Interview: Mark Trueak (Unitopia) “Using pain to express the music”

In 2023 the Australian prog group Unitopia released their 5th studio album Seven Chambers, 11 years after their last release, a covers album Covered Mirror (2012). Later that year the band did a small tour to promote the album. During that tour, a flood greatly damaged vocelist Mark Trueack’s restaurant in Thailand.

Despite everything the tour was finished, a live recording was made (again at De Boerderij in the Netherlands), Alive and Kicking, which will be released on March 7 through ProgRock.com Essentials. In the meantime Mark started to work on the repairs of his restaurant, where also his studio was. Since teh repairs cost a lot of money, he sought for ways to raise funds and started a Go Fund Me (https://www.gofundme.com/f/tjtbp-save-our-restaurant), so people could support him.

In addition, Mark also worked on his first ever solo outing, also to raise money for the repairs, an EP called Save Me, with 5 songs, including the title track he wrote together with Patrick Moraz (The Moody Blues, Yes), which was released on February 1st, also through ProgRock.com Essentials.

Even with everything going on, Mark did not stop and announced another album was to be released: Journey’s Groove – An Adventure in Life. An autobiographical album with snapshots from his life turned into songs. And it doesn’t end there, because there is even more music in the works!

No wonder the interview I did with him on February 1st was quite long, as Mark had so much to tell! So grab a drink and a bit and enjoy the stories of Mr. Mark Trueack!