AUTHOR! AUTHOR!
Marcus Testory
Marcus appeared carrying his guitar in its case and settled down straight away into a rendition of two songs. He has shaven his head back and his tattoo is now quite prominent again. Asked why, he said that he was on a promotional tour for his hairdresser, someone called Duncan who did his best work on a bridge! After adding it was to scare away patients, he told us that it is in preparation for a short film that he will be filming quite soon.
His martial arts training has been a mix of Shaolin Kung Fu and Kendo, but he added that, whilst he’s been doing them for several years, you need to train regularly, which he doesn’t. He said that one of his old girlfriends had been quite good and he had need to improve, (with an ex-wife who’s a Karate Black Belt, I can relate to that!). He has been doing them for two years now, but he doesn't consider himself good.
He became involved in Highlander through a friend of his, who is a storyboard artist working in L.A. This friend did the storyboards for Comes A Horseman and used Marcus as a model for Caspian. He made Marcus send pictures, which were seen by the director, Adrian and the producers, who asked him to do a video casting, which led to him getting the part.
He spoke about the three M.E.L.T. songs used in the Modern Prometheus, for the intro., the Quickening and when Byron says, “they’re playing my song”. No, said Marcus, they’re playing MY song! He’s currently involved in three bands - on Monday, he’s in the studio working on some computer stuff akin to Depeche Mode, on Tuesdays he’s working with a chamber orchestra and on Wednesdays he has his grunge band. The cycle then repeats, although he gets Saturdays off! Which he prefers depends on what day of the week it is, as what he’s doing in the moment is always at the forefront of his mind, whether it’s being a paramedic, musician or actor. The chamber orchestra are starting to record a CD, which should be finished by the end of January and on sale in February/March. He was inspired musically by Bauhaus, Peter Murphy, Ultravox at one point, David Sylvian and Japan, Brian Eno and that well known popster, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He has had classical training, but only in drinking, being a self taught musician.
Highlander was his first acting job and he admitted he was scared to death, as it was so easy to screw things up. He said that the others taught him how to act. Later he had done some theatre and some sci-fi T.V. There are no plans for a new M.E.L.T. CD, as they’ve just parted company with their manager and record company. He said eating the cockroach in Revelation 6:8 was sleight of hand, not real. He had recently attended a convention as an ordinary attendee, not a guest. He said it was interesting and that people had commented that he looked like Marcus Testory!
He works five days in every month as a paramedic on the emergency helicopter and says it’s scary, as he doesn’t like planes. He trusts the pilots, but thinks they’re crazy, and says it’s interesting to fly 15m above the tree tops at 300kph.
He said he finds music liberating and he’d probably be totally nuts if he weren’t a singer. He had spent a week with Richard Ridings recently making music and had been very impressed by some of the vocals-only music that Richard records. They had been to the premiere of Tim Robbins’ new movie, “The Cradle Will Rock” and said it was very good. Asked if he had a horse, he said he’d had one on a sandwich, which elicited some groans. Of horse riding, he said that animals tend not to do what he wants and, when the director calls “Action”, the horse will go off on its own.
He’s working on a short film, in which he plays five characters in a T.V. studio discussing the meaning of life. He said it was difficult to explain, but the characters are Mephistopheles and other such characters, including a real German philosopher whose name he said several times, but I didn't catch. He isn’t a method actor, but rather goes to have fun and just do it. Asked if it was scary to have Duncan MacLeod come at you with a sword, he suggested we ask Adrian how it feels to have a crazy Austrian come at him! He grew up in Vienna, but preferred skiing, football and volleyball to other mountain pursuits.
He said his tattoo was the most painful experience he had had and it had taken one and a half hours to have done the first time. It had taken two hours to have it recoloured recently. Asked if he had any other tattoos, he said some things should remain private.
The M.E.L.T. 5th Anniversary Concert will be held in Frankfurt on 17 December. Marcus was asked to play a song written in German called “Kunst”, which was written by a friend of his who had died. After some persuasion, he started, only to stop midway through the second verse. There was a desperate, strangled “shit” and he admitted that he had forgotten the words! He said that it had been great to meet the other Horsemen at Chronicles, but the scheduling had been that tight that he had only spent 5 minutes with Peter and barely more with Valentine. He was looking forward to seeing them again. At this point, he remembered the rest of the lyrics, grabbed his guitar and finished the song.
He said he handles the stress of his job though his music and by talking to good friends. He said it can take weeks to get over some things and that, in one week, he had been to the scene of three separate accidents in which young men had been paralysed from the neck down. His experiences make him thank God for keeping him healthy and alive each day. On the upside, he said it was a beautiful thing to be the godfather of a child born in his ambulance.