Fiction Syxx, is the brain child of songwriter/vocalist/guitarist, Mark Allen Lanoue. But like all ideas, including musical ones, it is not just about the writing; it is about the delivery. So, after writing the first song called “Welcome to my Nightmare” for this new musical journey, Mark started talking with friend and multi-talented musician/songwriter/producer, JK Northrup (King Kobra, XYZ) about starting a project that would be framed around a core of members. Mark then talked to an old band-mate, drummer, Rory Faciane. Rory is a live and studio drummer that attended the Musicians Institute and now resided in Nashville TN. Rory immediately came on board with Mark and JK as the drummer. Then Mark began talking to Tony ‘The Fretless Monster’ Franklin (The Firm, Blue Murder). After Tony heard the first ideas for this project, he offered to play bass and added his amazing talents to the project. Finally, keyboardist extraordinaire, Eric Ragno (Graham Bonnett, Joe Lynn Turner) was added to the lineup. Now the band was complete and ready to deliver the album ‘Tall Dark Secrets’!
Fiction Syxx mixes progressive hard rock with a nuance of melodic rock. The first release from this project was a way to bring a talented core of seasoned musicians together and to bring several guest artists and what came out of the effort is a solid 11 songs of progressive rock. We caught up with the creative force Mark Allen Lanoue to dig a little deeper…
The Rockpit: Hi Mark, how are you?
Mark: I’m doing fine, how are you Sir?
The Rockpit: I’m doing great thank you. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to The Rockpit today, I loved listening to ‘Tall Dark Secrets’ it’s one of the most compelling albums, with so much lyrical depth, that I’ve heard all year. In fact it’s one of those albums I’ve enjoyed listening to so much I’ve not actually got around to formally writing a review for it yet!
Mark: (laughs)
The Rockpit: It’s just one of those things I guess, it’s a great album and a little different to what I normally listen to so I found myself spending a little more time with it. I really enjoyed the progressive side of it. How long had you been working on the songs?
Mark: Well it was interesting because of the fact that the musicians are obviously in different places. Tony Franklin and Eric Ragno and JK are all in California and Rory is in Tennessee so it took a little bit of logistics. When I started it Tony was still with Kenny Wayne Shepherd on the road and of course Eric plays with everybody so (laughs). But really what the process was, I really just started writing the songs and I started out reaching out to people I was interested in doing this with – really more the core of the band. I mean there’s a lot of projects out there where there’s all kinds of musicians everywhere, and I brought people in to play solos but really the core people that actually played on the CD with were myself, Tony, JK, Eric and Rory. I don’t know if that answers your question but I took that year and even though I was writing really fast, it took that year to kind of bring everything together.
The Rockpit: Had you worked with any of the guys on the album before?
Mark: Well actually yes, Rory was actually in a band with me in 1990 and we had gone other ways and Rory had gone to Nashville doing videos and other stuff, he’s a grad from MIT, and I worked with Karl Sense who’s with Nazareth in a band called Persian Risk. So I played with him back then and so I’d known him for a pretty long time. JK I’ve known him for a number of years now, I did some work with him originally on some ‘Liberty and Justice’ stuff. I was asked by Justin (Muir) to come in and sing on a few tracks and to play guitar on some other tracks so through that pipe I met JK and we just worked really well together, he’s a wonderful person, he’s multi-talented, and I really dig his production, you turn it all the way up loud and there’s no distortion, and he doesn’t over process so I really like his work a lot. I didn’t know Tony till a little over a year ago, shortly before Fiction Syxx I reached out to him and he’s a wonderful individual, he’s got a really great attitude on top of the fact he’s got legendary status. And Eric I’d use the term “he’s a sweetheart” he’s a great guy originally from New Jersey so we initially hit it off there and Eric heard the stuff and he really dug it so it all really became cohesive at that point.
The Rockpit: And as well as the band you’ve also got a couple of great guests on there that I’m really familiar with Bill (Leverty) from Firehouse, a band I’ve always loved, and Steve (Brown) from Trixter who I’ve seen a few times over the years. How did they get brought into the fold, Steve’s from around your neck of the woods isn’t he?
Mark: Yeah, Steve I’ve actually known since before they (Trixter) brought PJ (Farley) into the band. I used to go to their houses and hang out with Steve at his mother and father’s house. Nd both of our bands in Jersey were under the same management at one point and we were both endorsed by Harkey Systems in New Jersey so we go back quite long way, he’s very talented, has great tone and I just really like his playing live and he’s grown so much since then. Bill I haven’t known as long as the other guys but I’ve run into him here and there on Facebook and stuff and then we actually started talking on the phone, and I’m actually going to see him tonight in Newport Michigan, I’m going to meet up with him and hang out with him for a while. And he’s a wonderful guy too, and obviously very talented, and Firehouse of course had one or two hits. So Bill came into the fold a little later, but I’ll tell you a funny story, I was talking to Bill and I asked him to play on a solo on one of the songs and at the time I was working on a riff, and after talking with him being such a nice guy I said “You know what I’m going to write a song just for you to play on” and 45 minutes later I wrote that song – ‘Toe the Line’ – I wrote that song in like 45 minutes and I called Bill back and said “I’ve got you something”!
The Rockpit: So the album started with ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ I think that was the first song you put down. Did you know what Fiction Syxx was going to be at that point? Was it already planned out in your mind, if not written?
Mark: Correct. Actually my past band was ‘Chasing Karma’ and that was kind of the bridge with Biloxi, that band I was in with Clive Holly and then Clive Holly passed away and we did a gig at Rocklahoma in 2008 and Firehouse was there too and so was Trixter, Trixter had just got back together, so anyway we did that gig and Clive was gone and that was his baby…
The Rockpit: I was there watching you at that show.
Mark: That’s wonderful! So you were there for the Woodstock like experience! It rained solid for two days and they were throwing hay down in front of the stage, getting off the subject for a while, I remember walking off the stage and there was Ronny Munroe who had just finished playing, and Ronny was there all dressed in black from head to toe like he used to and it was blazing hot and he’d been running around and screaming and everything like he does, and he just bent down to me and said: “Dude, all I can tell you is – don’t move!” (laughs) “It’s hot up there” And as soon as I got up there ready to get to all those high notes in Biloxi I remember wondering is there any wind eft in my lungs! (laughs)
The Rockpit: (laughs) I can only imagine what it was like on stage it was hard enough in the heat watching!
Mark: So anyway, Fiction Syxx was a name I came up with for ‘Chasing Karma’ but the rest of the guys in the band didn’t like it, and the idea behind that name is that my birthday is 6.6.66 and when I was younger I always used to catch crap for that, so add Fiction behind that number in relation to me and there’s the name. I got into symbolism and all that kind of stuff and I got that name based on all those ideas in all these different countries and all these different beliefs and what the number six means to them and what four sixes versus three sixes mean. And since I was in everything from Symbolism to the mystic to spiritual ideas, I just came up with this Fiction Syxx name and this idea of ‘Tall Dark Secrets’.
The Rockpit: Cool name and great story. And the album starts off beautifully too, when I first heard ‘Given Sight’ I knew that there was something a bit special there, it’s one of the few songs that these days that the lyric got somehow stuck in my head, which is pretty unusual for me, I used to devour lyrics as a kid but few stick now. Can you tell us a little about that song and how it came about?
Mark: ‘Given Sight’ you know there are people that I’ve talked to, and I’ve had experiences in my life and people have their beliefs and whatever, but it’s about spiritual sensitivity, and it’s really about an experience that I had some years ago as a child and I wanted to put that into lyrics and into a song. Everything I write has something to do with something close to me or stories I can connect to other people that have some sort of association with me and so that’s where ‘Given Sight’ came from, these spiritual sensitives that gave them this sight that not everyone else understands and sometimes they don’t even understand until they get older and become wiser. So that’s really what that song is about – about spirituality, the spiritual sensitives, things they have seen, and as they get older they become able to deal with it more, some people don’t believe them, other people do, it’s really just this big thing behind spirits and spiritual sensitives. I like to write songs that have meaning and hopefully that connects with other people.
The Rockpit: There’s a lot of meaning packed into every song on there and a lot of songs that explore similar themes. What did you want to take away from the album aside from the given that the songs are pretty remarkable in themselves?
Mark: All the songs really have meaning. I wrote all the songs except one that I co-wrote with JK which was ‘Play on Words’ – that song is probably a little removed from some of the others as that’s primarily to do with love and love lost. But other songs like ‘Tow the Line’ are a little deeper in a different sense. As you get older whether you’re into your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your wife, your husband, your significant other, whatever, as we get older some people regress more and others do not and it’s up to us to ‘Tow the Line’ for that person and that’s really what that songs is all about. As you get older you realise even more that there comes a time for you to ’Tow the Line’ for them. Some of the others have other meanings like ‘Your Promised Land’ – my father was murdered when I was ten and ‘Your Promised Land’ has to do with what he might have been thinking after he was shot and heading to his place in the next dimension. It’s a song about what he might have felt about his family, what he was leaving behind and all that kind of stuff. ‘Spirits Collide’, ‘Given Sight’ and ‘Demon in my Window’ have something I common, about the world, the passing of others, that plight, the feelings you have, those demons you don’t want to let in, those songs are all kind of connected in some way. But people might add other meanings to them.
The Rockpit: Is Fiction Syxx something you hope we will be able to hear live one day?
Mark: Well we’re actually talking about a couple of dates next year going for bigger Festival kind of things based on the availability of the musicians as some have commitments. But the plan is to play a couple of dates early next year. And I’d like to record that so that we have it for everybody, obviously if you’re not doing major tour we might try and do a DVD or something so that others can see it live. I don’t want to doctor the crap out of it likesome people do. I’d rather that people get to see us actually play live. (laughs) But yeah we’ll be looking to do some dates where we can deliver it live no problem.
The Rockpit: And what’s next for Fiction Syxx? Obviously you’re aiming at those dates but are we going to see the same line-up recording new music in the future?
Mark: Yes, actually I’ve been writing and I can tell you the title of the next record it’s going to be called ‘The Alternate Me’, I’m maybe four songs into it, the drums are already recorded as well as some of the bass. And so yes, we’re moving forward for the next one. There’s gonna be that same kind of thought process, the first one I kind of took on as a kind of experiment in the stuff I love in Melodic versus the mainstream and Progressive and kind of putting it in a pot and mixing it up. I just really like the way it turned out with that wonderful blend of chemistry and I’d kind of like to deliver that again in the next Fiction Syxx release.
The Rockpit: If you could have been a fly on the wall for the creation of any great album just to see how the magic happened what would it be and why? What’s the album that still resonates with you?
Mark: that’s a question that when you ask a lot of people they can actually point to an album, but I guess I’m just your typical Gemini – I could go and see the worst band in the world and take away that the bass player is just wonderful! So I really don’t know if I have one specific one to point to, not to let people down but there’s just no single one. I love Styx as you can probably tell, I love some of the harder stuff, I love Queen that was my first concert, but I love so much music that I really don’t have one specific album that really just changed my life. But that first Queensryche album and the first Yngwie (Malmsteen) album, those vocalists and guitarists just knocked me on my butt, but other than that, heck I like Jim Croce for that matter! So I’m sorry that I didn’t answer your question directly but I kind of float around when it comes to music!
The Rockpit: It’s still a great answer. We always close with the easiest on though – What is the meaning of life?
Mark: (laughs) To you, to me or to the masses! (laughs) The meaning to life to me is just to try and be a god person. Be good to everyone around you and try to be good to everybody. I have my beliefs others have their beliefs, but I won’t judge them for that, I’ll just stand string on mine.
The Rockpit: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today Mark. It’s been great to talk, all the best with the new album, it’s something wonderful you’ve given us.
Mark: Well thank you so much I do appreciate your time, I really do want to touch people and their hearts and souls and I hope this does something for them. Thank you so much, you take care man.
Fiction Syxx – ‘Tall Dark Strangers’ was released on August 26th on Melodic Rock records
