Mark’s Story of how Empty skies became a reality…

At the beginning of October 2017, after a long illness my father passed away at the age of 79 from Dementia. Being there when he passed away was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Holding his hand as the end neared and watching this man, who at one time in his life stood at 6’3 and of solid build, fade away into life on the other side. The shock engulfed me and pushed my thoughts inwards. I was stunned by how cruel and undignified this illness was. Grief became who I was for a long time.

I’d always had a keen interest in music and it has helped me through some hard times in my life. Being an acoustic guitar player at a very basic level, I decided to write a song in memory of my dad. As I sat playing around with a few chords I began to sing the first words that came out of my mouth. They came too easy if anything. Its as if they were already written deep within me and needed to be heard. It was a real emotion I was singing. I was singing away my grief. I sat for hours trying to make the song feel like how I was feeling. I wanted
whoever was listening to feel my grief.

With the help of my girlfriend Zoe, we came up with the idea of doing the song to raise money for Alzheimer's UK. Zoe worked tirelessly trying to get people on board to help out with the song. With it being for charity it proved a very big mountain to climb. people would have to help for free as we couldn’t afford to pay them for their time or efforts and for a while we had very little response or interest. Then Zoe had a reply from a studio in the village where I currently live. STIWDIO UN (studio one) run by Sam Durrant. I couldn’t believe it. My hope was fading about making this song a reality then Sam gave me a lifeline for which I will be forever thankful.

We set about trying to get musicians to join us in making this a reality. Zoe got in touch with a local band who occasionally did gigs at her sisters pub and to my amazement a few of the band members agreed to help out. It was not long after this I met Craig, a multi-talented musician and band member. We arranged a meeting in my house to go over the song and have a rehearsal. With Craig on board I felt that this could actually happen and become a charity single. I can't thank Craig enough for giving up what little free time he had
to concentrate on my song.

Id never set foot inside a studio before and I was very nervous about playing in front of a producer and his photographer Dylan. Id only ever played in front of a few people before and that was in the comfort of my own lounge. But I knew it was for the right reasons so I got my head down and did the best I could to get my song across to the listeners. We managed to get it down in 3 hours. A few weeks later Craig made his way to the studio to record his bass, guitar and backing vocals. Craig had also managed to encourage his brother Mark to take part in the project and play the drums. Sam has worked tirelessly mastering the
song and having someone with Sam's experience has been invaluable.

We have also been fortunate that my nephew Mike Williams recently graduated from university with an advertising degree and kindly agreed to design the cover and insert for me and is now working with his friend Craig Roberts to create the music video check out the link on the thank you page for sport thought. 

We are hoping to raise as much money as possible for the charity and to ensure the full cost of the CD goes to the charity, I have asked my work Celtest Limited to sponsor the cost of producing the CD and they have kindly agreed to do this.

We can’t thank Sam, and Craig enough for the help, guidance and support they have given us over the last few months, Mark who did a great job playing the drums and Celtest Limited for their generosity with paying for the CD’s.

Mark

Please take the time to visit, like and share these pages

https://www.stiwdioun.com/en/ 

https://www.facebook.com/stiwdioun.studio/

https://www.facebook.com/CraigBealMusic/

https://www.facebook.com/Sport-Thought-166111057417491/

http://www.celtest.com/ 

Download here

Itunes
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/empty-skies-feat-craig-beal-single/1403684333
Google
https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Mark_Feaver_Empty_Skies?id=Bnps5j4pl3ym6quabszkpexxavi
Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Empty-Skies-Feaver-feat-Craig/dp/B07F1N9JJH/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1530340014&sr=1-1-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=empty+skies+mark+feaver
DEEzer
https://www.deezer.com/en/album/66894142
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/6DduUb9pd5iqybwgsK47hT?si=Baucu_e3QIijvPssHwQ9WA
Music Yandex
https://music.yandex.ru/artist/5990376
Qobuz
https://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/the-invisible-empty-skies-mark-feaver-feat-craig-beal/gzifv83gkleqa