After a long and successful career as a songwriter--his many collaborations with Michael Bolton include “I Found Someone,” a rare entry on two Greatest Hits albums (Bolton’s and Cher’s)--producer, and instrumentalist, Mark Mangold decided to finally step out on his own for one very uncomplicated reason; he had something he felt important to say and that this was the way to say it.
“Spirit” is the key word. Mirror Image (Indigo Records), Mark Mangold’s debut, is full of spirit--it’s a highly infectious, richly accessible keyboard-based pop album that is filled with soulful singing and dazzling instrumental and production work. Some of the subtle elements that make up Mirror Image’s 80 minutes are a touch of Native American (Lakota) music, and spirit, aboriginal digeradoo, and Eastern percussion. But it’s informed by the deep spirit behind its songwriting. We’d expect great songwriting from Mangold--here’s a guy whose compositions have been recorded by everyone from Bolton and Cher to Benny Mardones and Paul Rogers to Fiona and Jennifer Rush to Wayne Newton and Faron Young (yep, he’s got a song on the Greatest Hits album of that country legend)--but the songs here catch us off guard with their deeply felt spirituality.
“The theme is healing,” says Mark Mangold, “ The name of the album, Mirror Image, says that our world is a reflection of what we are inside and that we create our world. There’s a lyric in ‘Homeworld’, which is a love song to our planet: ‘As it is above/so it is below,’ it starts on the inside and manifests itself on the outside. And I believe that. The hardest thing we can possibly do is change ourselves, change our belief system.” “A song like ‘The World’ is about healing and sending light to our planet so we can heal it, having been raped for so many years. ‘A Healing Way’ basically says, ‘I’m going to try and live my life in a healing way. I’m not going to do it in a negative, destructive, hurtful way.’ And that’s really what I’m about. To me it’s a question of choice--we have a choice and we make a choice to either be warlike or happy, destructive or sick, a victim or a good, empowered, loving person. And that’s what I’m singing about.
“There are elements brought to the music that are presently being tagged ‘New Age’. I’m definitely into the spirit of the New Age. I do go the step further and say some things that are behind a lot of that music. I’m not preaching or anything, I’m just expressing the way I feel--offering choices.”
The New Age spirit here is wrapped in a kind of keyboard-driven, deeply expressed pop-rock. Mirror Image is a crystallization of a lifetime in popular music, on every possible side of every possible fence. Its singular and important message is delivered in the kind of hook-filled songs that helped make Mangold a songwriter’s songwriter.
Mangold- from Florida via the fertile entertainment breeding ground of New York’s Long Island--began his career as a pianist/organist with a series of rock bands, including Valhalla, a symphonic rock band that recorded for United Artists. He then did three Columbia albums with keyboard trio American Tears (showcasing his dynamic singing), which evolved into Touch, whose Atlantic Records debut had success at home and especially in Europe and Japan. He was also a driving force behind the band Drive, She Said, whose three albums (the first issued stateside by CBS Associated) are considered classics among fans. (Al Fritsch, Drive, She Said’s award-winning vocalist, contributes background vocals to Mirror Image).
“In the middle I worked with Michael Bolton for quite awhile, and worked on his first two records,” Mark says. “I toured with him in his early stages, as a keyboard player--I was actually in his first video, for a song called “Fool’s Game” (written by Mark and Michael), playing keyboards.” Bolton’s first two albums count no fewer than five Bolton-Mangold compositions. He also worked as a co-writer and co-producer with hitmaker Benny Mardones and as a staff songwriter for CBS Songs and Columbia Picture’s publishing division. He is not one of those writers who has been content to let the others have the hits with his songs- not unlike someone like John Hiatt, with whom he also shares a soulfully rough-edged singing style--and in most cases he had a hand in the recording of the songs, frequently as a co-producer.
Mirror Image was produced by Mangold, he wrote all 15 of its songs (writing both words and music for all but two of them), he does all the lead singing, all the stunning keyboard work, and, often, the percussion. It’s not the expression of a man who has decided, after all these years, to grab for the spotlight for himself for the usual reasons, but out of a deep-seated desire to make a difference, to make a statement in the best way he knows how.
“Native American beliefs are at the core of all major religions which, for the most part, lost them. They’re at the heart of Catholicism, Judaism, Buddhism and Mohammadism. It all starts out--you’re in a desert, or on a mountain, you’re doing your vision quest, communing/praying, you are one with the Earth, you realize you are one with the Universe (what other conclusion could you possibly reach), you manifest your world. It’s not new, it’s just back to basics. If more people realized their power we could definitely create a better world.”
The basics within the basics--solid songwriting, singing, musicianship, and a glistening pop production--within the extraordinary. It’s time to meet somebody your ears probably already know: Mark Mangold. The Mirror Image we see in his songs is of ourselves.
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ALL SONGS WRITTEN AND ARRANGED BY MARK MANGOLD EXCEPT; SOMEDAY (BY MARK AND CHUCK BONFANTE), HOMEWORLD (BY MARK AND CHARLIE WHITE ELK)
Mark Mangold; Vocals, Keyboards
"SPIRIT IN THE VOICE"
Drums; Chuck Bonfante
Bass; Dave Santos (Jeff Allen on "I Am Watching")
Guitars; Al Fritsch*, Tony Bruno**, Al Petrelli***,Johnny Gale ****, D.L. Byron *****
Background vocals; Dana Calitri, Eileen Flanagan, Al Fritsch, Cindy Mizelle, Meredith Struhl, Charlie White Elk (The World)
Violin and Viola; Ralph Farris, Alejandra Mahave, Julian KlopoticALL SONGS PRODUCED AND ENGINEERED BY MARK MANGOLD AT MARIEL'S KITCHEN, NEW YORK (ADDITIONAL ENGINEERING DAVE OGRIN AND CHRIS IRWIN)
ALL DRUMS RECORDED AT MILLBROOK STUDIOS, NEW YORK (PAUL OROFINO ENGINEERING) MIXED AT MILLBROOK STUDIOS, MILLBROOK, NEW YORK (PAUL OROFINO ENGINEERING)
MASTERED BY FOOTHILL DIGITAL AND DAN CACCAVO
COVER ART AND DESIGN; SEAN DALY AND MARK
Web Design and Compression By: Kathleen Fitzgerald - kfritz@sprynet.comSPECIAL THANKS TO; All the players who committed their time and energy to this record, my family, Scott Ross (from the beginning), John Apostol, Hernando and Doreen Courtright, Martin Kahan, Al Fritsch, Charlie White Elk, Paul Orofino, Shane Faber, Bill and Joy Marpet, Andy Biskin, Josh Miller, the many friends who have helped through the years including Louis Levin, Michael Bolton, Dee Anthony, Randy Stuart, Aldo Nova, Benny Mardones, Todd Felice, Martin Hooker, Yaron Fuchs, AND, as always, I thank the One which has committed me to this path and which guides my every step. We are one tribe...we are all related.
"Everything effects that which it causes. Anything causes that which it effects. Nothing happens by chance. YOU cause what you effect. You are the one who has caused every single thing that has come into your life. YOU radiate what you attract. It is you who have brought into your life every situation or incident in your experience. Nothing comes to you by "accident". Everything that happens to you is a direct result of what you have put forth. The universe is made of radiant energy flowing... Our thoughts, words, actions-our very beings-are made of this radiant energy that attracts to itself that which it radiates. Whatever you think, feel, say, do or are comes back to you without exception...Everything comes to you from within yourself."
Excerpt from "THE HEALING POWER WITHIN" by Ann Wigmore C. 1983. Reprinted by permission Avery Publishing Group, N.Y.
YOUR LIFE, YOUR WORLD, IS A REFLECTION...A MIRROR IMAGE...
