The life of a musician is one that usually involves quite a bit of travelling. Usually, this is for gigs, recording sessions, or working with Swiss anarchists on a farm in France. This week, I’m talking to someone who’s done the travelling part before the music.

Mark Waters was born in Dublin to a mother who worked at Irish Distillers Ltd. and a father who was Director General at RTÉ.

The family later moved to Belgium and eventually Switzerland, where Mark ended up attending Institute Le Rosey and joining the band Presque Nul, a group that at one time had Sean Ono Lennon as a member.

Mark is now an acclaimed film maker and member of the band Sangria Furlo, who have just released their EP ‘Dregs’. I got in touch with him recently to talk about his life and career as both a musician and film maker:

Would you say that travelling around so much in your life has played a part in the music you make?

READ MORE: MacD on Music

On occasion when writing a song, I will use experiences that I relate to one physical space and condense them down into one song.

I did this with the song ‘King Bartholomew’ when writing about Ireland, combining the experience of my flight being re-directed from Dublin to Belfast, and a vicarious experience I had through my father, who used to receive strange letters from a man who declared himself King Bartholomew. He seemed to believe he was the High King of Ireland.

With Sangria Furlo’s song ‘Sedition Day’ I was presented with three chords and lyrics which were just the days of the week.

So, I started considering what the days of the week signified to me and where I was on these days of the week, while screaming down a microphone in Spain. Eyes shut; I was somehow transported back to Boston. I was re-living elements of my life there. In that song I intertwine the unique atmosphere of Boston’s underground music and club scene with its inhabitant’s penchant for revolution.

Again with 18th Floor which is about one specific incident I highlight the incompetence and general bad attitude of the Boston Police; “Elevator full of blue coated haters, blinded out by your sight”. I also have the lyric in that same song “See you in your glass booth Malcolm X Kufi protecting your roof”.

This was a lyric about the actor; Thomas Grimes, who I had befriended because he was moonlighting as the security guard on the door of the building where I lived. He used to play the role of Malcolm X in the play The Meeting by Jeff Stetson. We became even closer friends a little bit later, after Jim Spruill and Linda Patton Spruill took me under their wing. They knew Thomas because they ran The New African (Theatre) Company in Boston and would sometimes collaborate with Thomas. Linda had been a leader in the Black Panther Party in Boston and gave me my first Theatre job as a stage manager at The New African Company. She had a reputation for being a dead shot, but I never got to see her shoot a rifle.

When you played Presque Nul, how was it playing with someone like Sean Lennon?

Sean had been in Presque Nul before me, as had Yari Carrisi Power, grandson of the Irish American Hollywood Actor Tyrone Power. As a younger kid I would really admire watching them perform and so wanted to create the kind of sounds they were emanating. The group originally got funding because Yoko Ono put up the money for equipment and the school allowed the band a rehearsal space in the form of one of its nuclear fallout shelters.

When I was in P.N., we had an array of talent including Mahalia Barnes, daughter of legendary Australian singer Jimmy Barnes. Presque Nul was like a teenage supergroup in a way. One person who was never in Presque Nul was Julian Casablancas. I always thought he would go on to be very successful actor, having shared the stage with him in our school production of Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle. But instead, he ended up creating some of the best indie music of the 21st Century with The Strokes and The Voidz.

And that’s it for now from Mark Waters. All being well, part two of this interview is coming on Thursday, featuring stories from his collaboration with Pete Brown, co-writer for Jack Bruce on some of Cream’s most iconic tracks.

Now, onto other business. First up, The High End Dead will be making their much-anticipated return to the Millennium Forum this Saturday (9th May). Tickets for the gig are £11.50 and available at the box office or millenniumforum.co.uk. They’re selling fast so grab them while you still can.

Next, we have the new album from The Tex Oliver Quintet, aka singer/songwriter Donal Convery. The album, ‘Nugs Hugs’ was produced by Paul Casey and is coming out on Bandcamp this Friday (8th May). It’s also available on CD in Cool Discs.

Last up, we have SCHTICK, a brand-new indie band from Belfast who are releasing their debut single ‘Useless’ this Thursday (7th May). Drawing influence from Jamiroquai, The Police (Sting’s band, not the PSNI) and Tom Misch, the track features “intricate guitar lines…catchy melodies” and “balances tight musicianship with an infectious, hook-driven sound”.

There’ll be more from SCHTICK in these fine pages in the coming weeks so make sure to keep an eye out.

Finally, time for the socials. SCHTICK can be found on Instagram @schtickmusic, The Tex Oliver Quintet @thetexoliverquinted, The High End Dead @thehighenddead and Mark Waters’ band Sangria Furlo @sangriafurlo.