Mark Ambor set himself a strict deadline to finish his debut album Rockwood, out today, in time for summer release. “A lot of the songs feel like summer to me,” he tells Man About Town.

“They feel like good energy and what I feel like when it's nice out in New York.” Like a day coursing carefree down an open road or skimming stones on a beach – there’s much to be buoyant about across the record’s 12 tracks of often breezy guitar pop. “Belong Together”, the track that supercharged his trajectory upon release in February, now boasting almost 400 million Spotify streams, is a case in point. But he doesn’t gloss over life’s intricacies – at times, ushering in introspection. “There are some songs that are catered towards the night,” he says, “When you want to kind of sit with your thoughts.”

Regardless of which mode he’s storytelling in, one thing that is for certain is the likelihood of it connecting with his skyrocketing fanbase – as well as 22 million monthly Spotify listeners, there are 1.5 million hooked on his every move on Instagram, and he counts multiple examples of fans telling of their lives being affected by his melodies and lyrics. Virality, a knack for the charts, and supreme fan connectivity make for a coveted trifecta of ingredients for a modern pop heavyweight if we ever did hear it.

Rockwood, however, is less focussed on the stadium-sized proportions his music would appear destined for, in favour of the much more intimate, familiar territory of home. He recorded it in his childhood bedroom, and its name owes itself to the state park nearby that hosted much of his formative moments.

Below, he takes us there, tells us why despite undertaking a Marketing and Analytics degree music was always the dream, and the surreal human reality of his music’s unstoppable rise…

Hey, Mark! Congratulations on the release of Rockwood! Starting off with the basics, can you tell us the story behind the title?
Growing up, my friends and I would go to a State Park that was called Rockwood. It was next to the town I grew up in which was a town called Pleasantville, and Rockwood was a place you would go when you had no friends’ house to go to and you would watch the sunset there, take a first date there or go for a walk or a run. And when you got to Rockwood, the weight of the world would fall off your shoulders for a second. It felt good to be there and surrounded by people you enjoyed. I made this first album because home was really important to me. It's a major symbol of home. If I do this album Rockwood justice, the listener will feel good, feel heard and part of something in themselves. And I feel like that's what I've always turned to music for. Paired with home, paired with escape and feeling the weight of the world fall off your shoulders made Rockwood the name of the album.

We’re chatting one week shy of its release – can you sum up the cocktail of emotions that comes with being on the cusp of your debut becoming public property?
I am definitely a bit nervous for the rest of the songs to come out. We did put out five singles and each single has felt better than the last in my opinion. There are a lot of songs that are a bit sadder, a bit more about insecurities, subdued, and a bit softer than the singles which are more upbeat and more fun. I’m a bit nervous to show people this other side of me but besides that I'm excited. It should be a fun week. Me and the people that surround me worked really hard on getting this done and it's gonna be really cool for it to go out into the world and become public property.

This year has proven a particularly monumental one for you, gaining legions of new fans along the way. However, can you talk us through how you became the chart-topping artist you are now?
That's a flattering question. I grew up playing piano. My mom had me take lessons when I was young and I never sang for anyone growing up in high school or anything, just piano. What ended up happening was the summer before leaving for college, I didn't want to leave home. My best friends are still my friends from home and that paired with me and my girlfriend breaking up at the time – I felt very lost and I didn’t want to leave. For whatever reason, when my parents weren’t home, I sat down at the piano and wrote a song. I finished the song a few hours later and I recorded it on my voice memos. I worked that night and my parents are a bit older and not great at technology - I’m the baby of the family - and I was feeling good about the song, so I sent it in a group chat and was like, ‘Hey, what do you guys think of this? A few hours later my mom responded, “Dad and I love this – who's the artist?” and I was like, "What do you mean? It's me.’ That was the beginning of my interest in pursuing it. They showed it to my siblings and I showed it to my friends and everyone thought it was good. So, in college, the passion just grew on the side. I picked up a guitar, I learned how to produce, I kept writing, and, in 2020, I graduated. Not with a music degree, but Marketing and Analytics. It was COVID [times] and I took six months to fully work on music because school [had] always come first [prior]. And that turned into [sharing my work on] TikTok, into putting myself out there and slowly but surely a lot of people started to find the music and just enjoy it. So now, we are here.

We were interested to read that you made Rockwood in your childhood home. Did you make a conscious decision to create there? Do you find solitude and familiar surroundings are the way your creativity flows most freely?
What is interesting about Rockwood – I took some time off because I felt like I was starting to make music for an algorithm. There just didn't feel like there was longevity in it. I took some time off and, when I came back, I was super inspired and I was writing some songs from a place of not thinking about social media at all. Writing alone in my bedroom, staring out the window with the piano and guitar and just writing about things that were important to me, about my family and my friends, my home and where I’m from, feelings about relationships, life, love, and happiness. That was around the period I wrote “Good To Be” and “Belong Together” and almost all of these songs are on Rockwood. And to see them resonate the way they have has been surreal and probably the coolest thing ever because it makes me feel validated in who I am because these songs are super authentic to who I am and where I’m from.

What was the first song you made for the record? Tell us about the day you finished it!
The first song I made was a song called “Second Best” and that one is an outlier, I made it in 2022 and when it came to making the album I was re-listening to all these songs I had written. There was something I really liked about that one and it touched me. I will say, the first song that felt like Rockwood to me was “Good To Be” when I wrote it, so that's why that's the first single. And the day I finished it was awesome. I was so excited to finish it. I had got back from my first tour that I had ever been on and we were working quickly to get the songs finished to get the album out by the summer. That was a deadline I made in my head, and I was sticking to it. It felt so good. I remember when we got the final masters back of all the songs, I felt so good. I was so excited for people to get a glimpse of my world, where I’m from and how I see things. It was amazing.

“Belong Together”, in particular, has really connected with audiences around the world! Can you tell us about some fan reactions to the song that stand out from the past few months?
There was one time I was in Germany a few months ago and there was a girl I met at a pop-up shop, as we do, and she came up to me at the end and said all these compliments about the pop-up shop and everything and then she looked me dead in the eyes and said, “I need to tell you something” and then said, “I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you”. I didn’t know how to respond, so I just gave her a hug and held on for a few seconds, and I think that is an example of just one of a few times that that's happened. That happened also just a few weeks ago in Minneapolis and this girl said she went through a horrible sickness and she thought she wasn't going to make it, and she turned to the music and it made her feel the positivity she needed. I just think that what I find coolest is the success of “Belong Together” and how, these songs I make alone and It's just fun for me to do, in my basement, it's an expression of feeling that just feels good to do, and then these songs go off into the world and take on meanings for other people that I will never know. I will never know what “Good To Be” and “Belong Together” mean to the girl in Germany or the girl in Minneapolis, and I think that's a really cool and powerful thought.

Finally, with such success comes a massive increase in exposure – how are you finding navigating life with that larger spotlight on you?
To be honest, you spend your whole life trying to get people to care about the music you make so when people start caring, it feels good. I’m happy that everyone is here and everyone supporting the music is cool, nice and not overbearing and just has good energy. The only feeling I'm feeling about it is excitement.