“There’s a Certain Magic to Songwriting”: What Music Means to Indie-pop Singer Mark Ambor

“I love capturing emotions, and songwriting is like capturing a moment in a tune,” Mark Ambor, up-and-coming indie-pop singer and songwriter shares. 

With the confidence and charisma that he exudes to his 260k followers on TikTok, it comes as a surprise to many when they find out that the New York native used to never sing in public: “I always felt too vulnerable,” he shared. However, he harnessed an interest for music at a young age; that, in addition to his musical background in playing the piano for over 7 years meant that catchy riffs and words that slowly formed verses and choruses just came to Ambor naturally. In order to preserve these ideas, he recorded the tunes on his phone’s Voice Memos app.

Having these snippets and songs to himself was one thing, but sharing it to the world… “Now that’s a funny story,” Ambor laughs as he takes me to the beginning of it all -- when no one knew about the singing and songwriting side to him. Not knowing how those around him would react, Ambor took a small leap of faith and sent one of his Voice Memos to his family group chat. When he later read the overwhelmingly positive responses and saw his family’s outpouring of support, he soon realised that he had the support network, passion, and ability to pursue music as a career.

For every artist and songwriter, there is a different approach to the writing process: some start with a beat, others with a concept. But for Ambor, “It with a tune or a riff that I like. Then, when a word comes to mind, I latch onto the concept that’s there and start building off of that idea,” he says. “Whenever I come up with a tune,” he continues, “I record it and put it into Logic, a music software, and produce a little track with other added elements that I then put on loop while I write the words.” 

This has been the process behind Ambor’s songs, including his recent release ‘Company’, and his biggest hit ‘The Long Way” -- which not only received an overwhelming reaction on TikTok, but also currently has over 1.5 million streams on music platforms.

Speaking of the encouraging words from those who support and stream his music from around the world, “social media has played the most important role ever,” says Ambor as a nod to his viral singing videos on TikTok throughout quarantine and even now. “At the same time,” he added, acknowledging the flip side to social media, “it can definitely fog your mental health.”

“On social media, and especially TikTok, you have, what, 15 seconds to capture the audiences’ attention? And on top of that, you have no control over what videos go viral and why they go viral. It’s all a bit random.” Given that all artists and creatives want their content to reach a bigger audience, Ambor shares that he has, at times, fallen into the trap that was “writing music for TikTok. When, actually, I want to write and make music for myself. And then share that with others.”

In talking about how he finds the balance to use social media as a means and not an end for his passion in singing, he talks about one of his favourite elements to creating music: room for interpretation. “I tend to make something that’s ambiguous enough to mean something to me, but it can mean something completely different to you. There’s a certain magic to [songwriting], there really is.” This freedom of songwriting allows Ambor to channel his feelings while also seeing the impact of his lyrics on others.

This, in addition to his desire to continue to grow as a singer, songwriter, and producer, is what continues to interest him about making music. Not to mention, the dreams to bring on the energy similar to his favourite artist, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, to write a song with Olivia Rodrigo, and to constantly challenge himself to be better than before act as motivating factors in Ambor’s musical journey.

When asked what one piece of advice he would share to aspiring artists today, Ambor says the most important thing, especially for smaller solo artists, is to “know that it’s all on you. Keep working on you, and keep putting yourself out there. Be authentic, be you. And that’s really cliche,” he laughs, “but it’s true -- you want people to know and like you for who you are.” 

And as if he was speaking to his younger self, the 23-year-old smiles and says: “Keep going. Just keep going.”