Not long after I moved to Vienna, I interviewed Mark Peters — a London native who had been living in the Austrian capital for several years working hard to establish a career in music.
The Vienna-based indie folk singer songwriter was months away from releasing his debut EP ‘Spirits‘ and, at that point, was still pursuing a solo career.
He was very talented, his songs were beautiful and, as I realized when I attended a couple of his concerts, he was damn good playing live.
Related: Mark Peters’ debut EP Spirits is the best thing I’ve heard all year — no lie
After he played some extremely well-received concerts with several talented local musicians backing him, however, something important must have dawned on him.
If the audience was responding so well to performances of Mark Peters with a backing band, he might want to think about making that line-up official.
So, not long afterwards, Mark Peters and the Dark Band made their debut.
Mark Peters and the Dark Band
The band first official concert together was in late 2018 with Mark Peters as lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist, Fabian Natter on drums, Martin Burtscher on electric guitar and Markus Manahl on bass.
Not long afterwards — in January, 2019 — they released their debut EP Sum of All Parts, threw a superb release concert for the EP, and then took off on an extremely long and very successful concert tour of Austria and Germany.
Since then, the band has been working on their debut album, which will be released in February, 2020.
This month, however, they will be releasing ‘Eveline‘ — a stand alone single I have heard them perform live a couple of times before, and a song I absolutely love.
‘Eveline‘ by Mark Peters and the Dark Band
If I remember correctly, I first heard Mark Peters sing ‘Eveline‘ at a solo concert he gave a couple of years ago. I heard it again during the EP release concert for Sum of All Parts.
It was one of my favorite songs of the evening both times.
And, sure, while I know Mark definitely continues to develop the songs he writes long after many other artists would call them “finished”, I must admit even I was surprised with the final version of ‘Eveline‘ I just heard this week in the music video Mark sent me as a preview.
A version that will officially be released by Mark Peters and the Dark Band later this month.
Because ‘Eveline‘ has gone from a sweet, touching folk song played with just an acoustic guitar as accompaniment, to a rock version with a much harder sound, and with explosive drums, guitar and bass.
A sound Mark admits meant that, when they recorded the track for inclusion on Sum of All Parts, the sound was so much different than the rest of the EP, they decided to keep it back for a later release date.
I’ve gotta say, though, while I still love the original version of the song, I really really like the progression into the soon-to-be-released single as well.
Watch the band’s short video below to see just how that progression developed — it’s very cool.
https://www.facebook.com/markpetersmusic/videos/1223114747892198/
In other words, ‘Eveline‘ is such a beautifully written track (lyrics and music composition by Mark Peters), it works just as well as a more emotional folk offering or as a harder, angrier, edgier version you can really rock out to at the band’s next concert.
Mark Peters and the Dark Band’s new single ‘Eveline‘ will release on September 23rd.
Meanwhile, you can hear a snippet of the finished track in the teaser video below. I’ll add the full official music video for it when the song is released.
And, if you haven’t yet heard Mark Peters and the Dark Band’s debut EP Sum of All Parts, which hit shelves early in 2019, you are missing a treat. You’ll find that in its entirety in the Spotify widget below — an EP that is still one of my top 5 releases of the year.
As for the band’s next live performance? You can catch that in Vienna on September 28th at the Waves Vienna Festival at WUK.
If you can, do, as they are currently one of the best live bands in Austria.