When we traveled to gigs, I'd joke with the guys in the band about names. Tired and Pissed, Loud and Stupid, and dB OD were a few of the ones we discussed, particularly for metal bands. We never used any of those (thankfully). Since this is my solo effort, and everyone mangles my real name on sight, Mark Boar seemed appropriate.

I was a Silicon Valley chip nerd. I designed integrated circuits that went inside boxes from Cisco, HP and other companies that are gone now. But in my early days in the valley, I needed to play music to keep my sanity. One of the first things I did after moving there in 1978 was finding a band. I had played in horn bands at venues all over the Midwest when I was in college, and loved it. That’s when I started writing tunes for rock bands.

As many of my former bandmates would tell you, I like unusual chord changes and riffs. As I've matured, I've also embraced unusual rhythms and time signatures. My whole deal is "No boring music." If I ever drone one or two chords or endlessly repeat a single set of notes or the same vocal line for three or four minutes, tell me it's over and shoot me.

Fact is, I sometimes struggle with getting enough thematic variety to flesh out a song. Then there's the stage fright of lead vocals. Yes, I'm singing in my own home studio. But I've worked with enough great lead vocalists (Billy Vega, Joe Stopka, Elijah Richardson) to know I'm not in their league. At the same time, Billy in particular always (understandably) needed an explantation to understand my lyrical intent.

When I sing it myself, I know what I'm saying. Dismay with societal idiocy in all its current forms, politicians and criminals getting away with much more than they ever did in the 1960s and '70s, the great people in my life, injury recovery - these are all grist for my lyrical mill. No, I probably won't reach the cynical lyric heights of Becker and Fagen, but they and a few others are my influences there.

On the music side, I thank my piano teacher Alice "Blue" Dean for turning me on to Bach, Chopin, Debussy, and Eumir Deodato’s jazz work on a Fender Rhodes, and her suggesting I should write my own music, and my grandmother, pianist and performer Audiss Waite Bohrer, for her general encouragement ("Keep practicing, honey, or I’ll break your little neck!"). I was also influenced by Keith Emerson’s incorporation of classical styles into rock, Chicago (especially Robert Lamm) with the jazz chords and arrangements in their first seven albums, Frank Zappa, the Who, Kansas, Boston, and Rush, who showed me that strange time signatures worked in rock music.

More direct influences came from the guys in All You Can Eat and Horizon Brass Rock for brass arranging and how to be in a band, Scott Wyatt at the UIUC experimental music studio for my first taste of a real studio, and Don Harriss, Kevin Gilbert, and the guys in Ringmaster (thanks Steve and Greg) for smoothing off my rough edges and showing me what good production was. If you want to assign blame, it's partly their fault I'm here with this music.

But mostly it's mine. In spite of the people who think this is a waste of time (and you know who you are), I'm putting it out there. If it entertains you and helps you through your day, that's great.

It's also about my need for creative expression. Started during recovery from knee and ankle injuries when I couldn't get out to photograph, I realized how much I missed creating music, and made some.

Enjoy.