Tell us who you are and what you do?
As an artist I go by the name Mar Kel the Badbelly. I produce modern blues and beats with stories from the view point of a father of hip hop (30 years worth this year) and 2 children. My music often draws upon my life, my relationships, and the lives of the people around me and in doing so never shy’s away from subjects rarely heard in rap such as homosexuality, abuse and fatherhood. But it also has room for my dark and sometimes offensive sense of humour.

How did you come up with the name?
My name is Mark Lang and I sign everything as Mark L so you can guess
where the Mar Kel comes from. The Badbelly is due to a number of reasons. First I was known as the belly for obvious reason when I worked for Virginmedia, and I seemed to have a knack for knowing when something was about to go wrong (we offered broadband technical support) so the Badbelly is having that gut feeling something's not quite right. It also represents that little voice inside me that appears all to often and either gets me laughs or in a huge amount of trouble. You know the voice that's saying what you really think but you'd never actually say, well I say those things a lot and loud...

Tell us about your studio set-up/space
At the moment I don’t have a setup as the entire contents of my home is in storage due to a move from Wales to Southampton, but when its all together I use a Behringer C-1U USB and Ableton on a kindly donated (thanks Dale and Zoe) PC after my old PC lovingly called Bessy showed her age and started to cry and stutter under the stress of my newer songs, or she just didn't like my singing. I also have an Evolution Keyboard given to me by Johnny Tourettes of Echoplan. It is due to him I started to make music and in a very large way why I'm still here today, maybe more on that later.

As for my space well like I said, this is now my 30th year of being Hip Hop and although I stopped buying records in the late 90's I still have my collection of around 1600 which range from the hip hop classics from way back such as Cybertron - Clear and Tibetan Jam - Ice T to a collection of Acid/House Reggae and soul.

How did you become a rapper/artist?
Now this is a question and a half for me. 2010 was a hell of a year and while I won't go into to much detail I was In the middle of a breakdown due to a relationship break up. Then one night i was at a club watching Akil the Mc performing with a good friend of mine 4dee at the after party of the Welsh Open Break Dancing champions and I asked myself "why haven't I done that?" I know I could if I tried so why haven't I? I couldn't answer myself. There was no reason at all and now with a mind set of nothing more to lose and enough emotions and life stories to tell, I finally had something to write about. Johnny Tourettes who's a great friend and excellent guitarist completed the picture by giving me a keyboard and introducing me to Ableton with a "thought this would keep you busy and take your mind off things".  Heknew the mental state I was in and without an outlet something serious was going to snap in my head. So with an aging old PC called Bessy and a Microphone from RockBand on the Xbox I sat down to learn how to produce and write.

The first song I wrote was "How Did You" which I made a video for so I could post it on Youtube. I'd yet to discover Soundcloud at that time. The video was a selection of pictures of myself before, during, and after the relationship I was having the break up from. The video to me and only me made perfect sense and matched the song, but to everyone else it was a little freaky. This is exactly what Sage Francis thought as he picked up on the song and posted the video on his strange famous forum. I then made a few more strange tracks as I developed a style and learnt how to produce but the track Daddy's
Coming caught the ear of a friend who encouraged me to sing and in a blues style. Daddy's coming is almost all freestyle adlib and its that track that I realized there's a new style to be found that mixes rap and singing that wasn't T-Pain or soul and in fact was something different and new.
So that's it, I became a rapper/producer to save my life and express how I was feeling in a positive way.

Who are your biggest influences?
Its so easy to list off a number of artists that have influenced your music but there's some that shaped it and you.  When I was young I wanted to be in Newcleus, flying 3 times around the world without missing a beat or Africa Bambaataa and go looking for the perfect beat. In my teens i wanted to be as smooth as Kurtis Mantronik or LL Cool J.  Later I was being taught by Krs One and Public Enemy only then to spend many years listening to Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and one of my all time favourite albums; Shame by Brad.  I have to say Shawn Smith is a huge influence on my music even if its not obvious right away. My goal is to have that much soul in a voice without actually being soulful.  Bringing things more up to date and during a time I thought rap was lost forever to bling I discovered a new group of artists that spoke to me personally. Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, Cage, and EL-P have all been a massive influence on me and my music. Not just in its style but its content and in a willingness to be myself and nothing else.These artists reinforced my love of Hip Hop and kept my faith she will never ever die.

What encourages you to carry on with music?
When I started making music it was my therapy, now I'd like it to be someone else’s. My life and its stories are no different from many others and if I can get one person to see they'll be ok no matter what's going on then its worth pouring it all out in lyrics. I also want to give something back to the music that has saved, and made my life. I feel I owe it to her.

What do you think about the music industry and independent hip hop at the moment? Where do you think things are going in the next few years?
Hip Hop is now in its 40's and I can assure you that when you get to that age your views change and you can't dance like you used to. We're well into a 2nd and 3rd generation of Hip Hop fans and its a shame the industry has yet to see there's a market for mature rap. Its left to the independents like Strange Famous and Rhyme Sayers to promote artists that challenge view points and the unwritten Rap code of conduct.  In time I'm sure the majors will see their LL's and Jay Z's are old and become the next Rolling Stones and get promoted as such.
The internet with Bandcamp and Soundcloud has allowed anyone to become an artist and with Facebook and twitter anyone can promote their music, this has to be a good thing as its easier than ever to express yourself and be heard. The only downside is you become one voice lost in a sea of millions, and damn good artists aren't being given the stage they deserve. But as ever, do it because you love it not because you want to be heard or famous.

What have you been listening to?
The last 2 albums I've got have been Aesop Rock - Skelethon and EL-P - C4C. Both are on another level and feed my desire to better my own music, true inspiration.

Biggest personal music achievement?
At the moment i think its my latest song 'Run Away Train'. It is produced and written by myself and came out exactly as I wanted and stuck by the theme of the whole song, being and sounding like a train ride. Closely followed by performing 'Should Have Been' before Mc Lars set when he supported Wheatus in Southampton recently.  Lastly I couldn’t be more proud that my cover of 'Glad To Be Gay' by Tom Robinson was first received positively by himself but he also passed it onto the site www.gladtobegay.net where it features in the covers section.  I’m dead against homophobia and Rap really needs to address this last taboo, I’m not afraid are you?

What is your next big project, any big plans coming up?
When my home move finally completes I've a lot of catching up to do but the plan is.....   Bring songs done in last year into another Set Meal LP with commentary on the songs and what's been happening in my life. Then a few collabs I need to write verses for including a new version of Should Have Been with Mc Lars and then its on to a full LP which at the moment is called The B.A.D LP, the meaning of which will become clearer in time.

Any last words?
I know I've said too much so if you've read this far I thank you. I also thank you for taking the time to listen to my music and wish you peace and positivity (oh shut up you fat twat, oi shut up Belly)
Mar Kel the Badbelly