Mark Hole
Mark Hole is one of the most exciting musicians to step into the industry for quite some time.
The self-confessed "charmer" possesses incredible vocals which he pushes on his upcoming album 'People Change', alongside haunting melodies, inventive lyrics and a true honesty rarely seen in others.
We got the chance to chat to Mark about life growing up as the son of one of the world's most powerful men, a strange offer of £100 when he was younger and what we can expect from 'People Change'.
How was life growing up as the son of Universal boss Max Hole?
It was great. He's a great guy and he's a great dad, but obviously hugely, hugely successful, hugely busy, so one doesn't see him as much as one would like but it was good for me in terms of exposing me to the life as the stars see it - like exclusive parties, backstage and all sorts of gigs and just seeing and experiencing wonderful, wonderful events. That was great.
In terms of when I started to do music, when I was - I started at 16 writing songs, then I joined a band. So here I am - Max Hole's son - at the biggest most exclusive parties with literally every single person you need to know in the industry, and the funny thing about all the execs is there's only like four top executives at Universal, and that's probably the same in every company - there's only four now or five major labels - so that's only like 15 people that run the world. Then you could say the guys under that - so it's like 100 people run the whole thing, and I'm in a room with every single person in the world, and I can't get anywhere because I'm Max Hole's son.
I'm walking up there going 'Hiya, I'm in a band, I'm Max Hole's son' and basically I learned very, very quickly that that was completely the wrong way to approach it, because no-one takes you seriously, it's always a bit awkward and out of politeness they might say 'oh I'll come and meet up for a coffee' but I did all that s**t, and was always grateful, but it was just not helping. So quite quickly - it only took a couple of years doing that - I just sort of went 'I can't be arsed doing this'. Sometimes I'd go to these events anyway because they're fun but I wouldn't actually say that I was a musician unless I had a proper, proper conversation with someone where I felt like we connected so that was it. I just sort of pushed myself away. Even in some circumstances - I remember I was at Glastonbury Festival in the VIP section and I met one of the managers of Snow Patrol and Athlete, and I'm a bit of a charmer. So, I basically managed to charm the pants off this guy, at the bar, showing him all my best jokes, he was loving me - he was like 'you're a joker Mark, can I buy you a drink?', it's all going well. 'What's your full name? I'll take all your details.' He takes my number; 'Oh, my name's Mark Hole' and then literally he goes 'Max Hole's son?' and then he goes 'No, no. I'm really sorry, don't send it me.' Literally he just retracted everything, he goes: 'I'm so sorry Mark I think you're a great guy I'm just not interested, I can't get involved' and he actually said 'Everything your father touches turns to gold!' (laughs) On one hand I'm like 'wicked, my dad's a legend!' and on the other hand I'm like 'for f**ks sake, give me a f**king break here'. I'm not bad at what I do - I'm good at what I do and the industry's so f**king tough and I never tell anyone until now because I'm two albums pre-debut album coming out of creativity, I'm now fully, fully my own person. I can stand up on my own two feet and all this, so now I'm just excited about moving forward and don't mind talking about it. In fact I kind of welcome it because it is my story, it is my truth.
What was it that made you want to join the music industry?
I'm dyslexic, and from when I was born I've had the most amount of energy. I was a nightmare child. Literally every single school I've been to, I've been suspended - I'm not joking out of all the schools I've been to I've been suspended at least 30 times, and this is all based on me having s**t loads of energy and people not being able to cope with me. I hate academic sort of work, I love poetry I love creating, I love acting I love sports, but I just had s**t loads of energy and essentially the society and school - I wasn't good at it. For some reason I never got expelled so I guess everyone thought 'Mark's a good guy, but he's nuts' sort of thing. I just kind of fell into acting actually.
I started off when I was at school - I'd sing in the choir, be in musicals, act in the plays and then I actually started going to a few acting schools, and then I went to drama school. I was training to be an actor, did a three year diploma course and then I left drama school and messed up my chance to get this agent - who was a d**k anyway - and I ended up with this agent called David from Timid Associates.
He was this sweet, old man who basically said 'Mark, listen you don't have to sign anything with me, I'm just going to try and find you work because I really like you and if I find you work I'll take my 15% then' so I just said 'OK, what have I got to lose?' then literally the first time he called me - it was like three months later - he said 'Mark, basically I'm gonna try and get you an audition for this thing, so I'll call you right back.' so I'm like 'OK great' - he didn't call me back - then the next time he calls me back he says 'Mark I'm just telling you I'm going on holiday for three weeks', and then the third time he calls me, it's a Sunday evening at 9.20pm, and he says 'Mark. I want to ask you a question. Will you have sex with a girl for £100?', and I go 'Er, what?', and he's like 'Will you have sex with a girl for £100', and I'm fresh out of drama school, I don't know how to handle this situation, so I'm like 'erm, er, is it a film, is it a play? Can you give me a bit more information? Who is the girl?', I was desperate to get any details from him. He was like 'No, no cameras, just you and the girl, will you have sex for £100?', so I'm freaking out and I say 'mate, you know I've got a girlfriend', and he's like 'she wouldn't have to know', and I'm like f*k me... This guy is gay as well - an older guy who's gay - so I think maybe he's got the hots for me? I don't know, what is the deal? So I put down the phone I say 'David, I don't know what to say to this, give me a call back when you've got more details'.
I go and tell my girlfriend at the time and her mother what happened and ask if it's normal and they in unison go 'no!'. Then I call him right back and say 'David what the f**k, what is this about?' and he starts laughing and saying 'I'm with my producer friend Richard' and he goes 'yes, we were talking about the film 'Indecent Proposal' - in the film the guy pays a man like a million dollars to sleep with his wife - and him and his producer friend apparently were having a conversation about whether someone would really do this. David said 'Oh I know a good guy, Mark Hole, he wouldn't do it 'cos he's got a girlfriend, he's honourable, let's use him as a guinea pig, I'll call him'. So now he's telling me an even worse story, an even worse thing to do - he's using me as a guinea pig!
Let's get real - if he had said to me 'Mark, will you have sex with a girl for a million dollars?', I would've said 'f**k yeah!'.
Basically, that was the moment where I just was like 'oh my God' - I was in a band I was like - 'f**k acting, I hate this world and I love everything about music and I'm enjoying myself'. I think I actually got a meeting with that agent later on - the one I could've got but messed up - the good one - he was saying 'leave the band' but I couldn't leave the band, and I've been in it ever since.