From IBM to Music: Mark's Journey Through Tech and Tunes - Life Bursts Episode 60

This week on Life Bursts, hosts Matthew Carratt and Sarah Freeman sat down with Mark Simon McDermid for a fascinating journey through his life experiences. From growing up in Adelaide in the 1960s to his long career at IBM and eventual return to his musical passions, Mark's story is one of adaptation, growth, and finding purpose.

Mark began by painting a picture of his childhood in Adelaide, describing a world vastly different from today. With no home telephone and only black and white TV, Mark's early years were marked by simplicity. His musical journey started young, with piano and trombone lessons encouraged by his mother.

As Mark entered his teenage years, he found himself drawn to the "cooler" guitar, teaching himself to play. This set the stage for his lifelong love of music, which would become a constant thread throughout his life.

Mark's professional journey led him to IBM, where he witnessed and participated in the dawn of the personal computer era. His career took him from Adelaide to Sydney and even to New York City for a time. Throughout it all, Mark balanced his professional life with his passion for music, playing in bands and eventually writing and recording his own songs.

In the latter part of the episode, Mark treated viewers and listeners to a live performance of his song "The River," inspired by a trip along the Murray River. The song showcases Mark's talent for weaving environmental themes into his music.

Key Moments:

Childhood in Adelaide: "Back then in South Australia, this is in Adelaide, I think there was, the population of South Australia as a whole was about half a million people. Australia was about 10 and a half. And, you know, there's about 3 billion people in the world."

Introduction to music: "Mum encouraged me to have piano lessons, so I started to. I went to piano lessons and I. She also encouraged me to take up the trombone."

Career at IBM: "IBM turned out to be the one and only company I ever worked for. So for the next 30 plus years I worked for IBM in a whole range of different areas."

Meeting his wife Kerry: "I met Kerry when we were children. Our families used to go camping together down in York Peninsula and also down at Robe on the Limestone coast."

Retiring and focusing on music: "I finally retired and was able to spend more time with Kerry and spend more time making music."

Episode FAQs:

Question: What inspired Mark to write his own music?
Answer: Mark was inspired by world events, politics, and environmental issues. He wanted to write about topics that were meaningful to him beyond typical pop song themes.

Question: How did Mark's career at IBM influence his life?
Answer: Mark's career at IBM allowed him to witness the evolution of personal computing, travel internationally, and develop a successful professional life. However, it also taught him the importance of work-life balance and eventually led to his decision to retire and focus on his passions.

Question: What advice does Mark have for listeners?
Answer: Mark encourages people to follow their passions and dreams while maintaining a balance with practical needs. He emphasizes that money isn't everything and that we should strive to enjoy life, stay healthy, help others, and make the world a better place.

Mark's story is a testament to the power of following one's passions while adapting to life's changes. From his early days in Adelaide to his global career with IBM and his return to music, Mark's journey reminds us that it's never too late to pursue what we love. His final performance of "The River" not only showcased his musical talents but also highlighted his deep connection to nature and the environment.

As we reflect on Mark's experiences, we're reminded of the importance of balance in our lives - between work and passion, between personal success and making a positive impact on the world around us. Mark's story serves as an inspiration to all of us to keep pursuing our dreams, no matter where life takes us.

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Episode Transcript:

**Matthew Carratt:**

Welcome to Life Bursts. I'm Matt.
**Sarah Freeman:**

And I'm Sarah. Today, a story of music and adventures. Let's go on this one.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yes.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Welcome to Life Bursts, where we love to share your stories. And today with Sarah, we have Mark in the studio. Welcome, Mark.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Thank you for having me.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Great to be with us.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

It's great to be here. Yeah, yeah.
**Sarah Freeman:**

So where did life start out for you, Mark, on your journey?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Well, I don't remember the first moment, but soon after that. Yes, soon after that. On the top of the hill on Morphett Road in Seaview Downs. Okay. Which was. That was about 60, about 60 three years ago. And my parents had a house, it was a housing trust house at the end of Morphett Road and it was the last house there. Nowadays if you go back there now, it's just full of houses everywhere, but back in those days, it was a very simple brick house and we had a big black cat called Pickles. And, yeah, that's where I grew up in the first maybe three years of my life. Back then in South Australia, this is in Adelaide, I think there was, the population of South Australia as a whole was about half a million people. Australia was about 10 and a half. And, you know, there's about 3 billion people in the world. So nowadays South Australia is a bit under 2 million. Australia would be about 27 million. So it's gone from 10 to 27 nearly three times. And globally we're up to over 8 billion. So back in that, when I was. When I was born, it was a totally different world. And in our house, for example, we didn't have a phone, no telephone. So if mum needed to phone her mother or, you know, call the hospital or something, she'd have to walk down the road to the phone box or the nearest neighbour that did have a telephone. So we sort of. It was pretty basic back then.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yeah. What about radio? Television?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah, television. Well, I guess radio or the wireless, you know, was called, but I guess. But the radio, the television. I don't know if we had a television. I don't remember having a TV back then, but if we did, it would have been black and white, obviously, and there would have been three channels, I guess a few more channels out there. Now there are. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, so over this last 60 plus years, things have changed in all of these areas. You know, telecommunications, that sort of thing, you know, population, housing, everything. It's just, it's been a real journey, I must say, and it's sort of interesting to look back on Those times and think about what life used to be like. And the world was a massive place. Everywhere was a long way away, you know, even interstate, you know, trying to get to interstate. There were. Airfare was. Air travel was around, but overseas was a big thing. But nowadays people wouldn't blink twice about flying overseas somewhere you can contact anybody with your phone, with your mobile phone over the Internet. You know, families are all spread out now, you know, the. The kids are. They're living and working all over the world. It's. It's just so different. Anyway, so that's where I started out. And then about. And my parents, by the way, they were probably. My mum, I think was 22 when she had me. I was the second in out of four kids after my. So I had an older brother and then myself and then a younger brother. And then after my younger brother was born, not long after that, I guess we moved into the city or close to the city CBD, into Kings park, which is near Unley and Kings park has five streets in it. So we always used to be proud of the fact we lived in the smallest suburb in the city anyway. So when I was about 7, my mother had her fourth child, which is my sister. And I always found it strange that I only had two brothers, whereas my sister had three brothers. You know, sort of. What's going on there anyway? That's a terrible lame joke. Sorry about that. Yeah.
**Sarah Freeman:**

What have I got myself in for today?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Don't worry, there won't be too many of those.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

But soon after my little sister was born, before she turned one, my father left. He left for another with another or for another woman. So my mum was now on her own. She would have been a bit less than 30 and she had four kids, all under the age of 10. She was looking after, trying to teach, teaching part time or as many hours as she could. So we were at primary school, the boys, and my sister was being looked after by my grandparents or mum's parents, my grandparents on the maternal side. So I. I guess I was too young to really realise what was going on. And I think for me, fortunately, I was at that sort of a certain age where it didn't. I don't think it affected me too much. My wife seems to think that it did affect me, but I think I'm normal. And so we just got on with things. But in hindsight, looking back, you know, my mum had a really tough time. She struggled with migraines and things and, you know, just to make ends meet because we weren't that super, super well off. I guess we were probably in the middle somewhere, so. But for me, I. I had a good childhood. I loved going to school. Primary school. We went to. We all went to Westbourne Park Primary School and used to walk there. Wasn't that far. But I don't know that nowadays whether kids walk to school. Maybe some do, but, you know, in this day and age it's, you know, possibly a bit problematic.
**Sarah Freeman:**

So besides walking to school and spending that time with your siblings, what else did you do together?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Well, my parents. When my mother and my dad were both musical, so although we, we weren't super well off, Mum encouraged me to have piano lessons, so I started to. I went to piano lessons and I. She also encouraged me to take up the trombone.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Okay.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

So I joined the Mitcham City Brass Band for a number of years, playing trombone and marching in the band. We did some Christmas pageants. The John Martin's Christmas Pageants. It was back then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The. The trombone is an interesting instrument. It's. It's this long instrument and you move the part of it backwards and forwards to lengthen the. To. To lengthen or shorten the amount of the tube. Yeah. So. And by shorting, shortening or lengthening, it changes the. The pitch together with using your lips on the mouthpiece. And we did a lot of marching. We did competitions back then and there. I remember our bandmaster, he'd be yelling at us when we were marching at marching practise, telling us not to dig potatoes because if we had our heads down and we're playing like this, the trombone would be getting close to the ground, so you had to hold your head up while you were playing. So, yeah, piano and trombone.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Which one did you like better, piano or trombone?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Piano, definitely piano. Trombone was a bit dorky because this is of an instrument case that was a strange shape and it wasn't cool. So I gave it up as soon as I could.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Easier to carry, Easier to carry at the Christmas pageant, though.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

That's true, yeah, that's true, yeah.
**Sarah Freeman:**

What did you hit? Teenage years and then just decide, no, that's it, no more.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

A bit like that, yeah. When I hit teenage. Because Mum had also encouraged me to take up ballet. So I got a scholarship. I don't know how, but I won a scholarship to do ballet. And so I went along to the ballet classes and I think I was the only bloke or boy. I was the only boy. And all these girls around and I thought it was very strange we had to wear short Black shorts and a white T shirt and jump around, you know, do these demi-plié and grand battement tendu and all these sort of French things. And mum said to me, look, you know, yeah, you should do ballets. It'll be good for your football because it'll build your strength and your balance. And probably she was right. But again, when I became a teenager, I thought, oh, no, this is uncool.
**Sarah Freeman:**

That was it.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

This is uncool.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Done, done.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

That was a big mistake. Big mistake.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay, well, we will be back to hear more of Mark's story straight after this here on Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah. Welcome back to Life Bursts here with Matt and Sarah. Today we are chatting with Mark. We've just learned that you did ballet, but you gave that up. You did the trombone, but you gave that one up too. But by the time you'd reached teenage years, what else happened when you were in high school?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Well, I was lucky that I really enjoyed high school. I think I had some great teachers. I think I was also lucky that I had some intelligent parents and whatever, and they handed down some good genes for me. So I really did well at school. I really enjoyed it. And during that time I taught myself guitar. Okay, so. And that was a cool instrument. So guitar was cool. Trombone was not cool. Right, yeah.
**Sarah Freeman:**

What about drums? Was that cool?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Drums? Well, I don't. Some people would say drums aren't musical instruments, but we won't go there.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay, okay, okay.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

But, yeah, no, so guitar. So that was great because you could take it, get your guitar and you could go to a party or whatever and, you know, just whip it out and start playing some Stairway to Heaven or Smoke on the Water or something like that. You may not have heard of these songs.
Speaker D

Oh, no, they are.
**Sarah Freeman:**

No, I haven't.
**Matthew Carratt:**

They're the go to.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah, that's right. So that was great. I did well in the sciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry. All of those subjects I ended up getting in year 12 at the end of the year I got four A's and a B, so I was pretty happy with that. Although I should have got five as this is back. The scoring system was different back then, but I, I was kicking myself that I didn't get, you know, or five A's anyway, it was enough to go and do a science degree. Adelaide Uni. So that's where I went next. And by this stage I was also very busy playing sport. I probably didn't mention I. I took up football, Aussie rules football, in primary school and continued that through high school. I Also played basketball and cricket. So when I got to Uni, I was busy playing lots of sport and also playing in. By that stage, I was playing in a band. In fact, we'd started a. I was in the school, high school band where we made the battle of the band's final. And we played down at Festival Theatre and they had the big final. The. The theatre was packed. It's a funny story. The name of the band was New, though. That was the name of our high school band. And there was a band from Unley called New Rose. Okay, so at the end of the night, the announcer announced the name of the winning band and the winning band was new. And we're thinking, yes, we've done it. New Rose, not New Vogue, though we were close.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So close.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

But anyway, so music was becoming a bigger part of my life by then and I was. By the time of early Uni days.
**Sarah Freeman:**

There's a CD here as well that you brought in. Have we skipped over that?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Well, I'll talk to. Okay. I started to make my own music a bit later on. So anyway, I was in some bands. We were playing lots of clubs around town. Discos. Discos were the big thing back then. A lot of these venues don't exist anymore in the city. We did country shows as well, so we did a lot of shows. I was busy with music. I was also busy playing sport and sometimes they didn't quite mix. I remember one time I was playing for might have been Adelaide Uni, I think it was Adelaide University at the time. And I got king hit from behind and that knocked me out and I. I blacked out and I woke up on the side of the. On the sidelines with someone, you know, the trainer asking me, you know, who am I and what day is it and where am I And these things like that. And another time I was severely injured and sort of separated the collarbone from my shoulder and I had to go to hospital. And unfortunately, that night the band had a gig on down at the Findon Hotel or somewhere. So I was in a bit of trouble because not only was I the lead singer, I was also the rhythm guitarist.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Luckily, when they put my arm in a sling, they. It was my right shoulder and my right, you know, the right arm was in a sling. So it's like this. And of course I could then play, so. So I managed to get through the night. But I was very lucky that throughout my sporting career and musical career, I've never had an injury that, you know, affected the music. I. Later on, I became A keyboard player in some other bands. And so I had to be very careful with my fingers and not. And there was a few times playing basketball where I would sprain my fingers. You know you get hit on the ends of the fingers and spraying your finger. So I had to watch out a little bit. And so after some time I decided that if I had a show coming up I wouldn't play basketball the week before.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Good idea.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah. So university. Really busy socially and. But I managed to get through sort of scrape through uni. Right?
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yeah.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

And I did a science degree in majoring in mathematics, which is. I don't know if that's cool or not, but that's right. So got my science degree and then because I loved high school, my teachers and everything, I really loved all of that, so I decided that I wanted to be a teacher and I thought I'd be a maths teacher. So after my science degree I did a Diploma of education which was an extra year. And for the diploma of Education you have to do some prac (sic) teaching. So I did some prac (sic) teaching at Pulteney Grammar and at Urrbrae High School. And it was interesting, I wasn't much older than the kids at school. I was teaching year 11s in these sort of practise terms and the kids were. Half of them were the young fellows, they were bigger than me. I remember at Urrbrae, you know that half of them were wearing black beanies and you know, pretty tough kids. And I had a little Mini Cooper that. Not a Mini Cooper, a mini car that was that I drive to work and some of these, some of these kids had, you know, big cars and they wanted to drag me in the car park and things like that. Sorry. Was. It was. In some ways it was quite daunting being such a young person and then out there teaching. Anyway, so I did my teaching diploma and that was great. But I couldn't get a teaching job so I had to look around for another job and I just happened to see an advert in the university newsletter looking for graduates at IBM, which is the international business machines company, a global company, massive computing business. I had no idea who they were, so I had to do a bit of research. I couldn't Google it because there was no such thing as Google back then. But in the library or wherever, went to an interview, did an aptitude test, seemed to go okay, and got the job with IBM.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Doing what?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Well, IBM turned out to be the one and only company I ever worked for. So for the next 30 plus years I worked for IBM in a whole range of different areas. I started off as a systems engineer, which is sort of on the software engineering side. And this was in the days before the personal computer. So when I joined, but the next year, second year of my career there, the IBM personal computer came out. And I've got a little prop here, show you. I don't know if you can see that there. This is what the IBM personal computer looked like back then.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yeah.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

There's the floppy drives, keyboard, had little floppy drives in here and a little screen. Originally, I think it was a black and white screen, but you could pay through the nose for a colour one.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yeah.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

But the original personal computer in Australia, this was the first computer that would allow people to have a computer in their homes or small businesses instead of having these massive computers. So this was a big deal and it actually helped IBM to become even more popular.
**Sarah Freeman:**

That's right. And also just want to point out, before we go to a break, that is not to scale. They were a lot better than that, just because, you know, that's not to scale what it is. But anyway, we'll be back with More Life Bursts, chatting with Matt here. Sorry, chatting with. Yep, More Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah straight after this.
**Matthew Carratt:**

This is Life Bursts with Sarah and Matt. We're chatting to Mark who was working for IBM at the advent of the personal computer.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

That's right.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Stuck with him for many years.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

I did. And throughout those years I ended up doing so many things. I started off in the engineering side. I moved into sales. I was in marketing for a while. I was in sales operations for a while.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay, I have a question regarding. To sell a computer like, that's not that small because they're a lot bigger than that. What did you say to people? How did you describe this to people who'd like.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah, okay. Well, to cut a long story short, it's really all about talking to your prospective client and asking them what it is they do and what they need help with.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

And depending on what they do and what they need help with, we've got a solution for you. Yeah. And the, you know, there's lots of things, as, you know, computers can do and it was, I mean, companies were learning as well as the technology improving and. Yeah, so it was really just, it was a people business, talking to people, finding out what it is they did and what they needed and then helping to put together a solution.
**Sarah Freeman:**

And did the people that come to you, did they already know what a computer was or did you have to describe that to them as well.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

A bit of both. Bit of both. You know, a large. Back in those days, government business was possibly one of the biggest areas, you know, and there was lots of processing of records, files and records. So computers used to do a lot of filing and data retrieval and things like that. So customers knew what they needed to do and they didn't necessarily know what could help them to do it better and make it faster and more accurate and so on. So, yeah, customers were aware of computers have been around since the 50s in very large configurations. But as processing technology got faster and storage capacity got bigger, we were able to bring out smaller computers that were still very powerful. It's really interesting, when the Apollo 11 spaceship got to the moon, the computing power they had on there was about as powerful as a little calculator. So in fact, the power that you've got on your mobile phones is even more powerful than what they used to get to the moon. So back in those days they had to use a lot of brain power as well. So the good old days, the good old days. I mean, I don't know, maybe one of the worries possibly about today is the fact that with all this technology with, to help us, we don't use our brains as much as we used to in the old days. So I think we've got to need to be a bit careful about not letting our brains become too lazy. We've got to keep working them and putting them to use. So anyway, slight aside there, but.
**Sarah Freeman:**

So did you use the big floppy discs or the.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Well, we had describe a floppy disc.
**Sarah Freeman:**

To people who might not even know what a floppy disc is.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah, well, a floppy disc was a little bit like a CD disc. Now some of you may not know what a cd. Yeah, I know, yeah, it's a round thing like this. But the floppy one, it had magnetic information on the magnetic strip and. But it was floppy because it was of the material it was made of.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

And so you would, you would have your computer like, you know, this or bigger ones, and you would put the floppy disc in the, in a disc drive, it would read it and get the information off of there. They then moved to hard discs and with bigger capacity and then they moved to transistors and electronic circuitry which was even a greater capacity and so on. I don't want to bore people with all the technology, but technology back in those days was doubling in capacity, doubling in speed every two years or whatever it was. And it continued that way for 20, 20 plus years or so.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yeah.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Nowadays the Amount of power that we have in our pockets is incredible.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes, it would be for you to have been part of that adventure and journey.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah. And it was also great because I. Well actually as a result of joining a multinational company, I ended up moving to Sydney and living and working there for 16 or so years. I also went and lived and worked in New York for two years. So I got to experience a large Australian city and a large global city. In fact one of the most iconic cities in the world. And that was amazing. Very full on. But in the end I was very happy to come back to Australia because sometimes these large cities that have got lots of excitement and plenty of things to do can suck a bit of life out of you. So I needed to get back, well, they needed me back anyway for work. But I was happy to get back to Sydney and then even Sydney became just too much. The traffic in Sydney is a nightmare, the housing is a nightmare. And eventually I came back to South Australia and moved to the Adelaide Hills. So I went from, you know, the ridiculous to the sublime in a way. You know, from New York back to the Adelaide Hills. Lovely quiet country town.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yeah. What was the hardest part about living in New York?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Actually I found it not, I didn't really find it that hard, but there's possibly, you know, some of the cultural differences. Just getting used to, you know, tipping in a restaurant, which I'm happy to say we don't have in Australia really or to any degree over there. They, it's, they need it because the waiting staff and so on, they've on a really low wage and so they actually rely on tipping, you know, 15 or 20% to get a decent salary. I didn't really find it that hard to be honest. It's just in some ways it kind of creeps up on you and it's a bit overwhelming. The population, the size of the population, the noise. It's a very noisy city to live in, but there's always something to do. It's a very diverse, multicultural place. We made some good friends there. In fact, when I first moved there we were, we were living just outside of the city. We're about 50 minute drive out of the central New York and we were out at dinner with some friends and there was a mutual friend of the friends, was a local New York boy or man and we said, okay, we've got, it's time for us to go home and drive home. And he said, oh look, it's getting a bit late, don't drive all that way home. Here's the keys to my apartment. You stay at my place. I'll go and stay at my girlfriend's place. And we'd only just met him that night and here he was giving us the keys to his apartment. He didn't know us from a bar of soap and yet he was happy to let us stay at his place. So naturally, of course we became good friends. But yeah, we found the people over there generally are lovely people, really happy, friendly people, which may not be the case with say the governments of some of these countries. So sometimes it's hard for us to tell the difference or to ensure we differentiate between the average citizen and the government that might be making decisions that we don't like. So, yeah, you were happy to come back to Australia? I was very happy to come back, yeah. And I had lots of friends back in Sydney, closer to family as well here in Adelaide and yeah, I just felt that it was starting to become a bit overwhelming with the. On this. I'm not sure if this social aspects or whatever it was in New York, but it could have overwhelmed me and I could have got sucked into it a little bit more and going out and partying and all that sort of thing, which was okay once in a while but not every weekend, if you know what I mean. Yeah.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So when you moved back, were you able to still work for IBM?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

I did, I continued to work. I had an international role so I was looking after people in different countries, particularly in Asia. So I did a lot of travel across Asia. I probably went to Japan and China 10 to 20 times in each of those countries, conferences, meeting up with people that were my peers or that worked for me. So that was great. And I was on a pretty good wicket in terms of salary and that sort of thing. But ultimately the pressure of being in a high responsibility job does get to you after a while. And I really decided that I didn't want to be get bogged down by that, get dragged down. Life is about more than just earning a big salary and you know, travelling around the world. So I decided to move back to Adelaide, still working for IBM. My boss was in China at the time, living and working over there, so. And I had people still working all over the country as well as internationally, so it didn't matter where I was. So I decided I'm going to move back to Adelaide. So I moved back to Adelaide, didn't even tell my boss because by then, you know, communications were teleconferences, video conferences and that sort of thing. Lots of email work so I could still do my job working out of the Adelaide office here. So that's what happened and came back in the mid-2000s.
**Sarah Freeman:**

There we go. Well, we'll take a break there and we will come back and hear more of Mark's story straight after this here on Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah. Welcome back to Life Bursts here with Matt and Sarah. Today we're chatting with Mark. We're almost, almost to the part where we get to do the music. But you are now finishing up at IBM because you're, you're thinking, you know, there's more to life than just a big salary and working.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

That's exactly right. Well, I'm almost finished at IBM and I, I came, I moved back from Sydney back to Adelaide. But in fact, prior to coming back to Adelaide permanently, I had come back to Adelaide on a visit to. Surprise visit to see my mother. My mother had taken up painting in her later years after she was, she was, I think in her early 60s, she decided to take up painting. And because she'd retired by then and she. It goes to show that it's never too late to start something. She ended up having her own exhibition of all of her paintings and she was selling paintings and things anyway, so I thought I'd. This was her first exhibition in Norwood, I think, and I, I thought I'd make a surprise visit. So I didn't tell anyone that I was coming over and I surprised her when I came over and when I got there she was obviously pleased to see me. But I also ran into a lady called Kerry who is now my wife. Okay, she better tell you about that.
**Sarah Freeman:**

How did you meet Kerry?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah, well, we, I met Kerry when we were children. Our families used to go camping together down in York Peninsula and also down at Robe on the Limestone coast. So we knew our parents were mutual friends at Teachers College and we used to get together for family camping holidays until I was in my mid teens when we sort of drifted apart. So I hadn't seen Kerry for many, many years. And then there she was, she'd invited, she'd kind of got herself invited to my mother's art exhibition because my mother and Kerry's mother had still kept in touch with each other over the years. Anyway, so Kerry was there. By this time I was single and Kerry was there and we got chatting and reliving all the wonderful days of how much fun we had with children. Anyway, at the end of the night I said, well, I'll see you later. I've got to go back, go back to Sydney because I hadn't moved from Sydney at that stage and we started a correspondence together in the good old fashioned way of handwritten letters, paper and pen. And so we corresponded that way for about a year or something to ask.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Mark was she the most beautiful woman in the room.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Oh, she was, definitely.
**Matthew Carratt:**

No doubt about that, Kerry, if you're.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Watching, no doubt about that. Yeah, yeah. So we found we had a lot in common. So we talked all night and we throughout the next year on the phone and via letters, but a lot of phone calls, we found out that we had a lot of things in common. We love music together, same sorts of music. We love nature and the environment and these are things that we got more, more into as, as the years went by. So what ended, ended up happening, happening was I moved to Adelaide so that I could be closer to Kerry. I could still do my job at IBM and I continued to work for another few years in that way. And by this time Kerry and I were together in the same house when I decided I'd retire from IBM and focus on Kerry. And she had some health issues that she was dealing with. So I thought, okay, I've got to get my priorities right here. Let's concentrate on that and then concentrate on having a fuller life outside of work and I guess reaping the rewards from all of that work, hard work that I'd done. I mean, those working years, particularly in the last five to 10, involved a lot of late nights, conference calls and more travel. And so I had been away from home a lot. It was quite a stressful time. And I thought, well, the last thing I want to do is to drive myself into the ground and get unhealthy through all the stress and so on. So I finally retired and was able to spend more time with Kerry and spend more time making music.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes, all these CDs here.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

So playing. I got back the, the band got back together. The one that I used to play in before I left, moved out of Adelaide.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Is it this one?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yes, a band called Big Squid. Oh yeah, there's a, there's a, a brochure from the band Big Squid. We were a rock, a glam rock band, played all around town. Anyway, so we got the band back together and I started to make my own music as well. I was inspired by what was going on in the world, politics, the environment. In fact, I'm going to be playing a song a bit later on.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yes, stay tuned for that.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

It's about nature and the Murray river in particular. And I'd like to see if you could also participate and join me in this song, Sarah, Both of us. Both of you. Sarah and Matt, if you can join me. I'm looking forward to that.
**Sarah Freeman:**

This is not just like the dancing thing where you just put me out there to.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Absolutely, yeah. We'll have a go.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah. So hopefully we can do that. Yeah. So I started writing my own music as well. I've produced a few CDs that you might be able to see on the. On the desk there.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Pick it up, pick it up. I can hold it up to the camera for you.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Oh, this is. This is a couple. This one here was be what you want to be. That's one of the CDs that was when I'd first retired or close to. Close to retiring. And it was more about really doing what you really feel like you want to do or need to. You know, we need money to put bread on the table and a roof over our head. But other than that, you know, what's more important is being with your loved ones, doing what you can for your neighbours and the community, getting involved to make the world a better place, make your neighbourhood a better place, whatever.
**Matthew Carratt:**

So this is all self recorded? Self.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

These are self recorded. There's another one there. Yeah, that one there. I'll. Oh, yeah, yeah, I can show you this one.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Is that you there?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

This is what I looked like when I was in high school when I first started playing.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Long hair there.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

I've got long hair. Well, that's what it was like in the 70s.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay. Yeah.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

When it was cool. Long hair was like. Maybe it's still cool, I don't know.
**Matthew Carratt:**

But it was.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

It was cool back in the 70s. And so I. Yes. So that one was Crow's Nest Idol, which. Which was a play on the Australian Idol concept. This one is called Mixed Lollies. Anyone? It's basically because the music was really diverse and I just started to get into learning about music software. Using music software to record lots of different sounds and things. I mean, it is so different now, but back then I thought it was pretty. Pretty awesome. Yeah, yeah. And last one, last one here. This is called random. This was.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Why is it called random?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

It was random because the music was a random collection. Yeah, it's a bit like mixed lollies, really. So, yeah, so I started getting into music, writing about things that were important to me. Politics, world politics. What was happening in Australia? There's. There's a lot of good stuff happening in Australia, but also a lot of bad stuff. And so rather than just, you know, Fun little pop songs about boy meets girl, girl meets boy sort of thing. Write about maybe some more serious topics and things that mean more to me. And so that's what, that's what all the music's about.
**Sarah Freeman:**

We've got these two other things here as well.
**Matthew Carratt:**

That's right. Cause you've been volunteering as well.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah, that's right, volunteering. I do a bit of work with kids. Arthritis. Sarah would know. I am involved with the local newsletter here. We produce a newsletter. Some of my photos there you can see that pelicans with a seagull on its back. And the other one there is seagulls. They seem to like to ride on the backs of other animals. So that's. There's one with that. This is at the wetlands at Mount Barker, Laratinga. A seagull on top of a. Turtles back there. So photography, wildlife photography is of interest to me now too. And the environment and. Yeah, just getting on with things like that.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Fantastic. Well, when we come back, we are going to have an opportunity to hear one of Mark's songs with us, with you. So don't go away. This is Life Bursts with Sarah and Matt. Welcome back to Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah. And you're in for a special treat because Mark is in the studio, he's been talking about his music, his lifelong love for it, aside from all the other things in life. And we have a song to share. So Mark, tell us about this song.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yes, thanks, Matt. This is called the river and it was inspired by a trip that Kerry and I had done a few years ago. We'd driven across Canberra and we were coming back kind of following in part the Murray river on the way home. And we did a little tour, a boat trip and you know, the river Red gums and the kingfishers and the bird life and all. It was really inspiring and just beautiful. And so I ended up writing a song about it. So it's called the river and that's what it's about.
**Sarah Freeman:**

And we get to sing this song too.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

And you get to sing along and tap along on this makeshift drum here. Tap along, yeah. So I'll kick it off, shall I?
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes, let's do Take it away.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Here we go.
**Music:**

Cruising down the Murray with. With the sun shining brightly on my face. The paddle steamer chugs along with a certain kind of old time grace I'm hypnotised by the rocking and the rolling off your gentle ways I'm chilling out and I'm relaxed by the soothing of your water's gaze. The river red gums look down on me as they gently sway. While the whistling kites fly high above searching for their prey. The king fishes dart in and out of the reeds in a flash of blue. Their delicate beauty is a thing to behold. It reminds me of you. I'm hidden the ties by the rocking and the rolling off your gentle ways. I'm chilling out and I'm relaxed by the soothing of your water's gaze. Again do do do do do do do do do do do. The river Red Gum wave its winding way through traditional owners and farmers lands. It never stops. You've been nurturing life for thousands of years before we came along. Now it's our turn to care for you before it all goes wrong. One more time.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Whoops.
**Matthew Carratt:**

That's a beautiful song.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Oh, thank you. Yes, thank you very much. Yeah, that was. Yeah, it's a song kind of singing to the Murray river about how beautiful it is and all, you know, the life around it and the fact that it's been nurturing the country, you know, and us for such a long time and it's. It's time for us to look after it as we know. It's going through a bit of a tough time with droughts and so on and water allocations and all that drama. Yeah. So that's what it's about.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Thanks for sharing it with us.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Thank.
**Matthew Carratt:**

That's beautiful. Has your music been able to be shared far and wide?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Well, some of the.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Until now, yeah.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Until now. Yes. Is reaching an audience of millions.
**Sarah Freeman:**

That's right. Awesome.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Oh, look, I just. I make copies of my music and give them to friends and family and whatever and occasionally and one of my originals we might play in the band have done in the past. So. Yeah, it's just something.
**Sarah Freeman:**

It's just fun.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

A little hobby for myself. Yeah, that's nice.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Oh, yeah. Thanks for sharing it with all of us listeners. It's a beautiful song. Have those doo doo stuck in our head for a little while.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Yeah. Right.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Good.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Yeah.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Catchy little chorus there it is.
**Sarah Freeman:**

It is now our final question in the remaining few moments of our show. If you had one piece of advice to share with everybody listening and watching today, what would that be, Mark?
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

Well, I don't know if it would be one piece of advice, but I think what I've been fortunate to do is what hopefully other people can do and that is follow their passions and their dreams. Obviously we need to do what we have to to put food on the table and a roof over our head. For our families and so on. But money isn't the be all and end all. And, you know, if we can enjoy life, stay healthy and help others, be mindful of what's happening around us and just doing what you can to make the world a better place, I think that's if we could all do that, then the world would become a better place. So I guess that's something I'll try and do for the rest of my time here. And, yeah, we should all try and do that if we can, I think. And yeah, that's wonderful. Yeah, it is.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Thank you. Thank you for sharing, Mark. Thank you for sharing your life story with us today.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

And hopefully it's not too boring for people out there.
**Sarah Freeman:**

It's not.
**Matthew Carratt:**

Love it. We love hearing stories here at Life Bursts. And great to have yours, Mark. So thank you again.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Yes, this has been Life Bursts with Matt and Sarah. You can catch up with us wherever you get your podcasts from on community television, radio, and of course, on social media. I'm Sarah.
**Matthew Carratt:**

And I'm Matt. We will see you next time.
**Sarah Freeman:**

We're going to go out with a doo doo doo doo doo take.
**Mark Simon McDermid:**

You can sing along, too, together. Keep going.
**Sarah Freeman:**

Okay.
**Voice-Over:**

Life Bursts is hosted by Matthew Carratt and Sarah Freeman with production by Rhys Jarrett and Keykhosrow Azadegan. For more episodes of Life Bursts, go to https://rawcut.au, this is a RawCut Production.

Life Bursts with Matt & Sarah

Life Bursts with Matt & Sarah

Bringing You a Burst of Life 😃

Each week, Matthew Carratt along with co-host Sarah Freeman will be discovering the fascinating story of someone interesting and giving them the space to tell it in full. Life Bursts will tell the stories of the people you do know, don't know, and the people you should know. Because we live on a planet of 8 billion people, that means there are over 8 billion stories to tell, and 8 billion opportunities to learn from the stories we hear.

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