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Dr Mark Deeks has built a career defined by music, meaning and motivation. From performing on international stages to helping others find their voice, he’s using his lifelong passion for music to open conversations around creativity, mental health and resilience…
Music has always been more than a career for Dr Mark Deeks – it’s been his anchor, his inspiration and his language for connection. As a professional musician, educator and speaker, Mark has spent more than three decades championing the power of music to improve wellbeing, performance and personal growth. Today, he’s using that same energy to help others harness creativity for positive change.
When we meet, Mark is preparing for a keynote address at the Northern Business Awards – one of many speaking engagements that blend storytelling, lived experience and a deep belief in music’s ability to heal. “I faced a situation that will be familiar to many young musicians,” he recalls, taking us back to where it all began. “As I got older my parents started fielding awkward questions from their mates along the lines of ‘are you really going to let him study music?’ and ‘should you not persuade him to do a proper job?’ It was all the kind of stuff that anyone keen to pursue a career in the creative industries comes across at some point. I know my parents had to deal with a lot of that from their ‘concerned’ friends.”
That determination to follow his own rhythm started early. Despite attending an academically focused private school, Mark’s future lay elsewhere. “I knew I needed to leave school at 16 and pursue a music focused college course,” he says. “That didn’t go down well with the headmaster, who called my parents to a meeting at his office and implored them to think again. But it all worked out. My parents backed me from day one and here we are.” Fast forward 35 years and Mark has carved out a multi-faceted career as a professional musician, teacher and critically acclaimed public speaker.
Recently, he hosted the inaugural Breathe getaway – a music and wellbeing retreat on Holy Island that sold out within days. The concept struck a chord with audiences and the next instalment, Breathe II, scheduled for autumn 2026, is already selling fast. “Through my band Arð I wrote an album about the remains of St Cuthbert and their journey from Holy Island to Durham Cathedral,” he explains.
“So I have this extra connection with Lindisfarne and I’d always wanted to take a small group of people to a reasonably remote location with music and mental health as the focus. I needed somewhere where you can feel a sense of space and find the time to breathe. I wanted to run singing workshops and to introduce a sound bath and some kind of meditation to music. We brought together a small group of people to experience every facet of music and to understand the wellbeing impact it can have on your life. I put on a concert in the church in the evening and we even did a tasting at the Lindisfarne Mead Brewery.” For many, that would be more than enough. But Mark’s creative output doesn’t stop there. His band Arð – pronounced Arth – has become a cult name in the world of heavy music.
Described as Northumbrian monastic doom, the band’s sound has reached audiences across the world. “Who knew there was a market for conceptual metal albums exploring Northumbrian history? It’s remarkable, really. Alongside Arð, Mark is also a full-time member of Winterfylleth, a Manchester-based black metal band for which he contributes songwriting, keys and backing vocals. His musical roots trace back to the early 90s. “My first live show was an Emerson Lake and Palmer gig at Newcastle City Hall,” he recalls. “At the same time, I loved a band from Scarborough called Little Angels. Prior to that, Def Leppard’s Hysteria had begun my love of hard rock. Soon I graduated to more extreme metal.”
His creativity, however, extends beyond performance. Mark has an entrepreneurial mindset that allows him to balance his many roles – from touring musician to community choir leader, speaker and family man. But behind that productivity lies a deeply personal story that shapes everything he does.
“In 2020, Angela and I were presented with the hardest time of our lives when the 20-week scan for our first daughter, Laurie, went as badly as it can and we were left facing a Termination For Medical Reasons (TFMR),” he says quietly. “Going through a TFMR comes with a particular form of guilt: you are given the bleakest of bleak prognoses for your child but it is legally your choice as to what to do. Ten days later the whole of the UK was in a pandemic-induced lockdown, and we were left to deal with the mental fallout of the situation with little of the same support that might otherwise have been made available to us.”
The experience triggered a period of severe anxiety and panic attacks, which Mark now speaks about openly to encourage others to seek support. “At the time I was trying to deal with the grief, I was also writing an album for Arð,” he says. “Meanwhile, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law had arranged for a star to be named after Laurie as a surprise. We didn’t know anything about it until a beautiful, ornate star chart arrived in the post showing us the coordinates of the Laurie Deeks star in the Andromeda Galaxy.” Those coordinates became a powerful symbol. “The numbers of those coordinates are the numbers on the tattoo on my arm. The ‘heart on my sleeve’, that I can see when I play the piano and guitar, has become hugely important to me. One night at 3am, I suddenly woke up with an idea: what if those numbers weren’t the coordinates of a star? What if they were the numbers of the notes of a musical scale – what does it sound like if you play them as a melody?
That melody became the final one at the end of the first Arð album on a track called Only Three Shall Know.” It’s a deeply personal detail that many listeners will never recognise. “The lyrics are not about the story at all – I didn’t want to write words about what I was going through – and so many of the people who have bought that record have no idea that that musical ‘nod’ to Laurie is there. But to me, it means the world. If she had never existed, that melody would never have existed. It’s a huge comfort.”
That melody would later resurface at a poignant moment. When Mark took part in the Great North Run, raising money for baby loss charity 4Louis, exhausted and close to the finish line, Only Three Shall Know randomly began playing from his six-hour playlist. “In the last hundred yards, as I was really struggling for the finish line, Laurie’s melody suddenly came on. I got over the line, sort of crumpled in a heap and I just couldn't explain to anyone around me why I was so emotional.”
It’s a story that encapsulates how music and emotion intertwine. “But that’s what music does,” Mark reflects. “It stirs the emotions and it triggers memories.” Through his speaking engagements and creative work, he draws on those experiences to show how music can inspire healing and hope.
That same philosophy underpins his work leading community choirs, where he brings together people of all ages and backgrounds through shared performance. “The older members of my choirs don’t necessarily understand why I’m drawn to heavy metal music and my band mates find it strange that I enjoy working in the community in the way that I do,” he adds. “What both groups have in common, however, is a love of music. That’s universal. I’ve always had that love of music and I understand it. People still ask ‘why music’? I don't know how I would do anything else. It’s just completely natural to me. Always has been, always will be.”
Mark’s story – one of resilience, creativity and compassion – demonstrates that the transformative power of music extends far beyond the stage.
