Mark Donnelly
1) Who are you, who is in the band, who does what in the studio and on stage?
My name is Mark Donnelly from The Tide Inside, I’m the singer, songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, laptop user, tambourinist, shaker-player, all-rounder of the band. I’ve been in the studio for the past two years recording and mixing my first album since my last band Action Group (also based in Edinburgh) became defunct. Since finishing the album I’ve been working with drummer Adam Bond Thomson to interpret the songs from the album for a live sound and after going through several line-up changes we brought on board guitarist/professional Irishman Keith Nagle and bass-player Ewan Cockburn.
2) How long have you been writing and performing in this way?
We’ve been playing as the current line up since early summer 2013.
3) How exactly do you work / write / record?
When I write music I usually start with a rhythmic idea or loop and add to that. So when it comes to the band set-up my songs are already pretty well realised in terms of the vibe and feel. I’ll usually bring the demo to the band and we’ll run through it without too much restriction to see how it evolves with the band putting their own stamp on it.
4) How do you feel your studio/recording style informs the way you perform your music live (or vice versa)?
I wrote and recorded the first album using drum loops, samples and layers upon layers of sounds, so we’ve had to be quite particular about choosing which songs will work in a live setting with only four band members. With some songs it’s been difficult to capture the feel and mood of the song while doing it justice. The atmosphere and soundscape of certain songs on the album are key to what I think makes them interesting and sometimes you can’t capture that with conventional instruments or without having a string quartet at your disposal. I had a plethora of material that didn’t make it to the album so we’ve been adding a lot of new material to the live set which has certainly felt more grounded in the live band’s style.
5) What’s been happening lately and what’s new with you?
We released the debut album in December just passed and have been busy promoting the new album during the January depression.
6) When was the last time you played Edinburgh (and where)?
Our last gig was the album launch at The Citrus Club with James Metcalfe and Your Loyal Subjects supporting. It was essentially just getting all our friends together and doing a show the way we wanted to do it, for as long as we wanted with some friendly, drunken heckling involved.
7) If you’ve played Limbo before, what did you like/rate about the experience? If you’ve not played Limbo before, what have you heard about it?
We’ve played at Limbo twice before (albeit with slightly differing line-ups each time) and once or twice in the past as Action Group. It’s always nice to play to a loyal crowd that knows and appreciates what they’re coming to see. The promoters always do a good job of choosing the most complementary acts for a night. There’s nothing worse than playing dark, brooding music to an audience that are just there to see their mates in another band that sound like The View.
8) What’s next, coming up after this gig, for you and what are you generally looking forward to right now…?
We want to play as much as we can this year and potentially have a couple of things in the pipeline regarding dates in Germany and the Netherlands, which is nice. We hope to get in to the studio as early as possible this year as well to start work on a second album, this time recording with a full live set up. The self-titled album is available to stream on Spotify, iTunes etc.
9) How do you feel about Scottish independence and the whole ‘Yes’ campaign?
I haven’t got round to reading the SNP’s manifesto yet so couldn’t say right now but if they have any plans to make Scotland a more culturally accepting place for music and make us millionaires then I’m all in. It would be nice to be able to have a vote that actually has a say in which party runs the country, mind you.
10) What do you think about a struggling artist/musician becoming the face of an advertising campaign for a bank, as Rachel Sermanni did recently for RBS?
Hmm, I hadn’t heard about this so I just googled it. It’s a bit cheesy. It really isn’t easy being a musician and trying to make enough money to get by, though. It’s even harder logistically to have a full time job and put your full efforts in to being a musician at the same time. So if somebody offers you a huge wad of cash that’ll help you get by and allow you to keep on making music then it can’t be too bad a thing, personally. It might not do much for your credibility but if people are going to be so fickle then that’s their problem, I guess. It’s lucky RBS didn’t use our music, they might go out of business pretty sharp, I think Sportscene is more our thing.
