About Me

I was Born in Santa Monica CA, my dad was in the military so we moved a few times, before settling down in the Washington DC suburbs of Northern Virginia. I picked up music young, mainly figuring out Christmas songs and such by ear on a toy organ. I studied classical music on piano and clarinet all throughout my elementary years, but at 11 when I got a guitar everything changed. I got really obsessed with making music. I practiced non-stop and dreamt of being in a band, playing on stage and making records. At 17 I spent the summer at Berklee College of music, it was fun and I learned a lot but my heart was not in it. I really wanted to join a band. So I did. I was in The Young Caucasians, That’s’ It, Down By Law, The Joykiller, Cheater. I had a few notable side projects along the way as well. One of these days, I’ll write a book and tell all of the war stories (that I can remember) and name names but for now lets just stipulate that I played in a bunch of bands and leave it there.

Playing in bands was my life, I ended up having some songs placed, put out a few records and played shows all around the world. But there came a point where life was not fun anymore so I went back to school. I studied audio engineering at Soundmaster Institute and went to UCLA Extension where I got a certificate in Film Scoring. During my time at UCLA I hit if off with my teacher Lee Sanders. We stayed in touch as I went through the program and he started hiring me to play guitar on the show “The Amazing Race”. As demand grew and we worked together more, Lee started hiring me to write music for the show as well.

While The Amazing Race was on hiatus in 2003, my friends Christian Faber and Jamie Bruce (both tv directors) suggested that I call David Vanacore who was doing a lot of similar shows and needed help. David is a smokin’ piano player who knows how music sticks to picture. He and I talked on and off for a few months and then eventually, I got the call that he needed me to jump on a couple of projects. Since then, I have written music for about 60 shows including “Survivor”, “The Apprentice”, “Nanny 911” (theme) “Big Brother”, “Last Comic Standing” and many others.

I also occasionally work for my friends at Immediate Music. They now are representing the entire album “Home is Where the Heart is” that I did with my band Cheater back in 1998. In addition, in 2005, they recorded my cue “Conquistador” with the London Symphony Orchestra at Abby Road Studios. Yoav and Jeff are great guys and they won’t tell you but they just won an Emmy for their NFL themes. We are doing a lot of collaborating on film trailers these days.

Mark Phillips on IMDb