MarkFain

Los Angeles, CA, USA

I quit my job in advertising at the end of 2023 to make music my full-time career, but let’s come back to that. Before moving to Los Angeles from Michigan in 2015, I performed as Gun Lake, releasing one album, Balfour, in 2011. With this collection of songs, influenced by bands like Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes, and Arcade Fire, I hit some benchmarks for indie success, and played countless shows around Detroit and beyond. Unfortunately, I was never able to turn a profit, and I gradually let more lucrative opportunities eclipse my less than meteoric music career. Working as an animator in the advertising industry for many years after, I always felt an unrequited pull back to music, and that added a layer of persistent tension in my psyche. In 2023, I finally kicked open the door once again and began working on new material, and months later, quit my job. In January, I released a song that I recorded back in 2012 during that period when I was just starting to lose my grip of being a per