Mark Elliott is a Nashville-based singer, songwriter, author, and principal vocalist/guitarist for the Americana band Runaway Home
Getting to know Mark
Are you a valuable asset on a Pub Quiz team?
Why yes, yes, I am. During a tour of the UK a few years back, I played an early show at a pub and stayed late to drink a few pints with fans. They convinced me to join their quiz team that night. Lucky for me, I realized quickly how seriously the English take their quiz nights, and there were enough questions about 70’s music and geography that I was able to contribute. And we did well. In fact, we won the grand prize, a ham. And when I say we won a “ham,” I’m talking they handed me a fresh (like that day) slab of meat rolled up in brown shipping paper. It made touring for the next few days in my little left-side-of-road car pretty interesting. I did not go hungry!
What makes you nostalgic?
Absolutely everything. Even when I was a young kid, I felt nostalgic for years past. Music, movies, old photos, friends, food, and even old mistakes make me nostalgic. Nostalgia may well be my superpower. Looking back has always informed and inspired me to look forward. Good or bad, I like the feeling of connectedness that the past gives me. Eating pop rocks with my ten-year-old Starmount friends, listening to John Denver and Jim Croce while watching Jeremiah Johnson is about as nostalgic as it gets for me.
What was the last thing you dressed up as for Fancy Dress?
Well, let’s keep with the UK-the questions. Fancy Dress is the giveaway. I played a great club in Ipswich years ago, and after the show, a bunch of fans invited me to a “Fancy Dress” party. Now I’m adventurous and always willing to fit into foreign customs, but I was a little nervous that “dress” meant “dress.” When I asked if I had to wear heels too, they told me it was a costume party. “Oh, thank God,” I thought. I went dressed as Mexican vaquero because someone had a Mexican blanket and a sombrero hanging on their wall and let me borrow them. I ended up getting drunk with Florence Nightingale and kissing Pocahontas, so it was a pretty good night. But the latest “fancy dress” is whenever I wear my big cowboy hat and have the grey colored out of my beard. I get called “Hopper” from “Stranger Things” all the time. So that’s who I’m going as this Halloween.
What’s your most expensive piece of clothing?
I’m not known for my taste in clothes, or for that matter, buying new clothes at all. So, this is an easy question. My most expensive piece of clothing is my old pair of brown Dingo boots, about 150 bucks!
If you could change anything about yourself, what would it be?
Everything, including my bald head, fat stomach, and my intensity level with friends and lovers. And nothing, including my bald head, fat stomach, and intensity level with friends and lovers. So, I guess it’s a wash.
What would be a good theme song for your life?
I think “Rocky Mountain High,” by John Denver. It encapsulates my passion for wilderness, loyalty to friends, and sharing my life’s journey with the people I love. Plus, it’s a good old anthem sung about as well as any song could be. I’m a sucker for all of that. It makes me feel good. It’s a battery charger for the soul.
What is your current project about?
I started this latest journey of releasing singles early in the COVID era. I, like, everyone else was couped up at home with nothing else to do but create. So, I wrote a lot and even managed to get some recording done. In place of a touring career last year, I began releasing music to remind people I was still out here and active. I also took it as an opportunity to try new music, pushing myself stylistically. I’m on my 5th single of the project and enjoying my old fan base hearing a new side of me and gaining new and younger fans with an updated sound. This project has allowed me to use the experience I have being a Nashville music veteran but work with younger talented people, with new expectations that challenge me.
My current single, “Hear Your Voice,” combines old feelings and relationships with a modern production. And the next single coming out at the end of summer, called “Drunk for Nothing,” allows me to try my luck in the commercial country market again after years of navigating the Americana Music scene. So, it’s an exciting time for me.
Stream Hear Your Voice here https://soulspazm.ffm.to/hearyourvoice
In your opinion, how do artists in this industry stay on top of the game when faced with so much competition? What’s the secret to making yourself noticed?
The level of competition has never been this intense. It’s a base-level competition for merely the oxygen in the room. There are so many new artists releasing singles daily – it’s hard to find your place in the world. It’s never been more critical for an artist to have a vision of who they are, who their audience is, and to play the long game. Artistic integrity and honesty may well be kryptonite to the short-term, opportunistic strategy seekers. But for those artists willing to be themselves and to build their legacy, these two attributes are the ballgame. Don’t make temporary art. Be steel instead of plastic.
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
After helping develop the nuclear bomb, the lead scientist Robert Oppenheimer quickly regretted it because he knew where it would lead. He wished he could unmake it. But we all know that genies do not return to their bottles. Though some may view this as an extreme metaphor, the digital streaming world destroyed the song-driven music business I grew up and prospered in. Songs no longer generate multi-level income streams like they once did. Nashville and most of its business model once flourished on the backs of songs. That has changed for the worse. Streaming has gutted songwriting income and, I believe, more often rewards mediocrity. It is the most regressive advance I’ve ever seen in our industry. I’m not going to spend all my time railing about it because we all have to adapt, learn new skills, and market ourselves better. Yes, the new streaming world opens up markets to more artists and gives access and opportunity to indie- artists in a way the old model struggled to. Some say it “levels the playing field.” However, I am at odds with some of my friends over this point. A level playing field isn’t worth much if it’s also a lowered playing field. Streaming has contributed to the demise of the blue-collar songwriter, and though I am working hard to understand, participate in, and develop some mastery over this new reality, I so wish that I could shove that genie back in the bottle.
Are you creative in other disciplines?
I am a writer, first and foremost. Even as a young musician, I considered myself a writer first. I only learned to play the guitar and sing so I’d have an outlet for what I wrote. Growing up in a family that valued and encouraged learning and self-expression, plus a wonderful creative writing teacher in high school, helped me gain my footing early on as a creative.
After spending my first 30 years finding success writing for publishing houses and other artists and making my own brand of country and Americana music, I have branched out to literature. My book, “The Sons of Starmount: Memoir of a Ten-Year-Old Boy,” is available in paperback and audiobook. I am currently wrapping up two other book projects, a sci-fi/historical fiction novel and a memoir of my twenty-year part-time job as a counselor on an inpatient adolescent psychiatric unit. I also recently launched a new online literary newsletter on the Substack platform called “Words from the Hollow.” I’ve loved the discipline of putting out a weekly essay to a dedicated fan base of nearly 1,000 subscribers. It’s been a terrifying, gratifying, and inspiring weekly project for me.
What is your creative process like?
I can describe my creative process in two words: forward momentum. First, I am a project-oriented guy, meaning I am better when I’m busy. My original mentor, folksinger, Tom Paxton told me that “Inspiration and discipline are connected at the hip,” and he was right. I rarely experience a lack of creativity or anything close to writer’s block because I am constantly working, so my ability to take in ideas and inspiration stays steady. Second, I am a very collaborative person when it comes to songs and singing. I love co-writing (it’s always been a Nashville thing,) co-producing, and playing with other musicians. But, when it comes to my author life, it’s been primarily a solo sport.
Of your own music, do you have a favorite? And can you pin down why?
There’s a song called “The Day I Drowned” I co-wrote with my dear friend and producer, Gabe Burdulis, and my old Kerrville Music Festival pal Lisa Aschmann. It tells the story of the day I damn near drowned, the first time I got in a whitewater kayak. I’m a big outdoorsman and have spent a lot of my life in the wilderness with my long-time friend and fellow bandmate in Runaway Home, Gary Culley. Gary put me in a whitewater boat years ago made for someone of, let’s just say, less substantial size. You can flip those damn things 180 degrees pretty quickly, but on that day anyway, the second 180 degrees didn’t happen and left me communing with the bass and perch twenty feet from the dock. When you almost lose your life, it makes every day after a pretty good day. I love this song because it allows me to be vulnerable and honest in front of crowds, and that’s about as much as a singer can ask of a song.
Connect with Mark Elliott:
Website: https://markelliottcreative.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markelliottcreative
Twitter: https://twitter.com/imacre8tivesoul
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markelliottcreative/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1V_7s3YepGo_tl1RRq7cDg
