Linda Marks is a Boston area-based musician, singer/songwriter who’s been playing music and writing songs for as long as she can remember. She’s known for her heart-to-heart style of songwriting and has completed 12 studio albums. She has written songs for nonprofits and has also been a leader in the field of somatic psychotherapy since 1985.
Mike Greenly is a leading lyricist in the industry, a spectacular journalist and entrepreneur. The former Vice-President of Avon products is also a talented executive speech writer and best-selling author. Mike is known for writing the Virginia’s state anthem, “Our Great Virginia” and has collaborated with music legends as Nile Rodgers and Kimberly Davis.
Marks and Greenly together — two passionate, heartfelt writers — collaborated to write one of the most inspirational songs of the decade called “Let There Be Love”. It’s set for release May 1, 2022 in celebration of “Global Love Day.”
So Linda, you co-wrote this very inspiring song with Mike Greenly a leader in the songwriting industry. How did you two connect?
That’s a really cool story. I took a master class with Grant Maloy Smith and I am part of the Indie Collaborative, a networking group of independent artists involved with creating music. At the end of our master class Grant played a song that he and Mike cowrote called “I See You”, about the invisibility of our older citizens. I fell in love with the song and decided I had to create my own arrangement. I have an album that came out January 1, 2022 called “Home” and “I See You” was the only non-original song that I’ve recorded in the last couple of years.
What happened is, I arranged it and I put up a YouTube video. Mike saw the song and made a comment, and that’s how we met each other. So, I met him through a song he wrote and then we started to connect. We are both from-the-heart kind of people and had a really nice connection. That’s what led to our collaborating and writing a song that we’re both really proud of and that’s very timely called “Let There Be Love.”
What inspired the song?
Actually what happened is I started to write it first. I’m very touched by things going on in the world. After more than two years in the COVID environment, and just looking at people being tired, scared, burnt out, losing hope and feeling isolated, I woke up with “Let There Be Love.”
Initially I wrote two verses and the chorus. But I didn’t finish the song. Then I thought this felt like a song for me and Mike to do together. I wrote music for the bridge, but I didn’t write the rest of the lyrics. So, I sent that to him and we went back-and-forth and he wrote the third verse. When people write you always tweak stuff. So, he wrote the lyrics and I wrote all the music. We have what I called the COVID version but then, when the war in the Ukraine started, we decided that this was even a bigger song. Mike suggested that we write a different opening verse because of the war in Ukraine. So in essence he crafted that verse. In the end we truly co-wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music.
What message are you hoping that people take away with them when they listen to the song?
First, that there is hope. We have more in common when people can see that there is a heart and soul inside us all. There is so much division — the political divide — which is another piece that inspired the song. Sith all of the things keeping us apart, whether it’s COVID or political divides, we’re all people with hearts and souls inside. The actions that you take impact everyone alive. So, lets join our hands and hearts to assure that we all survive.
The bottom line is if we can find our common ground and can literally join hands and work together, we can make the world a much healthier, more peaceful and happier place. That’s also essential for survival because there’s enough going on right now that puts our survival in question. Our song is a call to action, a call to love and a call for us all to join together and uplift one another and collaborate.
Do you think that music has the power to change the world?
I absolutely believe that music has the power to change the world. In fact, I believe that music is one of the most impactful. effective and far-reaching ways to do that. Music cuts deeper than words. It cuts deeper than political divides and it literally joins us together, heart to heart. I feel that music is one of the most effective healing and transformational tools to change the world for the better.
So, you’ve been doing this for a while I’m assuming.
Yeah. It goes back to being a little girl who started to write music before she could talk. She didn’t have a piano, but she would find her way to any piano she could and start creating music because it was just inside of her. I call music my first language. There’s quite a back story that goes with it, with lots of obstacles and barriers. But when you have that kind of Spark inside you, eventually it’s going to prevail no matter what your external circumstances are.
Watch the “Let There Be Love” lyric video here: