Standing still.
Berthmark is my persona, my escape from reality for a time. While my reality in the past had been a lot more darker and at times to be honest, had made me fall to my knees many times. being a Musical Artist saved me.
It showed me that even through those dark times, there was a light at the end..Pain is a great teacher and As Mark Joseph Parsons, I got to know pain well.
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From about the age of ten, writing short stories was a huge passion of mine.
I loved the whole idea of creating something from scratch and putting it down on paper, while imagining what these folk may have looked like going about their daily lives.
Then at 14, I was introduced to what was my calling, Music.
During my school days, I learned how to play the thin whistle and bodhran and over the years that followed, I started putting my short stories to music, turning them idea's into songs. At times when i got stuck, I taught myself other instruments. Then I started forming bands and well.. sometimes, If i needed a keyboard player, i taught them too.
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Then real life hit me, and i had to grow up.
And as i matured, so did my approach to song writing.
I believe a song should tell a story, and it should be based on real life.
But somewhere down the line though, with the new rap, and pop culture, Real songwriting had lost it's way.
Less and less so called musicians, are even playing their own instruments but using computers which saddens me, day to day music is loosing that human feeling.
Gone are the days of the Lennon's and Dylan's of the world, The real story teller's who had captivated their audiences by writing about real subject matters. That artistry I feel has died within now days music.
So as a multi instrumentalist , I believe its my duty, to tell those stories, Our stories.
It is believed, I may be a descendant of the Druids, after all.
So my music is told with a story telling Tongue. You got to tell a story, don’t you.?
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When real life hit me, I had to put music on the back bone as my dreams got further away from me, while I at the time started to raise a young family on my own.. But I kept writing from a far, away from the public and It was my Music and writing that kept me going through that period. These life happenings inspired me and they can be heard in many of my songs, seeping through like a cry for help.
“Music and writing is in my bloodstream and it has always been my lifeline”, .
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I took the time needed to recuperate and grounded myself once more. some of these songs are like my wounds of that war, That I felt I was loosing .
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.” R.I.P In Loving Memory.” Is a song I penned about one woman’s heart ache and her anger at the powers up above for taking her love away, after his long struggle with Alzheimer’s This is a strong personal writing subject for me and I have penned a few songs on the subject over the years, As I too have had a brush with that terrible disease through a grandfather.
I try to put my heart into my writing and it can get personal, but for me the more personal I get, the more of my heart comes through my work.
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"Matthew" is a dark Acoustic Blues song, one that brings us into my own life as an artist. The pains I had felt over my son ,who was born with a disability. At that dark time of his birth, I remember thinking to myself, as the doctor pulled off his blanket to reveal he was missing an arm, How am I going to teach him the guitar. It seems mad now, thinking back but maybe it was just a coping mechanism for me at the time.
While searching for subject matter, if its not personal, I try to find inspiration in the happening of the world.
In a song called "Like Christy Does"
Which I dedicate to the great Irish song smith Christy Moore.
I write about the dangers, that the people of the world found themselves faced with, during the demise of the twin towers in New York on that one September.
A closer look into a world in the hands of the corrupt and greedy Governments and of Ireland's own struggle in particular, to grab its own hold, real day to day topics that effect us all and tempers with human physic, around our thoughts on these matters.
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I believe I am a true writer and have been born into this sometimes cruel world to do so, These are my stories and Our stories and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to them .
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Yours Musically
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Berthmark.
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