Mark William Lewis

Mark William Lewis at Soda Bar

21+ event w/ valid ID at Soda Bar - San Diego.

Mark William Lewis is an artist that exists between the cracks. He eschews easy genre categorisation, plays with the traditional conventions of a songwriter, and creates music that is poetically sharp, visually vivid, yet texturally opaque. Writing songs that explore the intersection between intimacy and alienation, connection and disconnection, he is a singular and bold voice operating in a distinctly unique yet blurry space. “For me, a song really starts to take shape when it has its own sense of place, and the words and music come naturally,” he says. “Because they need to describe that place and whatever interpersonal situation is going on there.” Words, images and places are crucial to this record, the second LP from the London artist after 2023’s acclaimed Living. Every song on this innovative and genuinely original album is deeply rooted in images of specific places: houses, rooms, beds, parties, or locations across London. “I think of this album as something very thickly layered, like an impasto painting or a collage,” explains Lewis. “It was recorded in various places across London and it links to the idea of the songs having different locations and being quite collaged with different sounds and textures from different studios and rooms.”

The result is a record that sounds like very little else from a truly exceptional new voice in contemporary music. While the spirit of The Durutti Column might be felt rippling through Lewis’liquid guitar work from time to time, what becomes clear on this is just what a unique space he has carved out to operate in. Lewis is able to glide between introspective poignancy and expansive openness with the same grace and agility that he moves from musical moments that are propulsive and full of momentum to those that are slow, atmospheric, and almost ambient-like.