Mark Ambor

Viral Artist Soars To New Heights With “The Long Way”

By Kenneth Tse and Eli Goodwin

The internet is Mark Ambor’s friend. The 23-year-old singer has amassed almost 240k followers on Instagram and TikTok each, as well as millions of streams and over 125k monthly listeners on Spotify. Ambor made his professional debut in 2019 with “Fever.” Since then, he’s released one song annually: “It’s Us Again,” his most popular thus far, in 2020, and “The Long Way” this year. With the help of his expansive social media platforms, the New York Native’s newest song has secured spots on Spotify-curated playlists of the likes of New Music Friday, Pop Sauce, and New Pop Picks, as well as Apple Music playlists such as New in Pop and Pop Delights. Ambor’s rapidly growing success is thanks to his soothing vocals and relatable lyrics, both of which create a relaxing, enjoyable listening experience. We recently spoke to him about how he feels about “The Long Way,” how he got his start, and more!

Hey Mark! Thanks so much for speaking with us. “The Long Way” is fantastic, congrats! How are we feeling about it coming out?

Hey! Thanks so much for having me and for the kind words. It’s been a mix of feelings. Some days I’m really excited, some days I’m really nervous. You spend so many months working on a song getting it to the best place you can possibly get it to. Then one day you completely lose control of it and release it to the world. So I’m just getting used to that.

This is your third release thus far – how did the musical process differ this time around from your previous songs?

This past year has been a wild ride. It’s very weird to me that quarantine has been the most developmental and important time in my life so far. Basically, I’ve been making music for years but as TikTok rose to prominence during quarantine, my friend convinced me to try pushing my music through it. So eventually I made one and got serious about it. My videos started to do well and I started getting contacted by a bunch of managers, then labels, then attorneys, other artists, producers, and everything in between. I started working with a small label called 100 Days towards the end of last year and through them, as well as the following and exposure I’ve gotten on my own, I’ve had the chance to work with a handful of writers and producers. The Long Way I co-wrote with my friend Jesse Fink and co-produced it with my friend Brandon Shoop. This song will be the first of the three I’ve released so far that I’ve collaborated with another songwriter on. Also the studios we’ve worked in and the level of production, mixing, and mastering is unlike anything I’ve released thus far.

Can you walk us through the inspiration for the track?

To me, The Long Way, as well as the songs that I’ll be releasing in the coming months, are all about the journey these past two years have been for me. They’re my attempt to understand coming of age and life for what it is. The Long Way is specifically about truly great things taking a long time. Although in the moment, it can be frustrating that you can't instantly achieve what you want, I think anything too easy never turns out to be worth it in the end.

What do you want fans to take away from the song?

I think ultimately I want this song to mean whatever the listener wants it to mean to them. I hope it makes the listener genuinely feel good and at the very least, makes them tap their foot to the beat (cause it’s a VIBE).

You are a part of the duel Artist/TikTok creator industry. What is it like blowing up on TikTok as you have?

Honestly, it’s been such a slow and steady growth that it hasn’t felt like an overnight thing. That’s actually something that I’m happy about because it feels like we’re building a solid foundation for something that will last a long time. TikTok is interesting though. It's so easy to fall into this trap of trying only to make content that you think will go viral on TikTok at the expense of staying true to yourself and your music. That's been a really hard thing to figure out and admittedly I’m still trying to figure that out.

Do you feel that there’s ever any pressure given your substantial social media following?

Yes always. Every time I post anything I just think about how many people are going to be judging it. As I’ve had the following for a few months now I’ve gotten more used to it. But at first, I definitely got a lot of anxiety from it. I just try to remember it’s an important tool to use to get myself out there.

What impact does your fan engagement have on the content/music you put out?

I’ve intentionally surrounded myself with a team that I have great chemistry and good energy. I don't believe it’s ever smart to just make things for fan engagement. All this music that will be coming out I made for my own reasons. You have to be yourself and people will eventually start to like you for who you are. My team is so good at making sure I remember that.

Which of your recent covers was your favorite to record and why?

I think my favorite recent cover was Christina Perri’s, “A Thousand Years”. That one came together nicely and also it sounds better than the others to me.

Let’s talk about your musical process. How does the typical Mark Ambor spot come together?

Well when I’m doing everything on my own, I usually come up with a riff on piano or guitar. Sometimes I’ll dive into logic and start producing the riff out to get some more inspiration, but sometimes just the piano or guitar on its own is good enough to write to. I don’t really like the idea of “concepts” cause to me it creates this pressure of having to come up with a mind-blowing idea. So once I have the riff, I start humming melodies. I keep humming and humming until the humming turns into mumbling and then words start to come. I’ll latch onto a word or phrase that comes out and start building a song around it. Before I know it, I have a song that I feel like I subconsciously wrote. It genuinely came out of my head to the riff that I was playing over and over again. It might sound insane but it feels magical.

Say you’re running a music festival. Who are the three artists that you’re choosing to headline the event?

Coldplay is my north star reference for everything, so definitely them. I love the vibe of Jack Antonoff’s band Bleachers so they’d be included. I’d say Dayglow is the third cause the lead guy, Sloan, was a big inspiration for me in realizing that I could be producing great music on my own in Logic and succeeding.

Did you always feel that music was your calling? How did you get started making music?

Not always, no. I’ve played piano my whole life but never really got into singing until going into freshman year of college. I had a friend who made music in high school and I remember asking her how she wrote a song. She told me her method and I kept it in the back of my head throughout high school until the summer going into college. My school started later than my friends, so I was home alone, my girlfriend and I had broken up, and I was feeling pretty lost. For whatever reason, I sat down at the piano and decided to write a song. About an hour later I had a song that I recorded on voice memos. I went to work that night at this restaurant I had worked at that summer. At work, I was feeling bold, and I sent the voice memo in a group chat to my parents. They had really never heard me sing before that moment. At the time, they weren’t very good with technology and a few hours later my mom responded, “Who is this artist? Dad and I love this song.” They didn’t know it was me. That was the moment I started writing songs and singing and for the past five years, I haven’t stopped.

If you could collab with another TikTok creator, who would that be and why?

Hopefully, Olivia Rodrigo can collaborate with me on something soon because who wouldn’t want that.

What are your favorite things to do outside of the studio/creating content?

I love spending time with my friends. I live about an hour north of NYC and it’s pretty woodsy. My friends and I go on a bunch of hikes, go out to dinner, go watch sunsets, we love getting coffee and going to good coffee shops, and definitely go down to NYC sometimes to hang out.

Who do you owe your biggest thanks to?

A lot of people, but I think I owe the biggest thanks to my family, my friends, and especially my siblings. When it was such a far-fetched dream of following this career, they always believed in me. I think that's all it ever takes... someone believing in you.

What can fans expect for the rest of 2021?

Fans can expect many more songs, definitely some merch, and also maybe some shows.

When Mark Ambor makes it to LA, _______________.

It’ll be bittersweet cause he’s a NY boy at heart.

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