You may wonder what happened to Mark Furze after Ric left Summer Bay to be with his true love Matilda.

“Well it’s been quite interesting, but it’s also been scary,” Mark admits. “You do something for four years and become part of the family and make all of these great friends and then you just leave and you’re gone.” Lucky for Mark, he didn’t have much time to dwell on the past. Falcon Road, his band, began recording out in Byron Bay almost immediately after his time on Home and Away and then he toured in the UK.

Making so many friends and them leaving them behind is a hard. But Mark keeps his finger on the pulse. “I live with Todd (Lasance) so I’ve still kind of been in the loop,” he laughs. He also misses the crew! “You see them every day and we spend a lot of time with them. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that no one really knows about.” Mark gives us an insight to how it feels leaving a show like Home and Away. “It’s kind of like you’re leaving school, but you’re the only one leaving!” Apart from the crew and cast, there’s one other thing Mark feel’s he’s missing out on...Carol, Home and Away’s cook. He admitted to us always trying to steal food from her while in between scenes.

It is official, Mark’s hair has been cut! “It got to the point where I was thinking, ‘This is ridiculous.’ I’d been growing my hair for so long and it just wasn’t growing. And SO many people gave me crap for it so I thought I’d succumb to the peer pressure.”

The new and improved looking Mark has been busy with his band, Falcon Road. He gave us the low down on how the band got its name. “For a long time the band was called Charger. Then we found out there was a UK band called Charger. Then one day we were looking something up and there was a place in Falcon Road, England called Foggy Furze or something like that and I thought that was quite ironic. So the guys agreed that sounded great and Falcon is just pretty cool, the bird is really cool. It has this whole rock symbol.”

The band members are all mates. Travis, who’s the other guitarist in the band, grew up a couple years ahead of Mark in the same area. “I used to sneak into the pub when I was under-age to watch him play,” he laughs. Kyle, the bass player, lived nearby and three of them started playing together. And their drummer? One of Mark’s mates’ sister! “She was in a different band and she left that and actually came and auditioned with us. We already knew her really well so it just worked out.” And guess who wears the pants in the band? “Michelle is definitely the last one of the band members you want to mess with!” Mark laughs. “She may be a chick but she can definitely hold her own.”

A lot of writing goes into music and Mark confesses he does the majority of it. “I’ll try and come up with a song and make it as complete as I can and then send a demo to the other guys. They’ll give some feedback on it and we’ll get in to the rehearsal room and make some changes.” Mark writes the music before the lyrics. “I’ll sit down and just write the entire guitar part,” he admitted. “And then I’ll sit down and try and work out a melody. Then I do the lyrics very last. A lot of people do lyrics first but I just can’t do it that way.”

Although touring can be long days away from home, “It’s a lot of fun to just be going to new places. You turn up and set up all the gear up and start playing the music and people start singing along! The actual gigs are fantastic!” Mark beamed. “It’s a real buzz."

So what do we have to look forward to with Falcon Road? “We’ve got a big gig coming up on the 20th of December which should be fun. We’ve got a few other gigs we’re trying to sort out as well. We just wanna promote the single and do as much promotion as we can. We’re gunna get out there and play a lot of shows and just get the name of the band out there. Then next year we hope to record around March or February for the full album. After that we start it all again!” he laughs. “The rest of this year is pretty cruisey. We’ll just do whatever we can get when it comes our way but it’s all finally happening.”

We’d say Mark’s on his way to living his dream. “Well I’m trying to at least! There’s moments I think, “Wow, there’s a whole lot more work in this than I initially though. But I’m nearly there.”

Falcon Road has a new single, Favourite Habit, coming out soon. The launch party is scheduled for the 20th of November and open to everyone. For more information and to see the video clip go to myspace.com/falconroad

Interview by: Tania Seager

Transcript by: Sarah Creegan