September 12, 2024 • 18 mins
Join us for an exclusive interview with Mark Ambor as he sits down with Frankie P in the Y100 Music Room! Discover how Mark’s journey began in a basement and the pivotal moment that changed everything. Hear about the song that went viral and the TikTok craze it sparked. Mark shares insights on finishing shows, his band members’ pride, and some wild stories. Get the scoop on his recently dropped album, his reaction to its success, and achieving his goals. Dive into his songwriting process, the challenges of writing his toughest song, and doing song covers during recent shows. Plus, find out why Mark loves whales and his secret to looking so good. Like, comment, and subscribe for more exclusive content.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One Miami.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This is why one hundreds music room. Okay, cool, well,
Mark Amber, welcome. Thank you. Frank you by the way,
Mark me, Frank you too.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Okay, So we have this new tradition because you're the
second person we interview in this room.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We set up, so we have champagne.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Let's go, and I don't know how to open champagne
hundred percent honestly, so I might I don't know, bust
someone's eye out, yea, So I was hoping maybe you knew.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, I mean I could. You want to figure it out?
I can probably forget it. I'll let you figure it out.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Is this how we're starting the interview, which is literally
how we're starting we start interviews now in Miami. We're
gonna let people just do the champagne.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I love the liners. I have to always like, I
just I just did some liners for for the station,
and it's always fun saying live from the sixiest place
on the planet. That's like our official catchhrase. I know,
I love it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, So makes sense that we're starting line of things
funny because you we're like, oh, sometimes they just send
it to me. How many you I'm scared?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh, here we go, it's gonna happen ready and nobody
lost an eyeball.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Wait there, okay, right now, it's not from drinking champagne
because we haven't party yet.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Look at this, he's a gentleman. He pours it for
me first. Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, you got a bit of a heavy hand just
saying what am I supposed to? Is this not the
most Miami thing ever? To just drink champagne in the
middle of the day.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Cheers. Honestly, I don't know if i've I think I've
been to Miami once before. So all right, well it
was like this, cheers. My boss is watching me through
the window right now. It's good stuff. Really, who approved this?
It was his idea.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Mark did keep chilling it because I feel like my
boss is gonna want this after. I mean, I don't know,
you picked the worst people to mess around with.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
We're good. We're we're good. Can no, you can hold
on to it your weal can to keep drinking all
you want.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
But anyway, so Mark Amber joining us today, super excited
about this. I heard your story how this all kind
of started in like a basement, which I think is
kind of wild, kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
A couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
What was that moment where like the switch flipped and
you're like, I gotta.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Do this, this is this is this is what I
want to do. Yeah, I think. So what happened was
I started playing piano at an early age. My mom
had me take lessons, and I had a point summer
going to college where I felt very lost. I didn't
want to go off to school. I love where I'm from.
I'm from a small town in New York called Pleasantville.
It's like an hour north of New York City, and I
(02:38):
like my friends are still my best friends from there.
I didn't want to leave and start this holy reputation
at school. Whatever. So, whatever reason, I sat down when
I was home and tried to write a song at
the piano and I wrote it and I went to
work that night. I was a bar back at a
local bar and I sent in a group chat to
my parents to the song i'd written. I was proud
of it. They'd never heard me sing at that point.
They're also a bit older. I'm the baby the family
and if you are ys Later, my mom responded like, Hey,
(03:01):
who's this artist?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Dad?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And I love this song? And I was like, Mom,
it's me and she was like what And that was
kind of the start, and throughout college the passion grew
and then basically got to point in twenty twenty where
COVID was going on. I had no social pressure to
do anything else but but live out kind of what
I've always kind of wanted to do, especially as that
passion developed in college of making music, and I kind
of just took the opportunity to write as many songs
(03:22):
as I could and you know, make a TikTok and
that started doing well, and I met a manager I
chose to work with him, and small label stuff and
all that stuff, and it's just been working hard at
it since then. So I guess there wasn't really a
definite moment where I totally committed, But I think in
twenty twenty I told my parents I need six months
to try music ride regret it for the rest of
my life, and that's what I did, and I guess
(03:44):
I just kept going no, no, here we are.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
My favorite part about that story is that you said
you send it to your parents and they didn't answer
back for hours. Yes, was it like that moment where
you send like a text message.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
You know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Like that sketchy text Meg, You're like you're like sweating,
like distract, like what's happening?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
You like go drive or something.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, oh my gosh, it actually was kind of like that.
It was a record. Did they listen and didn't like it?
They're figuring out what to say.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
In reality, they just didn't even realize. Yeah, because they
check it once every like three.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Business Yeah, pretty much exactly. Uh. The song by the
way was belong together, right, Yeah, that was not what
I said to them, but yeah, the song that blew
up was belonged together. Yeah. Do you ever go and
look at like the tiktoks that people make with that song? Yeah? Occasionally, Yeah,
they're pretty wholesome to be honest. Is there one that
stands out there?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Whenever you think of TikTok and that song, you're like, yo,
this one person did this video about this, and it
like it's stuck in my brain.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It lives rent free in my brain.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Now.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Some of the early ones I remember, like because I
just saw them go viral early on before people were
discovering the song, and I was like, oh, I love
this person for doing that, Like you're you're awesome. There
there's been cool ones like about uh, just places like
so it'd be like you you belong together, like Grease
or something. It'll be like these beautiful like videos of Grease,
(04:59):
which I think are cool. I know I'm trying to
think of like a dirty one, but I can't.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I know, all your songs are so wholesome, the albums
so wholesome. I like, how could anyone make anything dirty
out of that?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I think someone there was a dirty real one time.
I'm trying to remember what it was.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
It was like it was I need somebody to send
that to us at y one hund feel.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I think he sent me it. Sh It's very funny.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, speaking of you were pointing at somebody in the room.
Is this one of your day ones that you talk
about all the time.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, one of uh is Alex. He actually just asked
me to not talk about him during interviews. Okay, we won't.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Talk about Alex six foot tall, handsome guy.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Very handsome. Yeah, he's in my band and he's he's
been here from the beginning, and uh yeah, he's a
he's a good friend.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Do you guys like I'm picturing you finish a show
because you've been like all over the world at this point,
and you know that Paul read meme that's like, look
at us, who would have thought you guys after a show?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Actually, yes, that's exactly what. We're a little more excited
than that, but yeah, pretty much just like how did
how did he get what's going on? Or actually it's
more just like what was that?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
But what do they What do your friends say about
because they're like on this ride with you, they've been
with you since you started this, Like what are they
not when they're roasting you? Because you know your boys
or your boys when you finish the greatest show of
your life and they're like, bro, your fly was down
the entire Yeah, you know what, Like what are they
when they're like having a heartfelt moment?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
What do they actually say to you? They're just proud
of how how far it's come, because a lot of
them are there from the beginning, and just that they
they're excited that they're part of it, and yeah, it's
that stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And you guys getting kicked out of places since you're
all together all the time on tour.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Sometimes I think sometimes we're a little loud, but for
the most part, we're pretty good. Pretty good. He's lying
y'all are definitely getting kicked out the hotel. I could
already tell I'm honestly surprised we don't get more complaints
than we do for how loud we are.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
But by the way, congrats on the new album Rock.
I saw that it dropped the same day as the
Post Malone album. Was that like terrifying knowing that it's
gonna be the same thing. I was like this, this guy,
uh no unknown artist post the Malone dropped out of
the same charts.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It's so weird. No, he's a I love Postmone. Yeah,
so it's just cool. I mean, I was just super
eager to get more music out with this batch of
singles that I had with good to be blown together.
I hope it all works out in our way, like
I was. So it feels really good that it's out
in the world, and honestly, it's it's it feels good
how how well it's been received so far and how
people are listening to it. Well.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I saw you posted on your Instagram story that it
was like dabute at the top right next to post Alone,
Like that's that's big, dude, insane you.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
It was like your reaction to that when you saw it.
I was just I don't know, it just like sitting
there just in shock, pretty much like there's been so
many crazy things and cool things and like things that
I've always dreamed of that have happened in these past
few months that it's just I don't know, it's just
like insane. I don't know. It's hard to process it.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Have you have you like achieved all the goals you
had back when you started this in like twenty nineteen,
twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Not all, but uh okay, I think a lot. I've
just of Yeah, I mean it's really cool that I
have a song that's on the radio and you know,
circulating around the world, and then I get to go
on tour and you know that that the whole thing's growing.
That's that's what feels the best.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I asked because out around like the age of twenty six,
I had achieved pretty much all the goals that I
had in mind when I was like eighteen and I
had what's.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Called a quarter life crisis.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Oh yeah, So I was curious, like, have you sat
down and gone, man, I I already accomplished this and
this and this, Where do I go from here?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah? Have you had that haven't yet. Not yet. Yeah,
I don't know. Hopefully, hopefully I keep having goals to achieve,
but I don't know. That's interesting. Yeah, I feel like
I'm so every time I do hit a goal, I'm
just like, Okay, I think of like the next one
in that space, and I feel like, I don't know,
it just kind of It also kind of drives me crazy, though,
because you know, you just because you want to ever
feel fulfilling the things that you like, take a second
(08:38):
to appreciate that you got to that point, and then
you just have the next goal in mind, where I
feel like sometimes I don't I'm not present with the
fact that I you're not appreciating the moment, You're just
looking for the next thing. Totally.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, That's definitely part of mature and you get to
that point you're like, I really got to enjoy these moments. Yeah,
big big moment though the new album. Talk to me
about the name because I know it's important to you.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, so Rockwood is the name. Rockwood. I talked about
how import home is to me. Rockwood is a park
that me and my friends would go to growing up.
It's near Pleasantville. It's on the Hudson River in New
York and it's this beautiful, like whole like landscape that
used to be a Rockefeller property and it's a place
you go to watch the sunset, drink smoke, I don't know,
(09:15):
like make out. It's it's a place where you just
go to on easy legal active. It's basically you basically
just escape when you're there, and it feels like an
escape and you're with people that you like and appreciate,
and the way of the world falls off your shoulders
for a minute. And I think my goal with this
album is when people listen, I hope they feel that
that sense. I want people to feel good and feel
(09:36):
heard and feel part of something bigger. Like that's the
reason I fell alone with music, and plus Rockwood being
really important part of my upbringing and home and my friends,
and it all just felt like it had to be
the album title.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
What's the writing process for you, because you know, some
artists like to just strum three chords and like, I
can build something from this. Some come up with a rib,
some got like a melody, Some start with the lyrics.
How do you start most of your songs when you're
getting started in that like writing process.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
For the most part, it's me alone in my bedroom strumming,
finding chords on a guitar or piano that I like,
and then I'm sure you've seen those like Tailor Swift
videos of making like reputation or something. I like, mumble
for a while until like a word or a phrase
comes out that I latch onto that I like, and
then I kind of start building around that, and what
(10:20):
ends up happening is from that word or phrase that
randomly comes out of whatever melody I'm humming, I basically
start building a song that feels very subconscious. It's like
it's just I end up looking back at the song
being like, oh, that is kind of how I feel
right now. But I wasn't thinking going into this that
I was gonna write a song about that very therapeutic.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
What was the toughest song for you to write for
this new album, the one that like and had you
and your feelings You're like, I know I got something
good here, but this is, like, like you said, therapeutic,
Like you're getting a lot of stuff out at the
same time that you're writing this.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, I think one of the tougher ones was the
last song on the album. Called My Love. It's a
song about home and how important that is to me,
And I mean it's it's just basically a love song,
but it's specifically about home, and the verses are about
like things that I would that that reminded me home
growing up around and that one took a while. I
took a while to I rewrote those verses a few
(11:09):
times to get it right because I don't know, I
feel like it could be cheesy and I don't want
to be cheat. I was like spending a lot of
time trying to make sure it was saying what I
wanted to say, but also felt like the end of
the album and patribute to home, but also like it
wasn't so obviously about home or people like can't relate
to it on because.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
That song you start to feel homesick when you're like
singing on stage live because you start thinking about home.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I'm hoping I haven't say it live, but I'm excited
for that one live O one is loud, So for.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
The tour, I'm glad let's get into the tour with
the song like blown together. For example, where do you
put that the beginning? You got off the show with
it at the end, Do you do it like some
hip hop artists do. They just do it like six
times in the show. They're like, we're gonna do it again,
like we already heard.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
It five times. Yeah, well sure, how do you like
plan that? I mean, I think long Chair is going
to be towards the end, if not the last song.
I think on the last tour, we just came off
of Blong Teather had just been released, so I would
play here and there, and by the end of that
first tour, and it was in spring, people at all
know in the song. It was like kind of really
doing well by the end, and a few times there
(12:09):
was the recorded version you would play live and then
I would sometimes take it and I'd go out in
the crowd and sing it acoustic together just because it
was a really cool moment. But yeah, we put them on.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Together towards the end of the sec Okay, so now
you gotta say to the end, don't be trying to
beat the traffic.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah the very Yeah, exactly, you know people do that right. No.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Actually, as an artist, if you see that happening in
the mill of your show, do you start to like
panic because you see people leaving? No?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Sorry, I just I just you know else. You haven't
seen this. They sent this to us. It's actually really cool.
I started getting emotional watching this video. Oh shit, oh man, Okay,
let's let's talk about something else now. No way.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I was saying, when you are, like on Sage, see
people leave because they're trying to beat traffic, what goes
through your mind?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
You does that affect you? Or you're just like, oh,
I get it. There's sometimes affects. Yeah, if they're leaving
the well, Luckily we've been saving the big songs for
the end, so people don't want to leave until then.
But I think sometimes you get distracted when people are
like walking away or something. But at the end of
the day, like you just got to focus on the
people that are locked in on you and make eye
(13:07):
contact with them and enjoy that moment with them.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Talking about these the tour specifically, like I saw you
do covers of like Coldplay, clocks, you did one of
like Party in the USA at a show. What are
you gonna do to top those like little extras you
did for this upcoming tour?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, so we're building out the set right now for it.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I'm unsure if we're gonna include a cover this time
thinking about it. But the reason that we did that
that last tour is because at the time, the reason
that tour was set up was for a song called
Good to Be that did really well, which is the
first single off of Rock With And I wasn't sure
other people would know the rest of the songs. They
ended up knowing all of them, which was in wild.
But uh, the reason I put a cover in there
(13:46):
is because we went out in the crowd of me
and most of the band and we would sing and
we would try to get everyone, and like what ended
up happening was I chose part in the USA and
those big songs. Everyone knows those words, so it'd be
in the crowd and every would be like screaming like yeah.
It was like he's winning hearts over so much. That's yeah,
that's why that's why we had them. It's a great idea.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I actually love when artists do like their own version
of a song that people already.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Love totally, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, what's something that you ask for that's like super
ridiculous for your upcoming tour? Like we all hear the joke, like, oh,
I only want green m and ms in my Oh
you like what's on your rider that You're like, I'm
almost embarrassed to tell people this is what I want,
but I need to have it at every.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Show, gotcha. Yeah. To be honest, I haven't become annoying
yet like that. Like I said, yes, it's like not
it's coming. Oh he's making it fast. Maybe I no
what we always ask for sour gummy gummy worms. It's
kind of just becoming tradition. Not weird at all, but
like weird. I mean we're not. I'm still very appreciative
for everything that's going on. I don't want to be
some jerk that rules up.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
He's like, I'm just happy they put a tent in
the parking lot for me so I could change.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, I mean we get the basic stuff.
I think just we always have gummy bears though, or
gummy worms or whatever.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Now I do have a bone to pick with you.
You're a very nice guy. But I'm looking at the
tour dates and I'm not seeing Miami on that.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Oh he knew it was coming. Look at him.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
He's like, oh, I almost got away. No, So it's
weird because I'm noticing your trend. Like Benson Boone didn't
add us to his tour dates, so Carpenter didn't add us.
So I'm curious, what is it? Is it the hurricane
that the alligators?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Is it Florida?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Man? Do I need to get your security to come down?
What is it gonna take to get you down here?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah? I don't know. To be honest, it's my agent
and managure that decided this stuff reflected to blame to
somebody else pretty much. But I mean, I mean, I
love it here. I haven't spent too much time in Florida,
but I'd love to get down here. I think. Also
what happens is you guys kind of like you guys
jut out. Yeah, you can't go through you. You gotta go.
People gotta come out and here. Yeah. So it's the
(15:36):
same as like up in Maine or the Northeast, Like
you gotta go in to go out. So I don't know,
but honestly, I would love to beat in every spot
at all the all the time. Just meeting fans that
care about the things that I make. It's so so cool. Well,
we want you here.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I'm gonna ask you another question, and I'm gonna start
by saying, this is probably a question you're tired of answering,
so I'm not gonna ask it.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
But when you do an interview, how many times people go, so,
who would you like to collabse with?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
How many has you.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Even asked that? Already? Good amount?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
And you're like, bro Beyonce walked in here and offrom
a cloud. Obviously I would say, yeah, like, what do
you want me to say? Right? So instead, I'm gonna
offer you the opportunity to give me something that you
wish you could talk about that nobody ever asked you about,
Like if it were me, why you think about giving
an example? Like, if for me, I got two wider dogs,
I could sit here and talk about my wider dogs
for like three hours, Right, I could do.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
A whole dissertation on it. What's something that you wish
people ask you about that you could just go off on.
I mean, there's a bunch of weird things. I'm just
trying to think, like in terms of give me the
weirdest one, the weirdest one. Okay, well, okay, I have this.
I've gone on deep. No it was gonna make me sense? No,
do it? I feel like you're about to pull it
(16:43):
like a conspiracy theory. No, it's not a conspiracy theory.
It's I go down deep YouTube polls about whales all
the time, and I could get so into this. I
think whales are just the coolest coller whales, orcas, they're
all they're all so cool. Like, first of all, I
want to go he's embarrassed. I know I've talked about
this with him, like whales are the coolest animals. I mean,
(17:05):
I could really go deep down to deepole, but anyway,
I can says something more normal. I love hanging out
with the whale. One is great. You set it up
for me and I can tell people that dude is
obsessed with whales. Yeah, I'm obsessed.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Okay, last question, and this one's more for me than anything.
I feel like you get this a lot. People look
at you like, man, that's a good looking dude. Are
you like mewing every day? Like are you doing like
vocal warm us? And then also you know mewing is
it's where you like you like adjust your jaw so
it's like nice and sharp and looks good on camera.
Because I'm looking at yours and I am now like
self conscious about mind not looking as good, So like,
what's the secret here to look that good?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Oh? Man, I don't know. I just I just try
to eat well and take care of myself. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I was even gonna be like you know those like
gummy things you put in your mouth and you do,
like fifty reps.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I was like, I'm about like twenty of them. I've
thought about washing, but I haven't washing wash it, do
you know? Guys know what like oh the litttle stone thing. Yeah,
but I haven't done it. Are you lining me off?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I'm already do it. No, I'm not. You're gonna have
your own line of watches.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Did it a few times to me, But honestly, it
kind of hurt. Maybe she's doing maybe she's mad at you.
Well that's why she's your act.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
She probably didn't like you, and that was her taking
her hanger out on you. Alright, bro, Well listen, Marga Amber,
thank you so much for stopping by.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Come on, well, last toast one, appreciate you for coming back.
One Miami.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
This is why one hundreds music room. Okay, cool, well,
Mark Amber, welcome. Thank you. Frank you by the way,
Mark me, Frank you too.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Okay, So we have this new tradition because you're the
second person we interview in this room.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We set up, so we have champagne.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Let's go, and I don't know how to open champagne
hundred percent honestly, so I might I don't know, bust
someone's eye out, yea, So I was hoping maybe you knew.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, I mean I could. You want to figure it out?
I can probably forget it. I'll let you figure it out.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Is this how we're starting the interview, which is literally
how we're starting we start interviews now in Miami. We're
gonna let people just do the champagne.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I love the liners. I have to always like, I
just I just did some liners for for the station,
and it's always fun saying live from the sixiest place
on the planet. That's like our official catchhrase. I know,
I love it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, So makes sense that we're starting line of things
funny because you we're like, oh, sometimes they just send
it to me. How many you I'm scared?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Oh, here we go, it's gonna happen ready and nobody
lost an eyeball.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Wait there, okay, right now, it's not from drinking champagne
because we haven't party yet.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Look at this, he's a gentleman. He pours it for
me first. Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, you got a bit of a heavy hand just
saying what am I supposed to? Is this not the
most Miami thing ever? To just drink champagne in the
middle of the day.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Cheers. Honestly, I don't know if i've I think I've
been to Miami once before. So all right, well it
was like this, cheers. My boss is watching me through
the window right now. It's good stuff. Really, who approved this?
It was his idea.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Mark did keep chilling it because I feel like my
boss is gonna want this after. I mean, I don't know,
you picked the worst people to mess around with.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
We're good. We're we're good. Can no, you can hold
on to it your weal can to keep drinking all
you want.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
But anyway, so Mark Amber joining us today, super excited
about this. I heard your story how this all kind
of started in like a basement, which I think is
kind of wild, kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
A couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
What was that moment where like the switch flipped and
you're like, I gotta.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Do this, this is this is this is what I
want to do. Yeah, I think. So what happened was
I started playing piano at an early age. My mom
had me take lessons, and I had a point summer
going to college where I felt very lost. I didn't
want to go off to school. I love where I'm from.
I'm from a small town in New York called Pleasantville.
It's like an hour north of New York City, and I
(02:38):
like my friends are still my best friends from there.
I didn't want to leave and start this holy reputation
at school. Whatever. So, whatever reason, I sat down when
I was home and tried to write a song at
the piano and I wrote it and I went to
work that night. I was a bar back at a
local bar and I sent in a group chat to
my parents to the song i'd written. I was proud
of it. They'd never heard me sing at that point.
They're also a bit older. I'm the baby the family
and if you are ys Later, my mom responded like, Hey,
(03:01):
who's this artist?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Dad?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And I love this song? And I was like, Mom,
it's me and she was like what And that was
kind of the start, and throughout college the passion grew
and then basically got to point in twenty twenty where
COVID was going on. I had no social pressure to
do anything else but but live out kind of what
I've always kind of wanted to do, especially as that
passion developed in college of making music, and I kind
of just took the opportunity to write as many songs
(03:22):
as I could and you know, make a TikTok and
that started doing well, and I met a manager I
chose to work with him, and small label stuff and
all that stuff, and it's just been working hard at
it since then. So I guess there wasn't really a
definite moment where I totally committed, But I think in
twenty twenty I told my parents I need six months
to try music ride regret it for the rest of
my life, and that's what I did, and I guess
(03:44):
I just kept going no, no, here we are.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
My favorite part about that story is that you said
you send it to your parents and they didn't answer
back for hours. Yes, was it like that moment where
you send like a text message.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
You know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Like that sketchy text Meg, You're like you're like sweating,
like distract, like what's happening?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
You like go drive or something.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, oh my gosh, it actually was kind of like that.
It was a record. Did they listen and didn't like it?
They're figuring out what to say.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
In reality, they just didn't even realize. Yeah, because they
check it once every like three.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Business Yeah, pretty much exactly. Uh. The song by the
way was belong together, right, Yeah, that was not what
I said to them, but yeah, the song that blew
up was belonged together. Yeah. Do you ever go and
look at like the tiktoks that people make with that song? Yeah? Occasionally, Yeah,
they're pretty wholesome to be honest. Is there one that
stands out there?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Whenever you think of TikTok and that song, you're like, yo,
this one person did this video about this, and it
like it's stuck in my brain.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It lives rent free in my brain.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Now.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Some of the early ones I remember, like because I
just saw them go viral early on before people were
discovering the song, and I was like, oh, I love
this person for doing that, Like you're you're awesome. There
there's been cool ones like about uh, just places like
so it'd be like you you belong together, like Grease
or something. It'll be like these beautiful like videos of Grease,
(04:59):
which I think are cool. I know I'm trying to
think of like a dirty one, but I can't.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I know, all your songs are so wholesome, the albums
so wholesome. I like, how could anyone make anything dirty
out of that?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I think someone there was a dirty real one time.
I'm trying to remember what it was.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
It was like it was I need somebody to send
that to us at y one hund feel.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I think he sent me it. Sh It's very funny.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Yeah, speaking of you were pointing at somebody in the room.
Is this one of your day ones that you talk
about all the time.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, one of uh is Alex. He actually just asked
me to not talk about him during interviews. Okay, we won't.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Talk about Alex six foot tall, handsome guy.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Very handsome. Yeah, he's in my band and he's he's
been here from the beginning, and uh yeah, he's a
he's a good friend.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Do you guys like I'm picturing you finish a show
because you've been like all over the world at this point,
and you know that Paul read meme that's like, look
at us, who would have thought you guys after a show?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Actually, yes, that's exactly what. We're a little more excited
than that, but yeah, pretty much just like how did
how did he get what's going on? Or actually it's
more just like what was that?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
But what do they What do your friends say about
because they're like on this ride with you, they've been
with you since you started this, Like what are they
not when they're roasting you? Because you know your boys
or your boys when you finish the greatest show of
your life and they're like, bro, your fly was down
the entire Yeah, you know what, Like what are they
when they're like having a heartfelt moment?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
What do they actually say to you? They're just proud
of how how far it's come, because a lot of
them are there from the beginning, and just that they
they're excited that they're part of it, and yeah, it's
that stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
And you guys getting kicked out of places since you're
all together all the time on tour.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Sometimes I think sometimes we're a little loud, but for
the most part, we're pretty good. Pretty good. He's lying
y'all are definitely getting kicked out the hotel. I could
already tell I'm honestly surprised we don't get more complaints
than we do for how loud we are.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
But by the way, congrats on the new album Rock.
I saw that it dropped the same day as the
Post Malone album. Was that like terrifying knowing that it's
gonna be the same thing. I was like this, this guy,
uh no unknown artist post the Malone dropped out of
the same charts.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It's so weird. No, he's a I love Postmone. Yeah,
so it's just cool. I mean, I was just super
eager to get more music out with this batch of
singles that I had with good to be blown together.
I hope it all works out in our way, like
I was. So it feels really good that it's out
in the world, and honestly, it's it's it feels good
how how well it's been received so far and how
people are listening to it. Well.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I saw you posted on your Instagram story that it
was like dabute at the top right next to post Alone,
Like that's that's big, dude, insane you.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
It was like your reaction to that when you saw it.
I was just I don't know, it just like sitting
there just in shock, pretty much like there's been so
many crazy things and cool things and like things that
I've always dreamed of that have happened in these past
few months that it's just I don't know, it's just
like insane. I don't know. It's hard to process it.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Have you have you like achieved all the goals you
had back when you started this in like twenty nineteen,
twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Not all, but uh okay, I think a lot. I've
just of Yeah, I mean it's really cool that I
have a song that's on the radio and you know,
circulating around the world, and then I get to go
on tour and you know that that the whole thing's growing.
That's that's what feels the best.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I asked because out around like the age of twenty six,
I had achieved pretty much all the goals that I
had in mind when I was like eighteen and I
had what's.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Called a quarter life crisis.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Oh yeah, So I was curious, like, have you sat
down and gone, man, I I already accomplished this and
this and this, Where do I go from here?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah? Have you had that haven't yet. Not yet. Yeah,
I don't know. Hopefully, hopefully I keep having goals to achieve,
but I don't know. That's interesting. Yeah, I feel like
I'm so every time I do hit a goal, I'm
just like, Okay, I think of like the next one
in that space, and I feel like, I don't know,
it just kind of It also kind of drives me crazy, though,
because you know, you just because you want to ever
feel fulfilling the things that you like, take a second
(08:38):
to appreciate that you got to that point, and then
you just have the next goal in mind, where I
feel like sometimes I don't I'm not present with the
fact that I you're not appreciating the moment, You're just
looking for the next thing. Totally.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, That's definitely part of mature and you get to
that point you're like, I really got to enjoy these moments. Yeah,
big big moment though the new album. Talk to me
about the name because I know it's important to you.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, so Rockwood is the name. Rockwood. I talked about
how import home is to me. Rockwood is a park
that me and my friends would go to growing up.
It's near Pleasantville. It's on the Hudson River in New
York and it's this beautiful, like whole like landscape that
used to be a Rockefeller property and it's a place
you go to watch the sunset, drink smoke, I don't know,
(09:15):
like make out. It's it's a place where you just
go to on easy legal active. It's basically you basically
just escape when you're there, and it feels like an
escape and you're with people that you like and appreciate,
and the way of the world falls off your shoulders
for a minute. And I think my goal with this
album is when people listen, I hope they feel that
that sense. I want people to feel good and feel
(09:36):
heard and feel part of something bigger. Like that's the
reason I fell alone with music, and plus Rockwood being
really important part of my upbringing and home and my friends,
and it all just felt like it had to be
the album title.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
What's the writing process for you, because you know, some
artists like to just strum three chords and like, I
can build something from this. Some come up with a rib,
some got like a melody, Some start with the lyrics.
How do you start most of your songs when you're
getting started in that like writing process.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
For the most part, it's me alone in my bedroom strumming,
finding chords on a guitar or piano that I like,
and then I'm sure you've seen those like Tailor Swift
videos of making like reputation or something. I like, mumble
for a while until like a word or a phrase
comes out that I latch onto that I like, and
then I kind of start building around that, and what
(10:20):
ends up happening is from that word or phrase that
randomly comes out of whatever melody I'm humming, I basically
start building a song that feels very subconscious. It's like
it's just I end up looking back at the song
being like, oh, that is kind of how I feel
right now. But I wasn't thinking going into this that
I was gonna write a song about that very therapeutic.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
What was the toughest song for you to write for
this new album, the one that like and had you
and your feelings You're like, I know I got something
good here, but this is, like, like you said, therapeutic,
Like you're getting a lot of stuff out at the
same time that you're writing this.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, I think one of the tougher ones was the
last song on the album. Called My Love. It's a
song about home and how important that is to me,
And I mean it's it's just basically a love song,
but it's specifically about home, and the verses are about
like things that I would that that reminded me home
growing up around and that one took a while. I
took a while to I rewrote those verses a few
(11:09):
times to get it right because I don't know, I
feel like it could be cheesy and I don't want
to be cheat. I was like spending a lot of
time trying to make sure it was saying what I
wanted to say, but also felt like the end of
the album and patribute to home, but also like it
wasn't so obviously about home or people like can't relate
to it on because.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
That song you start to feel homesick when you're like
singing on stage live because you start thinking about home.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I'm hoping I haven't say it live, but I'm excited
for that one live O one is loud, So for.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
The tour, I'm glad let's get into the tour with
the song like blown together. For example, where do you
put that the beginning? You got off the show with
it at the end, Do you do it like some
hip hop artists do. They just do it like six
times in the show. They're like, we're gonna do it again,
like we already heard.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
It five times. Yeah, well sure, how do you like
plan that? I mean, I think long Chair is going
to be towards the end, if not the last song.
I think on the last tour, we just came off
of Blong Teather had just been released, so I would
play here and there, and by the end of that
first tour, and it was in spring, people at all
know in the song. It was like kind of really
doing well by the end, and a few times there
(12:09):
was the recorded version you would play live and then
I would sometimes take it and I'd go out in
the crowd and sing it acoustic together just because it
was a really cool moment. But yeah, we put them on.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Together towards the end of the sec Okay, so now
you gotta say to the end, don't be trying to
beat the traffic.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah the very Yeah, exactly, you know people do that right. No.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Actually, as an artist, if you see that happening in
the mill of your show, do you start to like
panic because you see people leaving? No?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Sorry, I just I just you know else. You haven't
seen this. They sent this to us. It's actually really cool.
I started getting emotional watching this video. Oh shit, oh man, Okay,
let's let's talk about something else now. No way.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I was saying, when you are, like on Sage, see
people leave because they're trying to beat traffic, what goes
through your mind?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
You does that affect you? Or you're just like, oh,
I get it. There's sometimes affects. Yeah, if they're leaving
the well, Luckily we've been saving the big songs for
the end, so people don't want to leave until then.
But I think sometimes you get distracted when people are
like walking away or something. But at the end of
the day, like you just got to focus on the
people that are locked in on you and make eye
(13:07):
contact with them and enjoy that moment with them.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Talking about these the tour specifically, like I saw you
do covers of like Coldplay, clocks, you did one of
like Party in the USA at a show. What are
you gonna do to top those like little extras you
did for this upcoming tour?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, so we're building out the set right now for it.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I'm unsure if we're gonna include a cover this time
thinking about it. But the reason that we did that
that last tour is because at the time, the reason
that tour was set up was for a song called
Good to Be that did really well, which is the
first single off of Rock With And I wasn't sure
other people would know the rest of the songs. They
ended up knowing all of them, which was in wild.
But uh, the reason I put a cover in there
(13:46):
is because we went out in the crowd of me
and most of the band and we would sing and
we would try to get everyone, and like what ended
up happening was I chose part in the USA and
those big songs. Everyone knows those words, so it'd be
in the crowd and every would be like screaming like yeah.
It was like he's winning hearts over so much. That's yeah,
that's why that's why we had them. It's a great idea.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
I actually love when artists do like their own version
of a song that people already.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Love totally, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, what's something that you ask for that's like super
ridiculous for your upcoming tour? Like we all hear the joke, like, oh,
I only want green m and ms in my Oh
you like what's on your rider that You're like, I'm
almost embarrassed to tell people this is what I want,
but I need to have it at every.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Show, gotcha. Yeah. To be honest, I haven't become annoying
yet like that. Like I said, yes, it's like not
it's coming. Oh he's making it fast. Maybe I no
what we always ask for sour gummy gummy worms. It's
kind of just becoming tradition. Not weird at all, but
like weird. I mean we're not. I'm still very appreciative
for everything that's going on. I don't want to be
some jerk that rules up.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
He's like, I'm just happy they put a tent in
the parking lot for me so I could change.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, I mean we get the basic stuff.
I think just we always have gummy bears though, or
gummy worms or whatever.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Now I do have a bone to pick with you.
You're a very nice guy. But I'm looking at the
tour dates and I'm not seeing Miami on that.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Oh he knew it was coming. Look at him.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
He's like, oh, I almost got away. No, So it's
weird because I'm noticing your trend. Like Benson Boone didn't
add us to his tour dates, so Carpenter didn't add us.
So I'm curious, what is it? Is it the hurricane
that the alligators?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Is it Florida?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Man? Do I need to get your security to come down?
What is it gonna take to get you down here?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah? I don't know. To be honest, it's my agent
and managure that decided this stuff reflected to blame to
somebody else pretty much. But I mean, I mean, I
love it here. I haven't spent too much time in Florida,
but I'd love to get down here. I think. Also
what happens is you guys kind of like you guys
jut out. Yeah, you can't go through you. You gotta go.
People gotta come out and here. Yeah. So it's the
(15:36):
same as like up in Maine or the Northeast, Like
you gotta go in to go out. So I don't know,
but honestly, I would love to beat in every spot
at all the all the time. Just meeting fans that
care about the things that I make. It's so so cool. Well,
we want you here.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I'm gonna ask you another question, and I'm gonna start
by saying, this is probably a question you're tired of answering,
so I'm not gonna ask it.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
But when you do an interview, how many times people go, so,
who would you like to collabse with?
Speaker 1 (16:00):
How many has you.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Even asked that? Already? Good amount?
Speaker 1 (16:02):
And you're like, bro Beyonce walked in here and offrom
a cloud. Obviously I would say, yeah, like, what do
you want me to say? Right? So instead, I'm gonna
offer you the opportunity to give me something that you
wish you could talk about that nobody ever asked you about,
Like if it were me, why you think about giving
an example? Like, if for me, I got two wider dogs,
I could sit here and talk about my wider dogs
for like three hours, Right, I could do.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
A whole dissertation on it. What's something that you wish
people ask you about that you could just go off on.
I mean, there's a bunch of weird things. I'm just
trying to think, like in terms of give me the
weirdest one, the weirdest one. Okay, well, okay, I have this.
I've gone on deep. No it was gonna make me sense? No,
do it? I feel like you're about to pull it
(16:43):
like a conspiracy theory. No, it's not a conspiracy theory.
It's I go down deep YouTube polls about whales all
the time, and I could get so into this. I
think whales are just the coolest coller whales, orcas, they're
all they're all so cool. Like, first of all, I
want to go he's embarrassed. I know I've talked about
this with him, like whales are the coolest animals. I mean,
(17:05):
I could really go deep down to deepole, but anyway,
I can says something more normal. I love hanging out
with the whale. One is great. You set it up
for me and I can tell people that dude is
obsessed with whales. Yeah, I'm obsessed.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Okay, last question, and this one's more for me than anything.
I feel like you get this a lot. People look
at you like, man, that's a good looking dude. Are
you like mewing every day? Like are you doing like
vocal warm us? And then also you know mewing is
it's where you like you like adjust your jaw so
it's like nice and sharp and looks good on camera.
Because I'm looking at yours and I am now like
self conscious about mind not looking as good, So like,
what's the secret here to look that good?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Oh? Man, I don't know. I just I just try
to eat well and take care of myself. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I was even gonna be like you know those like
gummy things you put in your mouth and you do,
like fifty reps.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I was like, I'm about like twenty of them. I've
thought about washing, but I haven't washing wash it, do
you know? Guys know what like oh the litttle stone thing. Yeah,
but I haven't done it. Are you lining me off?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I'm already do it. No, I'm not. You're gonna have
your own line of watches.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Did it a few times to me, But honestly, it
kind of hurt. Maybe she's doing maybe she's mad at you.
Well that's why she's your act.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
She probably didn't like you, and that was her taking
her hanger out on you. Alright, bro, Well listen, Marga Amber,
thank you so much for stopping by.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Come on, well, last toast one, appreciate you for coming back.
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