Mark HoleIn such a big industry what sets you apart from other artists?
Oh my goodness. OK. I'm not into all this 'I'm an artist, I'm so cool' - I'm not into that - I'm just into being the force of nature that I am. My personality - this is me - I'm Mark Hole and I'm an individual. I'm not trying to copy anyone, I'm not trying to sound like anything, I'm just being myself, being creative. I'm a singer-songwriter who writes s**t loads of songs - I've already written 200 songs that I'm uploading currently on Sound Cloud - and also I think I've got a really good voice, I think my voice sets me apart from a lot of people - it's individual and it's strong. Also part of the way I write is that I'm all about the lyrics, I'm all about putting the voice forward. When I'm in the studio I'm always like 'turn up the vocals, turn up the vocals!' 'cos I want people to really listen to what I'm saying, I don't wanna hide behind a sound or a guitar. I hate music when it's so f**king loud that - I love loud music - but when you listen to say, Wolfmother, you can hear every single word and it's fantastic. I'm into making sure the vocals are completely forward so you can hear every word and I don't think that many bands actually do that these days.
Tell us a little bit about your new album.
'People Change' is essentially my debut in the sense that it's my first professional release. I did my first album called 'F-Sharp' that my old management made me take down from iTunes, and I literally just put it up and started Facebooking people. I was with them for three years and they did nothing, so I left them and finished my second album ''Always Follow Your Heart', then I put them up on iTunes again and basically said 'f**k the world', I promoted it on Facebook. It hasn't sold loads as you'd expect because I haven't had any promotion or money funding or actually getting a team behind the project.
Recently, six months ago I met my new management that I'm with now - White Tiger - fantastic people. Now we've got this proper team so basically 'People Change' is a best of. (laughs) It's like two tracks from the first album, four tracks from the second album and four new tracks from an EP that I never released and so it basically shows all that I am, all that I have been so far and the main reason why it's called 'People Change' is it's showing you the progression I've done within that music in itself. It's also a signing off from the sound itself because in the last two years I've been writing with a company called Lionheart which is a Swedish company with lots of Swedish producers - I've been writing with Amanda Ghost who wrote 'You're Beautiful' for James Blunt. I've been writing with Jimmy Hogarth, who's a great producer for Amy Winehouse, Adele - he's done it with everyone basically - all the famous English popstars now, he's worked with them.
I've also just been working with RedOne and all this writing that I've been doing over the past two years is a lot 'poppier' it's a lot 'funner', the one bad thing about my music is that my music so far has been very serious, kind of like Rufus Wainwright, Randy Newman, Jeff Buckley kind of thing. But I'm a bit more of a personality. If you came to my gigs you'd probably expect me to be quite quiet and insular like 'I'm a singer-songwriter and I'm really hurt by love' - bulls**t! I'm not into that so I actually confuse my audience a lot of the time - I've had to learn how to deliver it - they don't understand how someone can write these songs and also be a bit nuts and entertaining - a lot of people think I could be a comedian.
The pop stuff I've been writing is showcasing me as a personality, as a singer-songwriter who gets up and entertains, and it suits me a lot better, so the next album is gonna be called 'You Gotta Love A Pop Record', and it's basically like - imagine a classier Robbie Williams (laughs). That's where I'm heading, and that's why it's called 'People Change', I am changing and this is in my past now. Once it's released, it's in my past - I might play a song or two from it but moving on to bigger and better things.
So, what other upcoming projects can we expect?
Well the one I just mentioned - 'You Gotta Love A Pop Record' - this is the next venture. It is going to be a f**king massive, massive album. I've written about 20 tracks, 20 very, very strong songs that are all on the plate. We're all very, very excited. We are moving towards 'Gotta Love A Pop Record' - yes, yes, yes, I am so excited, but I can't tell you anymore.
'People Change' is released November 11 alongside lead single 'Torture Garden (Radio Edit)' via We Plant Music/AWAL.