- Mark O'Shea (singer-songwriter)
Mark O'Shea (born February 16, 1977) is an Australian
singer-songwriter . After being discovered at theGympie Music Muster at just 18 years of age, O'Shea signed his first record deal to ABC Music. He released his debut album "None Of The Above" in 1996. The album spawned 2 number 1's on the Australian Country Charts - "World Weary Heart", co-written with Fiona Kernaghan and a cover ofLoudon Wainwright III 's "The Swimming Song".In 1996 O'Shea took out the CMAA (Country Music Association of Australia) Golden Guitar Award for Best New Talent. He won another Golden Guitar in 1997 for Video of the Year for his single, "The Dreamer (Something To Hope For)".
Between 1996 and 2000, O'Shea toured Australia opening up for acts such as
Trisha Yearwood ,Keith Urban ,John Farnham , James Reyne, The Screaming Jets and Lee Kernaghan.At 22, he appeared in an episode of the Channel 9 produced police drama, "Water Rats", where he played the character Brian Flatley.
In 2001, Mark O'Shea with brother John O'Shea, and Adam Ray formed a pop-rock vocal group called Zinc. After signing to LA based, Trauma records, whose previous acts included Bush and
No Doubt , the band relocated to Los Angeles.There O'Shea worked with songwriters and producers such asMark Hudson (Ringo Star and Aerosmith), Wally Gagel (The Rolling Stones) and Charlie Midnight (James Brown, Hillary Duff).The Zinc album entitled, "Makingsenseofmadness" was produced by
Charles Fisher , who had previously recorded albums forSavage Garden and Radio Birdman.O'Shea co-wrote every song on the band's debut album. The first single, "The Morning After" reached #19 on the Music Network Radio Charts and #22 on the
Aria charts. Subsequent singles, "Help Me Help Myself" and "Inside" also performed solidly in the Aria charts. Zinc opened forAustralian Idol star,Shannon Noll on his first national tour. They also opened for artists such as Hanson,Switchfoot and Thirsty Merc.In 2006, Jake Nickolai covered "Suddenly I" co-written by O'Shea and Paul Dawkins. The song reached #1 on the Country Music Channel charts in Australia.
Ronn Moss (aka Ridge from the CBS soap,The Bold & The Beautiful ) covered one of O'Shea's tracks, "When We Kissed", on his last album.Mark O'Shea currently resides in Nashville, USA.
External links
* [http://www.markosheamusic.com Official Mark O'Shea Website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/markoshea/ Mark O'Shea] at Myspace
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