed, from the back of the auditorium, that from somewhere in the band a seemingly disembodied hand shot up into the air with a brass colored french horn in it. For some reason at that very moment I casually decided that I would play the instrument.

As far as the rest of my education in Downey, I had the honor of having a different band director every year, often even several during some years. One left for medical school, one faked an illness, one was deported, one got pregnant, and one was fired for sexual harassment.

I eventually left for the east coast and realized that I had to start taking music seriously. I attended the Eastman School of Music for undergrad, the Royal Academy of Music for a bit of the Post-Grad, and am currently attending Stony Brook University for my Master's. I am an active performer in New York City, also playing and composing wacky electronic music, and occasionally performing on piano. Oh and I'm a Doggo virtuoso. I live in Kensington, Brooklyn and enjoy reading, listening to my CDs/mp3s/records, walking around New York, and writing zany bios.

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