Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Alexander.
Hi Mark, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story is a little long and has had many interesting experiences. I currently work as an in house marketer at a company based here in Orlando but my “side gigs” and hobbies are really what I love to talk about. My entire life I’ve had a hand in some type of creative outlet. My parents were humble small town musicians, who had day jobs, who always had some form of music or music creation around the house. They were also the type of parents to stick a camcorder or camera in my sister and I’s faces as kids, capturing years worth of memories which I am so grateful for as an adult. Being around these things, plus the emergence of home technology, was a perfect storm for me to get my hands on cameras and learn about music for most of my childhood.
As I got older I began to explore my own music interests. In high school, around 2013, I began to produce and record my own rap music in my parents house. I would go around my school’s hallways passing out CDs that would get stuck in their players because I’d use cheap CD covers that would jam in peoples cars forcing them to hear my music until they fished it out. This introduced me to friends who also had an interest in music and we began to record music in my room. It was all for fun but I began to see the traction my friends’ got with their music and so naturally I wanted to keep recording and promoting their stuff. I still made my music on the side but focused the attention on my friends. Over the next couple of years they gained more popularity in our city, Asheville, and we graduated high school on a little rise to small town fame. I moved to Orlando in 2015 after enrolling into Full Sail’s music business program so I could learn how to manage our little careers. Up until about 2017 the music kept gaining steam but being 3 states away from my friends and having my own life in Orlando began to burn me out. This entire time I was recording music for people, mixing it, making the cover arts, shooting the cover arts, filming the videos and promoting the music and shows. My friends obviously helped with some aspects of this all but being so far away from the movement with school, I began to lose interest so I ended the group. My friends and I from that time are sill very close and we often think back on the fun of it all, All this to say around that same time I got my first real camera which began my little side gig of becoming a videographer/photographer.
After 2017 over the next few years I didn’t do much other than focus on trying to learn how to use my new camera, a Sony a7sii, as a tool. In that time I still kept a toe in the industry by filming shows and vlogs for local artists as well as music videos. I worked with some really cool Orlando artists and then began to brach out to shooting other events like fraternity parties and concerts. This made me realize how much I enjoyed capturing events. As 2019 rolled around I was lucky enough to go on tour with my friend and rapper Marco XO. We toured with Oliver Francis, an independent artist who funny enough I listened to in high school, and visited 15 or something cities over a few months. This experience solidified my love for capturing events where people just have fun. After the pandemic around 2021 and the years following I began to get more chances to get experience in the video production world. One of my music friends from Asheville who I stayed very close with began to film weddings and when I had time asked if I could help on the shoots. At the same time I was helping on set with Made by Glue, ran by my good friend Herb, and that showed me more and more how to run gigs at a larger scale. All this helped me learn not only how to make good content, but also how to make money producing it.
Finally, the last few years have been split between quite a few things. I managed my talented musician friend Emerson Vernon for a while and we worked on some awesome things and were roommates for a brief time. We setup a little studio in our house near downtown Orlando and it was a great time having somewhere to create again. I also worked alongside my very good friend Dezi Cartier for his creative endeavors including a fun podcast we used to host. Now I just cheer him on with all of the amazing creative things he is doing. I also began making music under the Mark Alex name. While I had been making music still since a teenager I never put myself out there simply because I focused on managing others. Well now, since 2020 I have put out 5 EPs which comprise of all original music that I produced and recorded on my own. I also shot videos for pretty much every song I have released. I do it all on my own, trying to always exercise that creativity that I need for work. When people ask what kind of music I make, I try to compare it to the likes of NAV and PARTYNEXTDOOR since I tend to use dark and atmospheric beats with heavy auto tune use. I was heavily influenced by Drake so a lot of my music is about the trials and tribulations of love but also with sprinkles of hype here and there. Recently, I’ve been really influenced by the EDM scene, house music especially, and the next project I’m releasing this December will show a lot of that type of production. It’s been fun mixing the core values I hold with rap/pop music and infusing it with my fondness for house music. The project, feel this forever, will most likely end my yearly project drops and I can focus on working on a well polished project in a few years. Until this, feel this forever feels like the best way to cap off 6 projects that have all been so fun to put together. That brings us to today pretty much. I work my day job, film gigs here and there for wonderful clients in Orlando, work on music and spend time with the people I love most. It’s been a journey but a fun one.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As with life nothing comes easy. I have spent most of my life battling imposter syndrome in almost anything I do since I never can believe its my own skills and attributes that lead me to my accomplishments, I always assume its just luck. The other huge hurdle I’ve had to overcome was drinking. Throughout my last couple years of high school and all through college I battled a nasty alcohol problem. Aside from my imposter syndrome I also always assumed my success came from the “free thinking” drinking gave me. I needed my liquid courage to do anything. Luckily, in 2020 I was able to kick the bottle after many many mistakes had finally caught up to me. I saw the path I was going down and I knew I could only end up in 2 places: jail or a graveyard. Thankfully, I have had an amazing support system from friends and family who call wanted to see me succeed in life and since 2020 I have not looked back.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
So my day job is in marketing at Championship Martial Arts here in Orlando. I have always called it the perfect balance of business and creativity as I work as the digital marketing specialist where I have a ton of control over the assets we market to the city but also have oversee budgets and write reports. Outside of that though is my side hustles working in content creation and music. I love filming for events like concerts and weddings. I work very closely with the Les Vixens here in Orlando as their go to videographer and I pride myself on creating and filming high quality content so people can show off their crafts and services. I also still dabble in music consulting with some artists still and working on my own music to keep the creativity alive.
How do you think about luck?
I think luck has taken a huge backseat compared to my work ethic. I worked many many free gigs to make strong connections with people and just put myself out there as much as possible. I believe in showing your genuine interest in what someone else is doing and showing what you bring to the table that they cannot do themselves or that you can do much better than them and bring them piece of mind.
Contact Info:
- Website: markalexander.media
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohimarkalex/
- Twitter: https://x.com/ohimarkalex?lang=ar
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65z6YzpZpOE
Image Credits
Mark Alexander Media
