Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1951, Marc is the eldest of two
sons born to Phyllis and Monte Decker. His brother Robert is a top
cancer specialist in Los Angeles as well as an aspiring comedian. His
father Monte was an accountant, but also a jazz and classical music
lover. When music played his father pointed out the different parts of
the work as the piece unfolded. His mother, Phyllis, is a youthful
eighty and one of California's up and coming artists. It was his
mother's piano playing which supplied an inspiring soundtrack to his
childhood days.
Marc began his musical training at age eight with piano lessons. His
teacher was Stuart Fastofski, later a conductor for several Canadian
orchestras. As a child, his parents often woke him up to play for their
friends when hosting parties and the like. He used these opportunities
to show off by playing pieces with his eyes closed and his hands
crossed. As he has been reported to have stated on more than one
occasion, I may be Jewish, but I've always been a ham. When he was ten,
he happened to be at a local football game watching through the
chain-link fence. As the marching band came around the track at
halftime, the multitude of drummers slamming it out was too much for
the impressionable youth. He went crazy, ran home and declared as he
burst through the door, I'm going to be a drummer! This, as it turns
out, was in fact the only true statement he had ever uttered to his
parents since the day he was born.
Age twelve would prove to be the earthquake year in Marc's childhood.
He joined his first band The Megatones, formed another at school,
excelled at school, had his first childhood sweetheart, and was all in
all, living in Camelot. Then one day he arrived home from school to
find the president had been shot. A month or so later, his parents got
divorced, and he moved to Queens with his mom and brother. But just
weeks after the move, something amazing happened, the Beatles hit
America. He was never the same.
At this time his sole passion in life became the drums. He cut school
nearly every day just to play. He fell in with some friends and they
formed a band. They even played a few gigs. At night, after his mom
went to sleep, he climbed down the fire escape and boarded the subway
from Queens to Greenwich Village in Manhattan. Amazingly, he was
allowed into most of the clubs. After all, he was only twelve, it was
past midnight, and he was alone, smoking cigarettes and drinking rum
and cokes, they never asked for I.D. This is where he learned the blues and
the thrill of performance. But after nearly three years of this
behavior, his mom relocated the family to L.A. Goodbye blues, grease
and late night adolescent alcoholic stupors, hello sunny Cal, and
surfers, and hippies, and babes, and bands,
Marc was nearly fifteen when he arrived in L.A. in 1966. He continued
his pattern of not going to school until he was old enough to quit at
age sixteen. He was already in several bands by that time and played
out often. He had his first taste of success at this time as well. He
joined a band in Palmdale, California called the Obeah Band. They
caught the eye of an up and coming radio DJ named Don Imus, Yes, The
Don Imus, who financed a recording session in L.A. at Goldstar, a
legendary studio. Marc wrote the A side and the song, 16 Times, became
number one in Palmdale, Lancaster, Bakersfield, and other small towns,
a sort of regional hit. However, by seventeen, the band broke up and he
was off to other things.
Marc spent the next dozen or so years as a drummer, performing in every
kind of band. At twenty he found himself in town for a time. He decided
at his mother's coaxing to take his GED test in order to enter a
computer tech school, which he did. After receiving his diploma in
Computer Programming, he decided to go on to college to study music. He
did this first of three college stints for a year and a half until
Albert Collins called for a band, and he and his mates were gone the
next day. He played several tours with blues legend Albert Collins,
rockers Adam Strange, Boa and Avalanche, and even did local gigs with
his own original band Angel Demonic. His bands shared the bill with
many of the legends of rock such as Chuck Berry, Van Halen, Savoy Brown
and numerous others. He toured the U.S. many times over with these
bands and others, but every time he returned to L.A. he recorded in the
studio. He had started learning guitar, and coupled with his early
piano skills was able to record his music playing all the instruments.
He had also become a prolific writer so there was no shortage of
material. During this time, he even had occasional airplay, which, he
considered a minor success in itself, as L.A. radio was quite difficult
to penetrate. In particular, L.A. radio jock Doctor Demento played his
music nearly every week over a long period of time.
By age 26 he had had enough of touring in other people's bands and
simply being a drummer. He decided to stay in town and work on original
projects. He spent the next ten years to this pursuit. His first major
project was Hollyweed in 1975 followed by Red Alert A Space Rock Opera
in 1976 thru 1978. Both projects were recorded at JPM Studios,
engineering and Sound FX by John Peters. This was followed by a number
of recording projects and his own original bands including Marc David
Decker and The Newz, Decker's Drivers, Channel Logic, Homer The Band
and Doctor Daddio and The L.A. Mints. Most of these are available for
both listening , no samples, only complete songs, and downloading on
MarcDavidDecker.com.
To keep up with things, Marc started several publishing and record
companies. He formed many partnerships as well, most notably with Pete
Peterson, who was co executive producer and co owner of two record
companies with Marc, Biba Records, Dija Records. His manager for a
time, Bill Owens, was also influential and introduced Marc to many of
the people he greatly admired such as jazz greats Wayne Shorter, Herbie
Hancock and Miles Davis, rockers such as The Cars and Alice Cooper and
Television writers and producers Jerry Parsigian and Don Siegel. Jerry
and Don ended up writing the stage play for Marc's Red Alert, which
nearly reached production.
By 1987, Marc's bands had airplay on many L.A. radio stations, his
records were in the stores, and his bands had played every club in L.A.
multiple times. Unable to get over the big hump, he began to morph
creatively. He published his first poetry book entitled, Bullet Words:
Poetic License To Kill and was surprised when it was slightly well
received. He appeared as a radio guest promoting his poetry in a number
of radio interviews and even a PBS half hour special for TV. In
addition, he began painting. This, like the poetry, was something brand
new. In just a few years, he painted hundreds of 2 dimensional works
oils, acrylics, watercolors, pen and ink, pastels and mixed media.
After just two years he had his first art show, had done several album
covers and had paintings hanging in recording studios, radio stations
and upscale restaurants in L.A. His music also began to change. He was
now writing more avant garde music with elaborate orchestrations. The
days of rock seemed to be waning.
As the eighties were coming to a close, Marc's friends began telling
him his music was sounding very Film Scoreish. He was also composing
works in the classical style, and realizing he was now in his late
thirties, he hung up his rock spurs and made a decision. Following the
advice of friends, he put the word out to see if he could meet anyone
in the film business. Finally, about a year later it paid off. A friend
of a friend of a friend hooked him up with Tamara Shad, an agent in the
biz. Through Tammy, Marc ended up scoring a dozen films and a dozen TV
shows and gigs over the ensuing five or six years. All of these
projects made it to cable, some even to network TV. They include ESPN'S
Hockey Player Magazine and CBS's The Ben Stiller Show, and films such
as The Last Dance, The Dark Backward and Psycho Cop II. Still, after
five years or so, he felt that here too, he could not get over the hump
and score that really meaningful film.
By 1995, Marc was tired of waiting. He decided once again to return to
college for the third and final time. This time, his goal was music
composition. Although he had written hundreds of songs and numerous
film scores, he wanted to really understand the orchestra. He stayed in
college for ten years, taking on a second major, Music Education as he
was finishing his Masters in Composition. By 2001, he emerged with a
Bachelor and Masters Degree in Music Composition, completed work on a
Bachelor of Music Education degree as well as a California Teachers
Credential. He won numerous awards and composition competitions, and
graduated receiving the Outstanding Student Award from the music
department.
Currently, Marc lives in L.A., has two grown children from his first
marriage, Neil, a father of three and Megan, mother of four! and loves
his seven grandchildren beyond description. He is working on two books,
which will be posted and available on his site when complete in the
near future. He recently celebrated his 25th year as a Lakers fan, His
50th as a Yankee fan, still loves pizza and still eats it.
Since 2000, Marc has been teaching music at the Elementary School level
for the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is passionate about his
work and finds it to be extremely rewarding. In 2007, in an attempt to
get back to his own music, Marc entered into a partnership with friend
and fellow teacher Ian Edmiston. They purchased a new studio, and with
help from long time friend and engineer Phil Moore have begun to crank
out the music. To showcase it, he decided a website would be the
perfect place. He hopes to complete this vision by the end of 2008. When complete, it will offer
not only his new music, but additionally, his entire catalog of past
work, more than forty music CDs, 200 to 300 paintings and pen and
inks, several books, a page for kids, one for teachers, thousands of
photos, and even a page for video creations, such as screen savers,
evironscapes and cosmic interviews with interesting people.
