"The word 'Morphine' comes from the word 'Morpheus,' who is the god of dreams, and that kind appealed to us as a concept...I've heard there's a drug called 'morphine' but that's not where we're coming from...we were dreaming, Morpheus comes into our dreams...and we woke up and started this band...we're all wrapped up in these dream messages, and we were compelled to start this band."
Best known for being the singer and bass player with Morphine which he formed in 1989, Mark Sandman was a real outsider in a lot of ways. First off he invented his own instruments, or rather converted them to 2 and 3 string slide bass' (that was very much a blues tradition going way back). Other variations were pairing bass strings with one or two guitar strings. The overall effect was to give his music an individual low sound, in fact Morphine's additional use of baritone sax was a clever departure from the normal guitar based sound, "..it sounds really low, but you can still hear what's going on between the different instruments. It hits the body in a peculiar way.."
It takes some imagination to work that musical idea out, but such radical and imaginative ideas rarely get commercial recognition and Morphine although critically acclaimed didn't find mainstream rock sales in the US. On the continent and Australia they had far better success.
Besides his playing, Sandman was to set up an independent record label and studio, was no mean artist and photographer, and created his own comic book (The Twinemen). That's a lot of ideas and work to get through.
His death came suddenly in 1999 when he collapsed on stage on July 3, 1999 in Italy while performing with Morphine. Stress and overwork contributed to the coronary.
Rock and Roll is a tough life. It's obvious Mark Sandman gave a lot more than most.
Here's a track by Morphine - "Take Me With You". It's a good bet he designed the sleeve as well.
