There is something inherently refreshing about discovering a new artist who refuses to hide behind smoke, mirrors or algorithmic trends.
UK singer-songwriter Mark Emsley is such an artist, creating his music out of his raw lived experiences, pairing soaring, stadium-sized alternative rock guitars and massive pop-rock hooks with an unflinching lyrical transparency that is astonishing to behold. We reviewed his new release Satellite Heart as part of our Pop Sensibilities #2 review – you can also check out the track at the end of this interview if you missed the review!
By Jane Howkins
How has your year been so far? Did you have a good summer?
It’s been a pretty incredible year, to be honest. If you’d told me at the beginning of it what would happen over the summer, I’m not sure I’d have believed you.
I write my songs on my boat and then take them into the studio with my producer Karl Morey, and over the last few months those songs have started travelling around the world. There’s been radio play, reviews and messages coming in from places I never expected, which has been quite surreal.
There have been some incredibly difficult things going on in my personal life too, so music has been massively important to me through all of that. But creatively, this summer has probably been one of the most exciting periods of my life.
You released an amazing new single in September titled Satellite Heart. What can you tell us about the track?
Thank you! Satellite Heart is probably the most immediate song I’ve released so far. Musically, it’s bright, upbeat and melodic, but lyrically, it’s actually quite painful.
It’s about reaching out to somebody and sending that signal, and the important part is that the signal isn’t lost. They receive it. They know exactly how you feel. But however much you reach out, there’s no reciprocation.
That’s where the satellite metaphor came from. They’re still there, still in your orbit, but they never land.
I love that contrast in songs – when the music can make you want to turn it up and sing along while the lyric underneath it is saying something completely different.
You’ve also released several other singles this year, including Tell Me How I’m Meant to Breathe, Suitcase in the Wind and Wish I Could Hate You. How has the critical reception been to your music so far? How do you decide whether a song is single worthy?
The response has genuinely blown me away. Wish I Could Hate You and Satellite Heart are the two tracks I’ve really released and campaigned as singles. Tell Me How I’m Meant to Breathe and Suitcase in the Wind were put out much more quietly because I wanted there to be more music for people to discover when they landed on my artist page.
The critical response since then has been incredible. Reviews and radio support have come in from all over the world, and one of the things I really love is that different people seem to connect with different songs. There isn’t just one song carrying everything.
Choosing singles is actually getting harder because the whole first album is finished now, and there are a lot of songs on there that I believe in. I listen to the people around me whose opinions I trust, including Karl and Emma Scott, who has been helping enormously with radio and the wider campaign.
Ultimately, though, I think a single needs something that grabs you immediately – whether that’s the chorus, a lyric, a guitar part or just a feeling that makes you want to hear it again.
Do you have any more singles due for release in the near future?
Yes! I’m actually deciding what comes next at the moment. There are a couple of songs in serious contention and I want to get another single out before Christmas.
I’m not going to say which one yet because I’m quite enjoying keeping that secret for a little while! But there’s definitely more coming.
Are there any plans to release an EP or a full-length album at any point soon? If so, what can you tell us about the record?
Yes. The debut album is called Loving the Dead and at the moment it’s pencilled in for February 2027.
The album is completely finished – all ten tracks are recorded, mixed, mastered and finalised. We’ve even got a mixed and mastered acoustic version of Loving the Dead. So the first album is very much in the bag now.
It came out of a pretty intense period of my life, so there’s love, loss, addiction, recovery, relationships and starting again running through it. I never really sit down and decide what I’m supposed to write about. Something happens, something gets under my skin, and eventually, it becomes a song. Everything on the record comes from somewhere real.
The slightly ridiculous thing is that I’ve already started writing the second album! The first track from that, Right Now, is already recorded and finished, and there are several more songs written. What’s interesting to me is that those songs are already coming from a completely different place in my life, so I think the second record is naturally going to tell a different story.
You’ve worked in the music industry for most of your life, but in 2024 you started writing and recording music for yourself. What other roles have you had in the industry? Have you played in any other bands or side-projects?
I’ve been around music for most of my life, but for years, I was usually helping somebody else make the noise!
I worked extensively with guitars, amps and live rigs, including work with companies such as Fender, Line 6 and Hughes & Kettner, and that put me around some incredible musicians over the years. I’ve worked with or around artists including Bon Jovi, Meatloaf, members of Iron Maiden, Johnny Marr, Alex Lifeson, Earl Slick and Phil Solem from The Rembrandts, amongst others.
I’ve also played in bands over the years, including Doghouse Roses, but making music under my own name is very different. For the first time there’s nowhere to hide. They’re my songs and my stories, and that makes it both terrifying and incredibly exciting.
The funny thing is that after spending so much of my life in the music industry, I feel like I’m only just discovering what being an artist actually means to me.
I hear you’ve become sober in the last couple of years – congrats! Has sobriety changed your approach to the music industry at all?
Thank you. Completely.
I got sober in October 2024, and in many ways that’s where this whole chapter of my life started. I’d spent a long time not really being present in my own life, and getting sober forced me to actually feel things again rather than trying to escape them.
That inevitably changed my songwriting. The songs became much more honest because I became more honest with myself. I stopped worrying quite so much about what I thought a song should be and started writing about what was actually happening to me.
It’s changed my relationship with the industry too. I’m much more interested now in making something real and connecting with people than chasing some idea of what I thought success was supposed to look like.
Who/what would you say are your main influences as an artist?
My influences are pretty broad, but great guitar music and great songwriting have always been at the centre of it.
There’s definitely Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Goo Goo Dolls in there. Billy Duffy has been a massive guitar influence on me as well.
Then you’ve got bands like Blink-182, Green Day, Sum 41 and Simple Plan, and I absolutely love Angels & Airwaves. Tom DeLonge is somebody I think is a great songwriter. I love the way he can take relatively simple ideas and turn them into something that feels enormous.
Ultimately, I’ve always been drawn to melody. I love big guitars, but I want a chorus that people can grab hold of. If somebody can sing it after hearing it once but then discover something else in the lyric when they come back to it, that’s probably where I naturally live as a songwriter.
Do you have anything else special coming up in the near future? Any tour dates perhaps?
The big thing happening now is putting the live band together, which I’m ridiculously excited about. We’ve started working out the first set and I want the live show to be a proper rock show – energetic, loud and something the audience feels part of rather than something they just stand and watch.
There aren’t dates to announce just yet, but getting these songs onto a stage is very much the next chapter.
There’s also another single coming before Christmas, the debut album pencilled in for February and the second album already starting to take shape, so there’s plenty happening!
Any last words for the fans?
Just thank you.
One of the most unexpected things about all of this has been seeing people genuinely get behind it. People have streamed the songs, requested them on radio, voted for them, shared posts, sent messages and told their friends. Some of them have been there from the beginning and some have only just found the music.
I promised myself when this started that I’d never take any of that for granted. Nobody owes me a stream, a vote, a share or even three minutes of their time.
I’ve started saying something recently that probably sums up how I feel about the whole thing:
“We built this together. Now come and be part of it.”
That’s exactly how I want this to continue.
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