Creativity while living the ‘European dream’

Mark A J Waters is described as “something of an enigma”. The Mijas-based multitalented artist is currently gearing up the start of summer concerts with his band, Sangria Furlo, a group formed in 2022 that mixes elements of punk, indie, grunge, psychedelia, hard rock and power pop.

Described as “a powerful sound with a retro-futuristic, combative, melodic, dark and humorous character”, the group released its debut album, Trans European Metal Disco, last year, a collection which consists of band members’ own compositions, several of which were written by Waters.

The acclaimed filmmaker, director, actor, songwriter and musician spoke with SUR in English about his journey through the world of music and film, from Dublin’s fair city, to Belgium, Switzerland, the USA, UK and eventually the Costa del Sol.

Arriving in Mijas with his wife, who is from Karachi, in 2016 (although he has had ties with the Costa del Sol for 25 years), the couple decided to settle on the coast for different reasons. His wife experienced a romantic connection to the architecture and the climate, while Mark was attracted because the south of Spain resembled “the California of Europe” - describing it as living “the European dream”.

“You can be very productive in the south of Spain. Here, you have more breathing space to be creative than you have in London. It’s a great environment for artistes. The psychedelic side of the lyrics I write probably comes from down here, as there is something very psychedelic about this area,” he tells SUR in English, with an unusual American accent, which, he explains, “comes from growing up with American kids”.

Born in Dublin in 1979, his father was director general of Ireland’s national TV and radio broadcasting corporation, RTE, and Waters spent the first years of his life attending state schools. In 1985, his family moved to Belgium, where his father became technical director of the European Broadcasting Union.

Waters enrolled at St John’s International School, and in 1989, he went to Switzerland, where he attended the world-renowned boarding school Institut Le Rosey, a time he describes as “the end of childhood, because I was learning from people who were more experienced”. It was while at this institute that Waters joined the school band (Presque Nul), whose members had included Sean Lennon Ono - son of John and Yoko - and Yari Carrisi – son of Italian pop stars Al Bano and Romina Power and grandson of legendary Hollywood actor Tyrone Power.

The young musician struck up friendships with Carrisi, and with Sean Lennon, who he described as “full of love and empathy”.

“Sean was a good guy, always supportive, as was Yari. Everyone knew Sean’s heritage, but he was a very popular kid, not because of who he was, but because he had his own unique charisma and magnetic personality.”

This was demonstrated one day when Lennon overheard a conversation during which Waters had explained to a friend that he was being bullied. “Sean stopped, and said, ‘who did that to you’. I told him it did not matter, but he insisted on dealing with it. His parting words were, ‘us Irish have to stick together.’” The bullying ended at once, though Waters remained unaware for many years of what his well-known friend had done to make it happen.

Each summer, Mark would take a break from Le Rosey and return to Ireland to attend a summer school, where he learned about Irish history and heritage, and traditional Irish music. It was the “rebelliousness” in Irish folklore that inspires some of the lyrics he writes for Sangria Furlo.

At the age of 18, Waters was accepted at Boston University’s School for The Arts. It was while in the USA that Waters enjoyed a spell working with The New African Company -the oldest continuous professional Black theatre company in new England. The company was under the tutelage of an ex-Black Panther activist and Waters learned about inequalities in American society, through staged readings of plays.

He decided to leave Boston and relocate to London due to his growing passion for cinema. It was there, at the age of 22, that he made his debut film (Sunny), a dreamscape about a woman trying to shed the emotional shackles of an abusive relationship.

“I could have stayed in Boston, but I feel more at home in Europe. I wanted to live in the largest English-speaking city in the European Union to make films. I had taken a huge amount of film classes in Boston and also learned how to direct, and I was good at working with actors, so I made Sunny, which was an experimental movie. I’m not sure it was that good, but there were moments in it that were fantastic,” he says, smiling.

It was through this film that Waters met poet, singer, record producer and screenwriter Pete Brown, who had been the lyricist for ‘60s super group Cream. And that was the start of a remarkable and unexpected friendship - one that eventually inspired the documentary biopic White Rooms and Imaginary Westerns, named after Brown’s 2010 autobiography. Subsequently, Waters and Brown would go on to produce and release the film The Cream Acoustic Sessions, a re-imagining of the band’s songs rearranged and recorded at Sensible Studios and Abbey Road. By the time Brown died in 2023, the pair had completed a further four feature-length screenplays.

“After the screening of the film, Pete said he was looking for someone to write screen plays with, and a few days later we started writing together. We worked together for more than 20 years. We were really joined at the hip, so when he passed away, it was a huge loss,” he explains.

The multitalented artist is currently concentrating on his band Sangria Furlo, for which he is the vocalist and guitarist. The band is about to embark of a series of gigs, the first of which is in Seville on 14 May, followed by a concert at Eddy’s Music Factory in Malaga city on 15 May.