Mark Geary

Ghosts

"When you talk to Mark Geary for half an hour you see the real thing: real hurt, real on-the-edge fragility, real drive and a real intensity that has to share a border with a dark shade of obsession... Geary's overbearing intensity is not an act, it is a carefully glossed over reality".

-Matthew McGee, Sunday Tribune.

Singer/songwriter Mark Geary came to NYC in 1995 with a one-way ticket from Dublin, $100 in his pocket, and a lottery-won green card. One of the New York’s favorite performers, Geary started out playing with Jeff Buckley at the legendary Café Sine (started by Mark’s brother Karl) and in early days made a name for himself opening for the likes of Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, and Coldplay. "You'd have to remove the grin surgically from my face from that time because I really enjoyed it. None of us had a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of."

Ironically during this period, Mark wrote some of his darkest and extremely vulnerable songs filled with demons such as "Gingerman", "Volunteer" and "It Beats Me". These songs all feature on his self-titled first album but alas the record company went under before the album had a chance to find its audience. So it wasn't until 2003 and sonaBLAST!'s release of  33 1/3 Grand Street that Mark could finally bring his music to the table. Over-flowing with songs that deserved to be heard, Mark did what he knew best and took to the road.

Since then, Mark has toured the globe and participated in music festivals all over the world, highlighted by three years in a row at SXSW, CMJ, as well as Lisdoonvarna in Ireland.  Mark’s sophomore album, Ghosts, brought him critical acclaim in Ireland and the States and was voted Album of the Year (2005) by the Irish Voice. "I'm haunted you know? I think we all are at some point and to some degree: by our past, by people and memories, by loss, grief, youth, fear, lust, love and can we learn from it or are we doomed to repeat the cycle? Ghosts is all about that but there is also hope in the songs. You can't live without hope."

Opium, 2008’s follow up to Ghosts (which featured backing vocals by Josh Ritter and 2008 Oscar winner for Best Original Song, Glen Hansard) was released in April in Ireland to great reviews and dropped in the US on September 16th, 2008.  Following the release, he was offered the chance to support The Swell Season (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova of Indie-film darling “Once”) on their European tour while also supporting Opium.

Geary has composed the score to two films, (2005’s Loggerheads and 2006’s Steel City) that were selected for Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival, and has been featured on a Starbucks Compilation, NPR and World Café with David Dye. He is currently on the road for his ‘Irish Tour 2009’ in Ireland.