The Mark Inside

Sometimes a musician will try to tell you what a hard life they have. With the trials and tribulations of the long hard road, the socio-political responsibility they have to the youth of the world, the long hours, the fiery wrist cramps of over-autographing and the never ending publicity shoots, there’s more to rock and roll than just picking up a guitar. Just don’t try to tell that to The Mark Inside.

The Whitby-born and raised foursome met while still in high school and in the process of learning their respective instruments. Geoff Bennett (Bass), Geordie Dynes (Drums), Gus Harris (Guitar), and Chris Levoir (Vocals/Guitar). In halls filled with designer sweaters, big pants and a lack of underground music fans, the four highschool lads were odd men out.

Geoff and Chris had known each other since elementary school and had been playing a few gigs around the Durham Region in a previous band when they first became aware of Gus and Geordie and their respective adolescent musical projects. The two halves of the future Mark Inside eyed each other from across school halls without exchanging words, until an opportunity to play on the same stage at a local battle of the bands presented itself. All four future members had chance and excuse to converse and check out each other's chops. The following week the four got together to discuss with relished excitement the prospect of a new band, a new hybrid of influences and a more honest appraisal of their high school da(ze). The Mark Inside loomed in the not-so distant future as rock and roll inevitability.

In a town with no particular music scene beyond a handful of pop-punk and metal bands, The Mark Inside unified through a desire to be a sore thumb amidst suburban inspired blandness. They were music fans first and foremost and still believed in the power of distorted guitars, drums and volume. Anyone could play loud, and most adolescent bands around the boys were playing at excruciating decibel levels, but very few made it anything but boring and painful.

The Mark Inside began playing to amuse only themselves in rehearsal and, having grown up on many of the same records as one another, they very naturally drifted into sprawling, aggresive blues jams, winding chaotic climaxes, feedback squalls, lush melodies and thick rhythms which they tried to structure and turn into songs.

Amalgamating their favourite elements of the British Invasion, late sixties psych-rock, a surprising contingent of Canadian independents, and punk rock to create a jarring modern rock sound that defies convention, The Mark Inside taunts genre-classification and demands attention. Like most young bands, The Mark Inside would gather wherever their drummer’s kit could be found. Forever grateful to the Dynes family for putting up with the barrage of sound emanating from the family basement, these formative jam-sessions solidified the band, leaving them with a desire to play live, but very few solid venues to play in.

The Mark Inside made their live debut at the Dungeon in Oshawa, a venue that provided the only stage in town for minors. Through the Dungeon's regular hosting of all ages shows, even some of the more unconvential local bands like The Mark Inside, Another Blue Door, Cuff The Duke, The Failures, The Postage Stamps, The Carnations, and Anagram began to attract a small friendly following and, slowly, something of a scene seemed to be developing throughout the Durham region.

Despite a growing musical renaissance of bands trying to break the mould of generic Top 40 radio, Oshawa couldn’t offer enough exposure for them to make the impact they hoped to have on the Canadian scene. For The Mark Inside, going to Toronto was a fast approaching inevitability, but it was not a venture they would have to face alone. Embracing the “strength in numbers” philosophy, bands coming out of Oshawa and Whitby collapsed onto the Toronto music scene en masse as the Suck My Disc collective. With the various bands lending each other support through live events and recording efforts, the Whitby-Oshawa invasion began to take over with bands working together for the eventual success of them all. Though the music varied wildly between the bands, there was an intense respect shared amongst artists who were tired of the same generic, mass-produced fluff that had been accepted as the only musical offering for too long.

Having officially migrated to Toronto as a unit, The Mark Inside solidified themselves as a force to be reckoned with onstage. Any type of posing or posturing be damned, this was about rock and roll at its rawest.

Then, with the help of Thom D’arcy of the now defunct Carnations, the monstrous sound of The Mark Inside entered the studio. Nearly five years after forming the band, The Mark Inside were ready for their first studio recordings. Introducing the band to a world beyond four-track recording, D’arcy produced and engineered the album while Steve Krecklo and Andreas Tom