By Chelsea Royer
Mark Shiner and Derek Overton come across as two chill, mostly normal guys. One works at the local General Nutrition Center, the other at Starbucks. While Mark may be willing to argue with you about the flavor of fish-crackers versus Cheese-its, and Derek is addicted to four shots of espresso over ice every morning, their hearts beat with the thrum of far deeper matters and have developed a rhythm of their own kind of music.
Locally, the two are quiet about their musical involvement and many people are shocked to learn about their regular performances. Even more surprised are those who hear the quality of their music for the first time. When you look up “About the Author,” the last thing you expect is for such heartfelt, professional music to be written and played by your local barista and nutrition clerk.
“When we first began playing, we performed in high school under a different name. It was a kind of chick-pop-acoustic music,” chuckled Mark.
Derek describes their original music as “basically the cheesiest love songs you’d never hear on the radio or even enjoy listening to unless your boyfriend wrote it for you. But as we matured, we began to feel like that wasn’t the type of music we should be writing.” With many ideas floating in cerebral space but no clear direction to head in, Mark decided to call it quits.
“Music was becoming too important to me. It was becoming my identity and I needed to step away for a bit and figure out who I was,” reflects Mark, who married shortly before moving to Hawaii. Sadly, as Mark left to chase sunbeams, dark clouds began shrouding the Harbor. Derek remembers, “There were several suicides that happened close together and though I remember not being affected personally by loss, my friends lost their friends and the ripple effect of those deaths was huge. I kept asking myself how I could give hope to people who needed it so desperately. The answer for me was writing songs. Out of this season I wrote the song, ‘Hope Around the Corner.’ I took it to a studio to record, but it just wasn’t very good.”
Like with many works of art, a personal experience is often what gives life to a piece. Unfortunately, further tragedy is what would give this new song a beating heart. “A couple of weeks after I wrote the piece, I got the call that one of Mark’s and my best friends had taken his own life. He was a kid who had been a rock in our high school, our friend at youth group and someone who had invited me to Bible study. It really shook us up,” says Derek.
“That was the veil opening for me. Things just seemed to be getting worse and worse and it opened my eyes to be able to say, ‘something needs to be done about this.’ I was still in Hawaii at the time, but after some prayer decided to move back to Grays Harbor to try and help bring some hope – to tell people there is another option and there’s a way we can come out of this and unite together through it,” says Mark.
The series of tragedies was a launchpad for Mark and Derek’s first EP album under the band name, “About the Author.” With some revision of “Hope Around the Corner,” they released the song on YouTube to receive wonderful responses from their community. “People really caught the vision of it. We received all kinds of messages from local people and also from across the US where we eventually did concerts,” reports Derek.
Many of these messages were from people on the brink of suicide, who found hope in Mark and Derek’s music. Derek recalls one gray-haired lady, old enough to be his grandma, who approached him in tears after a concert. She had been thinking of self harm for weeks but after hearing his song had found hope and asked Derek to pray with her. “We’ve received many messages like this,” says Derek. “It keeps us grounded and wanting to keep substance in our music.”
Over the last year and a half, the duo has played all across the nation and spent hundreds of hours in recording studios developing their sound and song-writing skills. “We haven’t played something in our home town for almost a year,” says Mark. “We’ve spent the better part of this last year in Nashville writing songs and recording and developing the artistic side of our music. Because of that, we haven’t had the opportunity to share with people in our area what we’ve been busy doing. Sharing our music with our home town is something that’s super important to us since Grays Harbor and Aberdeen are what stemmed the purpose of our band.”
Having played in front 60,000 people at a time and been in conversation with multiple recording labels, it would be easy for Mark and Derek to leave Grays Harbor behind in the search of lights and fame. Instead, the duo believe that every success they have is specifically for their home town. “It sounds cliche to say we can’t do this without you, but we don’t want to do this without Grays Harbor. We want to keep our roots and remember where we came from, no matter how successful we are or not. Hopefully the songs resonate with the people here at home and we can encourage people in our community.”
Because Mark and Derek want to include their home town in their musical lives, they are hosting a free concert with a Nashville style “in the round set” where the duo will play their new songs acoustically and talk about the stories and inspiration behind them. This will be followed by a discussion between the audience and the artists and closed by a more animated performance showcasing their new drummer. This concert will include free music downloads for those who donate towards their upcoming trip to Nashville.
Mark and Derek’s latest single, “We All Fall Together,” was released earlier this week and gives a small taste of the professionalism, passion, hope, and faith bound up in About the Author. I’ve been listening to this song all week and I can’t wait to see them in concert for the first time. Follow the band’s journey via Facebook or preview their music via their website.
Cash for Nash Concert Event
When: Friday, March 27 at 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Where: Harbor City Church at 1700 Cherry St, Aberdeen
Admission: FREE!
All photos courtesy About the Author Band.
