I grew up in Suburbia, Long Island, in the USA. Anywhere, USA. Frank Capra, USA. There's a lawn outside that grows; cars go by the house. Do you know the sound of a car going by your house? It's interesting. You're a young person and you're growing up. You're crawling down the hallway. You're being lifted up into and out of a highchair. It's interesting how different houses have different sounds - sounds that are fascinating inasmuch as they're subliminal, but part of the whole picture.

I think for me, I was always aware of my visual senses, but the audio part, which ironically was on a deeper, subconscious level, made more of an impression.

Then all of a sudden I hear something on the radio and for the first time it speaks to me of a place far away from my environment. From the highchair, from the cereal boxes, from the hallway. I live in sounds: my parents' voices, the telephone ringing, footsteps up the stairs, and then there's this DIFFERENT sound; this whole other thing that I'm hearing. The radio.

There's a truth that's uncovered when the creative process is just right -- it doesn't matter what the song is, it's the truth that the song is about, or is representing, that you could jump into and it would help you out. It's a mystical experience: these people, working as artists all over the world, producing these great three-minute wonders, and you're privy to that whole process when it cuts through to you, in your home, via the radio. This is an ENORMOUS psychological event! How could I NOT want to get involved in it?!

Mark in front of his house at 51 Montauk Avenue, Merrick NY on the day his Vanguard album cover photo was taken by Sue Decleaver, his high school friend - 1971. Photo by Sue dekleva.

Hometown Merrick memory:

"Merrick was a water front town. The great south bay surrounded our neighborhood. Fog rolled in at night and the smells from the sea were always in the damp air."