By day he’s the president of Small House Records. But by night he is one of Australia’s most promising musical talents. Meet Mark Tulk.
Mark has composed, recorded, and arranged music for nearly two decades. Now he’s preparing to unleash his EP, At The End of the Day.
With influences including Brian Eno, David Byrne, John Cale, and Nick Drake, you can imagine that Mark’s own music is richly textured and fascinating to explore.
“This EP is reasonably ‘dark’ thematically, sonically it’s centered around the piano or Rhodes with layered acoustic guitars, distorted piano, various odd percussion elements, cellos and quite a lot of minimoog-generated ‘swampy/swirly’ kinda stuff in the background,” he says.
The songs are autobiographical, but their complex lyrics leaves room for the listener to interpret each tune in their own way.
“My own life-experience has obviously informed the material – the main characters, in some way, all share a sense of loss, isolation, disappointment or disillusionment. So in some ways the record has been partly a cathartic experience for me. Stylistically I’m interested in exploring ‘inner landscapes’ … the subconscious … what are the things ‘beneath the surface’ that inform our actions and decisions?
“It’s a work of shadows and dreams I suppose. The lyrics are scattered with images of half-light, moonlit cellars, corridors and narrow stairways … gothic mansions and swaying lanterns … on the journey, the listener meets characters who range from American poet Robert Lowell during his time in a mental hospital, to a gothic Jane Eyre-type heroine wandering thru the night silently watching for her imagined saviour who never comes.”
Are you intrigued yet? You can pick up At The End of the Day online from Small House Records.
Image used with permission from AAA Entertainment