I’ve been told that working on Ideasicle X projects is like playing in a band. There are ideas thrown around to the rest of the “band” and they build on those ideas and riff on them until the polished gems emerge. Well, that’s never been more true, literally and figuratively, than when Ideasicle Expert, Mark Ray, is assigned to an idea job. He’s an idea guy and an accomplished musician.

And now, without further ado…ladies and gentlemen…MARK RAAAAYYY!

Mark Ray performing at The Way Out Club in St. Louis circa 1997

I came into advertising not through school or formal training, but through a side door as a musician and graphic designer, influenced by punk rock, David Carson, and my grandfather, who'd gathered a lifetime of stories playing in honky-tonk bands throughout the midwest in the 1940s and 50s.

Living in St. Louis in the 90s, I played my way into the underground music scene that later spawned the likes of Wilco and Angel Olsen among many others. But I paid rent and bought amps with jobs at local ad agencies and design firms fueled by the big brewery along the Mississippi. Along the way, an agency owner saw my design work and asked if I'd want to make some print ads for Jack Daniel's. In a beer town, who can say no to working on rock and roll's own whiskey?

After a couple of intimidating but successful meetings with Brown Forman's CMO, I was offered a full-time job as an art director. A few years later I became creative director on Jack Daniel's global business. One acquisition later, I was asked to be a managing partner and executive creative director at Arnold Worldwide, where my idiosyncratic, musical approach to advertising was embraced and celebrated. I met my professional heroes there and made friends for life, including Will Burns, who is the only person I know who possibly loves creativity and The Beatles more than me.

Through those formative years, I honed my chops in advertising and songwriting in equal measure. I also came to realize there was a lot of shared emotional territory between bands I loved and brands I loved.

So, I started matchmaking the two. I brought in some revered indie songwriters to score original film tracks for Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, Woodford Reserve. I treaded carefully to reassure them we weren't asking them to sell out. I gave them wide creative berth. To a person, they reacted with unexpected enthusiasm, especially after realizing that one ad job could subsidize their entire next record.

Of course, Arnold (mostly Lance Jensen and Alan Pafenbach, both Ideasicle Experts, btw) had forged this path with Nick Drake and others for Volkswagen. I just happened to be on a parallel path in the midwest with less known bands but for an equally iconic brand.

After a while, I created a platform called Undertow: part record label, part music studio, part art collective. Its vision was simply to empower independent musicians and composers who partner with brands to have the resources and support to work in the commercial realm without losing their professional integrity.

As a label, Undertow was (and still is) a unicorn. We split revenues with artists 50/50 in a business that rarely paid them more than 1-2% net. When Apple launched iTunes, we were among only five independent labels to be invited to Cupertino and distributed through the burgeoning platform.

Over twenty years, we built an analog/digital hybrid recording space (one of the first), released forty-some records, and supported countless artists with innovative models for touring and merchandising, and forged lasting creative relationships between some blue chip brands and luminaries of the music world. Peak moment was The Flaming Lips playing for the distillery workers up on Barbeque Hill at the Jack Daniel's distillery, where the Lips jammed furiously and experimentally for two hours to the delight of some, bewilderment of others.

And in the past decade, my dear friend and Undertow's co-founder, Bob Andrews, basically invented the modern living room tour model, which thrives to this day. But most uniquely, we helped normalize the once unholy union of independent artists and brands as a new form of ethical patronage. Where artists once feared exploitation and compromise, we delivered respect and career integrity.

By 2006, I had gotten married to my best friend and we had two extraordinary children (I know, everyone says that, but I'm right about this). I decided to take all I'd learned and experienced to the west coast. I said my goodbyes to some damn fine people at Arnold, packed everything and moved to Oregon, where I started an independent agency in Portland called North.

My founding partner, Rebecca Armstrong, had built a great reputation at Cole & Weber as every creative's favorite account supervisor. While interviewing, we met at dinner, learned we both loved Radiohead, commiserated as introverts in an extroverted industry, and both knew there was an extraordinary creative and musical energy in Portland from which we could build a modern boutique agency into something special. I'm proud of the work we've done over 17 years for a dream list of clients including Clif Bar, Columbia Sportswear, Subaru, Deschutes Brewery, Hydro Flask, among many, many others

When I left Arnold, I worried about losing touch with people who'd deeply inspired me. Thankfully, my relationship with one of them was just getting started. I've watched Will grow Ideasicle from, well, an idea, into the torch-bearer for communal creativity in an industry that has lost touch with human hearts and minds. Will's also been invaluable with his deft touch for pitching by helping me get boutique-sized North into some big boardrooms and walk out with their business.

Most recently, I've become an Ideasicle Expert, which has been a delightful new instrument for me to learn. I've also integrated Ideasicle X into North's creative process. I can say without reserve that, from either side, IX is an extraordinary, indispensable human idea-engine. It's also the closest you can come in advertising to feeling like you're actually in a band.

But most importantly, Ideasicle X inspires me. The business of advertising can be tough on the soul of introverts like me. So we look for ways to refresh our hearts, to stay vital and relevant and deliver great work to paying clients. Music has been a gift for me in that regard. So has Ideasicle. Both still remind me, after nearly thirty years in the business, that there's nothing more magical and valuable than people imagining and conjuring delightful things together.

What does all this mean? It means if you include Mark on a future Ideasicle X job, you’ll get someone who’s got an advertising mind, a fierce drive to get to great ideas, a visual thinker, and the sensibility of a band mate with his attitude of always listening, always building, always riffing, and always fearlessly inspiring.

And now the fun part. You can hear Mark’s own music below. Note the never-before-heard-anywhere demo of his band Camerado’s next song, “Hold The Fort.”

Music video for Sleepyheads

Shot on a sunny afternoon in Portland at Wilshire Park (right next to my house), with my two kids in tow, a paper mache crow mask we found in a yard sale, and my old Canon camera in hand:

Ideasicle Expert Profile: Mark Ray, A Career Built on the Unholy Union of Art and Commerce

Undertow Music Link

Camerado Linktree

Demo/Rough Mix of "Hold The Fort"

Music video for Sleepyheads

Ideasicle X, LLC