Image via Facebook / Mark J. Soriano
In any artwork, there is a bit of the creator’s internal dialogue. Some of the best works, though, come when that dialogue is the focal point. In that sense, the latest EP from singer/songwriter Mark J. Soriano, So Strange, is the rationalization of self in a pivotal time of life. Change is imminent, but the steps to get to that point aren’t as clear.
The four-song EP feels intimate, with subject matter that touches on alcohol addiction and recovery. It’s also a record about maturing in your twenties, while becoming the person you want to be. On “Can’t Ever Wait,” Soriano sings “it’s crazy to think, I had too much to drink, but just enough to feel like me.” There’s subtle details of waking up hungover, and the desire to get out of the cycle that routine drinking can create. To boot, all sales of the title track from the EP will benefit the Safe Harbor Program at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, which helps people who struggle with addictions through long-term plans to get on a sober path.
Soriano credits his time during lockdown as the genesis of not only the material on So Strange, but the motivations to make a change in his life.
“A lot of it was written during the pandemic, so everyone had time to reevaluate themselves, which was hard” said Soriano. “The first song is about not being able to handle that, and the other ones are just thinking about it. There’s articles right now about people just quitting their jobs or everything they didn’t like right on the spot, and it feels like everyone is thinking about things like that. I’m just like everybody else.”
From a purely musical standpoint, So Strange is just as personal. The majority of the songs feature complete tracking from Soriano, who would normally be aided by the Meltwater Pulse collective of musicians. The decision to go it alone this time around was part based on the nature of the EP, and part from a safety standpoint, as well.
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“We were all at home, and I was like ‘I really want to do this project, but I want to do almost all of it’” explains Soriano. “In my bubble of people outside of my immediate family I had Eric Hess, who I play with in Complex Machine. He has a studio in Wauwatosa, and since nobody else was coming in, he would invite me over to record. I kind of just took over for a little bit. It was a good escape, for lack of a better word, to be able to leave the house and record.”
From whatever angle you’d like to look at it, Mark J. Soriano made the most of a less-than-ideal situation, and So Strange is the byproduct of that. The EP plays as a recorded history of his efforts to change for the better, as well as his next evolution as a writer and performer.
