“When I first heard Mongolian folk music I couldn’t believe how many similarities to blues it had, similar rhythms, same scales, same riffs, and that deep growling throat singing, gee if that ain’t howling wolf, I started to think that maybe somehow the migration of mongols to America who then became indigenous Americans might have shared their music with African Americans? That’s my theory!”

Mark Easton: Muddy Blues Meets Khan

Australia-based Mark Easton doesn’t just replicate the blues, he reinvents it! He plays a mix of blues, rock, Mongolian, Kazakh and Middle Eastern folk music. Multitalented Mark Easton has a long history in the music scene, from Punk and Glam Rock to Blues! His early career found him on the stage with bands such as Cult, Cheap Trick, AC/DC, and Skid Row among others. Certainly not bands that we would think would have any connections to the blues. He travelled through Asia for a few years in 2018 and 2019 and came back with a whole new vision which required learning a few exotic instruments he had acquired while travelling! Mark is listed as playing, guitar, bass, drums, darbuka, morin khuur, dombra, jaw harp and vocals, including throat singing. He released DARK BLUE in 2023 which went to number 4 on the Blues airplay charts and received loads of airplays. The album NOTHINGS SACRED was released in 2023, ten legendary blues covers by the likes of Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Koko Taylor, Canned Heat etc., all played in their unique style, and have already scored supports with Murray Cooks Soulmovers and Kevin Borich, the Cooma Blues festival, Thredbo Blues festival, Groundwater country festival, Blues on Broadbeach, Matsumura blues festival and Atherton Tabelands folk festival.                                   (Photo: Mark Easton)

The unique approach to the music will demand your acceptance of a sound way outside of anything released from Mississippi and Chicago. It is interesting and it is the blues, but it is not the blues as we commonly recognize them. 2024 saw the release of the singles Roll the dice twice (a re-imagining of Roll the dice), Shigshirgin Ai (sung in Mongolian) due to the massive response to the song Kazakhstan off the DARK BLUE album, it has become the highest streamed song of her career! Mark travelled to Almaty in Kazakhstan and recorded and filmed his single ALMATY which released in 2024. Mark’s new single EAGLE HUNTRESS (2025), it’s a collaboration with Layla-Qobyz from Kazakhstan.

Interview by Michael Limnios                             Special Thanks: Mark Easton

How has the music and world folk cultures influenced your views of the world and the journeys you’ve taken?

Living in an isolated country like Australia can make you a little narrow minded, especially as a musician, you can tend to play the music that is popular with the locals, but once you travel to countries like Mongolia and Kazakhstan you realise there is a lot more to the world and music than you could ever imagined, and as humans it’s encouraging to see we all just want to be friends, it’s a shame that the powers that be can’t be the same!

What does the blues mean to you? What are the lines that connect the legacy of Blues and world folk/traditional music forms?

In my younger days I just wanted to be a famous rockstar, but in reality, I just became disillusioned, until I started to play blues, I just loved the honesty in it!

When I first heard Mongolian folk music I couldn’t believe how many similarities to blues it had, similar rhythms, same scales, same riffs, and that deep growling throat singing, gee if that ain’t howling wolf, I started to think that maybe somehow the migration of mongols to America who then became indigenous Americans might have shared their music with African Americans? That’s my theory!

”You can’t make people like the same things that you yourself like, but with the music I am creating I am gathering a small worldwide following, and making a lot of new friends!” (Photo: Mark Easton)

How do you describe your sound and music philosophy? Where does your creative drive come from?

My sound is a hybrid of blues, mongol, Kazakh, middle eastern folk music!

My philosophy is NEVER LIMIT YOURSELF! My drive comes from being slightly insane, and I know how excited I get when I discover something new, so I get a buzz when I see people in the audience get their mind blown when they first see what I do!

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

I don’t miss anything, I’m embracing the future!

A lot of people whinge about the drop in numbers at hotel shows, yes I do play at pubs and festivals, but I play at markets where there are hundreds of people, I play street shows where there are crowds, I do collaborations with people in obscure countries, the future is amazing!

What moment changed your life the most? What´s been the highlights in your life and career so far?

Punk rock, it brought everything back to basics, if it didn’t happen I don’t know if I would have become a musician 

And if covid didn’t happen I wouldn’t have been watching so much YouTube videos and discovered all the crazy music I listen to that has influenced me!

My biggest highlight? Finding out that a throw away instrumental that I put on an album in 2023 had become my highest played song because the people of Kazakhstan fell in love with it! It’s called KAZAKHSTAN check it out!

”My philosophy is NEVER LIMIT YOURSELF! My drive comes from being slightly insane, and I know how excited I get when I discover something new, so I get a buzz when I see people in the audience get their mind blown when they first see what I do!” (Photo: Mark Easton)

What is the impact of music on the socio-cultural implications?  How do you want it to affect people? How do you want the music to affect people?

You can’t make people like the same things that you yourself like, but with the music I am creating I am gathering a small worldwide following, and making a lot of new friends!

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

Be humble, but stand your ground!

I get a lot of people saying, you should go back to doing what you used to do, forget that, just keep pushing forward!

Why do you think that the Blues music continues to generate such a devoted following in Australia?

We are a small country as far as population goes, so when something gets popular the whole country follows suit!

Blues here has become very big, there is almost a blues festival every weekend these days, sometimes there can be 2 festivals in different places on the same day, the downside is, there is an over abundance of bands doing the same thing, but we have some world class acts here now! But you’ve really got to be different to stand out from the crowd these days!

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(Photo: Mark Easton)