Sitting at a desk behind the walls of Cleveland Hall, there is a little-known musical talent that has been active in the Buffalo music scene for more than three decades. Many would be surprised to learn Mark Norris, Buffalo State University’s Associate Director of Web Administration, was also the frontman of the Buffalo News’ Best Local Band in 1992.

Norris’ musical career started with Girlpope in the 1990s when the University at Buffalo student met a bass player from Buffalo State and got together with a drummer he knew from kindergarten.

“We were all determined to form a band together,” said Norris of himself, Richie Campagna and Brandon Delmont.

As a part of Girlpope, Norris was a guitarist and vocalist, in charge of “wailing and gnashing of teeth,” as aptly described on the inside of their first CD.

Norris got into music in early childhood, finding Elvis Presley to be a huge inspiration. He started guitar lessons at 14 and later figured out the singing part “by ear,” he said.

Girlpope, self-described as power pop, put out their first album, Cheeses of Nazareth, under the label P22 Atom Smash Records, a side business of the font company P22. Norris knew the owner at the time the company was getting into the recording business.

When asked about the title of their first album, Norris admitted that the band “all had a similar sense of humor… comedy was as important as the music.”

Girlpope played a number of gigs in the region including the North by Northeast Festival in Toronto in 1998. They even opened for The White Stripes at the Mohawk Place when the Stripes were “playing a pretty small venue before they got huge,” said Norris.

His personal favorite act to open for was Arthur Lee, once a part of the 60s rock band Love. “He was a hero of mine,” Norris said of Lee.

Girlpope released a second album called The Whole Scene Going in 1999, which can be found on YouTube and Spotify. Later, they added Tommy Stanford to the trio on guitar and saxophone.

Norris was named Original Male Vocalist by the Buffalo Music Awards in 2001. The Buffalo News described Girlpope as “given to taking Kinks-inspired riffs, doubling the tempo, and then adding the sort of rough-but-right grit to the proceedings that belied the influence of their forebears.”

The band split up in 2004 as the members got married, started families and moved on to different projects. Norris himself had begun working at several different news organizations, including the Niagara Gazette and the publication Art Voice.

“The band and journalism, the two worked well hand in hand together,” Norris said.

A few years later, Mark Norris and the Backpeddlers was created. Norris admits that this name was also based on a joke.

“I couldn’t think of a name,” Norris said, “And I kept saying, ‘Well, I’ll go with this, but I’ll probably back pedal.’”

Norris also wrote original music for the Backpeddlers, releasing Stranded Between Stations in 2007. In 2011, they released Songs of Guilt and Revenge on vinyl, a dream come true for Norris, who is an avid collector of records.

“I was thrilled to have a full-length vinyl,” he said.

The band was a regional success, even opening for Elvis Costello at Canalside in 2011.

Around the time the Backpeddlers began, Norris began his work at Buffalo State, where he’s worked in Web Administration for the last 17 years.

Norris admitted that the Backpeddlers, formed of members younger than himself, “slowly dissolved” due to many of the same reasons as Girlpope: marriage, families, and “each wanted to do something different, musically.”

“I think that that’s OK,” said Norris, “Bands don’t necessarily need to stay together for a decade.”

These days, Norris plays with a band he formed during the Covid-19 pandemic, aptly named Thee Isolators. This band emulates 60s garage rock, playing originals and covers.

“I’d say it’s pretty well split between myself and Matt [Aquiline],” Norris said. “The two of us, we write the material then pick what covers we’re going to do.”

Norris plays the guitar all the time and writes a lot privately at home. The Isolators play regionally about once a month. But among most at Buffalo State, his musical career is still kept pretty well under wraps.

“I think a lot of people would be surprised at how many musicians are in the Buff State community,” said Norris.

Though Norris admits music “doesn’t always turn out as a career as it turns out,” and he’s not exactly the rockstar he dreamt of being listening to Elvis as a little kid, music plays a huge part in his life, nonetheless.

“It is like a hobby for people,” he said, “but it’s also creative expression. It’s a good outlet for people to be heard. It’s all a lot of fun!”