Mark Chavez is a great vocalist and one-time guitarist. He shot into stardom as the frontman (lead vocalist) of the Bakersfield Rock band, Adema. However, over the period of years, he was actively a musician, he went on to have a solo career and founded a different band.
Chavez has a great musical foundation as members of his family, both nuclear and extended, have an affiliation with music and art in general. He however is credited for writing and singing most of the songs his band is famous for.
Songs like Giving In and The Way You Like It were written by Mark Chavez while he was with the Adema band.
Facts About The Lead Vocalist, Mark Chavez
1. Mark Chavez’ Early Life
Mark Chavez was born on November 15, 1978 in Bakersfield, California. He was raised there by his mother Holly Marie Smith and his dad, Mark Chavez. He is an American of Mexican descent.
Markey as he is fondly called attended a private Catholic school named Graces Memorial High school. He graduated from this school in 1997.
Chavez grew up with his family in Bakersfield and spent most of his formative years there. He also has a sister named Amanda Chavez who was born on July 31, 1981.
2. Chavez’s Mother was a Professional Actress and Dancer
Holly Marie (Smith) Chavez, Mark’s mother was born on the 6th of May 1949. She worked as a professional actress and dancer. She was previously married to Ricky Duane ‘Rick’ Davis who was a keyboardist who worked with the likes of Buck Owens and Frank Zappa.
Mrs. Holly Marie who got married to Ricky on February 6, 1970, got divorced from him in 1974. She then went on to marry Mark Chavez’s father a few years later and bore him two kids. Chavez’s mom died on February 25, 2018.
3. He Has a Half-sibling
Prior to the union between the actress cum dancer mother and Chavez, Holly had a child from her previous marriage. A boy named Jonathan Howsmon Davis was born on January 18, 1971. His father is Ricky Duane whom he stayed with after his parent’s divorce.
Better known as Jonathan Davis, Mark’s older brother had a rough upbringing after his mother left. His father remarried and the step-mother gave Davis hell as a child.
4. How the Band Adema Started
The American band was founded in the year 1998 in Bakersfield, California. They started off with Mark Chavez as the lead singer who has previously played the guitar for Big, Powerful, and Dangerous.
There was also guitarist Tim Fluckey who prior, had a stint with Juice. Dave DeRoo played with Sexart, Ryan Shuck of the band Orgy. Even Mike Ransom played the saxophone for the Ska band while Kris Kohls was formerly with the band Cradle of Thorns.
From this line-up, it was obvious that these members had some experiences with working in bands and they found themselves and started their own band. They had their debut album a year after the band’s formation; in August of 2001.
The band refers to themselves as ‘Nu Metal’, ‘Alternative metal’, ‘Post-grunge’, or ‘Alternative Rock’. From Adema, two songs really stood out and inevitably shot the band into stardom. The songs are; Giving In and The Way You Like It.
5. Mark Chavez’ Half-brother is a Nu Metal Rock Icon
Jonathan Davis is known as the lead singer and frontman of the popular Nu-metal band Korn. The band was formed in 1993 and has been credited for making the ‘nu metal’ rock music genre, mainstream.
He is the co-founder of the Korn band which has remained quite active for almost 3 decades. However, prior to Korn, Davis was part of Sexart and L.A.P.D which disbanded after a while. Notably, Jonathan had been active as a band member from 1987 with his first band, Buck Naked.
He has however gone on to achieve notoriety and has even made movies and TV appearances.
6. The Rise of Adema was Faced with a Lot of Skepticism
While Chavez’s new band was coming up, a lot of people were slow in accepting them. There was the skepticism that the band would be of no good and were just one of those bands who was being forced down the throats of Rock fans.
The reason for this is the affiliation between half-brothers Mark and Jonathan. Rock fans thought that the band was gaining fame because the Korn frontman had already made a name and of course was endorsing his younger brother. However, this was not the case as Davis had no hand in his brother’s band.
Chavez admitted that his brother is a fan of his and likes his band’s music but did not have to put in word for Adema. He insisted that the band got its accolades through hard work and putting out good music.
Also, considering both Chavez’s and Davis’ bands stem from the same genre, people were quick to believe that they would be of no good. Possibly thinking they had no new sound to offer and nothing unique as Korn had done most of pioneering ‘Nu metal’ job.
7. He Has Been In and Out of the Band Several Times
In September 2004, the Adema lead vocalist left the band due to some differences he had with other band members. The differences have often been described as ‘creative differences’ and it isn’t uncommon for bands to suffer this.
Chavez rejoined the band in 2009 and stated that he had plans for the band to drop another album and start touring. In 2011, Mark abruptly left the band once again after an album and some stints.
The reason for his departure this time was in a bid to pursue a solo career. He however had a fallout with the band during the 2010 tour where he challenged the other members of the band to ‘do this without him’.
However, on March 27, 2017, Mark rejoined the group once more and began rehearsals with them. In his first performance with the band after his 6-years hiatus, they performed ‘Whiskey A Go Go’. Two years down the line, he left the band again as announced by the band. The reason for this last departure is still unknown, though.
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8. Mark was Married
Chavey was once married to a woman known as Brandi with whom he had a son. His son named Mark Chavez III was born on March 18, 2003. However, in 2007, Chavey and Brandi got divorced while their son was barely 4 years old.
It is worth noting that Brandi was one of the contributing factors to why he left Adema for the second time. This is because Mark wanted to bring her along on their 2010 tour and the members of the band refused. As a result of this, the lead singer made his exit from the group after challenging them.
9. Upon His Departure from Adema, Chavez Co-founded Midnight Panic
When the Bakersfield frontman left the group in 2010, he linked up with his cousin Peter Shubert and former members of Adema; Mike Montano and Cesareo Garasa. Together, these men started another band named ‘Midnight Panic’.
Prior to this band’s formation, there were rumors that the lead singer was working on a different project. Mark was rumored to have a project named ‘State of Mind’ which was supposedly involving some former members of the group Filter. However, this never came to pass and so only remained a rumor.
Midnight panic released their first album in 2007 together with a follow-up EP. As is wont of Markey already, he left the band by mid-July 2007 to pursue other endeavors.
10. His Band Stints Gave Him Great Connections
While having his back and forth throughout his career, 46 year old Mark Chavez was opportune to meet with a lot of people. The astonishing part of his acquaintances is the fact that some of them actually replaced him at Adema when he was away.
The likes of Bobby Reeves and Luke Caraccioli who had to step in as lead vocals in Adema following Chavez’s departure are examples.
Additionally, he met the likes of Chester Bennington who was the lead singer for Linkin Park. Chavez himself even performed at one of Linkin Park’s concerts.
