Mark Berland
Singer Songwriter - Artist/Painter
Just listened to David Bowie discussing how to be an Artist. It inspired this and perhaps will inspire you:
I am just one lonely, trailblazer. Together, we are here to change the world and bond as the founding fathers would’ve wanted us to do. We are the unbreakable, unshakable, undeniable melting-pot so help me bring back the sanity, dignity, and integrity of the human race. Don’t let this great oppression of our fellow man be the new normal of the modern era. Don’t let apathy be your legacy. Don’t signal to the powers that be, that the lights are on, but no one is home. Don’t let them pillage and plunder at any opportune time. The News outlets, social media, the music streaming platforms have all participated in this great confusion. The result is a gigantic spiritual, and financial poverty amongst our children, our elderly, our working class and our most gifted. In response, I am writing songs that matter. I ask you to do so as well so check out these tunes and I will be forever grateful. Click Here for inspiration
BLOG 6-5-26
BLOG
Music is my religion, my salvation, and my joy. I am indebted to music forever, as I am married to it for better or worse. Somehow, this music thing found me at age 13 in a boarding school after leaving a somewhat tumultuous childhood situation. In a way, this was a lifesaver and a breath of fresh air.
I remember Rob, a blonde-headed sparkling enthusiast, who saw me sitting in the school rotunda. He approached me, shoved an electric guitar into my lap, and said, “You look like a musician… learn to play”. I immediately practiced for three hours nonstop, stumbling upon a two-chord vamp that inspired and mesmerized me. Two weeks later, Rob said, “We have a gig in one week.” I said, “But, Rob, I can’t play a thing and don’t know what I’m doing”. He responded, “Don’t worry, you’ll play the bass, and it’s a lot easier, and it only has four strings”. I don’t know why, but I went along with it. “So now here we are at the gig one week later - me on bass, and Rob on guitar and vocals. We had absolutely no rehearsals, and I had no idea of the materials or songs. He either thought I could do it or that it didn’t matter because I looked good.
After twenty minutes into the show, I started to realize just how bad and wrong my chosen notes were. I turned down the volume control on the bass. Ten minutes later, a girl came up to us and exclaimed, “We can’t hear Mark!” So Rob gave me quite a look and turned my bass back up. I thought to myself, “Doesn’t he realize just how sour this sounds?”. But then again, perhaps he didn’t care. Back then, we didn’t have any monitor speakers to help hear ourselves, but perhaps that was irrelevant because Rob thought I looked good. After five minutes, I heard someone else say, “Something sounds wrong.” This time, I was sneaky, and I turned down the volume on my amplifier.
Once again, someone told Rob, “We can’t hear Mark. It was my nightmare that he turn me up once more. Rob gave me a look and said, “Play.” The music was so bad that no one in their right mind could or would dance this karaoke gone wrong. Not having any ideas to escape this embarrassment, I decided to pray. I said, “God! No, no, no, no, I can’t do this. “ I can’t, I can’t,” and then, a miracle actually did happen! A girl yelled, “Fire!” fire! fire!. Much to my relief, the tube bass amplifier I was using caught on fire! We HAD to stop! Phew! So ever since then, I became a true believer and indeed a very hot musician.
For myself, music is spirit manifesting into the material world. It is a reminder of where we come from. It’s the sharing of bread with the perfect stranger. It’s an opportunity to claim one’s authentic self, and like Star Trek’s saying “go where no man has gone before”. That is a byproduct of exploration and letting go into the depths of sweet surrender beyond the void. So, however you do it —through scholarly study or visionary dream—the main thing is to do it, share it, dance to it, and remember the saying: “do your thing and you’ll be King.”
