Getting to Know… Mark Nelson

Reading Time: 6 min read

For the 97^th interview in the Getting to Know… series on The Musical Hype, we get both great insight and inspiration from Mark Nelson.

“Having been born with one arm I perversely chose the guitar as my weapon in life…” Just reading that statement is absolutely and utterly inspiring. English musician Mark Nelson is certainly an inspiration, finding a means to be successful on an instrument that typically requires two hands. “…Playing guitar one-handed, which, I guess is fairly unique.” Indeed! One of the most intriguing moments from Getting to Know…Mark Nelson: Interview #97 is how he describes his adaptation on his ‘weapon of choice’: “It wasn’t until my teens that I found a way of playing the guitar with one arm using my thumb to strum and fretting with any other willing digit.” Rather than spoil anymore of this fascinating interview, why not dive in and check it out for yourself!

Let’s get this started off right. For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes you distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

I was born with one arm and play guitar one-handed which I guess is fairly unique. I also write pop songs that people seem to want to hear. With my blues band, we mix blues with pop and with a degree of humour on stage that audiences remember and are an important part of the whole live experience.

Wow, definitely unique and quite inspiring. Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did your band form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

Having been born with one arm I perversely chose the guitar as my weapon in life. First, however came the songs. From an early age I listened to, and absorbed, music so much so that I began hearing my own songs in my head way before I could play an instrument.

It wasn’t until my teens that I found a way of playing the guitar with one arm using my thumb to strum and fretting with any other willing digit. I formed a rock band in my early 20s, and over a period of 20 years with different line ups, I write and played heavy rock and pop songs almost getting signed several times. Eventually, I decided to jump off the band wagon (so to speak) and went solo and acoustic – playing ballads and blues songs locally. I’ve been doing this ever since both solo and with my own acoustic blues band. It’s always been about the songs and writing them then performing and realising them.

Let’s talk more about goals. Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

No, I think my goals and aspirations haven’t changed much over the last few decades. My main aspiration is to be well known as a successful songwriter/artist and have my songs heard by many; to make the World smile back… oh, and to live a long and full life of course! I mean, the music industry has obviously changed a lot in that time you can no longer record your demo on a cassette and hope that some kindly A&R guy will sign you up for £1 million [1.271 million in U.S. dollars]. These days, it’s obviously all about promoting yourself and getting your music out there as much as you can. So, whilst the nature of making it in music has changed dramatically, my goals and aspirations haven’t.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

My influences are wide and varied. The Beatles influenced me enormously and mapped my path so far from an early age, as did The Who, The Kinks and late 60’s pop and rock and psychedelia. I am also hugely influenced by ballad artists like Nick Drake and Ralph McTell as well as more contemporary solo artists such as Graham Coxon and Jon Allen amongst many others.

When I was 16, I heard the Beatles’ White Album for the first time and it thrilled and inspired me hearing this eclectic collection of pop, rock, ballads and avant-garde songs. When I make an album now, I always make sure it has different flavours – a pop song followed by a ballad maybe then a rocky song… I have always admired that diverse format of presenting your art to the world in such a way – showing what you can do. These days, of course, with digital downloading, the art of sequencing songs on an album is almost gone, but I remain taking the old school approach.

Ah, the fun stuff. What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance? Feel free to be creative.

I was once in a rock band where we were performing in the final of a Battle of the bands competition. I tuned up my guitar just before going on stage and left it on the guitar stand then it was our turn to perform so I rushed onstage with the guitar, plugged it in and started playing the opening chords to our first song. The sound coming out was dreadful! I realised to my horror that the majority of the strings were completely out of tune I tried frantically to retune them whilst playing but doing this one-handed, in a song that demanded guitar all the way through it, meant it was almost impossible. I did a quick retune before the second number and we played our set fine after that. I made a joke about it, but I actually wanted to punch someone’s lights out. I never found out who did it but obviously someone wanted us to fail. However, despite this we came third in the final on that night, so we must’ve done something right!

My, my, my! Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

I have quite a few songs that I am particular proud of. I guess one of them, “A Wish”, is a particular favourite because the lyrics and the melody blend so well together. It’s an easy song in some ways to play and a hard song to sing as it’s quite emotional. Like most of my songs the guitar riff came first then the melody and then finally the lyrics; the words dictated by the mood of the music. It’s a song about longing and remembering someone and the good times with that person who is now gone. However, there is ambiguity in there as you’re never sure if the subject of the song has left the singer or has died.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

I love comedy, bringing humour to the world and a smile to people’s faces. I have always done impersonations of celebrities, teachers, people in authority and love creating comic characters through my voices. I make toy bear videos using my voices and love messing about on Snapchat recording short character video clips for fun. I also write stories and have written three, as yet, unpublished novels.

Closing things out, what are you currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

I have just released a brand-new single on Spotify through Animal Farm Music. “Lost love in a day” is a soulful pop ballad about regret love and life. I have another single coming out at a later date. I’m working on producing my blues band’s new album of original blues songs and I’m also about to start my own 70s funk/punk album project. I’m also quite keen to learn more piano licks as I hear a lot of piano in my song ideas. So, keeping quite busy.