"It's my favorite song about a kleptomaniac girlfriend...Aquaman...a plastic bag, I hope it's yours." That is New York based singer/songwriter Mark Aaron James introducing a few of his quirky takes on universal themes. Borders News labeled these innovative songs, "Some of the best and most introspective pop music we¹ve heard in years."
Born in California and raised in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Mark Aaron James seemed an unlikely candidate for the Nashville songwriter scene. With a strong pop-rock background in tow, he enrolled in Music City's reputable Vanderbilt University. He soon became a popular fixture on the "porch party" circuit that years earlier supported the Indigo Girls, Ben Folds and Hootie and the Blowfish. Mark brought that following into the local venues where the famous "in the rounds" gave him a new challenge. He was now sharing the stage with Nashville's hit writers and realized, "If you don't have a song as good as the writer before and after you, then you're just filler. It really provoked me to focus on craft, along with inspiration." The results lead to co-writes with top songsmiths and his compositions being performed by everyone from Jimmy Buffet to the World Peace Choir.
The year following his critically acclaimed indie release, Mr. Wirehead, Mark was awarded "Best Local Songwriter" and "Best Up and Coming Band" in the The Nashville Scene's Reader's Poll. In the weekly mag, owned by NYC's Village Voice, Mark beat out John Hyatt, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle and several other luminaries. With the release of his second CD, Adventures With A Plastic Bag, he repeated the feat the following year. The title song from that CD went on to make the top 100 songs of the year on Nashville's WRLT Lightening 100, gained airplay on Atlanta's 99X and was added to 126 CMJ reporting stations, breaking the top ten in 12 markets.
Despite this success, Mark was regularly being reminded that he was a rock singer in a town known for country music. After playing well received shows in New York's Living Room and being featured on PBS's CD Highway and I-Dig's Rawdio programs, Mark decided it was time to make New York City his base.
Moving in 2002, Mark began headlining in venues as varied as the Living Room, Rockwood Music Hall, The Bitter End and the Westbeth Theater. New York's Underground Music Organization (UMO) voted him one of the "Top 14 Singer/songwriters in Greenwich Village," and featured him as the opening track on their annual CD. With the completion of his next CD, Just a Satellite, Mark's song "June 17th" was included in "Lost."
In January, 2008, Mark was awarded a rare Artist Visa for the UK. It merited a move to London. Mark secured several regular shows throughout Europe and became the host of the "On Stage" acoustic showcase at HALO, the PRS Venue of the Year. His "Live in London, Simple Ingredients" CD was released in early 2010 to rave reviews soon after. During the recording process, Mark also made his West End debut, performing with Alan Cumming in the show "I Bought A Blue Car Today."
Mark returned to NYC in the summer of 2010. The new "Worlds of Warcraft" animated video for his song "Aquaman's Lament" on the "spiffworld" page is currently averaging 2000 hits a day on YouTube and a new CD project, Throwing Shapes, has just been released.
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