Sympathy for the devils: Mark Bragg explores the monsters within
Every syllable is important to the St. John's musician, who starts the writing process with sounds, not words
When it comes to writing songs, Mark Bragg believes "every syllable is important."
Indeed, his songs are jam-packed with startling imagery driven on the energy of a passionate melody and no-holds-barred production style. When he wrote the songs on his new EP, Ashes, he started with hip-hop beats to help him enter a persona.
"I'm a fiction writer, almost in character when I'm writing, that's sort of what came out," he says.
Bragg's songwriting process begins with making inarticulate noises, as he sings sounds without lyrics.
"Typically for me, I'm at a piano, and I'll sing a fully formed-out structural song as soon as I know I'm on to something, but it's just gibberish."
His approach leads with the sensory experience, he says.
"It's the texture, the enunciation. I can pick apart a word for every syllable."
The visceral first step then shifts to a more cerebral problem-solving process.
"The story comes after, usually, the characters and the imagery."
Exploring a character
When asked to identify whether any of his songs are confessional in nature, he names one — The Fool — and acknowledges there's a second one that's "pretty lame … because my writing has grown."
He prefers to write in persona. A characteristic Mark Bragg song express the malevolent impulses of an anti-hero, or the anti-hero in the psyche of any person, its lyrics often shocking but also cathartic.
"It's exploring what might that character do, what might he or she say, how might they say it, what is the situation that has inspired this character to say such a thing."
Does this creative impulse arise out of a spirit of empathy? Bragg doesn't acknowledge it as a lifelong quality, but he confesses, "I've got a lot more empathy for people now, because I didn't know what trauma was, now I do."
Mid-life trauma
The 47-year-old has had to make sense of chaos in his physical and mental health since 2019, when he "passed out and woke up in an ambulance." This event turned out to be the first of many seizures and started what he describes as his "year of dissociation." He has since experienced an ongoing journey of invasive testing procedures, radiation on his brain, hyperbaric treatment, and the withdrawal effects associated with tapering off from prescribed medication.
"I was so scared just to walk around the block," he says.
Alongside the nascent epilepsy, Bragg began having panic attacks whose symptoms resembled his experiences at the onset of a seizure. He describes the vicious cycle of seizures and panic attacks: "If I have a twitch in my foot when I'm out walking, I'll think it's the start of a seizure. And I end up with this intense anxiety because I think I'm going to have a seizure."
Accepting a new reality
When asked if he's come to terms with his condition, he says he feels he's doing much better now than he was a few years ago.
"I haven't embraced it, but I've accepted it. It's hard to embrace because it's so terrifying."
Bragg credits therapy, meditation and mindfulness practice for his improved ability to manage episodes of anxiety, panic, and dissociation. Watching touching movies with his family became a form of emotional therapy.
"We had them lined up every night. I really feel connected with myself when I'm crying watching a movie."
What's in a name
In much the same way that Bragg turns gibberish into lyrics, naming his condition was a key component in his coming to terms with it.
"When I learned from my neurologist that I had epilepsy, that was immediately helpful," he said. "It's something that people understand, something that I understood. It becomes part of my identity."
As for the anxiety, Bragg feels that a diagnosis was less essential.
"I could easily be diagnosed with PTSD or generalized anxiety disorder or dissociative identity disorder, any of those things, but it wouldn't be helpful because everybody, regardless of where you are on the mental health spectrum, needs to attend to their general mental health."
Taking to the stage
With his new health constraints, what will be different about a Mark Bragg show? Very little, it seems.
"I do early shows now instead of late. Until I need to do a late show, and then I'm going to do it, seizures be damned. Because that's the life I want to live."
As for his approach to life in general, he has observed a shift.
"I can make space for anybody now, space and time, and that would never have been the case years ago. Because I had a pretty good run of self-absorption."
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