Interview with Marcie Free of Unruly Child.
Marcie Free (vocalist – King Kobra, Signal), Bruce Gowdy (guitarist – Stone Fury, World Trade), and Guy Allison (keyboardist – Lodgic, World Trade, Doobie Brothers) together with the original rhythm section from the first record, drummer – Jay Schellen (Hurricane, World Trade, current touring member of Yes) and bassist – Larry Antonino (Pablo Cruise), are back again with an awesome rock album, which will please old and new fans alike!
Marcie Michelle Free Biography
Born Mark Edward Free April 12, 1954. The second of five children in his family Mark started singing professionally at age 15 performing as lead singer/drummer for a band he helped form in High School. “Transmigration” as they were called performed for money at the local Flint area Junior High and High School dances in 1970 – 1971. After High School in 1973 he stepped away from the drums to focus his talents on singing lead and joined up with some of his former band mates to help form Maxx Bone. Maxx Bone played all around Michigan in bars and rock clubs doing top 40 and hard rock for 2 and a half years before being discovered and asked to move to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1975. There he performed as lead vocalist for Sky Blue which appeared at the casino lounge in the Hilton Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. Disillusioned by Las Vegas life style he moved to Los Angeles, California in 1979 to pursue his life long dream. To form a rock band, get signed by a major label, make records, and tour the world. He didn’t have to wait too long for that dream to be realized. In 1983 Mark was introduced to Carmine Appice from Vanilla Fudge, Rod Stewart, Ozzy Osbourne fame. In 1984 they formed the melodic metal group King Kobra. King Kobra signed with Capitol Records and released two albums with Free. Ready To Strike, and Thrill Of A Lifetime. They did 2 United States tours and a huge Mexican American Friendship Festival in Acapulco in January 1986. When they returned from Mexico they immediately went out east to hook up with KISS to join their tour as their opening act. They did that for 9 and a half weeks playing 20 thousand seat auditoriums. Selling out every place they played. In early Fall of 1986 Capitol decided not to pick up their third album option. Free went off on his own to find another band. 1987 Free was contacted by guitarist/keyboardist Ric Podmore and asked to record some songs for his band Arrival out of Denver, Colorado. The invitation to join the band permanently was tempting however Free was not quite sold on the quality of the material so he kept on looking. In late 1987 early 1988 he met bassist Erik Scott, guitarist Danny Jacob, and drummer Jan Uvena. Together they formed a band later to be known as Signal which recorded one album for EMI Records named “Loud And Clear”. Unfortunately the labels A&R representative who signed them left the label. The band received no support for the release of the record and in the Fall of 1990 Free left looking for for the right combination of members to form another group. A few short months later Free was introduced to guitarist Bruce Gowdy (Stone Fury, World Trade) to sing some song demos he and keyboardist Guy Allison ( Lodgic,World Trade) had written together. Allison and Free had met in 1979 but were in different bands. Admirers of each others talents they remained acquaintances for those many years. Excited by the chemistry of this union Free, Gowdy, and Allison quickly formed a group they called Unruly Child in 1990. After 11 months of writing and recording their works, their efforts paid off when they caught the attention of producer Beau Hill. Beau was a label executive at a new label forming called Interscope. They signed with Interscope Records in 1991 and released their self titled debut album in 1992. In 1993 a solo album consisting of demos Mark had sung for a mother/daughter song writing duo named Judithe and Robin Randall was released on a independent label in the U.K. called Now and Then Records. The album entitled, Mark Free “Long Way From Love” was re-released on Frontiers Records in 1996. This album version included some of the live performances he gave while in Manchester England for the first rock festival known as “The Gods of AOR” in October 1993. Also in 1993 Unruly Child, after losing their record deal with Interscope, had reformed under the moniker Twelve Pound Sledge and were writing new material in hopes of resigning with another U.S. label. That never happened, and those songs from that writing session were released in 1996 as a solo album on independent labels in Germany and Japan, entitled Marcie Free “Tormented”. Plagued with gender dysphoria all her life, Mark came out to the world as Marcie Free in November 1993. In 1995 Marcie retired from the music business after 20 years and moved back to Michigan to be close to her family. Never having lost the desire to sing, write, and record music she stayed ready for the call. 15 years later she received that call when Bruce Gowdy contacted her to ask if she would be interested in reforming Unruly Child to record a new album for Frontiers Records out of Italy. She agreed and together again with all the original members, Bruce Gowdy (guitars), Guy Allsion (keyboards), Jay Schellen (drums), and Larry Antonino (bass guitar), they wrote and recorded “Worlds Collide” their brand new album for release in October 2010. The future looks bright for Marcie Michelle Free as the journey rolls on.
More Interviews
- Carmine Appice Interview King Kobra
- Paul Shortino Interview | Talks King Kobra and Ronnie James Dio | May 2011
- Carmine Appice Interview | King Kobra Drummer on Drum Techniques
- Marcie Free Interview | Unruly Child Singer talks World Collide