In the studio and out on the road an essential ingredient to back beat of Melissa's music, the player MLE turns to, is Mark Browne. In this exclusive interview with M.E.I.N., Melissa's longtime bass player shares with us his experiences playing on tracks to MLE's eagerly anticipated, emotionally charged forthcoming album for Island Records. He also shares with us his experiences working as the musical director of the largest concert event of it's kind ever produced in support gay and human rights ~ Equality Rocks. Read on as Mark takes us behind-the-scenes to the recording of Melissa's next album, reveals his deep affection for Melissa's fans and shares with us other stories, both past and present, from his days working closely with Melissa.

Hi Mark! You're familiar with M.E.I.N…
You know, I am. My wife is such a big fan and a huge supporter of the whole thing. We even have our registration card updated and on our bulletin board.

As it should be.
As it should be. (laughs)

You've been with Melissa for some time as her bassist; can you tell the fans a bit about your background?
I have been supporting myself as a professional musician since I was seventeen. I was basically an art school drop out. My heart was really into playing music and all my teachers knew it. So, on their encouragement, I started playing in bands and actually pretty much made my living either touring with various bands or playing in the studios. I worked for various publishing companies back when they would all retain house bands. We would get to work with the different writers that would come in, which was really a lot of fun because one day would be one style and one writer, and the next day would be something else. It was a great way to grow up and learn about song writing. I think growing up in L.A was really great, too, because there was a lot of music going on here. There was also a lot of really talented kids who were peers of mine and it was, really, either sink or swim. I feel very fortunate to have grown up in such a great environment filled with people who were so serious about the arts and playing music. I basically bounced from band to band and I did a lot of touring with various acts, some of whom I'm kind of embarrassed to mention. (laughs) But right before I joined Melissa, I was playing with a group called Simple Minds, which is a rock group from Scotland, and we were actually in the studio recording a record when I had heard through the grapevine, I think it was dinner break actually, and one of the second engineers said, 'Hey, you know Melissa Etheridge is auditioning band members…' I nearly stood up from dinner and left and tried to make phone calls to see how I could get in because, honestly, I was just a really big fan of hers.

What year was this?
This was around mid-1994. My decision at that time was whether or not to leave Los Angeles and move to Scotland and be apart of Simple Minds full-time, because that was what they were offering me, or stay in L.A. and find something to do. Earlier that year, I had jammed with Mick Jagger and some other various people. I thought it was just so fun to go in and play with these people without the attitude of… 'Gee, I really want this gig...' The Mick Jagger thing didn't work out so well for me, but the experience of playing with him for three days was so unbelievable I kind of said, 'Melissa Etheridge? Now, there is one of my favorite singer/songwriters. I don't care… I just got to get into that audition. I don't care if I don't get it, I have got this situation where I can move out of town and I can be in this band for awhile, but I have got to play with her.' That was it. Somehow, I kind of wormed my way into the audition. The funny thing that happened was, she hired me! (laughs) She had been looking for a while and I think I was the last guy that came in. I often joke, 'Make sure you always bring a fresh pizza to an audition because they will always remember you…' On the day I auditioned, I remember she was pretty tired because she had listened to so many different players. She was auditioning for a drummer, a guitarist and a bass player. Kevin, Fritz, and Rob (who was the guitar player immediately previous) had just left, so she was looking for a whole band. She was pretty tired of playing the same three or four songs over and over again for almost an entire day, but I just had a blast for the two hours that I played with her! It was just the greatest thing. I walked out of there and we all said goodbye and, honestly, I just didn't think I had a chance. I knew that just about everybody would die to have this gig because of who she is, the quality, the originality…everything! It was funny, I was packing up my instrument and I was going to the car and John Shanks came back into the room and he goes, 'Well….' And I said, 'Well, thank you very much. It was really great. ' I had known John for a long time through the Los Angeles scene, and I said, ' John this was really a blast. It was great to reconnect with you. I haven't seen you in so long…' and I just started walking to my car. John follows me and says, 'Did she talk to you at all? And I was like, 'No, No…' I mean I had no expectations! So, John says, 'Well wait a second! Just stay right there.' He goes out into the hallway and gets her and drags her over by her elbow and says, 'Aren't you gonna tell him?' and Melissa says, 'Oh! Hey, what are doing the rest of the year?' I remember that drive home because I drove up on the curve more than once and probably through people's lawns too. I was a little giddy.

When you first heard Melissa's music what to you was most compelling about her as an artist?
Definitely the voice… this huge voice coming out of your car radio speaker. At that time, and still today, there is no one that sounds like her. It was just, 'Wow! Who's that?' Years before, when she released her first record, although it wasn't really a breakthrough record and she wasn't being spun all the time on the radio, it was so fun when you would find a radio station that played different artists and whenever she was included you would go, 'Wow! Boy, what an amazing voice!' I think from that, once I identified her, I started to research her more and I came to find out that I actually knew people that I had grown up with that were in her band. It was pretty fun because I would sneak my way into their dress rehearsals before they would go out on tour. I remember one night I had a hot date and I went to see one of her shows and I was absolutely blown away. It was so much better than what I heard on the radio in the live format. I ignored my date the whole night. I was just on my feet the whole time… But that's a whole other story! (laughs) I was just blown away by her and said to myself, 'This woman is so amazing live!' I remember going backstage and gushing. Kevin, who was an acquaintance, and Fritz, who was a friend at the time, actually introduced me to her and I probably said something really dumb. So, initially that was my exposure to her ~ through friends and radio.

What was the experience of first recording with her like?
The first recording I did with her was Your Little Secret. The first thing that hit me was that when Melissa came in and played us her song ideas, they were so strong that I had a fleeting thought for a moment like, 'Well you don't need us! Those are great!' Then I kind of slapped myself and said, 'Okay, get to work.' She writes songs that are very… it's her own kind of energy. It's funny, if you sit in a room and have her teach you a song, you kind of ride the roller coaster with her. In other words, her dynamic of lyric and delivery are like waves that hit you and it's very compelling. It really frees you up. You are never left with a thought of, 'Well, gee what am I going to play?' It's almost like she grabs you and takes you with her. It's really fun, because, since the beginning, it has not been like I've had to think about what notes I am specifically going to play. It is more like I am compelled to play them through just what I feel from her lyric content and her dynamic delivery. That's been really great. That is very exciting. If you imagine a studio musician who is exposed to so many different styles of music, sometimes you really have to think about what notes you are playing and it's hard because that isn't always the best thing and the most of what you can give. But if you are moved by a writer, by his or her work, to the point where you can almost stop thinking about, 'Well, gee I can play this and do this…' It becomes freeing. The process with Melissa is such that it is all over in a flash. The recording process has always gone so effortlessly with her that the next day I always wake up and say, 'Did that happen?' I hope they like what I did because I don't remember thinking about any of it.

What has your recent time been like in the studio recording with Melissa?
It was even more of the same. I mean Kenny (Aronoff) and I went in and in two and a half days we had done all of our work. You consider the average time on an album, typically, if you work on all 10 or 12 songs, can last upwards of two months. I received the CD of the songs in their rougher form two days prior to our recording. I sat down and listened it and just kind of basically rode the same roller coaster and went in and translated that. It's always a pleasure playing with Kenny because I just love his playing. It is very effortless.

How did you and Kenny go about working out these songs together given that the album was recorded differently than Melissa's previous albums, with her recording much of it prior to you and Kenny coming in?
It still came at us in the same way although she had started the recording process beforehand. She had flushed out most of her ideas. You could see where she was going dynamically and rhythmically. The way we approached it was basically just sitting down with our instruments and taking what her examples were and illuminating them to our own particular style. In other words, she would lay down a drum part and Kenny would make it his own by playing that rhythm. But because Kenny is such a strong color on the palette, you can't avoid getting a lot of Kenny with your rhythm tracks, which is excellent. That's the reason why Kenny is so in demand I believe. Anyway, I basically did the same. She had examples down as bass parts and I took them and added my own voice. It went very well. Let's put it this way, she didn't stop the tape and say, ' What the heck are you doing!?' Well, okay maybe once she did, but I was tuning up. (laughs)

Generally, you would say playing with Melissa feels like a natural, free flowing process for you?
Yes, definitely. And it happens on-stage as well. I feel trusted and if I am doing what I want to do as a musician, I mean my role in her band is bass player, and as long as I am following my fundamental voice and art in being a bass player, I feel like she definitely cherishes that and honors that, which is really great. It gives me a freedom. I feel very confident following Melissa wherever she goes live and that's one of the funnest things about playing with her ~ the fact that at any moment anything could happen. She constructs her live shows this way. For instance, on our last tour, we had basically what I called 'audibles.' This refers to a set list that we had made up based on the audience and vibe in the room. She would call out [the songs] and shape the show the way she wanted the show to go. Some nights you will go out there and it'll just be much different then the previous night. It's a lot of fun even if it is the same songs as the previous night. Melissa has never been overly strict about; 'I want it played this exact way,' etc. In other words, I feel she trusts the band's input greatly. Working with Melissa is a great situation because unlike other artists I have worked for, she doesn't want it to be 'cookie cutter' exact every single night. It keeps the show fresh and growing better and better throughout a tour. The audience benefits from this too I'm sure.

What was your first impression of the new songs?
My first impression was ~ wow! She's being very honest. To kind of back track a little bit, Melissa has been going through a lot as of late and I had actually gotten some calls from some concerned friends wanting to know, 'Gee, what happened? I heard this on the news?' I cherish my relationship professionally and personally with Melissa and I basically told them I didn't feel comfortable talking about what I knew about the situation, even though it wasn't very much. So, then cut forward to me listening to the new songs and the lyrics on her upcoming CD. I said to myself, 'Well they don't need me to tell them, it's all right here!' So, that sort of honesty is alarming. It is just wonderful because you instantly realize that ~ wow! She doesn't have to allude and she's not beating around the bush; She is really singing about what she is feeling and it is really compelling and it is really arresting. It will grab you. If you listen you just go, 'Oh my God.' Ouch. And this is her gift. I would say that in terms of lyrical style that this particular batch of songs doesn't have the same sense of metaphor that some previous songs have. I mean she goes right for it and says, 'Hey, look this hurt.' My first reaction was just being taken aback by the shear honesty involved. It's very exciting.

How would you characterize the journey, or roller coaster ride, that the new album takes the listener on?
When you listen to Melissa's lyrics it is quite a journey. She is singing about a span in her life. There are some things that are so touching emotionally and so real. Take the song, "I Want To Be In Love." On first listen, it could be very light. But it's funny, as a progression, it really takes you through the whole gamut of what one goes through in a relationship. The album definitely looks at the issue of relationships and love and self from different sides. She exposes herself as being someone in pain, someone reflecting on that pain and someone reflecting on, 'Where have I gone wrong?' And then there are moments that are very, 'Hey, I am coming back to my family. I'm okay. I have friends.' If you can remember times when you've ever been through a hard time in a relationship, you really go through so many mindsets. I get such strong pictures of that. It's amazing. I have been married for thousands of years now and this particular album is like you almost want to go away and feel these feelings with her; to go away and reflect on ~ wow! I've been through these things too! This album will definitely speak to people who are going through exactly this right now.

She spent a lot of time in the studio by herself recording alone with David Cole…Do you think because she worked on this album so much on her own on a solo basis that it is more uniquely her and representative of her as an artist?
Oh, yes, definitely and that is why I am very excited about it. I had bumped into her in the studio months and months ago when she had actually first started the record and I thought it would be particularly great for the fans to get kind of a glimpse at… I mean it is all of her. It's all about what she hears and constructs and, not to discredit any of the contributions to her previous work because they have all been great, but it is just another view and it's very intimate. It's great because it all falls under her own unique musical sensibility and if it wobbles, it wobbles in such a personal way that it's great. I love some of the guitar parts that she has played on this record. They are just musically great. I am huge fan of the whole thing. If you were to point to a favorite aspect of the new record what would it be? I go back to saying the upfront-ness of the lyrical content. I just draw examples from maybe pop music or styles that might mask pain and emotions of good and bad color and they mask it in metaphor and try to be a little tricky with it. On this record, you definitely get Melissa with her heart and feelings exposed and it's really exciting.

Since you have been recording with Melissa for quite sometime, how do you think this record represents her growth as an artist?
Since I have known her, I think she is becoming more trusting of her own instincts as far as arrangement of the musical element. She is becoming an astute producer. Rather than letting someone else come in and do all the technical stuff, I think she is just standing up and saying, 'I know this sounds crazy, but let's do it this way.' She's become more and more involved rather than just being an artist who lets someone else guide an album technically. So, she has been growing in that sense. And you can't avoid that, particularly during the time that she spent one-on-one with David Cole, because it is all right there. Rather than stopping the flow of a recording session when you have five or six people in the room, it is really easy to say, 'Can we make a sound that is a little more lonely or a little more happy?' She's becoming more confident that although that is not the most technically articulate jargon, it's still vital. It's fun because I think since her work with Hugh [Padgham], I don't remember her being as challenged. Now with David, it's like she 's becoming more and more the producer of her own music. She also had a wonderful rapport with John [Shanks] on breakdown. That was probably just such a wonderful experience because they have such a good relationship that they would try things out and sometimes it would fail and sometimes it would be just be so brilliant. That was really great because she became a lot more involved and a lot more trusting of herself and her own calls and a lot more trusting of making maybe the wrong call and having to correct it.

And maybe even the courage to feel these things and express them so bluntly. David Cole had told M.E.I.N. that he would say, 'O.K. try to stretch it here…' and she was just so willing to do that.
Oh, yes. That must have been great. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall because I know that David had commented to me briefly about how she would come in with rough ideas and maybe not be particularly confident with them. For example, she would be working out a song and maybe she would have a verse and an idea for a chorus. She's becoming a lot more confident about saying, 'Yeah, lets go with the emotion and we will fill in the lyrics as we get going.' That is a wonderful thing for an artist to feel that sort of time and freedom to do that, as opposed to someone whose got some sort of big budget studio on their back and is just so worried about, 'Oh my gosh. Do I have to pay for all this?' What is you favorite aspect of working with Melissa both personally and professionally? It's very hard to condense seven years of inspiration. It has just been such a wonderful journey for me. Working with her is one of my favorite things I've done. The other day, I was describing to a friend how I had gotten involved with Equality Rocks. I count this as probably the most emotionally rewarding gigs I have done. It was a really daunting task for me to organize all the music and deal with all the artists, management, and all the political bulls**t that goes along with putting together a big event like that. It was a scary thing for me because I had had no prior experience dealing with an event of that size. It's a juggle and a chess game that is just unbelievable. I feel thankful that I was a part of that concert and performing with Melissa in it. I don't think I would have had that opportunity and support from any other artist. Melissa's fans are the best. It's probably one of the coolest things for me to see her fans come to her shows and see them look around and realize the energy from thousands of people, whom have similar lifestyles and directions as themselves. Feeling that energy and solidarity, and helping people celebrate their own individual freedom has been one of the biggest rewards from playing with Melissa. I am very, very thankful for that experience. I have never really put those words together and said them in an interview before, but those are things that I think about a lot. I've got this great job where every night I can walk out there, and whether it's a house full of a hundred or thousands, it is still the greatest show in the world because her fans and their energy is so special. There is a celebration going on at her concerts that isn't just about, 'Let's drink beer and listen to music…' It' s a lot deeper than that.

Melissa told M.E.I.N. that Equality Rocks was probably the most intense time she had ever had on-stage…
Unbelievable. I didn't see the videotape from the show until last month. I took a late flight out of Washington the next night after the concert and march and I was so emotionally drained I just stared out the window the whole way. It just felt unbelievable and I didn't really come to terms with what had gone on until much later. I had only recently just got a copy of a video from the concert. They had put together a very, very condensed version of the show to support the HRC during the election year. VH1 aired it I believe. Anyway, I popped the tape in late one night and basically had the best one-hour emotional roller coaster rides I can remember. The shots of the audience, the shots of Melissa's performance; it was all great to see and feel again. On-stage I had one eye on the artist and one eye on the show as bandleader. I wasn't really aware at that time of the impact those performances had. But, boy that [tape] really hit home. I remember I took the tape out of the machine after seeing it and said, 'Well we're going to save this one, those are some very special moments!' I'm proud of that show. To watch Melissa actually breakdown during "Scarecrow," that was unbelievable. That was the first time I've seen her unable to make it through a song. "Scarecrow" was probably one of my favorite songs to perform with her on the last tour because every single night that we did it, it would always be very emotional for all of us in the band. For someone like myself who functions as a supporting musician in an artists' band and to feel that sort of emotion during a performance is such an amazing bonus. To actually be playing a song that inspires forgiveness, inspires evolution and makes us reflect on what has happened and really feel emotion that you might feel when reflecting on that tragedy ~ that is a really, really great thing to be involved with. So, yeah, I am up there crying too. (laughs)

How do you think Melissa's fans that have been with her since the first record will react to her new album?
You know, I am really excited to find out. I don't think she is going to be booed off the stage by any means. (laughs) These songs have some very honest reflections. I think every one will love these songs.

Thanks you so much for speaking with M.E.I.N., Mark. Do you have a special message you would like to impart to Melissa's fans?
I have met so many great people and made some good friends along the way. I am so proud of being able to contribute up until now. I just have to say, thanks. It's really great and truly one of the favorite things in my life and I am so happy to be a part of it.