Mark Sandman

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Mark Sandman (September 24, 1952 – July 3, 1999) was an American singer, songwriter, musical instrument inventor and multi-instrumentalist.

An indie rock icon and longtime fixture on the Boston/Cambridge music scene, Sandman was best known as the lead singer and slide bass player of the band Morphine. Sandman was also known as a prominent member of the Boston blues band Treat Her Right and the founder of Hi-n-Dry, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based recording studio and independent record label.

Sandman was born into a Jewish American family in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts, then worked a variety of blue-collar jobs, including construction, taxi driving, and commercial fishing. Sandman once noted he would often earn considerable overtime pay, which allowed him to take leave of work and travel outside of New England to places such as rural Colorado — the setting for a number of Treat Her Right and Morphine songs penned by Sandman, including «Thursday», «The Jury», and «I Think She Likes Me».

Two tragic events impacted Sandman’s life and would later influence his music - he was robbed and stabbed in the chest during a robbery in his cab, and his two brothers died. These events would later be recounted in the Treat Her Right song «No Reason». His mother, Guitelle Sandman, has self-published a book about the loss of her three sons entitled, «Four Minus Three A Mother’s Story. »

Few other details are publicly known about Sandman’s personal life. Fans have often speculated that many of Sandman’s songs were autobiographical, which to this day remains unconfirmed. Although Sandman served as an unofficial spokesman for Morphine, he avoided answering questions about his personal life or his professional experiences outside of the music business. Sandman was reported to have been particularly secretive about his age, becoming angry with any reporter who expressed an interest in revealing it publicly.

Some speculated that Sandman was sensitive to the fact that he was generally 10 to 20 years older than most of the indie rock figures popular during the 1990s. This was most notable in a famously contentious interview conducted by journalist Seth Mnookin for the now-defunct online music magazine Addicted to Noise.

On July 3, 1999, Sandman collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Latium, Italy (near Rome) while performing with Morphine. He was soon pronounced dead of a heart attack at the age of 46. Sandman was survived by his girlfriend Sabine Hrechdakian, his parents Robert and Guitelle Sandman, and his sister Martha Holmes. Morphine immediately disbanded following his death, though the surviving members briefly toured with other musicians, creating Orchestra Morphine as a tribute to Sandman and in support of the posthumous release, «The Night. »

Following Sandman’s death, Hi-n-Dry became a commercial record label and studio, recording and releasing the work of Boston-area artists. The label and studio are managed by Sandman’s former Morphine bandmates Conway and Colley. Hi-n-Dry issued a retrospective box set of Sandman’s music called Sandbox in 2004. Another four disc Morphine box set has been compiled but has not been released due to the sale of former Morphine label, Rykodisc, to Warner Brothers.

n addition to his work as a musician, Sandman was also an amateur photographer and artist. He created a comic entitled The Twinemen, starring three anthropomorphic balls of twine who form a band, become successful, break up, and later reunite.

The Twinemen comic also showcased Sandman’s signature technique of combining a simple pen or pencil drawing with watercolor paints. Sandman’s art and photographs were showcased on the official Morphine website and later featured in a DVD released with the Sandbox box set.

Colley, Treat Her Right and Morphine drummer Billy Conway, and singer Laurie Sargent would later adopt the Twinemen moniker for their own band as a permanent homage to Sandman.

On July 3, 1999, Sandman collapsed on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Latium, Italy (near Rome) while performing with Morphine. He was soon pronounced dead of a heart attack at the age of 46. Sandman was survived by his girlfriend Sabine Hrechdakian, his parents Robert and Guitelle Sandman, and his sister Martha Holmes. Morphine immediately disbanded following his death, though the surviving members briefly toured with other musicians, creating Orchestra Morphine as a tribute to Sandman and in support of the posthumous release, «The Night. »

Following Sandman’s death, Hi-n-Dry became a commercial record label and studio, recording and releasing the work of Boston-area artists. The label and studio are managed by Sandman’s former Morphine bandmates Conway and Colley. Hi-n-Dry issued a retrospective box set of Sandman’s music called Sandbox in 2004. Another four disc Morphine box set has been compiled but has not been released due to the sale of former Morphine label, Rykodisc, to Warner Brothers.

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