Mark Nicholas

Listen, vote on and download Mark Nicholas's music for free on thesixtyone. Songs include Maniac, I Wish, Backlash, Little Goth Girl, Green, and more . marknicholas.org ...

Mark Nicholas is a Detroit-based electronic musician, well-known in the underground Synth Pop community as the man behind the band Cosmicity. Yeah, so um... Mark has been bonkers for the sound of synthesizers since he first heard songs like "Automatic" by the Pointer Sisters and "Borderline" by Madonna at the age of 1...1. His mom had him take piano lessons, but he didn't like them much. Those didn't last very long. As he got older, Mark found that what he really liked was making his own songs and sounds, which he tried to do whenever he could borrow time on the one synthesizer they had at his high school. When Mark was about 16 years old, he was asked to play the piano for a competitive school event. Mark agreed, even though he was (and still is) terrible at reading printed music. When he played very poorly during a rehearsal the day before the big event, his entire class, all 350 people, began to boo him. Mark left in complete shame. The rest of the school day he was yelled at in the halls because everyone was sure the class would lose due to his poor performance. It was one of the most humiliating moments of his life. That night he went home and listened to recordings of the songs he needed to play. He then sat down at the piano and figured out his own arrangements, using his much stronger skill: the ability to play by ear. When he played the big event the next day, their class won the competition. Still, nobody really cared. They just yelled at him less in the halls after that. Still, he was relieved. Mark went on to the University of Michigan to get a degree in Music and Technology. He didn't learn all that much there, though, because he was really only interested in pop music and the reigning wisdom among his professors and fellow students was that pop music was of little or no value. (They liked Jazz, Classical and 12-tone.) What he did do in 1994, during his Junior year, was decide to self-release a CD under the name Cosmicity. With a lot of pushing (posting flyers, pushing his CD on to the shelf at the local record store, one-man live shows), Cosmicity got a little attention. And a couple of people started talking about Cosmicity on this brand new thing called "the Internet". (It really was brand new in 1994!) By 1997, Cosmicity had a sizable following and had found a home at a new Synthpop record label called A Different Drum. There Cosmicity released many albums for many years and he was very happy to be doing it. But, by 2004, Mark felt like he wasn't really reaching anyone new with his music, and he was feeling stagnant. He dropped the name Cosmicity, left A Different Drum, and began work on a whole new sound. The result of his efforts was the 2007 album "Duchess 33" released on his own new record label "Dirty Electronic" under his real name. The album sold well, and throughout the year Mark began to grow a new and more diverse fan base. In January 2008 he released the remix album "Perversions", featuring alternate versions of tracks from "Duchess 33", as well as some fun covers ("Maniac" from Flashdance, "California Love" originally by Tupac and Dr. Dre) and even new versions of some Cosmicity classics like 1997's "Your Beautiful Lie" and “I Want You”. In June of 2008 Mark became a father (with his wife Sara, aka DJ Ginger Snapp). It was the best day of their lives. Unfortunately, their daughter Zoe has been plagued by severe health problems and developmental delays since she was only 2 months old. Time in hospitals and doctors offices searching for ways to help baby Zoe quickly became the norm. However, because music is such a huge part of Mark’s life, he's changing the way he works to make sure he can continue composing while he simultaneously works on doing everything he can to help his daughter. Early this year Mark announced that he would be returning to the Cosmicity name and would soon release a new EP, tentatively titled "ASCII CUPCAKE". It will be composed exclusively on a laptop computer and headphones in pockets of time between doctors visits and therapy sessions, and will represent yet another new phase in Mark’s musical journey. In short, expect moodier and far more lyrically naked songs. Still, some things remain constant. Mark's music has always been 100% synthesizer-driven, electronic, melodic, lyrically meaningful, and emotionally engaging. On this 11th original Cosmicity release, you can be sure that Mark’s ongoing passion for this unique brand of electronic music will prove to be stronger than ever.