Interview: South African rock musician Mark Haze

In the recent past, Mark has not only been playing regular live shows but also released a music video for ‘Don’t Say Goodbye’. He also produced music for new artists like Seth Cort and collaborated on several projects with artists like Kat and his brother Gareth.

We caught up with Mark from his studio in Cape Town amid the excitement of several new releases to find out more about his work.

Seasoned supporters know you from your original band 12th Avenue, being the runner-up in Idols SA in 2011, and supporting international stars like Bon Jovi on their 2013 world tour in South Africa. Fresh followers have also come to know you for your thrilling live performances, electric rock tribute shows, artist collaborations and being a producer of upcoming independent artists at your own studio. Given how rapidly things have changed in the music industry, and the world overall in the past decade, what has been your secret to remaining active in the music industry?

I think it comes down to work ethic and perspective. Yes, the industry has changed, but at its core, it’s still always what it was, or rather, I treat it as what it should be, which is a place to perform and put forward my art and music. I’m always a bit stunned and humbled lately when I hear that people consider my music and my contributions towards production and creation to be impactful and relevant, because for the last few years, I’d given up on trying to impress or stay relevant in terms of what counts as stylish or popular in the music biz.

Your new single ‘Home’ released on 14 July features your UK-based singer-songwriter brother Gareth Haze. What was the inspiration for ‘Home’ and how did you and Gareth get to collaborate? Are there any more songs coming from you and Gareth together?

After our dad passed away a couple of years ago, Gaz came back to SA with his family to visit and help out with the funeral and spend time with our mum and my family. He had been my drummer and one of my songwriting partners for about 15 years but had a great opportunity to work and live in the UK and took it. He’s never had complaints about backing me up on stage and taking the back seat to the fame stuff, but he’s actually a really talented guy and a great songwriter. I had urged him to start performing on his own while up there, and about two years ago, he took the leap and started up his own thing.

He had been playing me bits of ideas over the phone on occasion and we had toyed with idea of me producing his stuff when he had gotten enough material together for a full album. Once he had been down here for about a month, I asked him to show me what he had written, and ‘Home’ was on the list – he had sent it to me just prior to coming back. I think with the time that we had spent together again and the fact that he was in the same room with me and the studio was right there, I nudged him and said, “Right, get in there, we’re tracking all your guide tracks today.” ‘Home’ talks about living through the chaos of daily life and coming back to the one you love.

An upcoming independent artists you produced and collaborated with is the multi-instrumentalist, looper and live musician Kat, who fuses blues, rock, pop, jazz and electronica in a unique way. After performing live all over the world in places such as the UK, Hong Kong and Japan, she now resides in South Africa. You have been working together for some time, and your latest release is the unique EDM/rock fusion track ‘Tokyo’. How did you and Kat meet, and what sparked this relationship?

I was invited to be a judge for a battle of the bands and she was one of the contestants. Her gear gave her some real issues on the night, but she acted like nothing was wrong and performed through the problems. I also do a lot of live looping in my solo show, so I immediately picked up on what she was doing and was quite impressed. We sparked up a discussion and I spoke to her about potentially producing her original music and assisting with her live sound. 

Once we had gotten underway with her first few tracks, she suggested that when she releases her first single, she’d like me to feature on it as well as produce. It’s been that way for every release she’s done now over the past two years. ‘Tokyo’ was brought to me as part of a collection of new ideas. It immediately stood out from the rest as a big party track, and I couldn’t get the chorus melody out of my head. 

Kat comes up with the concept for every song and Tokyo was no different. She then allows me to clean things up on the tracking and rework the parts a bit or add instruments and effects to make up what she’s trying to convey in terms of feel. This can be through various beats or vocal processing, or even just movie-style sound effects. With ‘Tokyo’, I tried to focus on various Japanese elements that pop up in the song – samurai movie sounds in the guitar track, digital noises to represent video games, chaos synths for the city nightlife, and my guitar solo is a hat tip to manga- and anime-style movies and cartoons. 

What does the immediate-to-longer term future entail for you in terms of upcoming shows, releases and collaborations that fans can look forward to?

Kat’s got some new songs that she’s looking to bring out that I’m excited to be involved with again. I’ve got Gareth Haze’s album to finalise before the end of the year as well as a few interesting new artists that I’m hoping to help bring into the spotlight in 2023. Then, the most exciting thing for me is being able to finally begin tracking with my band for my new album. God willing, I should be able to get to do a small tour in some outside areas of South Africa. I haven’t been to Gauteng and Pretoria and Port Elizabeth in a good while, so I’m hoping I can get there sometime in the last half of this year. Then there are some opportunities brewing in the UK, Netherlands and Sweden in 2024. 

Interview text provided by Devographic Music Agency