For over four decades, singer-songwriter Paul Marcus has devoted his life to searching for meaning and identity as an acclaimed songwriter and an esteemed therapist. Needless to say, he’s lived many lives. Marcus has played Madison Square Garden, cavalierly embraced synth pop in its infancy, wrote with fringe songwriter icons, and experienced the highs and lows of a professional career as a musician. And he did it all while also building a distinguished career as a therapist.
Now, Marcus is enjoying a rebirth of sorts inspired by embracing the totality of his life—his fascinating journey as a musician, his enlightening life as a therapist, and a renewed passion for music. He emerges a singer-songwriter with a very unique perspective on the human condition and a refreshing approach to fan-to-artist connection.
“Music is really powerful as a medium for personal growth, healing, and change. I want to reach out to people and have a dialogue, whether it’s based on my music, music in general, or just life experiences. I want to engage, empower, and foster a community where people can share ideas,” Marcus explains.
At age 11, Marcus saw The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show and, like so many others before him, decided he wanted to leverage his classical piano chops into rock-n-roll electric guitar riffs and start a band. For Marcus, the Fab Four’s TV appearance had reverberations beyond pop appeal. He felt spiritually emboldened by the performance. It gave his life a focused trajectory—he wanted to harness the power of music to touch and inspire people. Marcus built an impressive profile as a sideman, creative foil, and songwriting partner, making it all the way to Madison Square Garden. His resume includes working with Jimmie Spheeris, Zoo Drive featuring jazz-fusion virtuoso John Goodsall of Brand X, and Allwaves, his own 80’s-style synth-pop collaboration with Screen Gems artist Paul Delph.
Alongside his music career timeline, Marcus also found enlightenment in the world of therapy, pursuing higher education, academic accreditations, exclusive internships, and, ultimately, a successful career as a therapist. Currently, he’s a therapist who consults with adolescents, guiding wandering souls in discovering their authentic identity.
“Wanting meaning is what drew me to being a therapist,” Marcus says. “I was wrestling with a painful part of life; it was a path that helped me to understand myself and others. With being a therapist, I felt that same connection with people that I felt when I picked up a guitar and played, it was honest.”
In 1996, Marcus experienced an insurmountable hardship when his songwriting partner Paul Delph passed away. “When he died, I couldn’t write anymore. I remember the last thing he said to me was ‘When I get there, they’ll have new technology,’ he was joking about writing with me from heaven,” Marcus says. “That moment I became rudderless.” In the aftermath of Delph’s death, Marcus turned his attention toward building a meaningful career as a therapist, and rededicated himself to being a loving husband and doting dad.
Then two years ago Marcus had an epiphany. “I realized I never put myself ‘out there,’ I was always second in command as a musician, helping someone else be better,” he explains. “I lost confidence hiding behind being in a support role. I realized that what always drove me was searching for what truly matters in this life, and expressing that as a songwriter and performer.”
Marcus enrolled in three consecutive lyric writing classes with Andrea Stolpe at the Berklee College Of Music to reinvigorate his dormant creativity, and find fresh and direct ways to write as a solo artist for the first time. “I got obsessed with the process, it was like being in therapy, it challenged me to be real,” Marcus says.
His new music brims with classy pop-rock songwriting, majestic piano and guitar playing, sweetly urgent vocals, all-encompassing spirituality, and uplifting life lessons.
His solo debut EP, The Three Mile Marker, is purposeful pop-rock, accessible and imaginative like Peter Gabriel, tenderly confessional a la John Mayer, and masterfully composed in the tradition of Joni Mitchell. The stunning title track features atmospheric textured verses that, like sun peering through a cloudy day, yield to a boldly emotional soaring chorus. “That represents the moment when we get clear we need to take a risk and do the hard, unpopular thing,” he says. Here Marcus sings with soulful urgency: At three mile marker gonna make my mind up/either way I’ll be OK/this time/ it’s up to me/and baby that’s enough.
The mesmerizing “Xs Ys and Equal Signs” artfully and directly weaves in Marcus’s work as a therapist. “That’s inspired by a math teacher’s equations on his chalk board and then thinking how much I, and a lot of other folks I know or am helping, overthink everything, especially relationships and matters of the heart,” he says. The EP’s most personal statement is the stately “Hang Gliding.” It’s elegantly spare piano and voice core presentation imbues its message with added poignancy. “That’s based on losing my father as well as my best friend and songwriting partner Paul Delph,” Marcus says.
The Three Mile Marker was produced by Jan Stolpe (Marty Magehee, Keith L. Cooper, Larry Sparks) in Nashville and tracked with Music City’s finest musicians turning in revelatory in-the-moment performances. Marcus then did overdubs in Los Angeles.
Currently, Marcus is readying a wonderful stylistic counterpoint to the The Three Mile Marker—an elegantly sparse singer-songwriter release that feels like experiencing an intimate Paul Marcus living room concert, it’s close, personal, and unvarnished. This will be a mix of reimagined versions of his EP material and fresh, new compositions.
Summing it all up, Marcus says: “I’m driven by wanting to see what no eyes can see. I want to see the casket open. I want to see again through the eyes of a child—rather than these eyes that all too easily become paranoid and world weary as I look out for number one. That passion for seeing things differently, for connection and for making a difference—that’s what I’m always hoping to be able to offer other folks, through one medium or another.”