User:Marcantoon/sandbox/6ft Fatso

6ft Fatso new article content ... 6ft Fatso aka Marc Houben was born in the small town of Hasselt, Belgium, smack in middle of the sixties and he grew up to become a child of the eighties.

Post Punk shaped his musical philosophy: a strong headed DIY mentally with experimentation as a second nature. Designer/architect by trade he started out in art high school bands like “Fa & the Wild Lemons” and “Tomorrow’s Legends” and hosted shows on local radio called “Through the Looking Glass” and “Das Krawal” simultaneously,  The Fall  and John Peel respectively being his prime influences. He also got some recognition as a designer, solo and with the “Krakatoa” collective: he won several competitions, participated in art expositions and fairs  and got publicized in design magazine.

Then life struck, if you know what I mean: work, wife, kids, mortgages and a dog.

Until he woke from his provincial coma in 2008 inspired by the Dutch Lo-Fi exploits of Erik de Jong aka Spinvis. He began building his own home studio and started collecting instruments. Failing to communicate his vision to other musicians, lacking the proper academical training, he had to do everything himself: writing, performing, recording, producing, designing and distributing, first as “Smirkmark” but soon changing it to “6ft Fatso”, which seemed to fit him just fine.

His never playing live keeps being a big handicap. In absence of success he keeps working on an ever growing diverse repertoire of, what he calls, outsider pop, already counting 7 full albums, some compilations and 20 plus videos.