If you live in Houston and have hung around the “music scene” at all you probably know or at least have heard of Mark Austin. Who in the hell is this red headed guy running around at all the shows we go to? He is an avid local music lover, that’s who he is. It’s Saturday morning and Mark shows up to our interview seeming a little tired. He tells me he’s a bit hungover,”I went to Fitz lastnight.” But of course he did. Quite frequently you can find Mark on the front row of a local show. He is as much a fan of it all as he is business mind. Mark is not only an accountant but a photographer who has had photos in Rolling Stone, Spin, Paste and various other publications. He hosts the seasonal event Canned Acoustica, manages local band The TonTons and films for another project of his- Backseat Jukebox. He is one of the busiest people I know and seemingly skilled at time management. How does he do it all? Let’s go to the beginning….

Mark is originally from Winnfield, Louisiana, a super small town with less than 5,000 people. It’s a tiny place without access to live music or opportunities to explore new bands. “I grew up with no music, no local music, no music tours coming through any of those towns or really anything… if you couldn’t get it at the local Walmart you didn’t get it. So everyone owned a Garth Brooks album and that was about it.” Luckily for Mark his older brother became a disc jockey in a bigger town north of where he lived. His brother would share music with him and introduced a whole new musical world beyond what Winnfield had to offer. After college, a job offer with an accounting firm brought Mark to Houston. He was here for a while before he got in to exploring Houston’s (at the time) faint music scene, “I just assumed local music sucked, I really did, for like five years.”

He went out on limb when Warehouse Live openned up and announced an open call for Street Team members. “I was like 27. I got off of work, I’m in a suit and tie and I go to the street team meeting. I come in and there’s all these 17 year old kids cause the trade was ‘if you flier for us us we’ll give you free tickets to shows’. I thought I can do that ya know. But I wasn’t doing it for local music, I was doing it just to get in because their first show was Prince and I couldn’t get tickets to get in to see Prince.”

While at the street team meeting he met a good friend, Jason Price. Meeting Jason was a turning point in how Mark would perceive local music. He took Mark to a show one night, “We went to see Bo Jones open for Million Year Dance. When Million Year Dance began, his first note, I was totally hooked. I can point to that moment and know [when I became] a local music fanatic.” He went home and looked on myspace for every local Houston band he could find. Mark’s love for close to home music began to take shape. 

BECOMING A PHOTOGRAPHER
Being a photographer was not always something Mark thought he would be. Actually, it wasn’t until he was out on a date when he realized he needed a hobby,”She asked me, ‘What are you into?’ I thought to myself, what are my hobbies? I was a twenty-five year old accountant, what are my hobbies? In my mind my hobbies were sports, drinking, music, and uh… drinking. I thought man how boring, I couldn’t tell her that. So I was like f*ck I need to get a real hobby!”

Luckily Mark had just received a bonus at work and he decided to buy a camera to explore something he always had an interest in, photography. At a concert Mark realized an opportunity.

“I had just seen The Strokes play at Verizon the year before. I skipped the opener like most people do and we walked in on the last song of the openning band. It was Kings of Leon and they were playing the song Tranny. When they first toured that would always be the last song and they would tear up the stage. They would tear up everything except for the drums, they would slam the mics and break everything down and just walk off leaving the guitars humming. And I saw that, it was the only song I had ever saw by them and I was like, ‘Oh my God, what just happened?’ I was blown away. I cannot believe I just missed whatever that was!’ I went to Target the next day and their cd was on the rack for five dollars and I bought it and was like, ‘wow.’”

Since Mark was developing his new hobby, photography, he decided he was going to write the Kings of Leon publicist and try to get a pass to photograph their upcoming shows in Houston and Austin. His camera hadn’t even arrived in the mail yet. “I told [their publicist],’hey I’m an aspiring photographer and I would like to shoot the show, I know you have to have credentials blah blah blah…’” As expected, their publicists responded telling Mark no, that he had to be with a magazine or have a specific assignment but this didn’t stop him. ”I wrote her back and said,’Look, I’ve been studying this band. I know they are trying to build a fanbase in the US. This is their first solo tour in America. They’ve sold over a million records in the UK and haven’t sold any in America give me an opportunity and I’ll give you the photographs all for free.’”

Somehow their publicist allowed Mark, who technically didn’t even own a camera, a chance to shoot Austin and Houston under the condition that he would send her the pictures in two days and that she could use them free of charge. “I thought oh my God, here’s my big chance! The day of the Austin show, the camera came in the mail and I didn’t even know how to turn it on.”

As anyone would be, Mark was thoroughly surprised this opportunity presented itself and was extremely nervous being he had only owned his camera mere hours before he was supposed to use it in a professional setting. He went to the concerts and took hundreds of photos and sent them to their publicist. “I sent all the pictures to her and she says, ‘These are really good, if you want to do some more shows let me know. [Kings of Leon] are going to the east coast now. If you want to go catch up with them I’ll get you into all of those shows.’ So I go from not owning a camera to literally following Kings of Leon across the south.”

That same year Kings of Leon blew up in the United States lending much credibility to Mark and his photographs. He has since shot many music festivals and has had multiple incredible opportunities come his way. At Warehouse Live you can see some of his photographs framed and hanging in the green room, which serves as a gallery for some of his best work.

“That [was] my break. I have been published in a bunch of other stuff since then. I wrote their publicist and was like, ‘Hey, five years later, thank you so much. I go to every music festival, I shoot for Spin, and Rollingstone, and Paste and the Hard Rock and it’s because you took a chance on a red headed, overweight accountant.”

Mark was incredibly lucky to have had such an opportunity so early in his photography career. Many people could have stopped there and took it as a one time, awesome experience but not Mark. I asked, what kept him going? “I don’t know, it’s more of a drive thing. It’s a desire… I don’t know. I miss opportunities all the time but after that I didn’t want to miss anything. I always have to have the next thing planned or I get bored.”

LOCAL HOUSTON MUSIC SCENE
Mark is a full blown Houstonian now and thoroughly integrated into our local music scene. He, along with a few friends, is creator of the seasonal event Canned Acoustica, where Houston bands are showcased as stripped down acoustic acts. He also films local bands singing in the backseat of his car, a project called Backseat Jukebox. Mark is also the manager for the Ton Tons. All the while keeping his day job and continuing to photograph big events. How in the hell does he do it all? When does he sleep? “It’s funny how so much goes back to childhood but my parents would let me stay up and watch late night television. I’ve never really gone to bed before midnight or one o’clock ever in my life so my body is just trained. Not to say that I don’t find the time to sleep, I slept hard until eleven o’clock today. I find time. A lot of coffee and energy drinks I think.” And where does this motivation and drive come from? “I can’t sit idle, I can’t watch a whole football game and I love football. I’ve got to do something else. I just found a way to channel it into bigger things.”

Mark emphasized to me that every success is hard work. Some opportunities come and seemingly by chance but you cannot maximize those opportunities without the hard work. This advice coming from a man who is working when he’s not on the clock. “I don’t go straight home from work. A lot of people go to their day job and then go home and figure out what’s for dinner and they eat dinner and watch their television shows and go to bed. I leave work and I go to the next thing. I routinely go to dinner with somebody or do some business over lunch. Then I’ll be at Fitz or Warehouse Live for whatever shows I have.” As if that’s not enough, Mark works with a lot of local musicians in helping to organize tours and merch sales and promotions. He is a magician networker. It is clear that to be Mark Austin it’s hard work but he doesn’t see it as a burden.

“I try to keep it to a minimum but my minimum keeps becoming bigger and bigger. There’s a lot of people I want to work with, I want to see successes. My ultimate goal in working with any of these bands is to be able to look back one day and know I helped. I tell all the bands I work with when they pop off I want front row tickets for life. I want to see these people become successful.”

When I asked what advice he would offer anyone he said,”Try to find those things that your passionate about because ultimately those are the things you’ll work the hardest at…you’ve got to put in the work. If you want the respect and you want to make a living at it you’ve got to put forth the effort.” Cheers to Mark for being a part of this revolution that’s breathing life back into Houston music. Have you listened to your city lately? Mark’s enthusiasm is not in vain, Houston we’ve got some good stuff going on. I feel pretty confident that the local bands he believed in so much will begin to return their IOU’s to Mark Austin soon enough.

Follow Mark on Twitter at @MCAPhoto and Watch Videos from Canned Acoustica HERE

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Dawn Bell — Owner of Coronation Vintage and Fashion Stylist for Gloss Magazine

Written By Jessica Ingles ::: Edited By Rachel Ingles

I cannot even tell you how honored I was to be able to interview Dawn Bell from Gloss magazine. She has always been nothing less than wonderful to me, and in getting to know more about her, I love her even more. Dawn definitely belongs in the Wake Up & Rock interview series.

When I arrived at her warehouse—yes, a real warehouse, bigger than my last apartment—I was in awe of just how much vintage clothing she actually owns. There are racks of clothing, bins full of shoes, hats and scarves. Dawn’s place is awesome, complete with a chic vintage-styled living room area. If you worship vintage, Dawn’s warehouse is where you go when you die.

Where It All Began

Originally from New Orleans, Dawn began modeling at Saks Fifth Avenue there when she was 17. After a while she became more interested in what was going on backstage and volunteered to help at shows as a flier. “When there would be big events I’d have to work, I’d try my very best to come up with the most unusual, beautiful outfit to wear and so I’d always stop people dead in their tracks with my outfits. That’s when I started collecting vintage, just to have something to wear to the events that I was going to.” Her vintage style was so particular and unique that she caught the eye of Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta backstage, and they’d ask about her clothes. She’d reply,”Oh it’s just vintage!” Her love for the clothes really started to develop, and she began to re-create the vintage pieces she already owned.

Fast forward just a little bit….Dawn fell blissfully in love and got married. Her husband was in the oil industry, thus the bringing them to Houston. “I met my husband and he whisked me away from everything, and I just forgot about all that [fashion] for a really long time.” Her life took a different focus towards family and she had two daughters. The next several years found her living in Houston and Scotland, traveling often in support of her husband’s career. During this time, she continued collecting vintage,”Where ever I’d go I would find vintage pieces, so I had been accumulating a lot of stuff and just didn’t even know what I’d ever do with it. I would buy stuff that didn’t even fit me; it didn’t matter if it was something I loved.”

Dawn and her family eventually made their way back to Houston to settle from the years of traveling. Sadly, her husband passed away after suffering a heart attack. Before his heart attack, Dawn’s husband had recently become self employed as a consultant and had yet to obtain a life insurance policy. With his income gone, Dawn needed to make the shift from stay-at-home mom to being the sole bread-winner in order to support her young family. “I was looking at my life and saying ‘What am I going to do?’ What’s for me? I had always supported his career…So it was a big job for me.”

Eventually,”What do I love?” came to mind. The answer was simple: her clothes. And you just have to hear her talk about her clothes. They are an extentsion of herself, yet they are their own entities. And I don’t mean in the way that someone loves their Manolos because they’re pretty. You can sense Dawn pulls her super-woman strength from spending creative time at her warehouse. Unique and fashionable clothing is her art and as so many other artists know, working on your craft brings peace.

 With the vintage fashions she had been collecting for years, Dawn decided to open a shop. “I thought I’ll just do something with my clothes. It had always been a passion… this is my calling, and I know I wouldn’t want to do anything else.” She jokingly adds,”Actually, I didn’t think I knew how to do anything else!” Thus, Coronation Vintage was born.

Finding Personal Success

Dawn’s shop was a success at a critical time in her life. Houston loved what she was doing. “I started getting opportunities from having the shop. Molly Glentzer from The Chronicle came in and loved it ‘cause I styled everything, I didn’t just put things on a rack, I had everything put together as outfits. And Molly said, ‘You really should be styling, that seems to be your talent.’ And I thought, you know, yeah maybe I would do something like that, and (Molly) goes,’I'd hire you.’ She gave me my first actual paying style job at Gloss Magazine.”

Dawn has worked with Gloss magazine as a designer for the past three years, but she didn’t exactly feel like a professional in the beginning. “Suddenly my credentials went up because I was styling for one of the top magazines in Houston. I’d get people calling and asking me questions and inside I’d think I’m not qualified for this! I’m not used to this. I’m used to being on my own, being a loner with my clothes, doing whatever I want and suddenly I had this [professional] image.” Eventually Dawn eased into her new, well deserved role,”…after a couple of the Gloss jobs that I did, I was introduced as Gloss Fashion Stylist, and it just hit me, I was like,’Oh ok.’ I just went with it. I thought, ‘Ok, I’m a fashion stylist, that’s cool.’” Um, yes it’s very cool! Anyone can see Dawn is genuinely humbled and proud to be a part of the magazine. As a matter of fact, when I asked her to tell me what an average day is like her eyes lit up. She smiled and said,”Oh I love my job at Gloss!”

So what is an average day in the life of a fashion stylist like? Dawn is given the concept of the photo-shoot. She scours sources to select the clothing that will be used for the magazine’s spread. She makes appointments with stores Tootsies and Niemens and goes to select (aka ‘pulling’) all clothing and shoes that may or may not be chosen to be worn for photos. This is the hard labor of a stylist. “Some days I’m pulling from ten in the morning to sometimes six at night. Sometimes two days I’m pulling. It’s a real kind of hard physical job.”

Though being a fashion stylist sounds like a glamorous career to have, it is, after all, a job of hard work and one Dawn works hard at. There is also a great amount of responsibility that a stylist must carry. Thousands of dollars in clothing and accessories are hauled around from store to photo-shoot, and Dawn must account for every earring, every shoe, every thread. “One of the big parts of being a stylist is being a very responsible person, because I’m pulling sometimes more than $60,000 worth of merchandise.”

“We are responsible for everything. If we don’t bring things back exactly the way they were, The Chronicle would be charged, and if The Chronicle got charged for anything I wouldn’t look like that good of a stylist; I wouldn’t be doing my job well. My job is to protect the clothing.”

As far as a process for organizing the looks she chooses Dawn has a somewhat usual way of doing things. “I never really put together looks in my head when I’m pulling. I just pull things that I know will work for our shoot. I fit the theme, and then when I get home, I spread everything out and then I start putting them together as outfits.”

When thinking of her greatest achievement to date, Dawn can’t help but to go back to the pivotal moments that changed her life forever. “When my husband passed away (I was) able to reinvent myself from nothing. I was just left there devastated, my daughters and I. I suddenly became a single parent…after 20 years, I lost basically everything…and didn’t know what to do. I had to invent myself. Of course I went back to that starting point, to what I love to do, and so I think that I’m most proud of being able to pick myself up and take care of my girls…and do something that I enjoy doing. That’s really the thing I’m most proud of.”

Dawn Bell is nowhere near stopping. She still has a few goals set for herself to accomplish, one of which is to work for Vogue magazine no mattering in what capacity she is included. “I’m a real strong believer that if you see something for yourself, you can make it happen. I’ve always been the kind of person that sits out on a dream somewhere you know. If it’s something I want to do, why can’t I try?” Dawn encourages that advice for anyone who wants to achieve the kind of success she’s found: “Dream. Don’t stop dreaming. If you’re doing something you love to do every day, how precious is that? That’s such a reward in itself.” Amen Sister!

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