John Mark McMillan is something of an anomaly: an artist and Platinum-selling songwriter bending genres and defying categorization by carving out his own unique and independent path. With an ear for melody and a poet’s eye for metaphor, no topic has been off-limits. While each of his albums over the past decade have continued to explore new territory, it’s McMillan’s ability to give lyric and language to the human experience that many consider his greatest gift. Mercury & Lightning (out 9.1 via Lionhawk Records) reminds us why we love great songwriters; The exceptional ones find a way to put new words to private musings and desperate feelings until the songs themselves begin to live in our bones.
The vibe and tone from each song on Mercury & Lightning will mesmerize, but it’s McMillan’s voice that draws you in and makes you feel as though you’ve entered a conversation you want to stick around for. Recorded just outside of Portland, OR at Feng Sway Studios over 18 months with close friend Gabriel Wilson and longtime bandmate Jesse Proctor, this is the kind of record that your kid usually discovers before you do – something progressive yet accessible. Borrowing from their childhood influences, they bring elements of 80’s rock and 90’s R&B together, somehow making the record feel both modern and unexpected.
The album title was pulled from Roman mythology. “Mercury is the god of financial gain, commerce, communication, travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves”, says McMillan. “If something is hard to catch, understand or lock down, it’s known to be ‘mercurial’ or ‘like Mercury.’ The story of the new record begins with a conversation about all the things we run after, give our lives to – even die for – that often seem so mercurial and mysterious.” McMillan would know; this being his 7th studio album, each new record seems to reveal a man chasing a new set of questions we should have been asking ourselves all along.
McMillan is no stranger to success with nearly half a million monthly listeners on Spotify and 40 million Spotify streams, but he won’t let those things define him. He’s learned a lot about himself since his previous studio album Borderland, which held a Top 15 spot on the iTunes Albums chart and No. 41 on Billboard’s Top 200. “I’ve found that there’s a profound restlessness in the gap between the ideals of youth and the realities of adulthood” says McMillan, “even when, especially when, you get what you wanted.””
In 2015, McMillan, who has made a career of rejecting easy categorization and challenging expectations, co-founded the independent record label Lionhawk Records with his manager Josh Lujan Loveless. Mercury & Lightning stands to be the third album release from Lionhawk Records with additional releases in the works.
Over the past year, John Mark joined NEEDTOBREATHE’s Tour De Compadres with Mat Kearney and Welshly Arms and co-headlined The Revelators Tour with Josh Garrels. This year McMillan plans to hit the road again on a three-month US headlining tour kicking off in September in support of the new album.
Glide is premiering the musically elastic”Unhaunted” from Mercury & Lightning, a versatile statement that cites the golden age of MTV with its snappy beats and radio friendly vocals, while giving the H&M generation a refreshing anthem. McMillian’s sings with a playful yet expressive manner that recalls that of a soulful The Head and the Heart.
