There was always going to be something difficult behind the hard, unapologetic music by legendary Adelaide rockers The Mark of Cain.
A dark and powerful band that uses combat themes in its imagery — yet screams with an expressive intelligence that could start a riot in the right setting — could only be so strong with something deep at its core.
People identify with the band and attach their own trials to the lyrics, but this week, its lead singer revealed what that “thing” was, and it’s far more brutal than their music.
For nearly 60 years, the lead singer has hidden the fact that she identifies as a woman, having learnt her true nature as a child.
On Monday, she announced that family and friends know her Josie Scott, or “Jo for short”.
“I knew who I was when I was eight or nine years old, like many transpeople, and it was just a matter of what I saw as trying to endure it,” she told ABC Radio Adelaide’s Jo Laverty.
“No-one knew. I didn’t share it with anyone. I always kept journals, and if they were found in the event of my death, that would have been the revealing aspect of it.”LGBTQI+ community support services
While her journal entries became more honest in recent years, Scott said as a young person she would write about this “thing”, this “thing I have”.
“I didn’t really spell it out. I did later on, but I kept it very close to my heart.”
Scott said that, like many people, she would self-medicate with a “different variety of things” to deal with hiding herself.
“A lot of it was in denial, but also for me, I was searching for some sort of philosophy that would get me through, whether it was stoicism, existentialism, something that could say, ‘Everything’s bad, but you push through’,” she said.
Making their mark
TMOC was formed in the mid-1980s with Scott on lead guitar and brother, Kim Scott, on bass.
Brother and TMOC bass player Kim Scott has played alongside Josie since the mid-1980s. (Website: The Mark of Cain)
Its original lead singer, Rod Archer, left after a short period and Scott took over vocals, with TMOC releasing their first album, Battlesick, in 1989.
Their critically acclaimed work was followed up with The Unclaimed Prize in 1991, and then their breakthrough album, Ill At Ease, in 1995.
The latter is in Rolling Stone’s top 200 Australian albums of all time.
Scott said she left “little trails, pieces and breadcrumbs” in her music about her true identity, which was “always informing it”.
But it was Ill At Ease, she says, that became the “real encapsulation of everything, and ill at ease is how I felt”.
“I felt it also described other people’s feelings about the world, how they feel and whether they connect or not,” she said.
“It was also about a relationship that had broken up, there’s all sorts of threads through that, but I think you’ll find something about it in every album.”
David Bowie inspires
Scott was always impressed by artists like The Cure, or David Bowie, and people who were “just themselves, people who were loud and proud”.
“Music was my saviour. Also, music allows some expression, although I never allowed myself that expression,” she said.
“I looked at David Bowie and thought, ‘Wow, that would be really cool to express like that’, but I never allowed myself.”
Josie Scott fronts the band alongside brother and bass player Kim Scott. (Facebook: The Mark of Cain)
She put it down to “social conditioning”.
“Put yourself out like that, it’s ridicule, shame, there’s a whole lot of things to work through,” Scott said.
Scott said it was also of the era to deny your true nature if it didn’t fit in, a generation that tended not to just “be who I wanted to be, do what I wanted to do”, but instead worked to be the best person they could for their parents.
“No-one knew, not even Kim. It was a surprise for him, that’s how well guarded I was,” she said.
Scott said it was while being sick with COVID-19 during her “normal end-of-decade reflection”, that she made the decision to come out.
“I was like, ‘Are you going to be OK if that kills you, and do we have any regrets?’ And it was like, ‘Yeah, I have regrets. I have never been authentic’, and that’s what led me to say, ‘Right, let’s do something about this.'”
Scott made her public announcement at exactly 9pm CDST on Monday, which she posted on social media before going to bed feeling “sick” with worry about the responses her post might attract.
Her brother, Kim, and partner, Maggie, told Scott she could stop worrying because it had been met with a near-resounding positivity by TMOC’s audience and colleagues.
As well as more than 1,000 encouraging comments from fans, other Australian bands like Regurgitator, Frenzel Rhomb and Spiderbait have given Scott their support.
“In the morning, I had a lot of people reaching out, people from 30 years ago, people from the US, the UK, people I didn’t even know,” Scott said.
“I was like, ‘Wow, it restores your faith in humanity’ … almost.”
New album in the works
Since Ill at Ease, TMOC has released two more studio albums, This is This and Songs of the Third and Fifth, and two live albums, including 2023’s Livid Live ’96.
The band was inducted into the SA Music Hall of Fame in 2022.
TMOC’s most recent drummer, Eli Green, has brought new songs to the band. (Website: The Mark of Cain)
Aside from perhaps appearing a little more “androgynous” at the band’s next live show, Scott said nothing would change for TMOC.
The band still rehearses every Saturday, and has been writing new songs, having about eight songs that “we’re looking at recording and getting out”.
“It’s all acoustic. It’s just me,” Scott jests, before adding that nothing has changed.
They even had a couple of new songs written by drummer Eli Green that were “sounding awesome”.
“There’s no difference in what we’re doing. It’s still nice and brutal and heavy,” Scott said.
“For me, it feels really good. I feel like there’s a blockage gone.”