By Will McGuirk
Well, they really were something to behold; the Mark Inside. From the suburbs of Whitby, Ontario, but based in Toronto, their sound drew from the urban underground of Detroit and New York and they were one of the best live bands around, due in most part to their dynamic lead, Chris Levoir.
Levoir was found dead in his apartment Sunday Jun 2 2013. Their third album ‘Dark Hearts Can Radiate White Light’ was about to be released.
On March 19 2021 ‘Dark Hearts’ will be made available on all digital platforms for the first time. We reached out to MI bassist Geoff Bennett for an update. Other members included Gus Harris (guitar) and Reade Oliver, ( who replaced Geordie Dynes on drums.)
Slowcity.ca: Tell me about the process of this, have to say I am surprised it wasn't already on digital, it's a curious thing, to have vinyl and wait for it to go digital, always the opposite these days?
Geoff Bennet: “At the time we finished the record and had it pressed to vinyl, in early 2013, Spotify and the other streaming services weren't really on our radar quite yet. I'm not sure they'd really hit critical mass amongst the general public, so it wasn't a front-of-mind concern surrounding an album release. Until that point, we'd been putting out vinyl with a download code included, and uploading everything to Soundcloud and Bandcamp.”
SC: Fortune Stellar has some familiar names - what's the relationship, how did the Mark Inside hook up with them?
GB: “Fortune Stellar was actually started by an old friend of the Mark Inside, Andrew DeVillers of Mad Ones, and his wife Shiloh Harrison of HotKid. We met Andrew back in the earlier days of the band, around 2004/2005, when he was frontman for the Exchanges. We were on the same bill one evening, we instantly became big fans of each other's work and hit it off personally as well (we were all a bunch of high-energy rock and roll kids with an affinity for booze and the means to make a hell of a racket. . . good times were had by all!)
“We played many more shows together and kept in touch over the years, and when Andrew floated the idea of putting "Dark Hearts" up on streaming via Fortune Stellar, I figured it was about time. We always wanted as many people to hear it as possible, so if even one more person discovers the record through this release, I think it's worth it.”
SC: Let's go back to the making of the album, where do you think you guys were as a band, and how did the album express that? Also looking back and listening again to it all where do you go?
GB: “I think we really felt like we were hitting our stride on all fronts with "Dark Hearts." The songwriting and performances took a leap forward, and we were actively trying to take control of most or all facets of the band, after years of frustration with the machinations of the music industry. So there were conscious decisions around that time to produce and record our own albums, book our own tours, and just generally take a lot more agency in everything we were doing.
“The recording of the album itself was a great example of that renewed approach: we turned Chris' loft space at the time into a huge, multi-room makeshift recording studio and did the whole record in a couple of weeks with some engineering help from our friend Adam Fujiki. We were very much at ease with each other and with the space, which I think comes across in the finished recordings. [For further reference, I wrote a more detailed bio/liner-notes of the recording process at the time that's still on the Bandcamp page: https://themarkinside.bandcamp.com/]
“Musically, I definitely felt we were firing on all cylinders at that time. The songwriting was consciously tighter, with a little less emphasis on jamming and improv than we'd done in the past, and Chris seemed to be at the peak of his powers lyrically and vocally. The intensity of some of his vocal performances as he recorded them was literally spine-tingling as we listened along.
“The sessions were productive enough that we actually recorded upward of 20 songs, with the intention of releasing a follow-up to "Dark Hearts" within a year. Sadly, that never came to pass, though I'm hopeful those remaining songs will see the light of day in the near-ish future.
“I do listen back to "Dark Hearts" very occasionally, usually in moments of late-night boozy nostalgia. It's not always the easiest listen, obviously, but I'm as proud of it now as we all were then.”
SC: On a personal level what does this mean to you and the rest of the band?
GB: “We were always pretty passionate about our music and our performances, and it's been touching to see that passion in Andrew and Fortune Stellar towards the band and this record in particular. It's something that felt like it was on the shelf for many years, and we're really happy to have it dusted off and hopefully sent out to some fresh ears.”
SC: Are there plans to (post-Covid) do some shows around this?
GB: “No, unfortunately the Mark Inside as a live band died with Chris. There's no possible way we could replace him, we knew that immediately.”
SC: How are you doing, during the Covid - what musical projects are you engaged in now, if any - or are you writing books, and the other members, how and what are they doing?
GB: “I'm not involved in any particular projects right now, I've just been enjoying playing casually at home for fun. I've actually been enjoying playing the guitar more than I have in years, and I recently picked up my first analog synthesizer, which has been really fun to learn.”
“Gus has thrown himself headlong into his career as a location sound man for TV and movies. He's been doing quite well, and it's totally up his alley (he and Chris were the Mark Inside's resident recording nerds!)
“Geordie joined By Divine Right on drums, a teenage fantasy come true.
“Reade and I wrote and recorded an EP as Old Code a few years back, and while I bowed out of playing live, he put together a band and recorded some more and played shows around town.”
