Mark on top form as he returns to Galway

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@gmail.com

Mark Geary, a man with a knack for melody, plays Monroe’s Live on Saturday, July 21. He released his latest album The Fool in November and has been on tour ever since, visiting countries like Switzerland, Germany, the US and Canada. When he takes the call from the Tribune, Mark is in Portland, Oregon, where he’s starting the day with a cherished coffee.

Mark released his debut in 2002 and the Dubliner always keen to get his songs in front of an audience, especially after finishing a new album.

“You make a record and you’re in a little bubble, in lots of ways,” he says. “This is album number five. You become aware when you start to put the final pieces to the record and you’re thinking about singles and the promo and whatever, and you’re hoping that people get to hear it. I think that’s the challenge in the world of social media and all of it. Just to have something that rises above the squall of people taking pictures of their pizza. Everyone is busy and in their own little bubble.”

One of the stand-out tracks from The Fool is the stirring Don’t Break. It shows that Geary’s ability to write a sing-along chorus is intact – this is a song built for playing live.

“I struggled with that song, to make it as pure as possible,” Mark says. “I had a band play on it, I had a little choir on it at one point. Then Karl Odlum who recorded and produced the record with me said ‘what about doing what you’d do if it was a live show?’  I said if it was live, I’d sing it with a certain tuning on my guitar and I’d have Gráinne [Hunt, a singer from Monaghan] singing harmonies. And he said ‘let’s try that’. I’ve been surprised by the reaction to it. It’s made the charts in Switzerland and Germany – you never know these things when you’re writing.”

Down in Front is another highlight on an album littered with them. The song is inspired by the 15 years Mark spent living in New York, having arrived there as a 21-year-old with a burning ambition to play music.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.