Interview: Mark & The Tiger

Mark And The Tiger bring a powerful message coupled with a unique cutting edge style to the LA musical landscape.  Read on to learn more about MY MAGIC.

Thanks for joining us today Mark, where did the Tiger influence come into your name and is the Tiger your spirit animal?

Thanks so much for having me! Yeah, the Tiger has definitely become a spirit animal of mine. Or maybe it always has been and I’ve just sort of grown into it over the years. I’ve always loved tigers, but honestly the “Tiger” started as an inside joke with myself. Then it became a kind of alter ego. And now, yeah, it’s turned into my spirit buddy. His name is Jeffery and we’re just trying to have adventures!

Tell us about being an independent artist in Los Angeles.

It’s such a wild place to be. You have every single resource and opportunity at your fingertips and yet at the same time it can be so overwhelming. It’s hard to know where to start or where the most important place is to put your energy. Like too much of a good thing. For me personally, it was like moving in fits and starts for a while. There would be a lot of forward momentum, I’d do some gigs or produce some songs and then I wouldn’t know what to do with myself afterwards and end up stagnating. It’s really been a blessing finding my new management team (Thanks BSquared!). Now I feel like I have some direction and support.

Freedom is amazing! And being an independent artist means you are free in a way that artists signed to a label don’t necessarily get to be. But you it has its own challenges. You have to have some sort of structure in order to grow. So really,  it’s about finding that for yourself. I feel like I’ve finally found mine after years of floundering around.

Please share with our readers more about your upcoming new single, My Magic and it’s powerful message. 

My Magic was one of the first songs I wrote that really just flew out of me organically. I wrote it right around the time the Parkland shootings happened and there was so much talk about arming teachers. It was so disheartening to me. So fucking frustrating. It was (and continues to be) amazing to me that after all the violence that continues to happen in our country, let alone the frickin’ world, that the best solution we can come up with is more guns. This song started as an outlet and catharsis for me to vent my feelings. But it ultimately became a call to action. An anthem to inspire people, or at the very least myself, to treat each other better. At the end of the day we are all the same. Skin Colors, beliefs, sexualities, they do not matter. We are a collective and it’s time we remember that and start acting like that.

What have been some of your most memorable performances thus far in your career? 

Ha, my very first gig ever in Los Angeles is probably my most memorable. I was definitely still trying to figure myself out at that stage. I had written a song for my now husband. We had only been together a few months but he was really the one who inspired me to stop being afraid and just get out and perform. I sang that song, and at the end of the show he got up and proposed. So far no gig has topped that yet, but I’m hopeful!

How would you describe your show?

A good friend of mine told me that when he comes to my shows he feels free to be his most authentic self. That’s how I want every single person to feel when they see me play. I have the most fun ever when I’m performing. It’s cathartic and exciting, and it makes me feel connected to people in a way that I don’t always get to be. I feel the most free and alive when I’m performing and I think that comes across. And hopefully it’s contagious.

Please let us know about your upcoming release dates and your next show date & location.

My Magic  is going to be out at the end of the month and then I’ll be doing a show to celebrate it’s release sometime in September! Still ironing out the details, so check out my website and social media for the low down!

Website: markandthetiger.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markandthetiger/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markandthetiger/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/43Djxh8LfUgD8xWlEvLvCZ

End of Interview