MARKUS MANN is 50% Trinidadian, 50% American, 100% his own man, Markus immigrated to France in the summer of 2010 launching his solo career. Markus started playing music at an early age, staring with the cello and piano. Since then the artist always had music in the backdrop of his life. Living the majority of his life in Washington DC in a very conservative home, Markus was never given much credit when he claimed that he wanted to become a professional musician. But, even if his family and close circle didn’t consider music to be a “real job”, his passion for the arts still continued to play a major role in his life. As a teenager, Markus would often estrange himself from his family, locking himself in his bedroom, for 6-8 hours at a time, playing his guitar or sitting in front of his radio’s speakers while blasting a favorite Jimi Hendrix Experience or Radiohead album, two of his absolute favorites.
It wasn’t until his university years that the real world of music and the music business met Markus. He played non-stop and with anyone and everyone that he could find. Good musicians, bad musicians, he didn’t care. Mann’s love of playing consumed him. He would often find himself organizing jam sessions at his then, small apartment, inviting complete strangers to come by if they wanted to jam along, oftentimes to the delight of his neighbors and friends who came and watched. He usually played in as many as 3-5 bands at any given time during his University career. His range of expertise and control neatly improved as he might one day be playing drums in a metal band, and the next playing bass in jazz ensemble. His musical experiences in University culminated with a record deal offer from Arista Records for his alternative rock group Solace (consisting of Markus and 3 other fellow alumni), where Markus drummed and co-wrote most of the songs. Being young, broke and still very much under the influence of parents, the group declined the offer and decided to keep up with their studies. But this would only be the first of a series of encounters that Markus would have with a major label and the professional music world.
Years later, Markus found himself in a with another big project: Dimestore. By this time, his experience had him sharing stages with the likes of Winton Marsalis, The Wailers, Victor Wooten, and he had even jammed with Donald Fagan from Steel Dan. Mann even one time jammed with Dave Grohl, former Nirvana drummer and lead singer of the Foo Fighters, after meeting him in a Guitar Center store in Arlington, VA. The years still didn't kill his love of jamming.
With refined experience and his new project on the move, Markus decided to pursue music fulltime as his official vocation. Upon receiving an offer from Sony Records to perform solo, Markus found himself packing his house in DC to move to Brussels, Belgium, working on tracks from his first album The Way to the Sky. After his move was finalized, it came about that the deal between Markus and Sony wouldn’t work out due to both parties. Markus, who wasn’t content to stop there, decided to go on and produce his second album, All of It, himself. Extensive touring in France, Belgium, Switzerland and The Netherlands landed the artist in Amsterdam, where he now continues to work since 2014, completing the writing and collaboration for his upcoming album, Hash-tag: Real (#Real), due for release in December of 2015.
