Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Join Cheryl Lee That Radio Chick on Still Rockin' It for news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
What are they up to at the moment? Let's find out .......
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What has Chloe Marks and The Mayhem been up to lately? OR A song that costs less then a therapist !!
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians
A drum kit at five, a guitar at eight, and a lifetime of rhythm later—Chloe Marks found her voice where blues grit meets country storytelling. We sit down with Chloe to chart the road from Innisfail to full-time musician, tracing the early marching-band chops and jazz rehearsals that quietly shaped her modern, Americana-leaning sound. Along the way, she breaks down how a university blues-rock project flipped into a professional career, then pivoted into country after a transformative run through Tamworth’s stages and community.
What stands out is the discipline behind the art. Chloe writes three to four songs a week and has stacked more than 400 originals, a practice-first approach that sharpened her instincts and unlocked songs that waited years to find the right moment. We talk through the unexpected arc of her recent releases—from Carolina’s broader canvas to the raw honesty of Skip September—where she keeps the details intact and trusts listeners to meet her in the truth. That courage culminates in Cheaper Than Therapy, a confessional, late-night groove that feels like a happy ending because it embraces the mess and keeps going.
The Mayhem’s chemistry powers the lift: Ellen Hartwig on bass, Matthew Beagley on guitar, Madison Rossetto on keys and vocals, and JP on drums—bandmates with a decade of shared history who know when to push and when to leave space.
Offstage, Chloe’s world moves fast too, from years in action sports to a home buzzing with kids discovering their own instruments. We also map out show dates across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and Tamworth, and the plan to take the music wider across Australia next year. If you love country that values craft, vulnerability, and big hooks, this one’s for you.
Listen now, share it with a friend who needs a song that tells the truth, and subscribe for more artist stories that cut through. Got a favorite line from Cheaper Than Therapy? Leave a review and tell us why it hit you.
What has Chloe Marks been up to lately? Let's find out!
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
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Cheryl lee here. Welcome to the Still Rocking It podcast where we'll have music, interviews, and interviews with some of our favorite favorite musicians and artists. Today we are speaking in the Zoom room with Chloe Marks from Chloe Marks & The Mayhem as they close out the year with the new single Therapy. And with a new level of confidence and creativity, calling out on the mind. With the signature blend of authenticity and modern edge, uh continued stars on the To catch up on podcast and other favourite artists, simply go to that radiochick.com.au. You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick, and I'd like to welcome into the Zoom room today, Chloe Marks. Hi Chloe, thanks for coming in. Yeah, thank you for having me. So we've got a brand new single to talk about, but I was wondering if we could perhaps go back a little bit before we go forward. Yeah, yeah, sounds good. Born and raised in a little town called Innesvail in far north Queensland, involved in music from a very young age. So picking up the drums at age five. What on earth made you pick up the drums at such a young age?
Chloe Marks:My parents are both musicians and they were doing it a lot at the time. And my dad was actually a sound tech, and he just happened to be setting up a stage, and he just needed me to make a bit of noise. He needed to set some levels and said, you know, go and go and hit the drums. And I remember just falling in love with it instantly. And after that, they couldn't get me off the drums. And yeah, that that just kind of kicked everything off for me.
Cheryl Lee:I was going to ask you, is music in your DNA, are your family musical? Clearly they are. Are they still involved in the music industry?
Chloe Marks:Not so much anymore, but they definitely the the love for it is still there. And ever every time I'm around, my my parents, my dad will pick up a guitar or you know, something similar. So it's still definitely around. But yeah, I ran with it a lot harder than they did.
Cheryl Lee:Have you got any siblings, Chloe? And if and if so, are they musical as well? I do.
Chloe Marks:I have a few siblings. They're all actually naturally really good singers. But yeah, my my brother is quite good. He's one of those people that just picks up instruments and he's he's instantly good at it. But again, it's always been sort of more of something they've done on the side. I I've really only been the only one that's just yeah, ran with it and made a career out of it.
Cheryl Lee:Then again, at a very early age, you started learning the guitar, aged eight.
Chloe Marks:Yeah, I have always wanted to play guitar, and I actually got my my uncle and auntie gave me a guitar, just a starter one. Yeah, again, I just fell in love with it and couldn't put it down. I just wanted to get better and better, and and all of a sudden I had about 12 or 13 guitars and different ones now. I've got some weird and wonderful collection guitars, and yeah, it's I love it. How about your very first band? How did that all come about? My first band was a blues rock band called Scotch & Cider. Basically, at the time I was studying music at QUT. I was doing my Bachelor of Music, and I was just lucky enough to meet, you know, other incredible musicians and and some really awesome people. And I started a band with them and you know, my my five best friends at the time. And yeah, we were just off and running. We recorded our first EP. We did lots. But yeah, after about two years, I decided to just go and do my own thing and started doing solo shows.
Cheryl Lee:Would you say you were a uni band?
Chloe Marks:Yeah, I we definitely started off that way, but we very quickly moved into the professional world quite quickly and easily, which was, I mean, it was a lot of hard work, but they're all so talented and very professional people.
Cheryl Lee:Well, you clearly have loved music all your life, because not only were you picking up instruments and forming bands, but you've done a lot of things like even in marching bands, jazz bands, concert bands, and orchestra for a while. Clearly, music is such a passion for you.
Chloe Marks:Yeah, definitely. I did. I started out, like I said, whatever I could get my hands on, that was was just what I was doing. I did start out in jazz bands, and that's honestly how I kind of moved into blues. Yeah, I was lucky enough. I learned percussion and I learned orchestral music. I actually uh studied marching bands as well and everything from marching cymbals to you know orchestral timpanies and all sorts of stuff. But yeah, it was it it was just something I have done my entire life and I've always loved. There was never a day I wasn't playing music. Clever cookie.
Cheryl Lee:That leads me to the next question of country music. How did you find that country music was your thang?
Chloe Marks:When I was in Scotch & Cider, my bass player Ellen Hartwig said to me she was playing for a country artist, Bridget O'Shaughnessy, and they they needed a drummer, and she said, you know, I think you'd be perfect for it. I was actually a little bit hesitant because I at the time I had grown up around country and and you know heard it my whole life and was just not a huge fan. I ended up playing with Bridget and we went to Tamworth and I just fell in love with it so quickly. I just just the people and the storytelling and and everything to do with country music. I was just like, this is exactly like blues, but more twangy, and you know, it's just got endless potential. And instantly it was just like this this shift, and it was like, this is actually what I want to do. Still to this day, I love how wide of a genre country is, you know, it's not something that's you know can be can be put into a tiny box. It's just got endless potential and and I love working in that.
Cheryl Lee:There's so many genres within the genre, isn't there? Yeah, exactly. Definitely. Recently, country music has really had a massive resurgence as well. How do you explain that, Chloe?
Chloe Marks:Yeah, I was actually talking to, I know a lot of country musicians in Brisbane, and we're lucky enough that, you know, in this area there are some really, really incredible talented people. And I was talking to someone the other day, and and we were saying, you know, we all kind of came into this at the exact perfect time. Before that, it was really, really hard to to break into anything being in country music. It was kind of a side genre that no one really paid attention to, and then all of a sudden it just blew up. Yeah. And I think honestly, it had a lot to do with the American industry. A lot of American artists, you know, started to to push their genres and it's kind of come over into Australia. But we're really lucky that people are now recognizing Australian country in a different light. I think they're paying a lot more attention, which is really good for artists like me. And obviously, like I said, there's so many talented artists, you know, even just in Brisbane or or Queensland. Yeah, it's it has been a really it's been a good couple of years for us.
Cheryl Lee:Let's hope the trajectory keeps going. And I think one of the key words that you mentioned, which I think is part of it, the success, is the storytelling. You know, country music always has a story. And I feel like that your few singles that leading up to this single, it's telling a little bit of a story about your journey, isn't it? From your first single to this one. Yeah, definitely.
Chloe Marks:It was it was a little bit unintentional, but when we sort of stepped back and had a look at the year, it definitely did. It tell it told a story of of all the things that I kind of went through in the last couple of years and it and it led to where I am now and the and the place I'm in now within myself. Even as far as when we released our first single, Carolina, at the start of this year, that was something that was just a kind of a story that I sort of told. Like it wasn't, it was personal, but it was also about so many different things and people. As the year went and as I got a bit more comfortable with with writing and and you know, becoming vulnerable, my songwriting became, yeah, more personal and and yeah, more focused on myself. And people really have have loved that.
Cheryl Lee:And Skip September, the next one. That's really personal, isn't it?
Chloe Marks:Yeah, definitely. It was actually about my the breakdown of my marriage. And it was something that when I wrote, I was in a really, really bad place. I obviously was going through it. I kind of sat down and I wrote the song. I was just sitting on my kitchen floor one night. I wrote the song and I took it to my band and I said, you know, is it too, is it too personal? And they were like, no, this is, you know, everyone in some way can relate to what it was about and and, you know, going through those hard times and just wanting to get to the other side and get to the light at the end of the tunnel. We actually discussed the option about changing some of the lyrics to make it a bit more relevant to everyone, but we just decided to keep it, you know, as as personal as possible. And again, everyone just really liked it and loved the idea.
Cheryl Lee:I hear that you've actually written over 400 songs. How do you pick which ones to play and put on an album?
Chloe Marks:Yeah, it's definitely quite a hard process. I was given some advice about, I would say probably about 15 years ago, about songwriting. And what I was told was songwriting is like any skill. It's not, it doesn't happen overnight. It's something that you have to practice and work at, and and you will become better and you'll have good days and bad days. So I try and write as often as I can, and sometimes that's you know, three or four songs a week. And a lot of the time they are not great. I can kind of tell when it's a throwaway song and or if it's something that's just for myself. You know, it's a bit like writing in a diary. It's something that helps me kind of process it. So a lot of the time, yeah, that there'll be a standout song where I'll kind of finish a song or I'll have an idea for a song and go, oh, okay, that's that actually could be something. And that's usually the point where I'll take it to the band and be like, you know, what do you guys think? But yeah, it's constant. I'm like I said, it's probably about three or four songs a week that I write top to bottom. And sometimes it can just be, I'll just write a chorus and then I'll stop and then I'll move on to something else, or you know, I have so many. It's yeah, it's ridiculous.
Cheryl Lee:That's fabulous. That's called honing your art, isn't it? But what you might find going down the track, it might be five years, it could be eight, it could be ten, it could be twenty. When the time's right, you've got a treasure trove of material there. And one day, someday, it's gonna be the right time for some of those.
Chloe Marks:Yeah, definitely. We're actually finding that now. You know, there's a song that we're going to release next year, and we've already recorded it and talked about it, that I actually wrote of like 11 years ago. I wrote it and and sat on it for all that time. And then one of my bandmates who'd heard it all that time ago, she said, you know, we we should really, we should do that song, we should pull it. And I was like, Oh, it's not really us. And she forced me to show it to everyone, and they went, This is this is it, like, you know. And so, yeah, there's definitely times where songs are more relevant or come back. And yeah, um, I love it. There's there's stuff, there's stuff stuff that I recorded on my original EP over 10 years ago that my band wants to re-record and and change it a bit. So, you know, it's like I said, it's just endless potential. It's it's such a a great way to get everything out.
Cheryl Lee:So let me just ask you quickly before we start talking about the new single. You've got two kids. Are they musical, Chloe? They followed your artistic link.
Chloe Marks:Yeah, they they definitely have. My my daughter is is very, very talented on the drums. I was a drum teacher for many years, and so it's it's one of those things. Again, it's a skill that you have to practice and get better at, but there are some kids that are naturally more more talented at it, and she's she's phenomenal. Um it just clicks with her. My son is not actually that great at the drums, but he's really picking up guitar quite well. So just different different strengths and and interests. But yeah, they're they're both really, really talented actually.
Cheryl Lee:We should watch out for their band in coming.
Chloe Marks:My daughter has just she's eight years old and she's just started writing songs, and I find all these little pieces of paper around the house with all of her songs written. So she's yeah, she's kicking off real hard there.
Cheryl Lee:Oh my gosh, that's amazing. So the new one, and I think this is sort of like the last step in the journey. I love this song. It seems a little bit not musically, but the feeling, the vibe of it, a little bit Joe Cocker-esque with like, let's go get stone.
Chloe Marks:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was definitely one that we were I sort of sat on it for a long time, being like, you know, do we release this? Do we, is this one that we just play on stage for fun? Yeah. It was one of those songs I was actually listening to. There's a song by Chris Stapleton called Worry Be Gone, which is about the same sort of concept. When I saw him play it live, the entire stage went from like all the lights and everything went from this like marone kind of red color and the whole thing went green. And I knew straight away, I was like, it's gotta be Worry Be Gone. I said to my bandmate, it'd be really cool if we just if we did something so different to what we've ever done, you know, something that instead of being red and marone, it's green, it's different. I had this weird idea to just basically have this song be like a confessional song, you know, something that was just vulnerable and honest and was about, yeah, about my journey and and who I am and and where I am now, and just being like, you know what, these are these are my flaws, this is how it is.
Cheryl Lee:And it feels to me like a happy ending, like we've gone all through all this stuff, and now it's acceptance and it's all right, it's all good.
Chloe Marks:Yeah, definitely. And that's and that's kind of what we were trying to achieve is is, you know, like it's at the end of it all, it's you know, we're we're in the we're in the good times now.
Cheryl Lee:Yeah, well, I think you nailed it.
Chloe Marks:Yeah, thank you.
Cheryl Lee:Show dates, got one complaint. So get onto the googolometer. Where do they find the show dates?
Chloe Marks:So you can find everything on ChloeMarksmusic.com or on our social media, which is just Chloe Marks Music on everything.
Cheryl Lee:If you're in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, you're lucky. You've got a few shows to choose from. Get onto the Googleometer and have a look. And if you're heading over to Tamworth, you're lucky as well. You've got four shows to choose from so far. So when are you coming to our town, Chloe?
Chloe Marks:We're actually that's one thing I want to do next year is is we we want to do some more touring and we want to get out of Brisbane and Gold Coast. And and as much as we love, you know, the the this year that we've had and all of our venues, yeah, we're we're ready to you know start moving around the country and and getting out there. So I'm hoping next year we're gonna we're gonna try and do a leg in every direction. That's that's the plan. So we'll see how we go. Awesome.
Cheryl Lee:We look forward to seeing you down the front when uh you can get to Adelaide. That'll be amazing. So I do have one question which I found really interesting reading your bio. You manage one of Australia's largest skateboard stores.
Chloe Marks:Left build? Yeah, yeah. So I well, I I was managing it. I'm actually a full-time musician now, but I have spent most of my life as well in the extreme sports or action sports industry. Yeah, I managed a skate park in Sydney for about four years. And then during COVID, I moved back to Queensland. And yeah, I was managing, I believe it's Australia's second biggest skateboard store. I managed that for about four years as well. Yeah, I I love it. It was definitely one of those things that I grew up with as well. If if I wasn't playing music, I was at a skate park somewhere getting injured. I I love it. I still, even in my house now, it's just filled with the skateboards and scooters and BMXs, as yeah, there's they're everywhere. Yeah, I I I do. I I love it.
Cheryl Lee:We wish you all the success with the new single. I love it. We also wish you the best with your tour, and we can't wait for you to bring it to the rest of Australia. Yeah, thank you very much. Chloe Marks and the Mayhem. The other members of the band, Chloe?
Chloe Marks:We have Ellen Hartwig on the bass, Matthew Beagley on guitar, Madison Rossetto on keys and vocals, and Jacob Peterson, or we know him as JP on the drums. Fantastic, incredible people.
Cheryl Lee:So some of the Scotch insider players.
Chloe Marks:Yeah, yeah. Matt and Ellen were in the in the original band with me, which is really great. We've yeah, we've been working together for actually over a decade now.
Cheryl Lee:I love the name. Mayhem. I just uh everyone needs to create a bit of mayhem, don't they?
Chloe Marks:Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Our name was is actually a little bit funny because a couple years ago, when actually many years ago, it was about five or six years ago when I had the idea for you know a country Americana band. I told Ellen, and I said, you know, you have to do it with me. Ellen said, if you're gonna do it, it needs to be called Chloe Marks and the Mayhem. And I went, oh yeah, that's perfect. Ellen to this day does not remember that conversation. Ellen doesn't remember naming the band, but but Ellen Well done, Ellen. Yeah, let's hear the new one now. Yeah, perfect. We are Chloe Marks and the Mayhem, and this is our brand new single, Cheaper Than Therapy. Thank you so much, Chloe. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your day. Yeah, you too. Thank you. You are listening to Still Rockin' It, the podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Cheryl Lee:Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rockin' podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can, support Aussie Music, and I'll see you down the front.