BM: What were your first experiences of the Blues?

Marcus: I remember listening to Chuck Berry with my Dad when I was real young, he had a great record collection. Stuff like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, they were my first real blues experiences. I didn't get heavy into the blues till I was 16 though, that's when I heard Led Zep & The Doors for the first time.
 
BM: Who were the influences on your musical career?

Marcus: So so many, To start with It was Zeppelin and the Doors cos through them I found out about Howlin Wolf, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy & Blind Willie Johnson. Since then Muddy Waters, Tom Waits, Tony Joe White, John Martyn and Shuggie Otis have been big influences on my music.

BM: Does singing the Blues come from experience?

Marcus: Of course otherwise it couldn't be the blues. When I write songs sometimes I don't know what they're about straight away and it takes me a few months to realise what had been scratching at me to cause me to write that. It all comes from stuff that's happened to me or other people or just the stories going round in my mind but it's all from inside and experience and living life, that's what I think the blues is about, you gotta live it.

BM: Do you think that Blues needs to evolve to stay relevant?

Marcus: Yeh of course, it always has. I love all the old Muddy, Mississippi John Hurt, JB Lenoir recordings but they are of a certain time, they are singing about cultural things that affect them and their music reflects it. I think nowadays we have a different blues to sing, I love the blues genre because there is so much room for it to evolve which gives a lot
of freedom to really express yourself.
 
BM: Aims for the future and what do you hope to achieve within the Blues?

Marcus: I’m going to take my band out on the road in the autumn and start on my
next record early next year. I'd love to bring more and more people into the scene and get lots of folk listening to the blues and buying all our records!
I just wanna keep makin records, playing the blues round the world and see where I end up.
It's one hell of a ride and I love doing it…
 
BM: Why do you feel that young people are not as attracted to the Blues as other Genres?

Marcus: I dunno if that's true man, I've noticed more and more young people coming to shows and enjoying the blues we play. It's real good to see cos I think a while ago it wasn't as readily available to people but there are more blues clubs opening, younger guys playing it and younger people getting into it. It's all real positive I think.

BM: When did you start playing guitar?

Marcus: I started playing trumpet from the age of 8 I didn’t seriously get into the guitar till I was 18. I had been messing round on my mum’s old acoustic from the age of 15, just learning the odd song to try and impress girls but the more I learnt the more I loved the instrument and it quickly became my life. I knew I wanted to play music forever from a young age but by the time I left school it was all about the guitar for me.
 
BM: How would you like to see music change over the next 10 years?

Marcus: Well I'd like to see more artists releasing the music they want to release rather than stuff they been pushed in to in the pursuit of fame and I'd like to see the artists who are in it just for the notoriety and money disappear completely. I think we'd be left with a real hip music scene.
 
BM: If you weren’t a musician (in a band) what would you be doing?

Marcus: Ah man I have no other skills! I don’t know, I remember at one point when I was real young I wanted to be an architect but it's a bit late for all that now. I think I’d probably like to teach music or work in a record store, it'd have to be music related, is that cheating?

BM: What sort of music did you listen to growing up?

BM: You are a singer/songwriter. What drives your song-writing?

Marcus: Lots of things really, things that make me angry and a lot of the time I write about things that happened to me a few years ago I got no idea what the song is about till I've played it a few times. I like writing
stories in my head and a lot of the time they turn into songs too.
Someone said to me once "just cos it's true doesn't mean it’s
Interesting I like that cos I got a pretty wild imagination.
 
BM: If you had the opportunity to play with any blues artist dead or alive
live on stage who would it be?

Marcus: That's a real hard question cos I think about it a lot and never end up with an answer I'm happy with. I think though for live on stage it'd have
to be Muddy Waters what a band leader and presence that man was, I’d
love to play music with him. Ah but Tom Waits though, cos he's a genius too, it's too hard to choose man...