John Mars

John Mars
Birthplace	Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, percussionist
Website	[http://www.johnmars.com/ Official site]

John Mars is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and percussionist whose career has spanned from the late 1960s to the present day. Emerging from the music scene of Brantford, Ontario, Mars has moved fluidly between genres—from rock and pop to jazz and rockabilly—collaborating with a wide array of musicians across Ontario and beyond. His body of work includes contributions as a drummer in the jazz trio Broomer, Mars & Smith during the 1970s, as lead singer and principal songwriter of the rock groups Brian's Children and The Children during the 1980s and early 1990s, and as a performer in the roots-oriented Natural Born Lovers during the mid-1990s. Mars's career has been shaped by both creative partnerships and personal loss, including the death of early bandmate Stan Baka and later collaborator Mike Ardelli. His single "Cut Her Hair b/w Oh Yeah," produced by Daniel Lanois, and the 1983 album Annihilated Surprise with Stuart Broomer remain notable entries in the Canadian independent music catalogue.

Early Life

John Mars was born and raised in Brantford, Ontario, a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, with a notable history of producing musicians. Brantford's local music scene nurtured a number of performers during the 1960s and 1970s, and Mars was among those who received early musical training there.

Mars began his musical education at Sykes Music in Brantford, where he studied drums under the instruction of Carl Lemke. This formal percussion training provided the foundation for what would become a multifaceted career encompassing drumming, singing, and songwriting. His early musical development took place during a period of considerable creative ferment in southern Ontario, where rock, pop, and jazz scenes were intersecting and evolving rapidly.

In the late 1960s, Mars formed his first known band, "John Mars and the Martians," a group that featured bassist Kevin Cosman and guitarist Stan Baka. The band performed in the Brantford area and represented Mars's first significant foray into live performance and bandleading. The trajectory of John Mars and the Martians was cut short by tragedy when guitarist Stan Baka was killed by a drunk driver, leading to the disbanding of the group. The loss of Baka marked the first of several instances in Mars's career where the death of a collaborator would alter his musical path.

Following the dissolution of John Mars and the Martians, Mars relocated to Toronto, Ontario, a move that would significantly broaden his musical horizons and connect him with musicians working in the jazz idiom. Toronto's vibrant and diverse music scene in the early 1970s offered opportunities that the smaller Brantford scene could not, and Mars quickly became involved in new collaborative projects upon his arrival.

Career

Jazz Trio: Broomer, Mars & Smith (1970s)

Upon arriving in Toronto, Mars met pianist Stuart Broomer and saxophonist Bill Smith. The three musicians formed the jazz trio "Broomer, Mars & Smith," which became an active and well-regarded ensemble on the Ontario jazz circuit throughout the 1970s. In this configuration, Mars served as the group's percussionist, applying the drumming skills he had developed under Carl Lemke's tutelage to a jazz context.

Stuart Broomer, in addition to his work as a pianist, was known as a music critic and writer, and Bill Smith was an established figure in Canadian jazz and improvised music circles. The trio's work throughout the decade placed Mars within a creative milieu that valued improvisation and experimentation, distinguishing this phase of his career from his earlier rock-oriented work with the Martians. The trio performed actively for approximately a decade, establishing a presence in the Canadian jazz community during a period when the country's jazz scene was growing in both scope and ambition.

Jazz Duo: Stuart Broomer & John Mars (1980–1986)

In 1980, Bill Smith departed Broomer, Mars & Smith to pursue other musical projects. Rather than disbanding or seeking a replacement, Broomer and Mars continued as a duo under the name "Stuart Broomer & John Mars." The duo performed together from 1980 through 1986, a six-year period during which they maintained an active performance schedule and entered the recording studio.

The most notable recorded output of the Broomer-Mars duo was the 1983 album Annihilated Surprise, released on the independent label Ugly Dog Records. The album documented the duo's improvisational approach and represented one of Mars's first significant appearances on a commercially released recording. Ugly Dog Records was a small independent label, and the release of Annihilated Surprise was characteristic of the Canadian independent music infrastructure of the early 1980s, in which small labels served as vital outlets for experimental and non-mainstream music.

The Broomer-Mars duo operated during a particularly productive period in Mars's career, as he was simultaneously involved in rock-oriented projects. The ability to maintain concurrent work in both jazz and rock idioms demonstrated Mars's versatility as a musician and his comfort moving between distinct musical environments.

Brian's Children (1979–1986)

While still performing in the jazz duo with Stuart Broomer, Mars concurrently established the rock band "Brian's Children" in 1979. The band's original lineup included guitarist and songwriter Dave Templeton (known as "Temps") and drummer Teddy Fury. In Brian's Children, Mars shifted from his role as a percussionist to serve as the group's lead singer and principal songwriter, marking a significant evolution in his artistic identity.

Brian's Children released one single, "Cut Her Hair b/w Oh Yeah," which was produced by Daniel Lanois. Lanois, who would go on to become one of the most acclaimed record producers in the world through his work with U2, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, and others, was at that time an emerging figure in the Canadian music production landscape, operating out of his Grant Avenue Studio in Hamilton, Ontario. The association between Mars and Lanois, even on a single release, placed Brian's Children within the orbit of a producer whose reputation would grow considerably in subsequent years.

The single "Cut Her Hair b/w Oh Yeah" represented the recorded legacy of Brian's Children and demonstrated Mars's capabilities as both a vocalist and a songwriter in a rock context. The band performed throughout the early and mid-1980s, contributing to the independent rock scene in Ontario during a fertile period for Canadian alternative and independent music.

The Children (1986–1991)

In 1986, Mars reformed and reconceived his rock project, shortening the name from Brian's Children to simply "The Children." For this new iteration, Mars assembled a different lineup that included guitarist and songwriter Aurelio Lanzalone and bassist Mark Sinkowski. Mars continued to serve as the group's vocalist and songwriter, maintaining the creative leadership role he had established in Brian's Children.

The Children performed from 1986 through 1991, a five-year span during which the group underwent several membership changes. Despite the shifting personnel, Mars remained the consistent presence and driving force behind the project. The band's active period coincided with a significant era in Canadian independent rock, during which the country's alternative music scene was gaining increasing attention both domestically and internationally.

The evolution from Brian's Children to The Children reflected both continuity and change in Mars's approach to rock music. While the core concept of a guitar-driven rock group with Mars as vocalist remained intact, the new lineup and shortened name signaled a fresh creative direction. The group's activity through 1991 brought to a close Mars's most sustained period of involvement in rock band formats.

Collaboration with David Essig (1988–)

Beginning in 1988, Mars started performing in the Ontario area with guitarist David Essig, a respected figure in Canadian folk and roots music. Essig, known for his fingerstyle guitar work and his contributions to the Canadian folk music tradition, represented yet another genre shift for Mars, moving him toward acoustic and roots-based performance.

The collaboration with Essig overlapped with Mars's work in The Children, further illustrating his practice of maintaining simultaneous involvement in multiple musical projects spanning different genres. The partnership with Essig connected Mars to the broader Canadian folk and roots music community and expanded his performance repertoire beyond the rock and jazz contexts in which he had previously worked.

Natural Born Lovers (Mid-1990s)

In the mid-1990s, Mars met guitarist Mike Ardelli, and the two began performing alongside drummer Glenn Kimberley, a mutual friend, in an ad hoc group called the Natural Born Lovers. The band's repertoire was rooted in rockabilly and roots music, representing another genre exploration for Mars.

The Natural Born Lovers performed in concert series at various universities in Ontario, establishing a following in the academic and campus music circuit. The band's informal, ad hoc nature distinguished it from Mars's more formally constituted earlier groups, reflecting a looser approach to band organization that suited the rockabilly and roots style.

The Natural Born Lovers disbanded following the death of guitarist Mike Ardelli, who died of a brain tumor at the age of 24. Ardelli's death echoed the earlier loss of Stan Baka from John Mars and the Martians, marking the second time in Mars's career that the death of a young guitarist and bandmate led directly to the dissolution of a musical group. These losses lent a poignant dimension to Mars's career narrative, as creative partnerships were repeatedly interrupted by tragedy.

Personal Life

Details of Mars's personal life beyond his musical career are not extensively documented in public sources. His life and career have been centered in Ontario, Canada, with his formative years spent in Brantford and much of his professional career based in and around Toronto.

Mars has experienced significant personal losses connected to his musical collaborations. The death of Stan Baka, his guitarist in John Mars and the Martians, who was killed by a drunk driver in the late 1960s, and the death of Mike Ardelli, his guitarist in the Natural Born Lovers, who died of a brain tumor at age 24 in the mid-1990s, both had direct impacts on his musical career and creative life. These events, while primarily documented in the context of his musical biography, speak to the personal toll exacted by the loss of close collaborators.

Recognition

Mars's career, while largely conducted within the independent and underground music scenes of Ontario, has been documented by several Canadian music archives and reference sources. His work is catalogued in the Canadian Pop Encyclopedia, which provides an overview of his various musical projects and collaborations. His contributions to Canadian jazz have been recognized by the Canadian Jazz Archive, which includes entries for both Mars and his longtime collaborator Stuart Broomer.

The association with Daniel Lanois, who produced the Brian's Children single "Cut Her Hair b/w Oh Yeah," has been noted as a point of historical interest, given Lanois's subsequent rise to international prominence as a record producer. While the single itself was a modest independent release, its connection to Lanois's early production career has contributed to its significance within discographies of the producer's work.

Mars's album Annihilated Surprise (1983), recorded with Stuart Broomer for Ugly Dog Records, remains a documented artifact of the Canadian independent jazz and improvised music scene of the early 1980s. The recording is held in various collections and databases related to Canadian music history.

The breadth of Mars's career—spanning rock, pop, jazz, folk, roots, and rockabilly—and his collaborations with figures such as Stuart Broomer, Bill Smith, David Essig, and Daniel Lanois have secured his place as a documented participant in several overlapping currents of Canadian music from the 1960s onward.

Legacy

John Mars's career illustrates a particular model of the working Canadian musician: versatile, genre-crossing, and sustained over decades through a series of collaborative projects rather than through solo commercial success. From his early drumming studies in Brantford to his jazz improvisations with Broomer and Smith in Toronto, his rock songwriting in Brian's Children and The Children, his roots collaborations with David Essig, and his rockabilly performances with the Natural Born Lovers, Mars has contributed to multiple streams of Canadian music across more than five decades.

His career trajectory also reflects the broader story of independent music in Canada during the latter half of the twentieth century, a period during which small labels like Ugly Dog Records, informal performance circuits, and collaborative networks sustained musicians working outside the commercial mainstream. Mars's ability to move between jazz and rock contexts, often simultaneously, exemplified the fluidity that characterized many Canadian musicians of his generation who operated across genre boundaries out of both artistic inclination and practical necessity.

The recurrent theme of loss in Mars's career—the deaths of Stan Baka and Mike Ardelli, both of which led to the dissolution of bands—adds a dimension of human fragility to the story of his musical journey. These events, while tragic, also underscore the deeply personal nature of the collaborative relationships that formed the foundation of Mars's work throughout his career.

Mars's documented associations with musicians who achieved broader recognition, including Daniel Lanois, Stuart Broomer, Bill Smith, and David Essig, situate him within a network of Canadian musical talent that has had influence extending well beyond the independent circuits where much of his own work was performed. His career serves as a record of the collaborative, genre-spanning creative life that has characterized many of Canada's most dedicated musicians.