I had the honour of interviewing Mark Haze recently and it turned into a fascinating discussion about music, career choices, motivations, life at Meltwater Group and, of course, his incredibly successful time competing in Idols South Africa!  I had seven (yes, SEVEN!) pages of notes following this interview…I just hope this summary does Mark justice.

For someone who is now living his dream of being a rock musician and recording artist, Mark is still down to earth and humble.

Although he left Meltwater last year to pursue his lifelong passion of becoming a musician, he feels as though he’s never really left.  He highlights his time at Meltwater as being the best in his working life – his work mates are still his friends and he still sees “the gang all the time”.

As young as seven years of age, he knew his long-term goal was to be a full-time musician.  But the music industry is highly competitive and, re

cognising this, he decided to forge a career for himself to establish a secure foundation while he pursued his musical aspirations in his spare-time.

He was lead singer for 12^th Avenue, a rock band that had moderate success, including two Number 1 singles and a few Top 10 hits on SA Radio and also a nationwide tour in 2008-9, while he was juggling this with his career.  He was the band’s manager, producer and accountant – he is a qualified accountant, which helped, but Mark says it was his time at Meltwater that helped him really drive this band forward and then, ultimately, pursue his dream.

“I learned so much at Meltwater, even from Day One of starting!  Aside from learning the art of negotiating, I was taught discipline and problem-solving.  All three skills helped massively, but it was the entrepreneurial mind-set instilled in us that really helped the most and set me up perfectly for my currently venture,” Mark said.

However Idols SA came at a tricky time.  Having joined us in 2007, Mark was the first Sales Manager in Cape Town for Meltwater News, and became Meltwater Buzz Managing Director (opening the first Buzz office in Africa, no less) in January 2010.  Mark was clearly excelling and progressing quickly at Meltwater, revelling in the opportunities that we provide our employees with.

He successfully got through the Idols SA auditions over a period of fiercely contested weekends and was told he had qualified for the live “Theatre Rounds” in Sun City.  These would last a whole week…but it clashed with our Kick Off in Las Vegas.  What a dilemma!  Mark was torn as he didn’t know if it would be worth going through with the live auditions as rockers never really do well in the public votes with these singing contests.  He also had worked so hard on his rise through the Meltwater ranks that he didn’t want to throw that away on a whim.

In stepped his Area Director, Mike Anderson.  They discussed the situation and, in true Meltwater style, Mike said: “Look, this is your dream.  Your passion.  You have to give it a shot.”  He not only gave Mark his blessing, but also promised him that the “door would always be open”.

Mark hasn’t looked back!

A gruelling week passed and Mark had made it from 100 at the start of the Theatre Rounds, to the remaining Top 15!  The first of these rounds was performed on a level playing field – it was done a capella…perhaps not ideal for a rocker, but Mark breezed it.  After many weekends of auditions and an intense week of rounds in Sun City, Mark had made it through to the live televised Idols SA show.

And this is where he brought some more Meltwater learnings into play.  Mark made the astute decision to leverage social media to help his cause.  Through his work with Meltwater Buzz, he knew he had to raise his online profile and not just tell the public about himself, but build a fan base, let them get to know him better and understand his musical background more.  He also realised that no matter how the judges critiqued him – good or bad – he would only have 30 seconds to respond on the live show.

Therefore he started his own blog and ramped up his twitter activity.  He used social media to explain his motivations behind certain song choices, to provide more context to his responses to the judges’ remarks, and to give an insight in to the real Mark Haze.  His digital footprint is growing as result.  A smart move indeed.

During the live shows, he navigated different genres – from R’n’B to pop to local South African music to rock – on his journey from the opening round, but before the penultimate show he contracted pneumatic bronchitis.

Now tonsillitis can be enough to scupper a contestant’s chances, but this was something else – it is the stage before pneumonia!  Mark was in hospital on a drip on the day of the live show.  He was transported to the show 30 minutes before he was due to sing…he performed ‘If I Had You’ by Adam Lambert and was then rushed back to hospital to be put back on a drip.

It didn’t matter.  His determination, passion and excellent voice got him through the Final Round of just three contestants!  This on its own is an incredible achievement.  Yet Mark was pragmatic: “I realised that to get this far was beyond my hopes – beyond even that of typical contestants of my genre!  And I knew that the exposure I had received already would be enough to kick-start my music career and get bookings for gigs and so on.  But of course I wanted to win!”

The final was performed in front of a live studio audience of 3000+ and over 2 million TV viewers.  Mark belted out his new single ‘Out Of My Head’.  And then the voting began.  I’m not sure if there has ever been a closer final – it was between David van Vuuren (a more contemporary performer) and our very own Mark Haze – with David winning by just 0.09% of the votes!

Not winning didn’t put Mark on the enormous and ever-growing musical scrapheap though.  Quite the opposite, as he candidly told me: “I’m equally as recognised as David and have been busy every single day appearing on radio stations, doing interviews for all of the top African magazines…it’s been crazy!”  He is now a solo artist on a roll, and his band is not forgotten – they are his musicians in his solo career.

And just to top it off, world famous Rolling Stones magazine is soon launching its first ever edition in Africa…guess who will be profiled within it?  You guessed it…