Marko DeSantis

Marko DeSantis is a music professional best known as the lead guitarist for American modern rock band Sugarcult; he grew up in Santa Barbara, California.

With Sugarcult he has made 3 studio records, 2 DVDs, 1 live record, and toured internationally since 2001. Sugarcult have headlined tours, played many notable festivals (Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds, Summersonic, Warped Tour, Voodoo Fest, Soundwaves, etc.), and were the opening act on Green Day's "American Idiot" USA/Japan tours, and Blink 182's final tour before reforming to name a few. Tim Pagnotta asked him to join Sugarcult after meeting him at a Superdrag concert in 1999.

Currently, each member of Sugarcult is involved with other projects: bassist Airin with Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros and The New No. 2 featuring Dhani Harrison son of Beatles' guitarist George Harrison, Pagnotta produced the major label debut by Neon Trees & co-wrote their hit singles "Animal" and "Everybody Talks" ; drummer Kenny Livingston bikes across America for charity www.kennydoit.org and started Americana band Good Man Down.

DeSantis has had two side-projects with Lagwagon singer Joey Cape; Bad Astronaut and The Playing Favorites whose debut release "I Remember When I was Pretty..." features Marko singing lead vocals on 2 tracks he wrote ("Futuring" and "Whole Lotta Nothin"). He has also played in Nerf Herder, Swingin' Utters, The Lapdancers, The Ataris, Popsicko, Lost Kittenz. In 2013 Marko joined Ridel High on guitar for select shows; he had signed Ridel High to My Records, the Joey Cape owned indie-label he ran in the mid-90's.

Bad Astronaut recently did a Southern California tour (their first ever live performances as a band); also a Canadian tour and, most recently, an Australian tour supporting punk legends Black Flag ; now, the band plans to occasional play live in different territories worldwide.

He has used various guitars on Sugarcult's records, but his main instrument is an Epiphone Elitist '65 Dot ES-335 guitar. He uses Bogner Shiva Amplifiers, Seymour Duncan pick-ups, Electroharmonix pedals, etc.

As a DJ, DeSantis has performed at special events, parties and nightclubs in Japan, Russia, Mexico, Australia, New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Salt Lake City, Austin (at SXSW), 311 Bahamas Cruise, St. Louis and more. In the late 1990s he produced and hosted a weekly specialty show on Santa Barbara modern rock station KJEE FM. In the summer of 2009 he became the host/producer of weekly internet music television show Raw Rhythms on [1] showcasing upcoming bands. He currently hosts a weekly free form radio show called Endless Party! on iHeartRadio station The Independent.FM.

Marko also produces/writes for other artists; does remixes; and composes for film and television.

As an educator, DeSantis has appeared as a guest lecturer/panelist at several music conferences and academia programs: SXSW, MI (Musician's Institute), LACM (Los Angeles College of Music), Citrus College, Taxi Road Rally, Citrus College, Kenshu (Japanese exchange), Notes for Notes, New Noise, and Rock Shop Academy. In the summer of 2009, he was the director of the Washington DC branch of the rock fantasy camp for teens called Power Chord Academy; returning as the director for PCA's Chicago, IL and Dallas, TX sessions. He also does Artist Development and lectures regularly on the future of the music industry.

As a writer, DeSantis contributes to various print and online publications such as Punk Rock Confidential Magazine, Substream and The Independent; he also contributes a regular column called "Can You Hear Me Now?" to the UK independent rock magazine, Black Velvet. He has recently blogged for OC Weekly and Clear Channel's Modern Rock Station 98.7FM Los Angeles.

Marko DeSantis lives in Los Angeles.