By Shannon Blankenship
Sports Information Student Assistant
As a cross country runner for Longwood University, Mark Anderson is used to hitting the road but the direction he takes isn’t always the same. This summer when he went out for his daily runs, the scenery was always new and constantly changing.
For the past two summers, Mark and his band, ‘And Down Goes Frazier’, have traveled the East Coast on what he refers to as mini-tours performing for crowds hundreds of miles away from his Portsmouth, Virginia home. Stops on the tour have included Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania, Long Island, Chicago and one of the most famous music locations for new music, Nashville, Tennessee.
After packing what they could in an old van, Mark and the band, made-up of friends he’s known since early childhood with the exception of the bassist, set off on their tour. The five twenty-something guys have been playing since high school but began performing more seriously together just three years ago in the fall of 2003.
“The timing worked out where we were able to go on the road and perform with some really good bands, meeting people and making contacts,” Mark said of his touring experiences. One of the groups ‘And Down Goes Frazier’ toured with this past summer was a band known as ‘Hollywood’.
“Touring and traveling with Hollywood was a great experience for us. It was unbelievable to think there was another band with lyrics and ideas so similar to our own [songs] 13 hours away,” Mark explained.
As vocalist and writer of many of the bands songs, Mark became good friends with one of the members of ‘Hollywood’ and has continued to bounce ideas for songs and lyrics off a fellow aspiring musician. The two keep in contact, sending each other fragmented song ideas they are working on, offering and accepting suggestions about what could turn these jagged ideas in to smooth thoughts.
Mark describes the bands music as being “hard core” with lesser-known influences such as Minor Threat and Bad Brains. The band feels that sometimes this genre of music is not appreciated because the wrong impression can be taken by just listening to it because “it can sound so angry.”
“Our music, and hard core in general, is a really aware genre of music. It addresses issues, encourages change and the music is hard and fast,” explained Mark.
Often those who know Mark have a hard time seeing him as a singer for a band but he understands this because he does not truly consider himself a singer either.
“Singing isn’t really what I would call what we do in our band. I’m more of a vocalist, but I can sing; although that isn’t exactly the type of music we play,” he explained.
In high school, he never learned to read sheet music or play an instrument but performing seemed to come naturally to him. For Mark, it was not about how he came to be a part of a band but about why he did it. He gathered the random scribblings of poetry, feelings and thoughts he had written in high school, developing these in to many of the songs they now perform that are geared towards inspiring teenagers and those in college.
“We wanted to send the message of being you, and creating change in the world and in yourself, instead of sitting idly by and complaining,” Mark said.
Making a positive impact on the world, even if only on a small scale at first, is one of the inspiring messages the band hopes to send through its song lyrics.
When he graduates from Longwood, Mark hopes to continue making changes in the world by teaching. He plans to teach high school English classes while continuing to stay involved with cross country as a coach.
As for the band, Mark doesn’t know exactly what it will experience in future. But for now, he says they are working on getting together a small winter tour performing a couple shows between the fall and spring semesters later this year while the band members have a break from college and are able to get together. The band already has a few seven inch records out now under an Indie record label, ‘Thrashed! Records’, and have plans to get back in the studio for another release next spring.
One of the many experiences Mark says he will always remember is waking up in different locations, lacing up the same running shoes, putting on one of the same pairs of shorts, but this time, heading out for a run in a place he had never seen before.
“I got to run in a lot of neat places, like the tip of Long Island. I didn’t know where I was going, so I’d just take all rights then turn around and take all lefts and hope not to get lost.”
Mark has traveled many miles over the last few years, whether taking a new route in his same running shoes or traveling in the back of the graffitied van he spray-painted with several of his closest friends. But the physical miles he has crossed do not compare to the distance he still plans to go in his future. Mark knows what directions he wants to take and looks forward to the constantly rewarding experiences and impacts he will continue to make in the future.
