Mark Furze is a busy man! As well as playing jailbird Rockin’ Ric Dalby, he wowed audiences on UK singing show Soapstar Superstar over Xmas, has been hanging with Guy Sebastian AND is getting his own band together!
Q. Hey Mark! First things first – tell us all about your experiences on Soapstar Superstar.
A. That was fantastic! It was the most intense experience I’ve ever done in my life. For It Takes Two, they do one episode a week, for ten weeks, but for this they do one episode a day until the show is done. So it was 11 nights, live. With It Takes Two, we knew what songs we were doing weeks in advance, and we could go over it for the week, but with Soapstar you get a day, half a day – and you gotta fit in little things like eating and sleeping as well. I came back six kilos lighter from stress! But it was a lot of fun.
Q. What did you think of the songs you sang?
A. Most of the songs I sang I didn’t really like [laughs]. It was just that I hadn’t heard them. I don’t even know what songs are popular here; I don’t listen to that kind of music, let alone going over to England and trying to do that. It was definitely very testing.
Q. Did you do much sightseeing?
A. The show was shot in Manchester, so I saw a bit of Manchester, and I went to London for ten days for a bit of a break in the middle and did a few touristy things. Went skateboarding in London, that was great fun. Experienced the weather [laughs]. I just figured any touristy things I could do were a bonus because I didn’t pay for anything.
Q. Were you recognised in the streets?
A, A little bit. Before the show started I think people were looking and thinking, ‘Ah no, he’s Australian, can’t be him’, but after the show started they started to put two and two together. It was really great to be recognised and supported like that. It was quite surprising.
Q. What other TV stints do you have your eye on?
A. I had a dream the other night I was doing The Great Outdoors! I’d love to do that, but I couldn’t do it for too long because I don’t fly too well. I’d love to do some Aussie dramas and something different, very different to my character on Home and Away. There are a lot of people who fit into a niche and play the same sort of character really well for a really long time, but I’d like to do as many varied things as I can. I’d love to play a character role in a comedy. I’d love to do a comedy. Friends is one of my favourite shows, and a sit-com like that which is a bit kooky, a bit weird would be a lot of fun.
Q. Fave Friends character?
Chandler’s my favourite – he’s hilarious.
Q. Tell us about the shoot for Guy Sebastian’s new music clip, ‘Elevator Love’.
A. That was great fun! Typical Guy – he’s so unreliable, it’s terrible [laughs]. I rang him and said, ‘What time do you need me there?’ And he was like, ‘Mate, the band doesn’t need to be there till about 2pm’. So I showed up about 2.30pm, late from work, thinking ‘Oh, I’m gonna be in trouble’. And I get there, and he goes, ‘Nah it’s fine’. And I look at the schedule, and the band doesn’t need to be there until 7pm. The other guys in the band get there at 6.30pm and none of us even go on until midnight! But it was good when we shot it, we were all cramped in an elevator at the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney, it was a lot of fun.
Q. And are you any closer to getting your own band together?
A. A lot closer. I’ve been writing songs by myself and with my bass-player mate, just to get the songs done. I think I’ve found a drummer and I’m gonna talk to a guitarist next week. It’s looking good. Hopefully we’ll be doing covers – corporate gigs, Seven functions, that sort of thing – within two months, and then within six months doing originals, hopefully with the same line-up. I’m just trying to get a steady line-up otherwise it’s not going to work.
Stay tuned for an exclusive sneak peek of Mark’s new band (that is, when he starts gigging!)
Interview by Tania Seager
