Editor’s note: This article is part of a series called New Music Mondays, where we feature new music by musicians from the Greater Sudbury area on Mondays. If you’re an area musician and would like us to profile your work, email us at [email protected].
Like so many artists, the pandemic has spurred creativity for Mark Scherzinger.
The 26-year-old Sudburian has dabbled in such diverse styles as rock to punk to jazz, and played in bands including The Almighty Rhombus, Tofino, Dirty Princes and Portraitures.
Mostly unable to perform live with others during the pandemic, Scherzinger has focused on his solo work.
He released an instrumental track called "Tepid" on Aug. 30 as a single to build momentum for an LP of ambient work he hopes to put out within the next year.
You can give "Tepid" a listen below:
“I would call it instrumental experimental music, however, definitely jazz-adjacent, as well,” said Scherzinger, who studied jazz at Laurentian University.
“The big thing with it too I guess is I’ve always played in groups that were primarily vocal music. This is my first real shot at making something fully instrumental.”
The song has a theme of degradation. He said with this track, he was trying to reconcile colourful harmonic concepts with an affection for broken-sounding things.
“I think there is a tendency in music to want to hear really clean, really forward-sounding glossy sounds,” Scherzinger said, adding that this is a “lovely and important part of making music, but I think there is something really honest about sounds in music that feel a little broken or imperfect, or a little degraded.”
He said he named the track "Tepid" because as someone who has spent a lot of time playing in bands, working on music alone during the lockdown had a “lukewarm, bittersweet” feel about it.
“It’s tepid in as much as there’s this kind of a disappointing monotony around being in lockdown,” Scherzinger said.
Tepid is available for download now on all major streaming sites.
