Born in Northern New Jersey, and further corrupted in the Billy Joel immortalized city of Allentown, PA, Composer/Guitarist Mark Dannells was drawn to music as far back as he can remember. After playing in several local bands in high school, his quest to make this profession his life long career led him to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. Post graduation, he joined se...
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Born in Northern New Jersey, and further corrupted in the Billy Joel immortalized city of Allentown, PA, Composer/Guitarist Mark Dannells was drawn to music as far back as he can remember. After playing in several local bands in high school, his quest to make this profession his life long career led him to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. Post graduation, he joined several touring bands such as Fear Glory and Nantucket that performed hundreds of dates over the next several years. His playing eventually received national attention and he was invited to audition for such acts as Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

Mark, along with his bandmates in Blacklight Posterboys and Fox 5 Creative Services director John Kukla, were presented with an EMMY in the spring of 2000. The award was for the song "Have A Nice May" that Mark co-wrote and produced that was used by the Atlanta Fox affiliate to promote their May sweeps week.
In 2001, Dannells was asked to join Atlanta based Elektra Recording artists Brand New Immortals, a band that included former Black Crowes, Train and Lynryd Skynyrd bassist Johnny Colt and singer/guitarist (now with John Mayer) David Ryan Harris. Dannells has also toured with producer/singer/songwriter Butch Walker, GRAMMY® nominated singer/songwriter Angie Aparo, and multiplatinum rockers Skid Row.

Currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia, Mark performs constantly with various incarnations of the the PleaseRock music collective, including the ever popular Yacht Rock Revue. In addition to their sold out headlining shows across the US, they have acted as a back up band for artists such as Eddie Money, Rick Derringer, Bobby Kimball (Toto), Mickey Thomas (Starship), Steve Augeri (Journey), Matthew "Break My Stride" Wilder, Gary "Dreamweaver" Wright, Robbie "Steal Away" Dupree, Peter Beckett and Ron Moss (Player) and Walter "Magnet and Steel" Egan. YRR released Hot Dad in Tight Jeans, an all original full length in early 2020 that charted on the Billboard Top 200, and was the subject of two articles on rollingstone.com.

He is also involved with production and composition for various artists, and has worked with the companies Placement Music, Music Revolution, and Audiosocket to produce music for such shows as Anthony Bourdain's "The Layover' and Drop Dead Diva.
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