May 28, 2024

Living the dream with singer/songwriter Linda Marks

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Join us on 'Living the Dream with Curveball' as we sit down with the multifaceted Boston-based singer-songwriter Linda Marks. Linda shares her inspiring journey from a non-speaking toddler to a chart-topping musician, with a passion that transcends genre boundaries. Discover her unique story of perseverance, the therapeutic power of music, and her latest endeavors, including the impactful Sanctuary Project. Tune in to learn how Linda turns sorrow into gold and uplifts spirits through her heartfelt melodies. Don't miss this deep dive into the life of an artist who truly embodies the spirit of living the dream.
www.lindamarksmusic.com

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> Speaker A>Welcome, um, to the living the dream podcast with Curveball. Um, if you believe you can achieve Chee Chee, welcome, um, to the living the dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today I am joined by multitalented Boston based singer songwriter, Linda Marks. Linda's music focuses on turning sorrow to go uplifting the spirit. She even has a song that on the UK 100 chart. So we're going to be talking to her about everything that she's up to, about her career, about her albums, and some of the awards she's won. So, Linda, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> Linda Marks>Thanks so much for having me.

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> Speaker A>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> Linda Marks>Sure. I'm a lifelong singer songwriter. When I was a little girl, I didn't talk until I was three, but I was magnetically attracted to pianos.

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> Linda Marks>And even as a toddler, I would toddle my way to any piano I could find and start playing music and start writing music. So what I say is, music is my native language and it's been in my heart and soul since I was born. I've had. I've had two professional music chapters.

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> Linda Marks>Um, I had to work very hard to get myself a piano because unfortunately, I had a father who would tell me over and over again, music is a waste of a good mind out of his fear that it was so hard to make a living in music, which is even worse now than when I was a little kid. But the point at hand is when you have something inside of you and it lights your fire and it's part of your gift to give to the world. To try to shut that off will make a person implode.

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> Linda Marks>So, um, I basically got myself a piano when I was 13, after getting myself a guitar when I was eleven. As a little kid, I worked doing whatever I could to earn the money to get the instruments. Um, and I taught myself piano from what I taught myself on guitar. And then once I had a piano, I never looked back. I probably still play the guitar like an eleven or twelve or 13 year old. And I had my first chapter, as I call it, um, through about age 30. My first album came out when, um, I was in my mid twenties.

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> Linda Marks>And unfortunately, the combination of my father's voice resonating in my mind, which was pretty scary, and that I was an introvert.

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> Linda Marks>So, you know, I'd like to perform with others. I performed as a duo with a woman named Lisa Wexler for a number of years. Um, when I met her when I was 21 and she was 26, in the Arlington, Massachusetts laundromat during her rinse cycle.

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> Linda Marks>And we were music collaborators for a number of years after that. But when she decided she didn't enjoy performing anymore and I was doing it by myself, I didn't enjoy it doing it by myself either. So I ended up having an unanticipated multidecate hiatus because I ended up, um, becoming a single mom when my now 28 year old son was four and a half. Well, actually two and a half.

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> Linda Marks>And, um, uh, my mom ended up having Alzheimer's. So there was a period of time I was in between the intergenerational sandwich, but when my son was twelve, I couldn't take it anymore in terms of not being engaged with music. So I take one step forward, two steps back. And when my mom died ten years ago, I made the commitment to do it 1000%. And I have.

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> Linda Marks>And in the last twelve years, I have released twelve of my 13 studio albums. The first came out when I was in my mid twenties, ah. Or early twenties, actually. And then my 15 studio album is in production right now and I'm writing songs for my 16th studio album. So once I made that commitment to fully embrace it no matter what, it opened the floodgates.

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> Linda Marks>And I'm very grateful for the many songs that have been coming through me since that time.

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> Speaker A>Absolutely. Congratulations. So tell the listeners what kind of music, like, if somebody came to you and said, hey, Linda, wanna check out your music? What kind of. What genre of music do you do?

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> Linda Marks>I've never fit neatly in a genre box.

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> Linda Marks>You know, I was talking with a producer the other day and he says, I'm an adult contemporary. I'm in jazz. I'm in America on a folk.

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> Linda Marks>I write a little gospel. I tend to find my home in the contemporary and alternative folk genre just because I write songs at the heart of our times.

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> Linda Marks>And the folk world has expanded to really embrace singer songwriters, even if they don't just play guitars and write traditional folk songs. Because when I orchestrate, I could use a saxophone. I could use it, uh, you know, could use a harp. Ah, I could use, um, a cello with violin. I use all different instruments and write across genres. But my home does tend to be in the alternative or contemporary folk world.

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> Linda Marks>Although I could still play at a jazz club, which I've done before as well.

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> Speaker A>Okay, well, you've had several charting and award winning works, so tell us about that, as well as your number one song on that UK chart.

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> Linda Marks>Yes, well, um, I'm very grateful that since 2020, I've been submitting, um, my albums for promotion to the global folk community.

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> Linda Marks>The folk, ah, Alliance International DJ community is quite a wonderful community because they don't just put you in a genre box and they really listen to your songs. So I've had a number of albums, um, that have been on those charts. And my 2023 album, Everyday Legends, was on the Roots Music Report folk charts for 14 months. And the only thing that took it down was when my album, a recipe for Hope, came out at the beginning of 2024. And we wanted to bring the focus to it. So we were basically telling some of the dj's that were still playing it heavily that it was okay to move to my 2024 album. So, a recipe for Hope is on a good number of charts right now as an album, and some of the songs from it, um, love always wins is the song that hit number one on the UK Hot 100 chart and is still on the chart. I'm not sure which number it's at. The last someone told me it was eight or ten, but it's been on that chart for quite a long time. Um, uh, a recipe for Hope is currently on the Roots Music Report Folk album, um, chart, and also the alternative folk chart. It's, um, a song from the album called Love Letters in the sky is in the top 25 of the America kind of chart for radio guitar one. It's also on a couple other charts that I'm not thinking of their names right now. Um, and some of the songs from the album have won awards both abroad and in the US. Uh, the closing International Music Awards gave a recipe for Hope best folk album, and a song from the album called September Morne won best singer songwriter from the Clozan International Music Awards. Love always wins, which is the song that has. Has been on the UK Hot 100 list. It actually was a finalist in the great American Song Contest, and that is a huge, huge, um, honor. I feel very grateful for that because tens of thousands of people submit songs and less than 1% of the songs become finalists. So I was incredibly grateful for that. And, um, love always wins also won a World Music award just recently. It was like two days apart. First I got the World Music Award, then I found about being a finalist in the great American Song Contest.

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> Linda Marks>And, um, some of there are more awards, but what happens is when they start coming in, I start not keeping track of them so well, it sort of becomes overwhelming. But I'm very grateful that this album has been so well received and it only came out at the beginning of the year, so it still has a good amount of time to reach people and hopefully touch them.

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> Speaker A>Well, tell us about some of your biggest musical influences. Who influences you to do what you do?

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> Linda Marks>When I was a little kid, I listened to everything and anything I could get my ears on. So, um, I loved Dionne Warwick and I learned every single solitary Burt Bachrach song in the Burt Bachrack David songbook I loved. Well, I was a little kid when the whole singer songwriter movement was happening, so people like Carole King. I happen to have blonde, wavy, curly hair, so my hair is a little bit like Carol, and I'm a piano playing singer songwriter. So at times people have had made, um, references to that. And at one point, a colleague of mine photoshopped my face into Carole King's hair when she was with James Taylor and posted it. This might have been like seven or eight years ago. So people were asking how I managed to get the gig with James Taylor, which was really funny, but, uh, I've actually covered quite a few of her songs and recorded some of them.

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> Linda Marks>Linda Ronstadt, Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, you know, the Carla Bonof. All of those singer songwriters were, um, important people when I was very little. And another thing that I really loved was some Broadway musicals. The musical Pippin and Godspell were two that I loved. And so I started to learn a lot of those songs. I've actually, um. Corner of the sky from Pippin is one of the songs I recorded on an album. And I also love jazz, and I loved Chuck Mangione, and I loved Herb Albert and the Tijuana brass. I was introduced to some early folk music, like Pete Seeger, and I, uh, loved the Kingston trio. Um, as I got a little bit older and was in grad school, I found myself really loving smooth jazz because I've always loved the saxophone. So I would go to Boston's top jazz club, where eventually I would get some gigs and play myself and just listen to whatever would come through. People like Alita Adams and Linda Eder, um, I really enjoyed them tremendously, as well as all the different groups that had saxophones. Um, so the long and short of it is almost anything can influence me. When I was 13 and I bought my piano, I learned as many Scott Joplin rags as I could because I loved ragtime. And when I was in grammar school, I started writing ragtime. So if I hear it and I like it, it could be any genre. I love singing gospel. Um, and I could write any genre. It's really a matter of just what comes through my heart.

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> Speaker A>Sounds like your cats are musically inclined as well.

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> Linda Marks>Yes. Yes. My two cats. I have two cats up here. One's 18 and a half and one will turn two in May, but the two of them are very involved. I've been doing a weekly live stream since March of 2020, when the pandemic took all of our gigs away and people couldn't go out to hear music. So I'm in my fifth year, which is hard to believe, but tell us.

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> Speaker A>About it and where we can listen to it. Tell us about it.

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> Linda Marks>Oh, absolutely. Um, I will in just one sec. But both of my kitties love to appear on the live stream. They'll jump on my piano bench or jump on my lap when I'm doing it and then make an appearance, which is really cute. So the live stream is called songs from the heart, meditations for the heart. And I usually do it on the weekend, um, most of the time on a Sunday, occasionally on a Saturday, usually at

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00. Occasionally it has to be a little bit different, but I do it on my Linda marks Facebook page.

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And if you look into the archives, um, you can find most of my live streams there. Sometimes Facebook changes their whole, um, protocol about preserving live streams. And occasionally they've said they'll only save it for 30 days. But when I've had the option of making it there forever, I do. I also have my Linda marks music, which is my music page. I also cross post my live streams there. So if you follow Linda marks music on Facebook, um, you'll notice when each week I do come on and do the live stream.

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And one thing that's fun about livestreams is not only can you watch it when it's happening, but because I have the ability to save it and post it on my personal page and my Linda marks music page, people can watch it whenever they feel like it's. And one day, if I looked through all of these live streams, it would be fascinating because they sort of chronicle what's going on in the world. You see the evolution of the songs I've written over more than four years because the songs that I write are often at the heart of our time. So I've put together quite a few albums since the pandemic started. I'd have to use my mind and calculate how many I have. I think I have done.

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There were two in 2020 and maybe two in 2021. One in 2022.

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123, 124. So I may have done six or seven albums since the pandemic started that I released. So I've written quite a few songs because I generally have twelve songs on an album, and then I've written even another twelve for my 2025 album, and then a few more for that will go on the 2026. So it's really fun chronicling how songs evolve. And sometimes I'll play a song when I literally just wrote it and it's fresh. So it's really, it's almost like a musical diary or it's almost like its own show. It's become a show. And what was really fun at the beginning of the pandemic is because people really needed to see live music. Facebook opened up their filters of algorithms and bots, and lots and lots of people could watch.

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Sometimes when I would do a live stream, um, by the time I was done, 2500 people would have watched it. They closed down the filters a few years ago so that not as many people know what's going on. And now, you know, when, um, the live stream has been posted, you know, after a couple weeks, you know, only 600 people total have seen it.

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Whereas in the days of the early pandemic where Facebook knew this was what people needed, 2500 people could watch it just within the time it was happening. So it's been quite a journey.

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> Speaker A>Okay, tell us about any upcoming or current projects that you're working on that the listeners need to be aware of.

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> Linda Marks>Okay, well, my 2025 album, which is called the Silence of the Stars, is in production right now, and it will come out January 1, 2025. So that will be an album full of really wonderful songs.

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> Linda Marks>Um, a project I'm working on is called the Sanctuary Project. And I wrote a song last November inspired by and including words of domestic violence survivors.

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> Linda Marks>I run a number of different artist alliance group. One of them is called Women in music gathering.

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> Linda Marks>And for about six years, we did an annual benefit concert in November, and we would donate our proceeds to a good community organization. And last November, we decided to focus on two organizations that helped domestic violence survivors and their families. So I teamed up with them, um, and they provided stories about domestic violence survivors experience.

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> Linda Marks>And as I listened to the stories and read the stories, some were video and some were in print. I wrote this song called Sanctuary, and it's a very uplifting song, but it really captures the experience of being a domestic violence survivor. And we premiered the song at the concert. We did the benefit concert on November 5 at, um, one of Boston's wonderful, um, indie venues called the Burren in Somerville, Massachusetts. And I had the CEO of one of the biggest domestic violence organizations in the area called Casimir Speak, and the executive director of one that was from Somerville, Massachusetts, the town we were having the show in, called response, and they both had tables to educate people. And that was the beginning of what has become the sanctuary project, because, sadly, I became very aware that domestic violence affects almost all of us one way or the other. It knows no bounds, and it transcends age, race, gender, socioeconomic background, geography. It happens all over the world and to people of all ages and backgrounds. And I grew up in a family, sadly, where the ghost of domestic violence was present. So I know it firsthand. So I wanted the song to become a symbol, if not, uh, an ambassador, to bring hope and healing and to make more people aware, you know, about the prevalence of domestic violence and to help look at the roots of domestic violence.

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> Linda Marks>So perhaps we can do something about reducing its prevalence and also to support the many good organizations that are helping domestic violence and their families.

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> Linda Marks>So there are a number of different phases to the sanctuary project. On June 23, when my, um, album release show for a recipe for hope, my 2024 album takes place again at the Burren and Somerville, Mass. We're going to be premiering a video that I am making with my local sound engineer, Doug Hammer, where we're pairing photographs with the lyrics. Some of the photographs have come from the organizations who work with domestic violence survivors, and some of the photos are ones I've taken because I'm a very avid and prolific photographer.

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> Linda Marks>So we will be premiering the video, and I've made a global recording of the song with, um, vocalists and instrumentalists from not only the US, but from Germany, from India, from Israel, and, um, from Greece. And we have a mastered version of the song, and the video is being set to that. Then on August 23, Sanctuary will be released on all platforms globally, and August 23 is my deceased mom's birthday, so I chose that date to honor her since she, um, unfortunately experienced domestic violence herself.

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> Linda Marks>Then on September 15, another singer songwriter named Randy O'Neil, who's from New Jersey, will be joining me at a venue called one Broadway collaborative, where we're going to be doing a concert that you can attend live, or, um, virtually. So if you go onto the one Broadway collaborative in Lawrence, Massachusetts, website, uh, there should be information about our September 5 concert as we get closer to September, and that money from that concert will be donated to Casa Marina and respond, Inc. And then on October 1, which is the beginning of domestic violence awareness month, I will be doing a live stream, and I will be performing sanctuary live.

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> Linda Marks>And in addition to that, I am trying to get some content from the artists who performed on the global version of the song. And I'm a big records artist, and I'm trying to see if I can get some statements from some of my colleagues at big records.

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> Linda Marks>But the whole idea is we really want to have the song be a, uh, bearer of light to help people build awareness and hopefully help get more resources and help. So those are the pieces in the sanctuary project.

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> Speaker A>Okay, well, y'all, uh, read it throughout. Uh, Linda marks music on social media. You have any websites or any other way?

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> Linda Marks>My website is Linda Marks music. My Facebook is Linda marks music on Instagram and Twitter, which is now called x. I'm lsm. M heart. Lsmheart.

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> Linda Marks>And my YouTube music channel has tons and tons of content from, hey, I just wrote this on my iPhone, to studio videos, to pieces of shows, to lyric videos with all, um, many of my albums are there. But, um, LSM Heart is my YouTube channel as well.

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> Speaker A>Okay, we'll close this out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on, if there's any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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> Linda Marks>Well, I think the thing that is important for me to just, um, speak about is that music is really a universal language that can bridge all divides and connect us heart to heart. We live in a time where this is a very hard time, I think since I was very little. Um, it has never been quite so hard as it is right now. And a lot of people are feeling more despair. Addiction is up. Uh, people are suffering from depression. It's much more expensive to live. Many of our trusted institutions have become depersonalized, whether it's healthcare or education or getting car insurance. And so music is something that can feed the soul. It can uplift the spirit. It can help us get to the heart of the matter and really connect at the human core. So I see it as a food group. I see it as a kind of nourishment. And I really encourage you to give yourself a very generous helping of music.

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> Linda Marks>And when I wrote the songs for a recipe for hope, it was important also to help provide a nice, nourishing serving of hope, because I don't think we can have too much hope right now. And many people could use vitamin H to help their spirit in the times we're living in.

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> Speaker A>All right, ladies and gentlemen, Linda marks music. Please be sure to check her out. Follow, uh, rate review share this episode to as many people as possible.

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> Speaker A>Uh, get her music out to everybody. We need to show as much support as possible.

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> Speaker A>She's a great, multi talented artist. If you have any guests or suggestion topics, see jackson 102 is the place to send them.

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> Speaker A>Jump on your favorite podcast app. Hit that follow button. Leave us a review. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Linda, thank you so much for joining us.

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> Linda Marks>Thank you so much for having me.

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> Speaker A>For more information on the living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurvefball.com.

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> Speaker A>Until next time, stay focused on living the dream. Drink.