Mark Bono

Like so many other musicians, Mark's story starts at a very early age with a strong attraction and love of music.

After mucking around the house with little play keyboards and acoustic guitars, at the age of 8 Mark began his first musical tuition with private Organ lessons and shortly thereafter acquired his first real instrument, a full sized old school organ!

Quickly gaining confidence and ability it wasn't long before Mark was seen (barely) behind the keys of his family's huge parish church organ, filling the congregation with the service hymns on a weekly basis.

With a keener interest in modern music rather than church standards, and with the musical knowledge gained thus far, Mark was able to fulfil all future musical curiosities, teaching himself how to play whatever instruments crossed his path and in turn, develop his interests in modern music learning popular songs and even crafting his own material.

It wasn't until age 14 however, before Mark acquired his first guitar. Until then he'd simply used whoever's instruments he was able to lay his hands on. Luckily a guitar was never too far away in the family home along with a drum kit thanks to his older brothers, and of course his big old organ, but from this point it was a classic tale of a teenaged boy locked in his room, blasting out rock riffs and playing along with whatever music he could crank through his dodgy portable stereo. Everything from Gerry & the Pacemakers and Elvis to Guns n' Roses and Nirvana could be heard coming out of Mark's room along with the faint buzzing guitar tone as he played along day after day.

This continued on through high school together with most lunch times spent in the music block jamming with anyone who was able to play an instrument, all the while continuing to pen more original music and even attempt a first ever recording of one of Mark's songs using the schools equipment in his final senior year.

Further study after school was predicably music related. Still curious of the recording process, Mark first attained a Diploma in Audio Engineering and recorded various bands demo's while exploring the studio.

During this time, he also auditioned for his first ever real band as a singer/guitarist and this saw the start of Mark's live performance career with his first ever paid gigs. It wasn't long before it was evident that Mark was a natural band leader and so a trail of covers and original outfits he put together followed over the next few years. (Refer to Past Bands for more details)

More study was also pursued a few years later, and after being awarded as "Student of the Year" while completing a Contemporary Music Certificate IV in Performance, Mark began to seriously build his career as a musician within the Brisbane covers scene as a solo artist committed to make music his full time gig.

Eventually putting together various acts to increase gig potential, Mark had the freedom to "give up the day job" some years ago and has since performed gigs both in and out of his home state with covers and/or originals shows. (Refer to Venues for more details)

Throughout this time, continuing with music performances and writing and recording his original material with his home studio (see Originals for more details), Mark has also continued to explore other related musical paths within radio.

Working casually at two of Brisbane's biggest commercial radio stations, Mark has had the opportunity to work across a number of departments including production, content and promotions. And with his performance experience, Mark has MC'ed events for both stations along with various on-air segments and drawing on his audio engineering past, regularly takes on the role of Tech Producer for various outside broadcast events.

With all this, it is pretty clear to see that Mark will always have the same attraction and love of music he had from when he was a child. And although he has already experienced the many highs and lows of an industry which doesn't always play fair, the motivation and drive he has to keep shooting for the stars wins out in the end and so, music - performance, creation, producing and promotion will forever be a part of Mark's life.

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