ANTARTICA
1983
About Antartica the band
…and the reason for these pages
Paying homage to a pivotal time in his musical life, Marc wants to preserve the music he composed as played by the band he was lucky enough to be a part of back then. Miraculously, the group recorded some of them and Marc is recovering some of the songs and creating videos.
In the few years leading up to 1981, Marc Soucy spent his every breath on music: playing in fulltime bands that covered progressive rock and arena rock as well as the full gamut of pop and dance styles. At that time, memories for synthesizer patches had not yet been invented, so he was programming each sound by hand for an upcoming part while playing. “That really was a right brain left brain experience. Quite a mental exercise but I had always had to do that, so that was reality. I was SO thankful when patch memories were invented a couple years later!”
During this period he studied jazz piano and impressionistic classical, music theory, and dabbled a bit in as many other styles as he could.
He was also paying a lot of attention to the birth of electro and kept up with the evolution of synthesizers with great enthusiasm. He focused the rest of his time on his compositional skills, experimenting with fusing the various styles in his growing arsenal.
Marc teamed up with drummer Ray Lavigne and bassist Jeff Carano in 1981 to create Antartica, a progressive trio that was the right thing at the wrong time. Ray, a gifted drummer and musician from a young age, and Jeff, a very skilled Berklee College alum, were both eager and driven to pursue the trio’s joint vision.
“I have always appreciated that fact, and want to thank Jeff and Ray publicly for their talents and comradery during that period by creating these pages and the music videos that are hosted here.” - Marc
Rehearsals were intense affairs and composition might be tightly planned out, or sometimes much more spontaneous. “There was always pressure on me to come up with something… … and I loved every minute of it. Ray and Jeff were always rising to the occasion with the right performances to drive each piece forward. “
It also has to be said that the group were avid progressive rock fans, and fans of anything creative and well-executed. They reveled in discovering new recordings together during their band meetings and even during the occasional off-time.
While a landmark period in Marc’s musical life, the headwinds and trends in 1983 were unfortunately too much for the project to progress much beyond its development stages. Personal lives had to go on for the trio as well. Marc still cherishes Antartica as one of his fondest musical memories.
All of that said, it propelled Marc’s ambitions into directions that would never fade away. Marc became a full time music producer and composer / programmer from 1997 to 2011, and is now working on music for visual media and other outlets.
He is also producing original hybrid music, many with accompanying videos. Portions of some of them are featured in his demo reels. Demo reels are available upon request within the industry.
To learn more about Marc as composer, keyboardist, and producer,
visit the rest of this website.
TRAVEL BACK TO 1983
YES ACTUAL TIME TRAVEL
WATCH YOUR HEAD