October 5 2026

Mark O’Connell – Founding Drummer (ME. / Taking Back Sunday)

Mark O’Connell

Take a walk with me down Fascination Street as I get to know Mark O’Connell. Mark is the founding drummer for the band Taking Back Sunday and the founding drummer for the new rock band ME. In this episode, we chat about how Mark became a drummer, and how he came to be in the band Taking Back Sunday. Then we talk about some of the highlights of that band during his 25-year stint with them. Next, we move onto some of Mark’s inspirations and his particular drumming style. We do not discuss why Mark left TBS; because I don’t really care about that. What we Do talk about is how and why Mark decided to team up with long time TBS guitarist Ed Reyes to build a whole new band. ME. is their new band. Mark O’Connell, Ed Reyes, Neal Amiruddin, and Mike Jansen are ‘ME.’ I pepper Mark with questions about why he got this particular group of musicians together, and how they found Mike. Then we discuss their debut album ‘All Good Things’, which came out in July of this year. We hit on a couple of the songs and what makes them impactful; as well as the entire ethos behind putting this band together. Mark generously agrees to let me play my favorite track from the new album, and we even get into the audio mixing and audio engineering of this record. Pay close attention, because in this episode, there is even a personal apology from me to a previous guest & former member of Taking Back Sunday!