When I decide to cross that threshold into Brooklyn––and feel the oxblood pants I’ve slipped on tightening around my thighs––one of the first people I contact is Mark Amiama. A mind that is constantly creating, Mark represents all that is Brooklyn. He’s truly done everything––from designing skateboards to authoring Epic poems––and he’s just getting started. I am blessed to know him through various musical endeavors as well as partaking in skate and surf trips through New England. Hell, I fondly remember crashing on the homemade ramp he built at his home in 538 Johnson a couple times.
To put it in a way that you may understand, if you’ve lived in Brooklyn within the past decade, you’ve probably spent a night or two raging at 538 Johnson––it’s just that type of place that swallows you up at your most drunken hour. If you can’t remember, I’ll try and refresh your memory: Your best friend was on line waiting for the bathroom when a runaway skateboard collided into his/her thigh. You’ve spilled beer on the one you love while fidgeting with a lighter in the mangy staircase leading up to a rooftop show. You were smacked in the dome by a Wizard Staff from some masked creature on a balcony above you watching your favorite band from the Carolinas. And unfortunately, you’ve acquired an “Open Container” shortly after you stepped outside to finally breathe a breath of fresh air.
We have all been there, blurred through the inebriated illuminations of a Bohemian dream. I met Mark at his loft to jam for a bit. Afterwards, he brewed a pot of coffee and we sat to talk.
So let’s talk about 538 Johnson. How have you seen it change over the years?
I suppose it’s gone from hand to hand, you know, apartment to apartment has been transferred, creating a new vibe each time. I’ve seen club kids, metal kids, punk kids. There’s been a lot of artists––various transients, especially with the new trends of sharing rooms. But overall, my spot’s been a home. We’ve always maintained the vibe that this could be a home and should always be a home, despite whatever party we host here.
What happened to your home once you built this ramp in it?
It definitely opened the floodgates to a lot more people coming through, meeting new friends and seeing old ones. It helped all of us to get better at skating and keep from having litter throughout the house. So the ramp, although it takes up so much space in the living room, keeps everything orderly.
You are a teacher and principal at a school in Long Island. How does that impact your creativity?
Teaching has always given me time to think about the creative process, especially watching the kids be unconventional. They are at an age––11 to 14––where they’re starting to figure out who they are, so they approach problems and ambitions in life with originality. It gives me an opportunity to see a fresh perspective everyday. That and my schedule allows me time to be creative––writing music, or just writing in general.
Talk to me about your newest band Galleon. What are they about?
Galleon is a three-piece metal outfit with Alex Porta on bass, Dan Nicks on guitar, and myself on drums and vocals, and we’re going on two years. It’s an offshoot from so many projects that Alex and I have been in through the years, including Tyrhombus Rex with Alex’s brother Andy Porta on drums. Galleon is blues-influenced metal, like early Sabbath/early Priests but original music written by us. Sort of the songs we’d imagine they should’ve written, and of course some Maiden thrown on the mix.
Do you have any upcoming gigs?
One upcoming gig might be a record release later in the year. It’s our buddies Imaginary Friends, the date is to be determined. Other than that, we’ve been recording, so hopefully by mid-March, we could have something to release to the public: An EP––possibly a split with our friends Silicone Sister––and eventually a full album on our own.
Small Skateboards––is that still going on?
It hasn’t been all too hot lately because I’ve ran out of blanks. I began making boards in 1989 and realized that shaping was something I could do that worked. So for ten to fifteen years, I just rode my own boards. There have been times when I’ve sold more, but it never went to mass production––every board was always made by hand, like cruisers would be made out of driftwood. Small has been more of an art venture where I had the opportunity to make so many different graphic ideas and shirts. With the boards, they’re largely hand stenciled and created that way, but I still have some ambitions to make a small run of a couple of shapes through Chapman skateboards.
And you’ve written a book?
Yeah, I wrote and published a book last year––it’s two heroic couplets, or epic stories. One’s about two brothers who grow at odds, and the lives they lead culminate into the war where they end up on opposites sides of the battle. The other poem is a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice from Greek mythology. I’ve been working on some new stuff, but it’s like having too many frying pans on the fire. I enjoy going from one to another, and nothing’s quite finished yet.
How do you find love in NYC?
You let it find you. Go out and enjoy what you do in the meantime––by virtue of what you do, good things will come. New York City can be a rough place if you’re out on the prowl. [laughs]
Yeah, finding yourself in the wrong alley with the wrong person…You ever look back and think about how being in a relationship has completely changed in this new way we live?
I’m sure multimedia and fast-paced life can and does interfere with love all the time. In our digital age, the way we send information to one another subtracts the human element and imposes a distance that needs to be interpreted by the other person. When in the olden days, people had to be together to talk and they could read each other. I feel like relationships back then and now still fall into the categories of being both complex and easy.
What are three typical things you have in your pocket?
No money, songs, and maybe some smokes.
What record is stuck in your head right now?
I’m listening to a lot of Man Who Sold the World, influenced by Bowie in a lot of ways. I just got a bootleg of a bootleg of a Maiden concert that I remembered having on tape back in high school. I’m just trying to stay fresh with the classics.
Have there been any bands that have come up where you’re like, “Oh shit!”
Definitely Graveyard––I’m excited to see them again. When I go see a show that I like, it makes me want to go home and write songs, and when I go see a band I don’t like, I still want to go home and write. [laughs] Any genre, too! The Bad Plus, I think they’re still doing it on some new cutting edge.
Is there a childhood book that you would love to read again?
The Giving Tree, definitely! It speaks to the whole developing world’s problem of “taking too much and giving too little.” That’s one that if I read now, I’d probably cry.
If you were not living in Brooklyn right now, where else would you be?
If I had no 9-to-5 commitment, I’d like to be traveling, maybe not staying in one place for too long. I’d love to go Far East, which is someplace I really haven’t seen even though I was born in Calcutta. I’d love to get back there and see that. There are ancient parts of the world that I haven’t got yet that are definitely worth exploring.
Story and photos by Tim Robbins
