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Personal Biography of Mark Zellner

I was born and raised in Mansfield, Ohio. There was always music around me. My grandfather played bluegrass and frequently would have friends over for jam sessions. When nobody was around I would lay his Epiphone hollow body on the sofa and climb under it because it was too big for me to hold upright. I would bang on some single notes, not having anything in mind. I'm sure the noise was enough to send the dog to the other end of the house.

My uncle had a rock band that would practice in the basement (The Honeybadgers). I was like the band mascot. I would frequent the basement and pick up some slang words like 'cool' and 'groovy'. All the band member's girlfriends or groupies would think it was so cute that I would pull those words out. This was the late 60's and early 70's so I tried to fit right in. I was getting music education without realizing it.

When I got a little older, I could hold the Epiphone guitar (though it was still big). I found some music books lying around the house with chord charts above the words. The first tune I tried to play was 'King of the Road'. It's about the only song that I could understand at the time, and I could remember the melody line to the song. I don't remember how long I tried to play that song, but I'm sure it spanned months or years.

During that period of time, I had a lot to do. There was the original Star Trek, Lost in Space, Speed Racer, Hawaii 5-O, Batman, etc.. So, music was dormant for years.

When I finally got interested in music again, it was because my friends were getting into music. It was during my early teens and the prospect of girls being attracted to Rock-n-Roll guitar players had a significant amount to do with getting involved in music. Being in a band didn't interest me because I didn't think I could do that yet. I never really had an interest in bluegrass music, but I did have an interest in rock music.

About the first music I got into was the Eagles. I didn't own it but I liked it. A buddy of mine and I would visit some of his relatives and we would listen to records. In retrospect, The Eagles had a lot of good guitar work in it. I didn't analyze it at the time, but I'm sure that's why I liked it so much. I remember someone bringing in a new album by Foreigner and I liked it a lot too.

The first album I bought was Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle". Then there was Peter Frampton. Frampton had appeal because of the talk box guitar sound. I hadn't heard that before. Then I picked up Aerosmith "Rocks". I'm sure I almost wore that album out. That album still kicks today.

At this time, some of the guys in the neighborhood would barter things and a lot of trading was going on. No one could really afford to buy new things, but we could sure work some deals. I traded some things for my first electric guitar (I'm sure it was everything I had that I could possibly trade). My grandfather and uncle cringed when I showed it to them. They said 'look at how high those strings are off the neck!'. We all laughed. It didn't matter to me. I had a guitar of my own that also doubled as a female attraction device.

I started listening to a lot of KISS. I had their posters all over my walls. I would sit down and try to play their music on guitar. I'm sure I pulled a few bar chords out (you know, the 2 finger kind), but I couldn't really figure out much. My ear for music hadn't developed to the point of finding all the positions yet. My grandfather came in one time while "Love Gun" was playing and said "I can't help you with that, you're on your own if you want to play that kind of music". My uncle had retreated from music and was involved in other interests, so I couldn't rely on him helping much at this point. I just kept playing. I did start getting better. I would jam with other guys in the neighborhood, but a band wasn't likely yet.

I remember an early influence was going to meet Frank Medley. I watched him play some lead licks. He had a Gibson SG with mahogany finish and played on a Fender amp. Frank had very long straight black hair. It was like my own private concert. I was a rhythm player so leads were mind boggling to me. Leads were like a black art form or some hidden secret. I was inspired. I'd only heard records, I'd never actually seen someone play lead solo's like that before.

By this time I was in high school and during the summer I would  practice hours on end. I was getting the hang of picking chords off records. I was finally mastering some of the music rhythmically. There was still a large void of lead guitar to learn. I found out the guy next door (Bob Howell) also played guitar and we went to the same school. Pretty soon he and I were jamming together. He was picking up rhythm at the time and I felt compelled to learn lead. He could drone out some chords and I could experiment with lead. I didn't know where I was going, but I knew when I hit some nasty notes.

I'd been listening to Ted Nugent and was impressed with his work until VanHalen came out. VanHalen blew me away. The black void of lead guitar just opened up ten fold. The high jump bar raised so high I couldn't see it anymore. I had to let my uncle listen to this. I knew I was in trouble when it floored him too.

You see, good guitar work can do one of two things. Either it inspires you to do better, or it makes you give up. The only problem is that, although you may think someone is better than you, other people still have their opinion and may land on your side regardless of what you think. When you realize this, you may as well keep playing because in your mind you don't feel like your the best, but someone else might. And the best to them is just as real as the best to you is real. Who says you need to be the best anyway. What would the music scene be like with only one band because all the rest gave up? VanHalen surely knocked everyone else down a rung on the ladder.

I'd been hanging around with a few guys at school that were unique. This guy I'd recently met had a wild personality. He was always talking about Steven Tyler (Aerosmith). He was a fan of his and did whatever he could to be more like him. I was certainly not going to sing. I was having enough problems trying to learn guitar. Somehow, we got together and tried to fill positions for a band. Dave Carrington was going to sing, I would play lead guitar but we still had positions to fill. It was nearly Thanksgiving and we didn't know a drummer or bass player.

At Thanksgiving dinner, I figured out a plan. My cousin (Mike Shrock) seemed interested in learning music he was picking up pointers from my grandfather and uncle. I asked if he would learn to play bass and he agreed to join. He knew some drummers since he was from a different school. We tried out some drummers (Ron Louden, Buddy Phelps, Scott Yoder) and formed our first band "Stiletto".

We were too young to play in bars, so we played partys. We were out to have a good time, and we did.

I still remember all the beer cans lining the walls at practice. We practiced at my house in the basement. Mom didn't mind much. The cops would drop by sometimes to tell us to turn down, but they weren't bugging us. Mom always knew where we were and it kept us off the streets.

Scott didn't stay in the band long. He wanted to do different music. We were kind of limited  with our selection of "AC/DC" and "Aerosmith" tunes.

Occasionally my uncle would drop by and give us pointers. I asked him to show me a VanHalen tune I was trying to learn. It wasn't entirely within his limits, but he was able to figure out parts well enough to impress me. I asked him which scales to work on and he said he knew the major scales but he really wished he would have started with the minor scale. So I began learning minor scales. I can take a hint.

I got this blues book with a real flimsy sqare record in the back. I tuned my guitar to the record and the band on the record would play about 3 variations of blues. I practiced all the time. I started getting pretty good with blues.

I started to understand some music theory. Nobody taught me music theory. I couldn't tell you about music theory even today. I know it's there, I know I use it, but I can't explain it. To me, it has to do with a progression of chords with lead being played on top of it, and knowing where the key changes are and knowing when you screwed up. Knowing when you're causing pain to your listeners is very important. It has to do with the right feel of the music. A lot of improvising on the spot is in the art of recovery. You can hit an entirely bad note, and it will sound like you planned it, if you know how to play around with the bad note. This knowledge comes from experience and a lot of improvising.

I was never that good at note-for-note leads. I would get it close and improvise the rest. This is probably why I think I've developed my own style. I had to make up for not being patient enough to learn the note-for-note leads. In addition, I wouldn't get totally lost if I hit a few klunker notes now and then. I just had to remember what key I was in.

Yoder soon left the band and we picked up Phil Reiter. We changed the name of the band to "The Hellbenders" and was practicing again. We were starting to get pretty good. We were tackling harder material. Then problems with women started to happen. It's a double edged sword. The women like you cause you're in a band, but they want you out of the band so they can have your full attention. It's not really the women's fault. The majority of the time it's the guy's fault for allowing it to happen. Some guys follow their groin, some guys don't. If you follow your groin, you'll probably realize your mistake too late. Like after your equipment is sold and you're totally pacifistic. Then they normally leave you for another conquest (where's the challenge?).

Soon, Dave Carrington left to pursue a career in the Army. We continued to practice and looked for a singer. I'm not sure how, but we found Dave Baer. He said to call him "Tanner". I don't know the story behind that, but Tanner had some good moves and was good at singing too.

We played partys and bars. We entered into the battle of the bands at the "Party House" in 82 against 36 other bands during a 3 month period and won. We had some stiff competition too. We started getting a good following. By this time we were playing some harder tunes. Ozzy, Robert Plant, Zepplin, VanHalen, Scorpions, UFO, Def Leppard, etc. We had a small circuit going in the area, but we didn't have a plan.

Tanner left and moved to Columbus, Ohio. I'm not sure what happened, but he had a band in Columbus for a while. We went singerless for quite a spell.

We found Richard Carmichael and was at it again. Richard played drums on tour with "Savoy Brown" in 79 & 80 touring Canada & US twice and also played for a well known area band "Canyon" from 74 to 78. He wasn't doing anything at the time and decided to give lead singing a try. We played the circuit of area clubs and came up with a promo pack.

Of the memorable performances we did, one was at the Renisance Theatre in Mansfield, Ohio. Some how we were involved in a battle of the bands there. Remarkably, we pulled the last act (Greg should remember this one, he was in his band "Kings" at the time, they played right before we did and Frank Medley played guitar for them). It was so memorable because when we got done, Richard put some promo packs on the edge of the stage and a ton of fans came up and were grabbing them. One of the guys that grabbed a promo pack (Scott Cain) would later call me and we would form another band "Osiris".

Phil eventually moved off to Washington DC and Richard played drums. This was a pretty major change because we had to change our material. Richard couldn't play and sing the material we were doing anymore.

Somehow we got hooked up with Tim Bierre. We decided that we needed to change the name of the band. The name changed to "Mirage" and we changed our material to top 40 because Tim's range fit Bryan Adams and Billy Idol type material.

Mirage lasted about a year and we were getting good bookings in the area and Tim decided to leave.

Richard, Mike and I had been doing 7 original tunes and wanted to record. I bought a 4-track casette recorder and we hibernated for a while and recorded some songs. In retrospect, this was a mistake. We couldn't get good enough quality out of the recorder and ended up wasting our time.

Mike was offered a position in the band "Taboo" and joined them to play top 40. He was tired of playing low pay gigs and it was hard to get them. Richard and I also decided to split marking the end of a 5-6 year stint of "The Hellbenders".

Within a few months I got a call from Mike Gatrell (Mike used to roadie for "Pinhook") and was invited to Scott Cain's house to jam. I went over to Scott's house and met Mike Gatrell (Bass), Mark Shibley (Guitar), and Scott Cain (Drums). We jammed for a while and they decided to pull me into "Osiris".

We didn't have a singer at the time, but we got extremely tight as a unit (playing without a singer for cues is hard work, but it's an experience every band should go through to tidy up). We tried out many singers eventually ending up with Tim Bierre. We had a very good song list and were very tight.

We started playing clubs in the area (that we could get Scott into because he was the baby in the band). We got a very good following going and kept the music current. We were playing Iron Maiden, Ratt, Bullet Boys, Dio, Aerosmith, Ozzy, Tesla, Motley Crue, Scorpions, etc.

Osiris played for about a year with this lineup and Tim left the band to be replaced by Kenny Frye. Then Mark Sheibly left and was replaced by Rob Paine.

Osiris went on successfully for about 3 more years and I found that the music was no longer the highest priority in the band. Other interests were causing interference with some band members abilities to reason with reality.

Mark Sheibly was still a friend of mine. Mark had been jamming with Doug Perry (A green bassist just beginning to learn) and they stopped over to inform me that Osiris had been practicing with Robin Godair (on my gear!). This was not at all cool. How could they be auditioning another guitarist on my gear? I started taking my gear with me.

Osiris never actually told me until I showed up for a gig with my equipment. All those years with what I thought were brothers, and not the balls to give me any warning or suggest a route of reconciliation nor any reason for why.

Practically the same day that I was given the boot, I joined up with Mark Sheibly and Doug Perry. We found drummer Darrin Fearn and began looking for a singer.

We practiced at Mark's house and found a singer Dave (I forget his last name) and eventually formed the band 'Mantis'.

Dave sang for us and he had the right range to do the material. Dave was always a loose cannon, but that was always good for the shows. Dave eventually bailed out to devote his time to his family and wife. Mantis played out seldom because we had problems finding singers capable of doing the type of material that we wanted to do.

Mark had to move out of his mom's house because it had been sold. So we began practicing at my house. We tried out a singer (Shane Wilcox) and he wasn't too interested in joining but we jammed a couple of times. Eventually we all split up and Mark moved to California, and Darrin got married.

Shane had a band going and asked me to join him. I joined him and brought Doug Perry with me. The lineup also had a kid by the name of Kevin Alfrey. Somehow I found Scott Yoder again and we put together 'Harem Scarem'. This was a very unusual band. I've never been in a band that played all original music before, but that's what we were trying to do. We were working on some cover tunes too, but more emphasis was placed on originals (and Shane wanted to write all the songs).

We eventually found a recording studio in Ashland, Ohio that was cheap enough for us to get into. We each pryed money out of our pockets to pay for our portions of the recording cost. We recorded a couple of Shane's originals. We were doing the recording to enter some battle.

During recording, Kevin was doing re-take after re-take. It was obvious that Kevin was having problems performing under pressure. Shortly after recording, Kevin left the band.

Shane began having disagreements with Doug on playing some things. In retrospect, I believe Shane just wanted to take over playing bass to play the songs his way. I got the feeling that Shane never wanted the songs to be commercial or danceable. What better way to accomplish the task.

I had to tell Doug goodbye, but I knew I would jam with him again.

Shane took over bass and we jammed for a while 3 piece. Scott really wanted another guitarist and we pulled in Kevin Perkins, then AJ Ramsey.

Harem Scarem seldom played out becuse we had problems getting bookings.

AJ left to get into other music. Eventually I got tired of it and quit too. The music wasn't my style either.

I was contacted by Mike Todd of 'Torpedo Alley' and asked to jam with them because AJ had been gigging with them and decided to leave them. He referred them to me. I had to sit down in 2 weeks and learn 40 cover tunes of material I was not familiar with. If you've never mixed songs up before, try this sometime! It's one of the most difficult things I've ever done. Torpedo Alley is stricly oldies, and I had been playing originals for the past few years, and metal before that.

I learned the material and made some cash becuse those guys book up real easy. One of the problems I had was that they didn't like adlib solos. These guys want note-for-note solos. Original material was something they were not interested in. I can usually get them pretty close, but that's not good enough. I really didn't like being seperated from metal and desired to kick some booty again.

About a month after getting out, I got a call from Mike Gatrell. He was re-forming Lost Angel and wanted to know if I wanted in.

Hold on tight, Here we go again.......more to come on the early Lost Angel days.

Note: If anyone disputes the chronologial order of the information contained here, or would like me to modify or add anything, please e-mail me. I'm only human (well, maybe not entirely. Is anyone really sure?).