Damage With Care
Damage With Care is a collaborative effort from two frustrated musicians to revolutionise the celtic, folk and country scenes all at the same time. They play a
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Damage With Care is a collaborative effort from two mildy insane musicians to revolutionise the celtic, folk and country scenes all at the same time. They play a mixture of covers, original songs and traditional (and not so traditional) Celtic tunes.
Some artists they cover include Luka Bloom, Flogging Molly, Colin Hay, Indigo Girls, Garth Brooks, U2, Missy Higgins, Del Amitri and the prolific and brilliant "Trad", resulting in a full flavoured acoustic mix with strong Celtic undertones.
With similar goals, a need to create, and a propensity towards rearranging everything they touch, Mark and Rachel push each other to go that little bit further.
Both multi-instrumentalists, Damage With Care brings together vocals, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki, whistle and when they've had enough to drink, spoons. They can often be found playing sessions in Maleny, or at various folk festivals around the country, usually with a cider in one hand and one or more instruments in the other.
Mark was born at a very early age to a woman he later discovered was his mother. She taught him the fundamentals of mind reading, which would become an integral part of his musical career, particularly in certain duos with unnamed females. As time went on, the boy grew and broadened his musical tastes, coming quite late in life to folk music and finding a happy little niche amongst the bearded cider drinkers of the world.
Mark often states that he can play any instrument put in front of him, and apart from a disastrous flirtation with the bagpipes and a particularly nasty drunken challenge with a comb and a piece of tissue paper, he has been able to do just that to varying standards. His Damage With Care duties include lifting and carrying heavy objects, plugging in leads and twiddling knobs, mind reading, and trying not to infuriate the fiddle player. He is the rhythmic heart of the duo, focussing on guitar and backing vocals, but occasionally dabbling as required into other stringed instruments such as mandolin and bouzouki, and occasionally into lead vocals. You will often find him noodling on a violin, piano or whistle in his obsidian lair deep in the heart of the forbidden jungle (lounge room), trying his best to annoy his duo partner, his neighbours, and his dogs. When he grows up ("IF he grows up" - Rachel) he wants to be Ian Carr, or a pirate.
Rachel is a survivor of a central Queensland education and despite that has turned out to be a reasonably balanced person, for a fiddle player. Her musical upbringing started early and she quickly outgrew the teaching available to her. Picking up the violin again after several years playing piano, she quickly fell on her feet in the folk music scene in Brisbane. After devoting herself to her last project for three years, Rachel felt the need to broaden her horizons musically and formed Damage With Care with Mark, allowing more diversity and bringing new challenges.
Rachel occupies herself at Damage With Care gigs carrying and caring for her special french friend, messing with Marks carefully positioned knobs, laughing at him struggling to carry heavy things, and schmoozing with audience members. She is the vocal and melodic centre of the group, bringing lead vocals and fiddle to the mix. Sometimes when Mark has a tantrum and wants to play mandolin, she will play guitar, and other times when she has a tantrum and doesn't want to play fiddle, she will pick up the mandolin. Rachel has a musical love affair with Liz Carroll, Eileen Ivers and Nancy Kerr, but refuses to let anyone watch. She spends weekends chasing ducks in the park, and would most like to meet a hobbit.Band/artist history
Mark and Rachel began their musical journey out of frustration with their previous projects. In early 2007 they started playing around with a few songs and tunes and started playing in Irish music sessions in the middle of that year. The passion soon overcame the frustration and they began working more seriously on their dream. They have since played sessions weekly, and perform at local venues and festivals to appreciative crowds of up to 500. They are still practicing, and will probably always be striving to achieve more.Have you performed in front of an audience?Frequently around the Maleny/Sunshine Coast hinterland area. Of course we like it! If we didn't, we'd stop doing it.
Your musical influences
Rachel's fiddle influences include Nancy Kerr, Eileen Ivers, Winifred Horan and Liz Carroll. And after playing in a couple of sessions with him, Dougie MacLean as well.
Mark's guitar influences include Ian Carr, John Doyle, Steve Cooney and Jim Murray.What equipment do you use?
Rachel's fiddle is a late 19th century French beastie, and Mark plays Maton guitars. Shure and Sennheiser mics for live work, Rodes for home recording. HK Audio PA system live.Anything else?
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