About Mark

Mark Gontarz

Mark Gontarz was born in Chicago and grew up in the nearby burbs. He started playing violin at age 7 and piano at age 8. He was also sneaking into his brother’s room when he wasn’t around to teach himself guitar. At age 15 he bought his first bass for $30. It was a Univox violin bass, loosely, a Beatle bass copy. After a year or so, he began incorporating bass into his parish guitar mass group (where he met his wife and many lifelong friends). Mark learned a lot playing that music. He also learned a lot from his and his older brother’s records, including Sabbath, Rush, etc.

He played in a couple high school garage bands. Later, Mark joined a variety of bands, including a hardcore Chicago punk band, Fast Forward, playing on a local folk artist’s album, Bill Dicker. He also played in a rock bar band called Sheridan Ave., another rock/blues bar band called Left Hangin’, a rock bar band called Blind Reflexx (where he met current lead singer Jeff Krause), another bar band Back In the Daze. And now he is playing in Voices of Verity.

“It’s been a great ride, culminating in the current project. It’s such a blessing to play with these guys, creating out of nothing original compositions with the desire to reach people and hopefully do some small impact to bring them to Christ.”