Johnny Diesel

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Diesel (born Mark Lizotte on May 31, 1967 in America) is an Australian musician. He has also recorded under his birthname as well as Johnny Diesel.

Contents

[edit] Early life/career

He moved with his family to Perth and settled in Western Australia. Mark grew up with many musical instruments, and it was the electric guitar that attracted him. Lizotte recalled of a time in 1981 that he first decided on music as a career: "I was trying to get my head around algebra ... and suddenly I thought: 'Hang on, I don't have to do this. I can play music as a job!'". [1]

Mark Lizotte performed with The Kind, The Innocent Bystanders and Close Action. He joined The Innocent Bystanders, who recorded a debut album, around 1983. He then left to form his own group in June 1986.

[edit] Johnny Diesel and the Injectors era (1987-1990)

Diesel burst out of Perth in 1987 and adopted the Johnny Diesel persona with his band Johnny Diesel and the Injectors.

The eponymous album Johnny Diesel and the Injectors was recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, produced by Terry Manning and released in March 1989. It spawned the hits Don't Need Love, Soul Revival, Cry in Shame and Looking for Love. The band won ARIA awards for Best New Talent and Best Selling Album of the Year (with more than 280,000 copies sold).

The EP Live in London, recorded live by BBC1 for the Tommy Vance Sessions on Friday 14th May, 1989, followed.

[edit] Diesel era (1991-1998)

"Johnny Diesel" pulled the pin on the Injectors at this point, resurfacing as Diesel with the single Love Junk in July 1991. Hepfidelity followed at the beginning of 1992. It contained the singles Come To Me, Tip of My Tongue (Diesel song), Man Alive and One More Time, and sold more than 200,000 copies. Diesel won ARIA awards for Best Album and Best Male Artist in 1992.

The Lobbyist was a mix of new songs, re-workings of some Hepfidelity tracks and a couple of covers released in August 1993. It hit number one on the Australian charts, and Diesel again won an ARIA award for Best Male Artist.

Solid State Rhyme, a 1994 release, featured All Come Together, Fifteen Feet of Snow and Get It On and was another multi-platinum smash.

Short Cool Ones, an album of blues covers and one original (Diesel's Other Man) was recorded with Australian blues artist Chris Wilson. After some production and writing work on Vika & Linda's Princess Tabu album, Diesel went on hiatus. He returned with a greatest hits compilation: Rewind - The Best Of in October 1996. The same year, he had moved to live in New York City with his young family, living at Arlene's Grocery.

At this point in his career, Diesel has sold over 800,000 records in Australia and won nine awards.

[edit] Comeback as Mark Lizotte

Diesel made a comeback to Australian music with the release in 1999 under his birth name Mark Lizotte: Soul Lost Companion. The first single, 'Dig'. "So many times I've seen you looking for the bones," Mark sings. "Don't dig it up … Forget what we've learned/Let your mighty icons burn.". Also released as a single from the album was Satellite.

[edit] Later career (2002-present)

Diesel returned to live in Australia from New York in 2002, and came up with Hear as his next release in October 2002. It was described as "a new platter of certified elite musical craftsmanship".

Jimmy Barnes with Mark (Diesel) Lizotte appeared on Andrew Denton's ABC TV program Enough Rope, backed up by Barnes's children Eliza Jane, Jackie and Elly May on 10 October 2004.

Singled Out was released in 2004, and is a stripped-down recap of Diesel's career described as "a document of an extraordinary talent supremely comfortable with his past". An entirely acoustic record, it earned an ARIA nomination.

In 2006, Diesel released Coathanger Antennae, an album recorded in two months. Lizotte said "We approached it like the Stones or the Beatles used to do where we’d just put down a few takes live and then picked the ones that we all felt good about.", emphasising the focus on live recording rather than studio polishing. [2]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Video

  • The First Fifteen '89-'04 Live (2004)
  • Diesel + Strings: Live at the Vanguard (2006)

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

  1. ^ Marx, Jack. Diesel - Gig Previews and Reviews, The Age, December 13, 2006.
  2. ^ Liberation Music profile, accessed December 19, 2006.
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