Mark Haugen's Blog

If you haven’t heard the new Sunshine Jackson single yet, it’s here… and a new EP (entitled Cloudpop) is on the way! Stay tuned for more info!  Tell your friends!

This is a little parody song that I made for my “No Buy Project” in my Advertising class. I feel so Michael Scott at the Dundies, changing lyrics to a popular song, but it’s my life!

Jon Foreman, the lead singer of Switchfoot, coordinated this fantastic group songwriting effort on twitter where he challenged everyone to write a song called ‘Tomorrows Song” in under 24 hours and post it online.  Always a sucker for anything involving songwriting, I had to make a submission. After driving 3 hours back to college, unpacking all my stuff and setting up my gear in the dorm room, I cranked this song out in about 4 hours. Hopefully you enjoy it, and thanks for the awesome idea, Jon!

Here’s the credit roll song for the documentary that Darren Johnson and I have been working on for over a year now, “High School Music Trip”! Ya’ dig the overly positive Disney-esque feel? Features vocals from the incredibly talented Nick Andersen.

or download it HERE.

Right before Christmas break, Sean Totten and I got together to record a song in my dorm room.  He was graduating and I had always respected him a great deal as a musician, so I thought it was a shame that we had never collaborated.  I wrote, recorded, produced, mixed and mastered the track while Sean provided all of the talent.

I’ve had this song sitting on the shelf for the longest time because I kept on thinking it needed something more.  Maybe electric guitar? Some sweet noise sweeps? Excessive auto-tune? I wasn’t sure.  I came back recently and decided it was pretty dang awesome the way it was. (And what better day to release it then Valentine’s Day?)

I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it!

Mark

So, a couple summers back, Sam Dorrance and I shot a music video for the Yung Stud song “Lightswitch”.  During the shoot, I was wearing a sombrero on a Waverly street corner while Sam was getting a nice worm’s eye view shot of a certain rap legend.  As these events transpired, the google maps car evidently drove by.  We have been immortalized by google maps. Hello, history.

You know that little filter thing that catches all of the lint in the dryer? Yeah? Well, most people will only clean them off before they dry a load of laundry, but I am different.  I clean it out before and after.

Some might think that I do this because I am a nice guy who is doing a good deed for whoever uses the public dryer next.  I won’t deny the fact that I am a nice guy, but in this particular case, I must admit that I have alterior motives…

I just really enjoy cleaning off that ‘dern lint trap.

I came across a website that posts remix contest opportunities, and decided that maybe I should submit something. I chose the contest that ended the soonest, and just went for it. Having never heard the original song or the band that I was remixing, I decided I would use only the lead vocal track and build around that. It was as if somebody came to me with simply a melody and asked me to make a full song out of it. This particular song isn’t exactly the style I’m used to working it, so I was a little bit out of my element, but I feel that overall, it turned out alright.  If anything, it feels a little bit too much like the original.

Until next time, don’t forget to eat your vegetables.  More importantly, don’t forget to chew your vegetables when you eat them.

I’ve Got a Microwave
There’s not a lot to do,
In this town tonight,
I’m hungry for love,
So let’s grab a bite,
Don’t got the cash to take you out,
Here’s what we’ll do, here’s what i’m talking bout

I’ve got a microwave,
You’ve got a microwave,
We should make some microwaved foods together.
I’ve got a microwave,
You’ve got a microwave,
We should make some microwaved foods together.

I like frozen peas,
Over frozen hearts,
When the buzzer beeps,
That’s when the evening starts,
They say i hope it’s worth the wait,
The wait’s slow with an oven,
I choose microwaves,

I just can’t wait for the oven,
I just can’t wait for the oven,
I just can’t wait.

I’ve got a microwave,
You’ve got a microwave,
We should make some microwaved foods together.
I’ve got a microwave,
You’ve got a microwave,
We should make some microwaved foods together.

I will never have a summer like this again, and I don’t know how I feel about that. Summer has always been a safe time and a safe place. It has been about being with the people you love in the town that you know. It has been about 3 a.m pizzas and 3 p.m. popsicles. Swimming pools and pop songs. Safety and security.

What does the future hold? Nobody knows. There’s a rumour going around that people go to college so they can get jobs, and I guess there might be some truth to that. To deny the truth is to deny yourself success, so it’s about time I start working towards a career. What kind of career? Who knows.

I am a media studies major, and I love media, but recently all I’ve been able to think about is the perfect pop song. What makes it, and is even a fraction of it realistically attainable for me.  I’m not the best musician. I’m definitely not the best singer. I’m not the best songwriter.  I’m not the greatest music anything.

I love the art of the pop song, though. I always listen to songs and say, “Wow. I wish I would have written this. This exactly what I’ve been trying to say my whole life.” I want to cause that in somebody.  Maybe it won’t even be a song that does it… it might be my impressionist fruit paintings!

Next summer I plan on breaking out of my comfort zone and pursuing something. What is that going to be? Contentment.  In the time being, let’s have some fun!  Party hats and noisemakers, anyone?  I’ll bring the Choco Tacos!