The Opening Song

from Eighth Day Magazine Issue Twenty-eight

A Grand Entrance

Interview by Alice Jones-Rodgers.

The Opening Song is a new musical project featuring singer Mark Whiteside, who has previously graced these pages (and appeared on the cover of Issue Two way back in November 2018) as the drummer and vocalist of Evil Blizzard and the main man of One Sided Horse, and pianist and producer Stuart Mayor.

With the impending release of Lancashire-based duo’s debut album, ‘Hidden Walls’, we recently caught up with Mark to learn more about The Opening Song and find out what we can expect from their grand entrance.

Firstly, hello Mark and thank you for agreeing to our interview, it is lovely to speak to you again. Could we start by asking how The Opening Song came about?

I have played in various bands since my teens. In fact, I am always looking to do interesting new things. I think I’ve been about fifteen different bands. After years of playing with friends and gigging all over the UK and abroad, I have met many great people in bands who play many different types of music. One such person I met was Stuart Mayor. He was, well still is, a brilliant Piano player and he joined a band I was with called Treehouse 3. Stuart is a very tasteful player and often brought his melodic hooks to the songs. He was easily the best musician in the band. In 2018, when I was thinking of fulfilling my dream of making a simple piano and vocal album, I immediately thought of him. I knew that he could transform my ideas that I wrote on the guitar. Not only did I know he would give them a beautiful texture, he would also change the songs for the better. He has such an amazing way of playing that gives the music a soundscape below my vocals. After recording the basic tracks, we decided it would be good to add some orchestration to them and this is where Stu really stepped up and took the songs to yet another level. The way Stu layers textures are incredible and really takes you on a journey. I think of this album as music for headphones. In fact, when he said, ‘Don’t take this the wrong way but this album is a great one for falling asleep to’, I really understood what he meant.

Why the name The Opening Song?

Finding a name is never easy, and we had thought of a few but this name came about after I was thinking of the gigs I have played and just what we should use to open the set with ... a debate probably most bands have had numerous times! So why not use this as the name. I put it to Stu and it was agreed. The Opening Song was born. Whether this is a band or a working project I am not sure, but to have a name gives it identity and I love this name. Then again I would!

We believe that The Opening Song

had quite a long gestation period. In fact, when we spoke to you for Issue Two back in late 2018, you and Stuart were just starting to work together on this project. How did the music develop from there?

Over the last 18 months, I’ve gone to Stu’s home studio working on songs for the album. I would record the vocal in one take live while he played a basic Piano part. I wanted to get an honest take, and I prefer to get it as a whole rather than to comp it if possible. If I didn’t get it then we started again until we were happy with the whole take. Stu would then develop his piano more around my vocal and create something amazing. One track we recorded early on, I sent through a friend to Gideon Coe [BBC 6 Music]. To our delight, he has played the song on more than one occasion on his night time show. He said it reminded him of early Tom Waits, so that was good to hear. In total we have recorded about fourteen vocal tracks and he has contributed some beautiful solo soundscape pieces. There are no drums on this album and with me being a drummer, this was a deliberate choice. It’s all based around mood and atmosphere. Stuart would be great as a film score writer and many of the pieces on the album I could hear on a film without any doubt.

Who or what would you consider to have influenced you for this project?

One of my all time favourite albums is ‘Mid Air’ by Paul Buchanan [2012], he is the singer with The Blue Nile. It is filled with songs of simple beauty. I am hoping our album can come somewhere close to this. I know it’s a big ask, but there’s no harm in trying.

Other artists that give me inspiration are Peter Gabriel, Tom Waits, David Sylvian and I know Stu loves the soundtrack giants that are often unknown, but have played a huge part in scoring films and he also loves ambient music. Someone recently I discovered by chance was Sophie Hutchings. She writes brilliant atmospheric music that played late at night is perfect to chill to. There is so

much music not in the main stream that goes unnoticed by the masses and it’s a shame really. There is some beautiful music out there if you search deep enough.

I really think people love albums that are honest and through time people have been drawn to songs that they can relate to. With The Opening Song we are trying to do the same. Not only through the words, but also with Stuart’s music. I suppose my songs over the last few years have been more on the ‘lost love’ road, but I’m hoping there is enough hope on this album that means something to people who have come through loss of their own. I’m not really a writer of foot tappers, I much prefer sad music to happy music.

I was listening to the album in full the other day and I was thinking I could imagine these songs in a musical theatre setting. I’m not sure why, as I didn’t write them like that but it could be the way Stu has arranged them with his textures and playing. I’m not complaining of course as there are many great musical type songs. Hopefully a call from a west end writer who wants some music, or Disney, will come soon!

Finally, what else can we expect from you in the future?

We are looking at a release date [for ‘Hidden Walls’] of maybe February or March and like my One Sided Horse album this will again be on the independent record label Butterfly Effect. They are a great label that let you get on with the music. This will be their 16th release I think to date.

Due to the amount of vocal and instrumental tracks we recorded we have been given the go ahead for this to be a double album and digital download. After this, we will probably take a moment to reflect, then hopefully record some more songs, but I think Stu wants to do one song at a time next time to make it easier and less stressful. Although I do know he also wants to record an epic soundscape themed track too.

I expect for myself I’ll be playing more One Sided Horse and Evil Blizzard gigs, COVID-19 allowing, and Stu plays with a jazz trio locally, so I expect he will be doing more of that. I really want to set up a gig in the Harris Museum in Preston as it would be a great building to play and I think suit the musical style.

Thank you for another great interview Mark and all the best for 2021. Do you have any final words that you would like to leave us with?

Only if anyone plays French horn or violin, we are looking for these for the live show and If anyone plays in a string quartet that’s even better!