Mark always knew as a young kid that music was going to be his career when he grew up. There
was no doubt that from the second he could talk that he would be involved with music
somehow some way. It wasn’t until middle school when he discovered his singing voice and as
soon as that happened it was non-stop music, all day, every day for the rest of his high school
life. He began his college career soon after and immediately got involved in the local music
scene here in Columbus by starting as a solo performer. Strapping his acoustic guitar to his back
and singing his heart out wherever he could get the opportunity, Mark hit the ground running.
It took about 6 months for opportunity to start knocking. He had been in several bands that just
didn’t really fit his vocal style, so he stuck to the solo life until the right thing came along. He
was offered an opportunity to audition for an extremely popular local band called Mescalito,
they were a 13-piece band that specialized in Funk and Soul, a genre Mark had been drawn to
as a kid and he couldn’t wait to get to that audition. They soon announced him as the new lead
singer.
He spent the next 3 years performing with Mescalito and even recorded his first album with
them a self-titled album, it was well received, and the band was even getting national attention
from record labels. As it happens in the business though, bandmates were getting married and
starting families, so we decided to disband. Mark didn’t waste any time though, he immediately
joined forces with some of the baddest musicians in the town and began his lead vocal's role
with another funk powerhouse called Jamnesia. They started packing houses at every venue we
played and soon started hitting the road, playing all over the state and in New York as well. But
this band was a cover band and he missed performing his music, he had been writing a ton of
songs with his writing partner at the time, Tony Bonardi, and so he decided to leave the band
and started his own band called New Pollution.
New Pollution took off and was well received with the local music scene in Columbus. The band
was full of some of the best musicians the city had to offer. In fact, two have gone on to do
important things. Former bass player Larry Cook has won a Grammy award for best Kids jazz
album and drummer Steve Purcell has been the studio drummer for many national artists
including Shakira. This band stayed in existence for over 10 years. We recorded an EP called
Waiting for the Bus in 2008 and they made the top 5 for best soul artists in Columbus on
ReverbNation for 3 years. It was during the covid shutdown that Mark decided to rebrand his
music and drop the band name New Pollution. Now the band just goes by his name, Mark
Rhodes, mainly because he was now the sole writer of the music, something he had not done
his whole career, he felt it was time to focus on his music and what that means to him. During
the pandemic he began writing and recording his solo album entitled Long Time Coming. It was
called that because he felt this was a move he should have done a long time ago. He had the
privilege of recording the album with a two-time Grammy award winning engineer, local music
genius, Jeff Ciampa. Over the course of two years, we worked on the album one instrument at a
time, inviting nothing but the most world class musicians to come through Studio Orange and
lay down their heart and souls on tape. In January of 2021 the album was finally released and
now is on all of the streaming apps of your choice. Upon the release of his first solo album,
Mark began working as a Therapeutic Support Musician with the REID Foundation, he was hired to
perform and teach guitar and other instruments to people in recovery, in hopes to teach them
how to use music as a coping tool. Little did he know that this job would change his life. Now he
balances his performance life with his therapeutic life and has said goodbye to all other
restaurant jobs he has held over the years and now he can focus on his music career full-time.