Sep21

Tranzac Club

Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Ave, Toronto, ON

Intimacy reinforces connection. Akin to trapping a butterfly, Mark Wilkinson bottles the most intimate moments of his life within the quiet space between delicate piano, soft strings, gentle guitar, and eloquent lyricism. In his songs, the Sydney-based singer and songwriter allows listeners to get as close as possible to him— almost as if he’s speaking directly to them through his dynamic delivery and soulful timbre. He shares relatable stories of change, life, and love. After tallying tens of millions of streams and building an international fan base, he gets closer than ever on his 2022 debut EP for Nettwerk Music Group, Mariposa.

“I’m just a normal guy who has a passion for songwriting,” he smiles. “I love the way it brings out a huge amount of emotion and can unite people. It taps into something that’s normally hard to reach. Like everybody else, I’m simply a regular person who connects through music.”

Playing piano and cello as a kid, Mark picked up a guitar in college and never put it down. He busked on three different continents and unveiled music of his own at a prolific pace. Following his 2011 full-length debut Truth Came Running, he gained international momentum with independent LPs such as Let The River Run [2013], Hand Picked, Vol. 2 [2015], Wasted Hours [2018], and Blue Eyed Girls [2019] to name a few. Christened SiriusXM’s “Discovery of the Year” upon his U.S. introduction in 2013, he has also impressively moved over 80,000 units and counting in addition to scaling the Australian Independent Charts at #1. Meanwhile, he lit up streaming platforms with the likes of “I’m On Fire” [Conki Remix], generating north of 23.5 million Spotify streams. Of his gigs, Huffington Post noted, “The buzz around Wilkinson’s live performances has been growing (he continues to sell out shows across Australia and throughout Europe, all without formal marketing support or promotional campaigns).”

Over the past few years, he assembled what would become Mariposa with producer Peter Holz [Gang of Youths, Peking Duk, Vance Joy] behind the board and mixing courtesy of Logan Matheny [Sam Hunt, Judah & The Lion]. He filtered a series of major life changes and big questions into the songwriting.