Mark Holden is missing his weekly session with his personal trainer to take this walk with me. He smiles as we embark on the near hour-long circuit the 72-year-old does three times a week. Holden says \u201ca nice little walk\u201d is essential to \u201cfighting the forces of gravity that try to bring you down\u201d in your eighth decade.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a brisk Melbourne morning, overcast and still as we set off from the suburban streets towards the Elwood foreshore. Holden has been a local since 1998 when he returned from decades as a music industry journeyman in the US after finding success in Australia as a baby-faced, white dinner-suited crooner known for distributing red carnations to fans on Countdown in the mid 1970s.<\/p>\n
We pass a \u201cgroovy\u201d waterfront cafe via busy Ormond Esplanade (he\u2019s usually one of the \u201cjumper outerers\u201d but noting my hesitation, Holden suggests we use the crossing) and reach the tranquil foreshore. As joggers lumber past, Holden glosses over the details of his unusual career: teen pop heart-throb, Logie-winning actor, US Billboard-charting songwriter, talent incubator, Australian Idol judge, barrister. Holden is gracious, easygoing and has a tendency to speak of his own life story with a mixture of wrapt astonishment and inevitability, as if his many successes and incarnations were part of some kind of providence.<\/p>\n
\u2018My voice was not a voice that was going to sell records in America.\u2019 Photograph: Alex Coppel\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
His musical career, Holden explains, began thanks to his older brother Craig. \u201cI picked up the guitar because he picked up the guitar.\u201d He watched his brother\u2019s band play in Adelaide pubs as a teenager \u2013 \u201cI\u2019d be there with my silly little cap on in my school uniform. I was hooked from then on.\u201d<\/p>\n
After his rise to fame on home soil, Holden took his dreams on the road. He was scheduled to launch his first US single with a live performance on CBS when his wisdom teeth had to be removed. He performed through the swelling and the pain, but the single flopped. \u201cIt was the universe telling me what I should have probably known \u2013 that my voice was not a voice that was going to sell records in America,\u201d he says. (\u201cThat, and it was a terrible single,\u201d he later tells me.)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I listen to my stuff from the 70s it\u2019s wild. The great artists, when they were 18, 19, were fantastic. My stuff was pretty plain,\u201d he says as we amble along.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I came a-crashing there and ended up on my arse with no deal, no income and having to make a decision of whether to come back to Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was around this time that Holden met a red-convertible-driving psychiatrist at a theatre in Los Angeles who introduced him to the works of Carl Jung.<\/p>\n
\u2018A nice little walk\u2019, Holden says, is essential to \u2018fighting the forces of gravity that try to bring you down\u2019 in your eighth decade. Photograph: Alex Coppel\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
He read \u201cevery one\u201d of his books. He hadn\u2019t any substance abuse issues, but he decided to quit alcohol, weed, went on a health kick \u201cand wrote down my dreams every single day\u201d. Over time his dreams became clearer and more memorable.<\/p>\n
It won\u2019t be the last time Holden brings up his dreams in our conversation, but there\u2019s a placidness to his enthusiasm for their significance, almost as if he can\u2019t imagine anyone not giving their oneiric experiences due consideration.<\/p>\n
One day, he says, he awoke with the chorus of his song Lady Soul complete in his mind. He quickly filled in the gaps, recorded a demo which was played for Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown records. \u201cHe played it for Smokey Robinson, the Temptations cut it and suddenly, I was a songwriter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat song went to number four. It was a deep, deep gift from the universe, and that kept me going on that path,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still pay attention to my dreams. Looking back over time I can see that I\u2019ve been able to connect to my spirit and my soul in a way that has helped me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we veer off the esplanade and head for the backstreets, Holden muses on the many hats he has worn and the long winding path between. Show dates, chart successes, fellow musicians, producers, song credits and anecdotes roll off his tongue.<\/p>\n
Mark Holden in the backstreets of Elwood. Photograph: Alex Coppel\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
He penned more than 10 Billboard-charting tracks, but when rap emerged he found it \u201ca world that I had no place in\u201d. \u201cI was in the R&B world because I liked writing the songs.\u201d He produced and coordinated David Hasselhoff\u2019s successful albums of the early 1990s (\u201ca great time\u201d) and worked with Milla Jovovich on her debut album.<\/p>\n
After he and his wife welcomed their baby daughter, Holden decided it was time to head back home. \u201cI wanted her to grow up in Australia,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He has been home for three decades. Once back he completed the law degree he had put on hold to make way for his pop star career, but then he discovered and managed Vanessa Amorosi with Jack Strong (thanks to a tip-off from Strong\u2019s fax machine repair guy) and returned to prime time from 2003 as one of the original judges on Australian Idol. When his stint as an Idol judge came to a sudden end in 2008, Holden says he was \u201creverberating from the shock of that for about a year. I really enjoyed that job.\u201d<\/p>\n
A thyroid cancer diagnosis in 2010 threw another spanner in the works, with treatment permanently altering his singing voice. He finally pivoted to practising law. It got him out of bed in the morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in my mid-50s by then. I was too young to retire and I knew that I needed a challenge to reaffirm myself after the shock of that.\u201d A chance meeting with a barrister while waiting in line for an iPhone offered Holden a vision for his next chapter.<\/p>\n
\u2018Music is so healthy for you. You\u2019re using your spirit and using your ability to sing.\u2019 Photograph: Alex Coppel\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me 39 years from starting uni to when I was admitted to practise as a barrister,\u201d he says, almost surprised at the statement himself.<\/p>\n
He took on a mentor and found himself having to learn and figure stuff out. It was mentally stimulating, he says, but he retired 13 years later, after he became \u201ctoo grumpy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started telling the judges off. And that\u2019s really totally uncool and of no service to your client. I knew it was time to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was two years ago. Since then Holden has been writing and recording new songs, remixing dormant singles from his time in the US and remastering \u201cthe few songs I can stand\u201d from the 70s. \u201cAnd there\u2019s only, like, 10 of them for the whole decade,\u201d he adds with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
He talks animatedly about the process and the inspirations as we bundle along the Elwood canal, rounding back to his home. \u201cMusic is so healthy for you. You\u2019re using your spirit and using your ability to sing; making sound, feeling the reverberations.\u201d<\/p>\n
double quotation markThe song appeared in my mind instantly \u2013 luckily I had the wisdom to sing it into my phoneMark Holden<\/p>\n
His new album, Now and Then and Shirley MacLaine, brings together collaborations with his \u201cold buddies from Compton\u201d, including Larry Dunn from Earth Wind & Fire, as well as new friends he has made as a member of Melbourne Savage Club, one of Australia\u2019s oldest private members\u2019 clubs, known for its bohemian bent. With regard to its contentious gender policy, he says: \u201cIt\u2019s unashamedly a men\u2019s club that welcomes women [as guests]. And I think that\u2019s a healthy thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The title track Shirley MacLaine was inspired by an off-the-cuff remark made by one of the staff at the Royal Hawaiian, a Waikiki hotel he has been visiting since the days a stopover in Honolulu was mandatory en route to Los Angeles. Holden got talking to the staff member while smoking a joint in their break area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy, marijuana is totally legal, but there is nowhere to smoke \u2026 I ended up chatting with the staff where they have their cigarette breaks \u2026 and this young dude used to be her road manager. The song appeared in my mind instantly \u2013 luckily I had the wisdom to sing it into my phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holden chats to a local musician outside a waterfront cafe. Photograph: Alex Coppel\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
The project has been personally invigorating, but Holden says it\u2019s a labour of love. \u201cMusic has no financial value any more for people my age,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
While he believes it\u2019s theoretically possible to make money off streaming, it\u2019s not a shade on the royalties he received as the \u201cCarnation Kid\u201d. \u201cThose records went gold, I did eight gigs in total \u2026 I made enough money to buy my grandparents\u2019 house in cash.\u201d Today he says the same amount of streams would earn him around $2,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor people my age, there\u2019s really nowhere for us to be seen any more. We\u2019re sort of invisible,\u201d he says with a shrug. He has formed an \u201cold man\u201d group at Savage Club that performs once a month. \u201cOne of the gentlemen who sang with us last night is 92!\u201d<\/p>\n
As we get closer to where we began, Holden considers how it\u2019s all played out. \u201cProfessionally, I\u2019ve done exactly what I want. I really have. And in all of those years, two handfuls of things have worked out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you get older you know more than ever that there are troughs and that there are waves,\u201d he says. \u201cYou just have to have faith in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every Little Thing by Mark Holden is out now, streaming on all platforms. The album Now and Then and Shirley MacLaine is out on 28 August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Holden is missing his weekly session with his personal trainer to take this walk with me. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-523676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}