Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Allee.
Hi Mark, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Hello, my name is Mark Allee and I’m from Petaluma California, lived in Los Angeles for 8 years and then moved to Nashville, Tennessee 9 years ago in 2014. I have been an artist all my life since the age of 5, drawing and painting as far as I can remember, influenced by painters such as William Alexander and Bob Ross and comic illustrators like Jim Davis, who created “GARFIELD.”
I can remember learning to draw by watching him on a sketch pad lay down Garfield, John, and Odie. I can also remember loving to watch William and Bob create happy little trees, I always looked forward to coming home from school to watch episodes on KQED.
So art in all varieties has been something I have always been drawn to. Very much on the side of creativity and then struggling with math and other subjects in school.
A lover of music for as long as I can remember walking around with my walkman listening to “Off the Wall” and “Thriller,” by Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis, “Sports”, and The Beach Boys, specifically “Kokomo.” I was also into soundtracks like, “Little Shop of Horrors” in the ’80s.
Growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, I have to say was an incredible time to be alive before the internet, cell phones, and social media, lol. I was born in San Jose, the South Bay Area of California, and then moved to Petaluma, which was a north bay in 89 or so I lived in Petaluma from that time until 05.
In high school is were I became really into music, attending and becoming a part of the choir and theater community at the school. I was in 5 choirs and participated in many school recitals and shows.
I was really influenced by extremely talented friends and family around me. Some of my earliest memories of these were of my best friends and their parents. My biggest influence is my friend Josh Sommers whose dad worked at the time at ILM (Industrial light and magic.) I remember him working on movies like that. Ghostbusters 2, HOOK, and Star Wars. His dad and himself were very inspirational to me, so I loved being around them.
They introduced me to The Beatles and inspired me to pick up a guitar. I couldn’t get enough. Later on, friends of mine were in bands and introduced me to the drums. Encouraging friends named Bram and Nick encouraged me to learn to play drums. I took their word for it. So I took lessons and got obsessed with the drums. I took lessons from local teachers and even ventured into the South Bay area to take lessons with a man named Jason Gianni. He was amazing and taught me so much. I looked forward to driving 45 hours every Saturday to take a one-hour lesson from him.
To this day he is one of my best friends. He was teaching me and a now drum guru in LA named Dave Elitch. As well as “The Beatles” I became obsessed with bands like “Pink Floyd, Rush, and Dream Theater, as well as Deep Purple, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and so much many more. Prior to that, I was only influenced by 90’s HIP-HOP and Pop, like New Kids on the Block, Digital Underground, NWA, and soundtracks like Jesus Christ Superstar with Ted Neely, Les Miserables, and Phantom of the opera.
All of those bands were vital, especially PINK FLOYD. Today I started my own Pink Floyd Tribute called “DOMINE” for the love of Pink Floyd”. After High School, I attended The Academy of Art College in San Francisco. During that time from 1999 to 2002, I realized a career in art was not my path a career in music was my clear path of influence. After realizing this reality, all the while becoming a part of bands in the San Francisco Bay Area, I wanted to focus %100 on music and not so much on art. My path was trying to become an animator for Pixar or Dreamworks at the time but that was clearly not going to happen.
So after multiple local bands and recording in the Bay Area, I had a close friend tell me he moved to LA to attend the Musicians Institute in Hollywood. I was envious and excited to try to get there myself. I took out a massive loan and moved to Los Angeles at 25 years old.
These 8 years at MI shaped me as a musician, being around the best musicians I know and going on to achieve massive success. Some of them are listed in order. My orientation presenter Ray Luzier went on to be the drummer in Korn in 07. My classmate Breezy, now known to the world as Anderson Pakk was in my class from 2006 to 2008 when he disappeared only to appear later after working with Dr. Dre. Benny, and Manny, going on to work with Pherrel, Mariah Carey, Ghost-town, Big Bang and others. Greg Garmen in Selena Gomez’s band and so many more success stories. Another is one of my teachers Glen Sobel who now plays with Alice Cooper.
Throughout my time in school, I auditioned for Katy Perry, Theory of a Dead Man, and others with no success. I graduated in 08 with an audition for Blue Man Group, where I flew to NYC and auditioned, but I DID NOT GET THE GIG. So I came back to LA and proceeded to teach in areas around LA drum lessons, teaching celebrity kids, and mentoring young prodigies. Was a coach for actors pretending to be drummers for roles in The Runaways with Dakota Fanning and Robert Zemekis’ remake of Yellow Submarine, where I taught their RINGO how to play convincingly (which got shelved) and my drummer for the runaways did not get the gig. I also taught at teaching institutions like the School of Rock and Rock Star Music Education.
I was also doing the LA thing which was signing up with casting agencies. I was in a commercial for Little Caesars Pizza and after that tried to become an actor only getting extra roles and was in TV shows like Dirty Sexy Money, Chuck, ER, CSI New York, Sons of Anarchy, music videos like “Judas” by Lady Gaga and Movies like Alice in Wonderland, where Tim Burton himself yelled at us for overacting. My good friend Chris was dating a woman named Wendy Starland, with who I became great friends and she was responsible for discovering GAGA in New York, the house I was living in around that time, my next store neighbor was her principal dancer. I and GAGA met briefly and had a whole lot of people in common.
I became a producer for a drumming Reality show called NEXT GREAT DRUMMER created by Eric Seats, (Drummer for Patti Labelle and Layla Hathaway.) We toured Sam Ash Music Stores all over LA and the country during this time meeting all sorts of drummers.
In 2007 and 20011 I was in shows for Stevie Wonder for his annual Toys for Tots and House Full of Toys benefit concerts at The Nokia Theater across from at the time Staples Center. These were both for one song and at the end of each night but came with great perks. 2007 while at MI and got to perform with John Legend and John Mayer, and in 2011, was with Drake, Michael, Mcdonald, and Justin Bieber.
I was in many bands in LA playing drums and had some great gigs. I was in an original band named Starving for Gravity and got to work with Michael Lloyd, part owner of CURB Records. Through that experience, gained extensive knowledge of the industry. I was playing the Sunset Strip scene a ton at venues like The Whiskey, The Viper Room, The Roxy, and The Key Club where I saw Metal School frequently that went on to become Steel Panther after they got signed. That band was short-lived. After that I became a member of a band called Future Villains where we were a staple of the Viper Room and went on to play places like Club Nokia, opening for Sebastian Bach. I was let go from that project and started playing in Country bands which was a huge learning curve around 2011-2012 or so.
This chapter was a game changer in the fact that up until that point rock bands were relying on selling Merch, trying to get on tours that pay, or essentially never making any money. Country bands however would be making 150 to 2oo bucks playing bars that had line dancing and a way of making an actual living. I was very depressed for a second and had an opportunity to help a buddy of mine playing with Andy Grammar on Jimmy Kimmel Live to help him as a drum tech, I had to re-evaluate my life.
So being fired from that band a buddy of mine called me out of the blue I knew from MI and asked me if I could learn 50 Country tunes and of course, I busted my butt and did so. This took me all over with many local LA-based Country artists. I went full in with the genre making friends with the industry’s most reputable drummers like Jason Aldean drummer Rich Redmond. Rich and I became friends on Facebook and through mutual connections. He would later play a pivotal role in the next chapter of my life.
This journey in country music life took me all over Los Angeles and into Las Vegas. I had some amazing times in bands like Cash Presley and other opportunities. They got me adapted to knowing as many classic country tunes as I could learn.
This led me to opportunities back in Northern California where some festivals were going down. One of which was Sonoma Stampede and this had artists like Franky Ballard and others. I played at that festival and struck up a friendship with local Country artist Mckenna Faith. She led me to play all over the area from Idaho and such. One of the gigs led me to a cruise ship gig in 2014. This gig had a ton of Country greats like Neil McCoy, Montgomery Gentry, Loan-star, Craig Morgan, Maggie Rose, Franky Ballard, and Trace Adkins who ended up leaving after falling off the wagon and had to be dropped off in Jamaica’s first stop, more on that on TMZ. Also Wynona and many other up-and-comers like Mckenna. So being on that ship for a week was crucial to meeting so many Nashville musicians. I knew my next move was Nashville Tennessee.
I was breaking up with my ex-fiance at the time whose visions were very different from mine and thus I needed to make a move so it was perfect. I reached out to Rich and he always told me he would show me his Nashville so I arranged a trip to look for places to live. A band I played with around LA had a mutual friend from a singer named named Brian Lynn Jones and his friend, one of our fans had a house in Fairview Tennessee.
I made a flight to Nashville and rented a car and proceeded to solidify my place. On the last day, Rich was set to record in Leapers Fork Tennessee. The place was latitude South Studios and was owned by a man named Michael Lattanzi. He has a 3 million dollar studio and recorded tons of Nashville artists like Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood and had a Grammy for Megadeth’s album Dystopia as well as other accomplishments.
While there, we took a group picture and put it on Facebook. Shortly after a man named Jamie messaged me and had me come to his office and arrange a meeting. That meeting was a great connection that led me to my first gig.
I went back to LA after a successful trip and a place to move. A long-time friend traveled with me on a Penske truck and made the trip in 3 days from LA. I got a call while in Texas from Jamie, offering me a gig when I arrived. That gig was a band called Trig County.
Jamie had a management company and this band was set to play all over the South and East coast regions. We played places like Kentucky, Indianapolis, Indiana, Florida, and Chicago to name a few. It was a promising start in a new city that at the time was not overtaken by massive corporate entities and still had a lot of its charm, one pedal tavern and only a mild amount of bachelorette parties.
So that band was in the midst of a turning point. It turned out to be short-lived but the first two years gave me a wealth of experience and connections in Nashville.
Now to paint a picture of 2014-2015, Chris Stapleton after years of struggling in the country scene got his big break, and all of a sudden bug dudes with beards were in the spotlight. The new arrivals moving to Nashville like myself were in abundance, especially from New York and Florida. and one guy named Luke was one of them hailing from. North Carolina.
The scene was bustling with new blood and all were eager to get started. One new friend from NYC, a drummer named Jake was seeing my alleged success in my band and wanted me to refer him to a gig if I could. I of course said I would. One day he comes to me and said, I’m playing with Luke, I said “Oh the dude playing at that writer’s round?”
So that steadily progressed to a monumental success where that Luke was Luke Combs. All of a sudden everyone affiliated became rich and successful and then became a staple of broadway covers all over the city. He would continue to blow up year after year till now in the present day. Luke became the biggest damn thing in Country music and people that wrote with him are now enjoying the benefits of incredible wealth and success. Congrats dudes.
Back to me, LOL, I had an opportunity to play on the Holland America Cruise line and spent 6 months on that ship traveling all over the Caribbean and Norway and playing drums every night making good money. Short-lived. I spent a few years in 2016 starting my own dance band called Operation Booty Move with some of Nashville’s best musicians like famed guitar player Regi Wooten. I drove Uber and Lyft to get the bills paid until I was ultimately fired from that gig. It helped keep that afloat. I eventually stopped that project because the competition was too vast and thus not as much success.
Now I spent years since today 2023 playing in various bands and trying to find my way. I was only focusing on just being a drummer. I was also teaching privately and in programs like the School of Rock and Rock star music education here in Nashville. We did performances at BB Kings once every few months. Now all that was until 2020.
Now that was an awful time and I tried my best to get through it. I was playing with an artist that promised me consecutive gigs all year, that of course until the COVID Pandemic. Mind you two weeks before that I was nearly killed by a Tornado that destroyed most of East Nashville, where I was living. Lots of ups and downs and when confronting that artist, he proceeded to lead me along and eventually decided to can me and thus sending me into a depression. But only a minute until I said proudly. FUCK IT! It’s time for a change.
Having been through the wringer in this industry and having to constantly mold myself and adapt. I had to re-evaluate my worth and what else I could offer to this world. I saw massive success around me and yet never saw myself ever achieve any level of significance. I made great friends and contacts and lots of incredible support and stayed healthy through all of it. Never get the virus I might ad.
I took the opportunity and immersed myself in new skill sets thanks to Youtube and went back to my love of art, video, and photography. I was inspired and with the financial help of unemployment, I acquired a camera and some gear to help get my feet wet and taught myself everything about a camera and learned every piece of editing software that I could get my hands on. I took online lessons and created enough confidence to shoot my first video for a hot sauce brand called Blister Hot Sauce.
After that video led me to create others and ever since 2020 now I have been creating content for multiple bands and artists as well as companies I have endorsed as a drummer like Humes and Berg. That company’s president Michael Berg has been one of my dearest and most supportive friends.
Getting the chance to re-live my days on film sets and have learned, I got to produce and direct music videos as well as documentaries. I have done videos for Ray Luzier of Korn who I have known for many years now, Artimus Pyle former drummer of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and many others. I have now been published in major publications such as modern drummer as a photographer. My photos of Daru Jones, drummer for Jack White were featured twice in the magazine I grew up reading and photographed Nashville’s top drummers like our friend Dango, Rich Redmond drummer for Jason Aldean, Kent Slucher with Luke Bryant, and shooting many special events like Rare Hare, Grunge Night and Music City Drum Show. Currently in the works with a special project with Troy Luccketta formerly of TESLA, now with The Guess who.
Drumming has been plentiful currently playing in many bands. One is an 80’s Rock Tribute called FIREPOWER, and an original band called Tattered Sons. Tattered Sons are getting continuous play on internet stations around the country in the top 30 bands.
My life passion project however is my Pink Floyd Tribute called DOMINE. I have always dreamed of playing this music and since 1995 I knew this band changed my life. It encapsulated all of my artistic influences. So I knew exactly what to do. I play the drums note for note like Nick Mason, do all the artwork, created all the social media, accounts designed the merch, and created the light show by teaching myself Abelton Live and light Key. Created the visuals to every song based on the bands’ history as well as put together an amazing 8-piece band with some of the best musicians around Nashville. We had one gig and since booked our show at City Winery on February 2oth. Based on when this article comes out we went from that first gig where we got all the components, like video, photo, and board mix, to an agent booking us all around Nashville.
I am now doing my best to avoid financial whoah and the hustle never ends. Just now I have multiple ways of keeping myself sane and afloat and I’m motivated to keep going and achieve and get my big break. 43 this year and still going. Can’t wait to what the future holds.
Appreciate you taking the time to listen to my life’s story.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Never smooth. I have to constantly adapt and re-invent myself. Also, the financial hardships of devoting your life to the what if, the hope or will I ever get a big break mentality that can be extremely detrimental to your mental health can take its toll.
The creative or entrepreneurial lifestyle you choose to lead well can leave you in financial ruin. I even to this date am not in the best place financially, in fact, financial debt gets into can be humbling, to say the least.
I was never one to sugarcoat anything or to put out a perceived false reality in this business.
I took out loans to go to Music School, got in tons of credit card debt, made tons of sacrifices in my personal life, caused stress to those that believed and me, and thus shielded them away from me. All this is in hopes to achieve a high level of success. Did it happen??? Well, it’s debatable what one perceives success as.
Did I make incredible relationships, YES!, Am I being encouraged and referred to by amazing people that see I have value, YES! Am I in a good financial spot of perceived wealth, absolutely not and will not lie to you to say I am. Do I pay the bills, YES! but barely!
Do I suck it up and get a day job, yes and you have to do that you have to do. and I have done a lot to keep my mental space intact and keep a positive head on my shoulders.
So I am forever grateful to friends and company support through the years and influential people referring me and putting me to work and spreading my name in a positive light. It’s incredible and emotional for me to even think about it.
The proverbial fire under my ass is always burning and my tenacity and work ethic keep me going. I do not DRINK or SMOKE and have been clean and sober since the age of 18.
That has helped tremendously in my journey as a professional musician, educator, Videographer, Photographer, and Designer. All on my own term, and with that came a price.
The hope for a big break is still there, the now decades of hard work and struggle are still there to keep the dream alive.
I may never get there but never say never, because more hope each day keeps me excited for what may potentially come. I will never give up and die trying and encourage anyone else to be the same and hope it’s an easier road for you.
Struggle keeps you hungry and driven and never complacent and that’s a good thing.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Well as an artist I look at all mediums of art like this. Let’s use the analogy of “AN EMPTY CANVAS”. You have a blank canvas, you need to lay out a coat or two of Gesso for the paint to stick to, a foundation to build on.
Then get out the appropriate color palette, then take those colors and figure out where to apply them, mix the colors appropriately then start to paint. (PAY ATTENTION TO COLOR SCHEME) If it doesn’t belong, don’t use that scheme lol. Then you lay out the big areas first, then apply everything to map out a clear view of what the picture will look like. You add details to it and feel gratified in the fact you created this amazing piece of art you are incredibly proud of, just that alone is enough for you and everything else is icing on the cake.
So that is a great setup for how I approach art and mediums like playing drums, Video work, Photo work, ALL OF IT, all use these principles.
Playing drums utilizes showmanship, which I used my choir and theater chops to tap into when performing live. Charting songs note for note to ensure the art form of the recorded piece is done justice and learned appropriately.
Creating videos is an art form and you have to know your equipment well and understand principles in cinematography, Lighting, editing, sound, frame rates, aspect ratios, color grading, etc. Photography is the same thing pretty much and art, as subjective as it is, has its techniques as well. No stone is left unturned in achieving a beautiful picture.
I specialize in all of these mediums. I’m known for being an energetic and fun-to-watch drummer who learns the songs, so my integrity in creating art is intact and people seem to pay attention to that, which makes me really proud. I’m also known for having a great eye for composition and storytelling from what I have gathered, but who knows what is said behind my back? Lol. I’m most proud of my current band, which is a dream come true and thus far my most successful endeavor to date. This is my Pink Floyd Band called “DOMINE.” Ironically since having the kanones to put this together, it’s one of my life dreams of mine I got to do and thus my best achievement. I play Nick Mason, I play all the drums note for note like the record, I taught and programmed our light show, I did all the visual compilations, and put the band together.
Also marketed it and currently our next show at City Winery in Nashville at the time of writing this is looking to sell out 450 plus seats with 107,000 people engaged and 1800 clicks on our ad running for it as well as requests from all over the country to come to play.
I feel very accomplished there.
Another one is the over 100,000 views my work has been exposed to thanks to my good friend Ray Luzier, who became a member of Korn while I was attending MI in 2007. My videos have had lots of traction thanks to Ray.
Cannot forget what got me into Modern Drummer Magazine twice. That is my photo shoot with Daru Jones, drummer for Jack White. That has gone worldwide and that has to account for something. As a drummer it was my dream to get into that magazine but, I will take my photos as an accomplishment. All used to help spread my work as a promotional tool and personal triumph.
I think in my opinion of what sets me apart from others, is my reality and no punches pulled approach and honesty when it comes to my reality, as my tireless work ethic and tenacious approach to life, I don’t celebrate holidays normally, partake in vacations or care for my own well-being but to get the result. I wouldn’t recommend my way of thinking but sure has to be somewhat unique right?
Who else deserves credit for your story?
So so many to name individually but this gives me the perfect opportunity to shout out some of the most important.
My best friends and influences from Northern California to start. My friends, Jason Denekamp, Peter Demare, Shawn Dooley, Jason McCulloch, (REST IN PEACE), Brain Endicott, and Jeremy Dennotti to name a few. all I grew up with in high school and have always been there for me, as friends and confidants.
As an artist, however, I have to mention these pivotal people. Tony Sommers, Josh Sommers, Bram Dragos, Matt O Shea, and Nick Wester. As a kid being around these creative powerhouses has been CRUCIAL to my influence. In the life story portion, I mentioned Josh. Josh Sommers is one of the most talented guys I know and has been influenced by him in all aspects of my creative life. He’s not only a genius at what he does but is highly successful in all of it and anything he puts his mind to.
I learned to play guitar from him, and got introduced to Choir life in high school, which taught me, showmanship, expanded my network of supportive friends, and got me out of my shell as a kid. He and his dad Tony who worked at Industrial Light and Magic at the time showed me attention to detail, quality of music and art, and everything I utilize this day as a measure of what makes great art, art, and the respect it gives. He also introduced me to The Beatles, Jesus Christ Superstar, (The 70’s version with Ted Neeley) and so much more.
Bram, Nick, and Matt all showed and exposed me to excellent bands like PINK FLOYD, RUSH, and DREAM THEATER and encourage me to learn to play the drums and were the best supporters. Bram taught me my first paradiddle, which I could not get for weeks, Matt showed me all the classic rock legends and insight into their history and Nicky sold me my first drum set and told me “YOU COULD BE GREAT AT THIS” Will never forget. I loved watching him and his brother play drums.
My drum instructors in Northern California and at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, where of them offered so much to me in learning the craft of playing drums, and many talented and younger drumming friends, went on to do amazing things. Guys like fellow Northern California drummers Dave Elich, Luis Briones, and Aaron Hagerty.
Tom Hayashi, Rick Cuttler, Jason Gianni. Fred Dinkins, Andy Megna, Glenn Sobel, Ray Luzier, Tim Pederson, Chuck Silverman, Chuck Flores, Sammy Watson, Donny Grunedler, Brian Fraiser Moore, Eric Seats, and many I’m sure I left out but know who they are.
Drummers of this caliber have always been so inspirational to me. I have also had the privilege of knowing so many legends, who I have spent time with and had the experience of meeting. Both are legendary drummers who played on Michael Jackson’s records and have since the past, Ricky Lawson, and Ndugu Chancellor. Legends like Billy Cobham, Louie Bellson, John Blackwell, Nick Menza, Artimus Pyle, and many more.
I have to mention I have endorsed so many companies in the drumming industry and have to point out one of my most loyal and closest confidants, Michael Berg, President of Humes and Berg Drum cases. His family’s company is over 90 years old and one of the subjects of a documentary I am currently working on.
He was been one of my biggest supporters and cheerleaders throughout my professional career and I’m forever grateful to him and his legendary company.
I could go through the whole list but this could be a while, lol.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nashvillepinkfloyd.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alleevisuals/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alleevisuals/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3a9J9VBZfy0Oylxd3g6Aeg
- Other: http://www.alleevisuals.com
Image Credits
Daru Jones and Mark Allee for Modern Drummer Magazine
