We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mark Banks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mark , thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

People who aspire to earn money from being a recording artist are a dime a dozen. The reality is much like another industry I’m in (Financial Services), the amount of people who never earn a dollar is staggering. Audiences are constantly bombarded with new music and new artist hoping to make their way. Having lived in LA and experienced first hand the lengths that artist will go to get even a small piece of the pie. However, without proper guidance most of them will never see the fruits of their labor. My first dollar all stems back to one conversation I had with my father. After retiring from practicing law, my father worked with SCORE an organization dedicated to providing resources and services to small business owners. I shared with him one day that I would like to form a legitimate entertainment related business that will allow me to express myself creatively and also provide stability and validity to the work I was doing. He seemed thrilled by the idea and for the first time in a long time, he seemed proud. Our relationship had been strained after I decided to change my major in college from pre-med to theater. As you can imagine, as the son of a lawyer and a doctor, that did not go over well.
I was set on pathing my own way and finding the right balance in life. My dad ,albeit begrudgingly because it was foreign to him, decided to support my choice. I did not know it at the time, but that would be the last coherent conversation I would have him as he would develop dementia soon after. I moved to Los Angeles and began working various promotional and studio assistant positions at various clubs and record labels. I did this all while finding opportunities to record my own music.
After countless attempts to create listenable music, I finally created a song that I felt had great potential. And it was because of that conversation I had with my dad that I decided to seek a way to protect my intellectual property and also to create income. I discovered the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and that would lay the ground work for my first creative dollar. I registered my song, created a music video, and self distributed to the major stream platforms. Bringing things full circle, I would move back to Ohio when my father became ill and it was at that time I recieved my first royalty check of $50. It was sweet.

Mark , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Everyone deals with life’s peaks and valley with their own mixture of coping mechanisms. For me and my siblings, music was everything. We were all classically trained on multiple instruments since the age of 5 or 6. As the youngest, I was a sponge that soaked in everything my older siblings liked. In the early 90’s, there was no artist bigger and more influential than Michael Jackson. We were obsessed with the jackets, the halloween specials, and the extravagant performances. As a young teen, I was very reserved and probably suffered from some form of social anxiety. I found solace in MJ’s music and whenever I could I would wear my headphones and escape from my environment. Despite my mind and bodies every attempt to avoid being in the spotlight; I joined every choir, band, debate team, or club I could to overcome my anxiousness. Before every performance, I felt like Eminem in 8 mile, and I spent the majority of my prepping time trying to settle my stomach.
As a Sophomore, I was given the opportunity to be Michael Jackson for our marching band during our big televised football game of the week. Once again, I found myself in the bathroom trying to get the stomach to perform. I overcame my fears and it was well received by my peers. At that moment, I knew that entertainment was for me, but I was not ready to share that with my family.
Despite my passion for entertaining, I knew my family wanted me to pursue something more stable. When I attended college, I began the pre med program in hopes of appeasing them. I quickly hit a wall and found myself spiraling. Meanwhile, college offered me an opportunity to recreate myself socially as I had previously been labeled as shy or reserved. I showed off my dance skills at parties and quickly made a name for myself as “Dancing Mark”.
I would eventually get a grip and decided to go against the grain and changed my major to theater & dance. I would be given an opportunity to perform for Dr. Maya Angelou, George Faision, and Nick Ashford. I took full advantage and showed up and showed out. Dr. Angelou would invited me to her home and gave me words of encouragement for my journey. I had other amazing opportunities with dance such as attending Debbie Allen’s dance academy in Crenshaw and producing my own dance piece at my college.
Interestingly enough, my guy friends were very accepting and supportive of my career interests. Imagine football and basketball players taking dance classes with ballerinas, it was a sight to see. We were a unit and we hung out daily. We always liked to play throwback video games on N64 and freestyle rapping. My friends began to acknowledge my vocal skills and I began to accept that I had them.
I created my first song ever, “Smart Apes” , a song that I now cringe while listening to it. However, i was able to get the song on the college radio station and if anything, I proved to myself that I could it. And do it I did. I would move to Los Angeles after graduation and found myself “making it happen”. I took every opportunity presented to me and did my best to “make it happen”.
It took time but I began to find what sounds and styles worked for me.
If had to describe myself musically, I would say “theres alot going on there”. My classical training and unique experiences have opened my ears to many genres. My music is for the pensive backpack young entrepreneur with a love for life. For every kid that dreams of expressing themselves creatively but fears rejection or disappointing someone, I would hope that my music could provide hope.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

In anything you do, the goal should always be to add value. As an artist, when someone says that one of your songs helped them or that they added one of your songs to their playlist, it means something. We are only here for a short time but our music can live forever and continue to inspire future generations.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

In most fields of work, we trade time for money. The more time we are on the clock the more we make. The artistic world is very different and in some cases more time creates a diminishing return. It is ultimately subjective and there is no grading system that will guarantee the creation of a popular work. You have to be willing to kill your ego and maintain a growth mindset.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markbeezybanks/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB9mdku8VXrqcVbjkGYI9vw