BIOGRAPHY
Mark Vera is a Synthwave artist and producer from the countryside of Finland. To understand where Mark Vera music is from, you should know some history of a genre named Spacesynth.
Spacesynth
In Europe at the start of the 2000s, a new genre was rooted as synthesizer dance music, mostly as the precursor of 80’s instrumental artists such as Laserdance, Koto, and Proxyon. This fresh wave of music became a genre called Spacesynth. Today this can be acknowledged as one of the pioneers of the Synthwave uprising.
Spacesynth is a mix of ’80s influences with motifs from sci-fi and space. This genre should not be confused with similar more atmospheric genres Space Synth or Spacewave. While these do overlap, the Spacesynth is more energetic and melodic with danceable rhythms. Its companion genre from the United States is Hi-NRG.
During the 2000s, the Spacesynth community was strong and pivotal in building the genre. Jouni Airaksinen founded a website called SPACESYNTH.NET, which was a network for artists and fans. Social media was still missing at that time.
Works
Mark Vera’s style of energetic Spacesynth music took form in these early stages of the genre during the 2000s. A big influencer on Mark Vera was music composed by Marco Rochowski. Marco is known for his work in Macrocosm and later also works in Retronic Voice. Marco encouraged Jouni in his first years and arranged Mark Vera’s debut song called “Rainbow Racer”. He described it as a masterpiece and desired to rearrange this piece of composition. Later this pair of producers created songs such as “Morning in the Dark” and “Game of Love” containing Marco’s work with lyrics written, recorded, and mixed by Jouni and his spouse. Jouni and Marco chose to name themselves as Energon.
A British record label Alpha Centauri likewise saw the potential and signed Mark Vera in 2008. He produced a song called “Android People”, and this appears on the compilation album called “Spacesynth Revolutions Episode 1”. Furthermore, megamix releases by Alpha Centauri feature songs titled as “Rocket Blue”, “Fire Fusion”, and “Twilight Imperium”. Of those songs, the “Twilight Imperium” appeared first in an Audioenergy Music Productions song contest.
Mark Vera produced arrangements for artists such as Chorale and C-4. Chorale “Jätit Yksin (Mark Vera Remix)” was included on their debut album called Unimaailma and released by Edel Records in 2005 and sold in retail stores in Finland. Chorale's album received Gold Record award in Finland (minimum of 30000 copied sold) by 2018.
Jouni Airaksinen additionally collaborated in a group called Precursors. The group of artists was responsible for arranging all music for a game Ur-Quan Masters, which is a remake of classic game Star Control 2. Some arrangements, for instance, “Lightyears Away” , have the signature sound of Mark Vera. Jouni was one of the founding members of this four-member Precursors group.
Future
While the story of artist Mark Vera is from the 2000s, Jouni has been composing music with trackers much earlier, beginning from the ’90s. The year 2009 was one of the last years Mark Vera was active until 2020. Even though still being an independent artist, there is an indie record label Stardrive Studio working for Mark Vera releases. Stardrive Studio is a company own by Jouni Airaksinen for providing professional audio services along being the host for Mark Vera.
