Mark Hollis (musician)

Mark Hollis
Mark Hollis in 1991
Background information
Birth name	Mark David Hollis
Born	(1955-01-04) 4 January 1955 (age 62)
Origin	Tottenham, London, England
Genres	New Romantic, new wave, synthpop, art rock, post-rock, folk, jazz, ambient
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, organ, melodica, bass guitar
Years active	1977–1998
Associated acts	Talk Talk, Unkle, Anja Garbarek
Notable instruments
Gretsch Country Gentleman Ibanez AS200

Mark David Hollis (born 4 January 1955) is an English former musician and singer-songwriter. He achieved commercial success in the 1980s as a singer with the synthpop/post-rock band Talk Talk, but retired from the music industry shortly after releasing his 1998 solo debut album.

Hollis was born in Tottenham, London. The younger brother of Ed Hollis, a disc jockey and producer who went on to manage bands such as Eddie and the Hot Rods, Mark Hollis moved to Muswell High at the age of 18, and originally planned to become a child psychologist. However, in 1975 he left university to relocate to London. On his studies in the psychology field, he says, "It was really boring. I thought when I decided to do it, that it would be a fascinating subject to learn, but most of the stuff didn't really measure up to what I hoped for. To be quite honest they might have used a lot of long words, but it all adds up to plain common sense. So I decided to leave and get a job! Because although I'd gone in for a bit of an academic life, I really wanted to be in a group." After that he went to work as a laboratory technician, which he found was equally boring. "I could never wait to get home and start writing songs and lyrics," he says. "All day long I'd be joining ideas down on bits of paper and just waiting for the moment when I could put it all down on tape!" He had a good introduction to the music industry through his older brother. "He'd managed pop groups and I watched it all at work, and it was all very exciting. Especially when I got to go to the theatres where the groups were playing, and I managed to meet them and talk to them about the pop business. I was determined that it was all I wanted to really do!" It all started to come to fruition when he formed a band called The Reaction. In 1977, The Reaction recorded a demo for Island Records; among the tracks was a Hollis original titled "Talk Talk Talk" which later surfaced on the Beggars Banquet punk compilation Streets. After just one single, 1978's "I Can't Resist," The Reaction disbanded, and through his brother, Hollis was first introduced to musicians Paul Webb, Lee Harris and Simon Brenner, with whom he formed Talk Talk in 1981, soon signing to the EMI label.