Your name:
My real name is Mark Hoy…
Where are you from?
A humble Maths teacher from
Kingscliff, New South Wales, Australia. But my alter-ego is…
Name of band:
Shïppa-63.
Who else is in your band?
Shïppa-63
is a solo band, rather than a solo-artist or one-man band. I want to achieve a
full three-four piece rock band sound. All vocals and instruments are by me. As I am
the only member, I take all the credit and criticism, so that I can share it
evenly amongst the others.
How would you describe yourselves and your music?
My
music is very heavily influenced by Brit-rock/pop/punk, especially of the 80s
and 90s, and some of the 00s… This could be due to the fact that I was born in
Enfield, Middlesex, and have always had some kind of psychic bind with the
UK…or I just love the music that I grew up with.
Who are your main influences musically?
I would have
to say bands like Radiohead, Muse, Elbow, Blur, Jesus & Mary Chain, The
Cure, The Clash, The Buzzcocks, Fischer-Z etc. More recent bands, such as Black
Rebel Motorcycle Club and Doves have also had an effect on my musical stylings.
Oh, and I would have to say that my mum was a huge influence in my love of
music. She was a cabaret singer in her younger days…brilliant voice.
What do you hope to achieve in music?
Music is
a passion and a therapy for me. I hope that I can covey and convert this
passion and share my tracks with as many people that I can. I have always
wanted to be able to perform in a band, creating my own stuff, and being able
to reproduce it live would be my ultimate goal. It’s difficult when there is
only one of me…but you never know.
What has been the highlight of your career so far, and
why?
Having a song selected for a compilation CD early on was one
highlight, being interviewed on the radio and hearing my tracks played was
another, but getting positive feedback from John Watts (Fischer-Z) for a cover
I did of his track Pretty Paracetamol was pretty much up there…he is one of my
musical heroes. Oh, and last week I was put on a playlist on Italian Radio with
The Killers, Oasis, Supergrass, Muse, Blur and Radiohead…now that was kinda
special (as you can probably tell, I’m easily pleased).
And what’s the moment you want to forget?
I guess at
this stage there haven’t been any real things I’d like to forget along by brief
musical journey. It’s a learning curve, so if any glitch occurs, I take it as a
lesson to be learned and move on.
If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent
your music, what would it be and why?
It is difficult to say which song
best represents my music, as it often depends on the mood I’m in as to which
one I’d pick. But…I would say that There & Back (Again) would
be the track I’d pick, as it turned out almost exactly as I had planned it (in
my head…I can’t read or write music!). It’s a song about my frustration with
politicians, and how they promise to take you to a better place, but you always
end up back where you started. The vocals are in the style of John Watts
(falsetto in places), and all instruments are played by me (as they are on all
my tracks). I have only just started to learn what I can do with a guitar, so I
was happy with what transpired in the recording.
Where can we listen to it?
Where can we find out more about your music?
You can find my tracks on:
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/shippa-63
…as well as my Social Media pages:
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/Shippa63
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shippa63
Anything else you’d like to say about your music that I
forgot to ask?
I am fully aware with how difficult it is to make a career
out of music. I’m definitely keeping my day job, but when music is a passion, you
just want to enjoy it while you can. I plan to keep making music for as long as
I can, and if others enjoy it, well, so be it. If they don’t, well at least I
tried (and enjoyed myself in the process). Thanks so much for asking me to join
in your musical journey.
