Mark Stewart (musician)
Encyclopedia
Mark Stewart is a British
musician
and founding member of The Pop Group
. A pioneer of industrial hip-hop
, he has recorded for On-U Sound Records
and Mute Records
.
, one of Bristol's leading private schools, and was in the same year as fellow musician Nick Sheppard
. Stewart started out in Bristol
in 1978 in music with The Pop Group, a band
whose songtitles (such as "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?"), political conviction, disrespect for copyright
and willingness to collaborate laid the foundations for his later work.
The Pop Group split in 1981, with Stewart and two other members heading off to London
to hook up with the emerging On-U Sound "conspiracy of outsiders" as part of the New Age Steppers
. On-U became a focal point of a diverse set of networks - punks
, reggae
players from both the UK
and Jamaica
and free-jazz
ers. His first post-Pop Group release was as 'Mouth 2', the 1982 single "Who's Hot". Two releases followed with On-U associates under the name 'Mark Stewart & The Maffia' - the Jerusalem EP in 1983, and the 1983 album Learning to Cope with Cowardice.
Stewart has since made several album
s under his own name as well as collaborating with artists
such as Trent Reznor
of Nine Inch Nails
fame, Tricky
, Massive Attack
, Chicks on Speed
, ADULT. and Primal Scream
. In 2005, he released a collection of his best work on Soul Jazz Records
entitled Kiss the Future. In 2006, he wrote the theme music used for the first series of the BBC One drama, Waterloo Road
. His latest album Edit was released on the Crippled Dick Hot Wax! record label
in 2008.
He is currently living in Berlin
, Vienna
and Portland, Dorset.
Stewart is well known in several Europe
an countries and Japan
. He recently was involved in a documentary filmed by Tøni Schifer, "On/Off - Mark Stewart - from The Pop Group to the Maffia", which including interviews with Nick Cave
, Daniel Miller, former Pop Group members, Adrian Sherwood
, Skip McDonald, Doug Wimbish
, Keith LeBlanc, Fritz Hart (23 Skidoo) and others. The premiere took place at the East End Film Festival in April 2009
.
This matchless track record of anarchic pioneering prompted Nick Cave
to declare, “Mark Stewart changed everything”. Reflecting on his far-reaching influence, Mark says, “I thought I was making funk
music, but a track on Veneer Of Democracy supposedly inspired all the American industrialists, like Front Line Assembly
and Skinny Puppy
, while another track supposedly inspired the Bristol kids. It happens all the time. I’ve got this nonchalance that nothing is sacred so I’ll crash a Slayer
guitar line with Rotterdam gabba beats. For me, it’s like colours. I grew up doing montages; like I did this collage of Ronald Reagan
’s head on this gay porno cowboy. In fact, I’ve never really grown up at all. I’m still trying to put round things into square holes.”
Stewart releases his next single through Future Noise Music on Black Friday November 25th, 2011. The double A side Children Of The Revolution / Nothing Is Sacred features The Bug, Crass
's Eve Libertine
, Berlin's Slope
and Pop Group bassist Dan Catsis. This paves the way for Stewart’s new album in 2012. Also released on Future Noise Music, it features a stellar cast including Kenneth Anger
, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Richard Hell
, The Raincoats
' Gina Birch
, Primal Scream
and Clash
/PiL
guitarist Keith Levene
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and founding member of The Pop Group
The Pop Group
The Pop Group are a British post-punk band from Bristol, England, formed in 1978, whose dissonant sound spanned punk, free jazz, funk and dub reggae. Their lyrics were often political in nature...
. A pioneer of industrial hip-hop
Industrial hip-hop
Industrial hip hop is a fusion of the dissonance and dystopian subject matter of industrial music with the rhythms or vocals of hip hop music.-1980s:The origins of industrial hip hop are in the work of Mark Stewart, Bill Laswell, and Adrian Sherwood...
, he has recorded for On-U Sound Records
On-U Sound Records
On-U Sound Records is an English record label best known for releasing its own unique flavour of dub music since the 1980s. The label is owned by producer Adrian Sherwood and home to acts such as Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, The London Underground, Little Annie, Creation Rebel,...
and Mute Records
Mute Records
Mute is an independent record label based in the UK. It was founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller and featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure and Fad Gadget.-Beginnings:...
.
Career
Stewart was educated at Bristol Grammar SchoolBristol Grammar School
Bristol Grammar School is a co-educational independent school in Clifton, Bristol, England. The school was founded in 1532 by two brothers, Robert and Nicholas Thorne....
, one of Bristol's leading private schools, and was in the same year as fellow musician Nick Sheppard
Nick Sheppard
Nick Sheppard is a Bristol-born guitarist best known for being in the well-known punk band The Clash for a short time.-Biography:Nick Sheppard was educated at Bristol Grammar School, one of Bristol's leading public schools, and was in the same year as fellow musician Mark Stewart of The Pop Group...
. Stewart started out in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
in 1978 in music with The Pop Group, a band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
whose songtitles (such as "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?"), political conviction, disrespect for copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
and willingness to collaborate laid the foundations for his later work.
The Pop Group split in 1981, with Stewart and two other members heading off to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to hook up with the emerging On-U Sound "conspiracy of outsiders" as part of the New Age Steppers
New Age Steppers
New Age Steppers, one of the On-U Sound stable, under the creative direction of Adrian Sherwood, was a collective of musicians which varied over time...
. On-U became a focal point of a diverse set of networks - punks
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
players from both the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
and free-jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
ers. His first post-Pop Group release was as 'Mouth 2', the 1982 single "Who's Hot". Two releases followed with On-U associates under the name 'Mark Stewart & The Maffia' - the Jerusalem EP in 1983, and the 1983 album Learning to Cope with Cowardice.
Stewart has since made several album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s under his own name as well as collaborating with artists
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
such as Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
of Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
fame, Tricky
Tricky
Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...
, Massive Attack
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English DJ and trip hop duo from Bristol, England consisting of Robert "3D" Del Naja and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. Working with co-producers, as well as various session musicians and guest vocalists, they make records and tour live. The duo are considered to be of the trip...
, Chicks on Speed
Chicks on Speed
Chicks on Speed is a multi-national musical ensemble, formed in Munich in 1997, when members Melissa Logan, Kiki Moorse and Alex Murray-Leslie met at the Academy of Fine Arts....
, ADULT. and Primal Scream
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...
. In 2005, he released a collection of his best work on Soul Jazz Records
Soul Jazz Records
Soul Jazz Records is a British-based record label. The label started in the 1990s, releasing compilation albums of predominantly black music, including reggae, soul, ska, Dub and jazz...
entitled Kiss the Future. In 2006, he wrote the theme music used for the first series of the BBC One drama, Waterloo Road
Waterloo Road (TV series)
Waterloo Road is an award-winning British television drama series, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 9 March 2006. Set in a troubled comprehensive school in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, the series focuses on the lives of the school's teacher and students, and confronts social...
. His latest album Edit was released on the Crippled Dick Hot Wax! record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
in 2008.
He is currently living in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and Portland, Dorset.
Stewart is well known in several Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an countries and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. He recently was involved in a documentary filmed by Tøni Schifer, "On/Off - Mark Stewart - from The Pop Group to the Maffia", which including interviews with Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
, Daniel Miller, former Pop Group members, Adrian Sherwood
Adrian Sherwood
Adrian Sherwood is an English record producer best known for his work with dub music as well as for remixing a number of popular acts such as Coldcut, Depeche Mode, The Woodentops, Primal Scream, Pop Will Eat Itself, Sinéad O'Connor, and Skinny Puppy...
, Skip McDonald, Doug Wimbish
Doug Wimbish
Doug Wimbish is a bass player, primarily known for his studio work for the rap/hip hop label Sugarhill Records and his membership of the funk metal band Living Colour. He has played for a vast range of artists, including Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Madonna, George Clinton, Paula Cole, Bomb the Bass,...
, Keith LeBlanc, Fritz Hart (23 Skidoo) and others. The premiere took place at the East End Film Festival in April 2009
April 2009
April 2009 was the fourth month of that year. It began on a Wednesday and ended after 30 days on a Thursday.- Portal:Current events :This is an archived version of Wikipedia's Current events Portal from April 2009....
.
This matchless track record of anarchic pioneering prompted Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor.He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in 1984, a group known for its eclectic influences and...
to declare, “Mark Stewart changed everything”. Reflecting on his far-reaching influence, Mark says, “I thought I was making funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
music, but a track on Veneer Of Democracy supposedly inspired all the American industrialists, like Front Line Assembly
Front Line Assembly
Front Line Assembly is a Canadian electro-industrial band formed by Bill Leeb in 1986 after leaving Skinny Puppy. Influenced by early Industrial acts such as Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, D.A.F., Test Dept, SPK, and Severed Heads, FLA has developed its own unique sound while combining...
and Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy
Skinny Puppy is a Canadian industrial musical group, formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1982. The group is widely considered to be the founders of the electro-industrial genre....
, while another track supposedly inspired the Bristol kids. It happens all the time. I’ve got this nonchalance that nothing is sacred so I’ll crash a Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
guitar line with Rotterdam gabba beats. For me, it’s like colours. I grew up doing montages; like I did this collage of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
’s head on this gay porno cowboy. In fact, I’ve never really grown up at all. I’m still trying to put round things into square holes.”
Stewart releases his next single through Future Noise Music on Black Friday November 25th, 2011. The double A side Children Of The Revolution / Nothing Is Sacred features The Bug, Crass
Crass
Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
's Eve Libertine
Eve Libertine
Eve Libertine is a British singer.She was one of the two female vocalists who worked with the influential British anarcho-punk band Crass...
, Berlin's Slope
Slope
In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line describes its steepness, incline, or grade. A higher slope value indicates a steeper incline....
and Pop Group bassist Dan Catsis. This paves the way for Stewart’s new album in 2012. Also released on Future Noise Music, it features a stellar cast including Kenneth Anger
Kenneth Anger
Kenneth Anger is an American underground experimental filmmaker, occasional actor and author...
, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Richard Hell
Richard Hell
Richard Hell is a singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and writer.Richard Hell was an innovator of punk music and fashion. He was one of the first to spike his hair and wear torn, cut and drawn-on shirts, often held together with safety pins...
, The Raincoats
The Raincoats
The Raincoats are a British post-punk band. Ana da Silva and Gina Birch formed the group in 1977 while they were students at Hornsey College of Art, London, England.-Career:...
' Gina Birch
Gina Birch
Gina Birch is an English musician and film-maker, probably best known as a founding member of The Raincoats.Born in Nottingham where she attended Nottingham High School for Girls, Birch formed The Hangovers and released an album, Slow Dirty Tears, in 1998. In 2002 and 2007 she performed live at...
, Primal Scream
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...
and Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
/PiL
PIL
PIL may refer to:* Private International Law* Carlos Miguel Jiménez Airport , in Pilar, Paraguay* Port Isabel-Cameron County Airport , in Port Isabel, Texas...
guitarist Keith Levene
Keith Levene
Keith Levene is an English songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was an early member of The Clash, but is best known as being a founding member of Public Image Limited, along with John Lydon....
.
Singles
- "Who's Hot" (1982) Y (as Mouth 2)
- Jerusalem EP (1982) On-U Sound (Mark Stewart & The Maffia)
- "Hypnotised" (1985) Mute (#9)
- "Tackhead" (1986) Mute (#31)
- "This Is Stranger Than Love" (1987) Mute (#7)
- "Hysteria" (1990) Mute
- "Dream Kitchen" (1996) Mute
- "Consumed - The Remix Wars" (1998) Mute
Albums
- Learning to Cope With Cowardice (1983) On-U Sound (Mark Stewart & The Maffia)
- As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade (1985) On-U Sound (#3)
- Mark Stewart (1987) Mute (#5)
- Metatron (1990) Mute
- Control Data (1996) Mute
- Kiss The Future (2005) Soul Jazz
- Edit (2008) Crippled Dick Hot Wax