The Niwot Gig Marks grand opening

The Niwot Gig held a grand opening Saturday, Feb. 19, at the newly remodeled space behind Fan's Chinese Restaurant in Cottonwood Square, with owners Martin Marks and Alana Marks on hand to welcome the community.

They were joined by their soon-to-be 11-year-old daughter, Odette, an accomplished musician in her own right. Popcorn, pumpkin bread and poppy-seed bread were part of the celebration, along with coffee and hot chocolate from Winot Coffee to wash it down.

Music director Martin Marks, who came to California from Sweden in 1988 with a rock band and played on the Hollywood Sunset Strip, including clubs he was too young to get into, provided tours of the new music school. Vinyl album covers adorn the walls, including some of their favorite artists, such as Joe Cocker and Tom Waits, with part of the space turned into a fully equipped recording studio.

The business offers music lessons for guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, with Martin as the primary instructor. As a professional musician for over 30 years, he appreciates the thrill of live music performances.

Before moving to Colorado in 2014, he managed a rock and pop school in Thousand Oaks, Cali. "I grew them from seven students to 48, and it was always my dream to have my own school," Martin said. When promises of owning that business did not materialize, he and his wife moved to Colorado.

Alana Marks, who has a degree in linguistics, works at Shining Mountain School in Boulder. Martin spent time selling sleep-number beds and driving a limo in Colorado before the pandemic came and the limo business dried up. They moved to Niwot several years ago and live a rolling stone's throw away from their business in Cottonwood Park West.

Having their own rock music school had been a dream for some time, and after spending a lot of time trying to convince investors to fund the venture, a friend suggested that they start it on their own. "I thought, 'Let's get back to creating,'" Martin said. "This was the dream, and my wife's vision. So we borrowed some money, negotiated a lease, and here we are."

With 25 slots available for students interested in learning to play, 11 of them had already been filled before the grand opening. The lessons take into account each student's abilities and prior experience, and Martin tries to place them in a band with other students as soon as they are ready. "One group is working on Tom Petty's "Learning to Fly," he said. He also encourages them to create their own music.

Adults as well as children are signing up for lessons, and one band has already been formed with Marks and his daughter joined by another father-child duo.

"This tightly knit community is going to be perfect for us," he said. "My goal is to have about 25 privates, and about six bands that I direct. We had five trials, and today we have 15 trials signing up." Martin likes to start with a 20-minute trial session to make sure it's a good fit.

"The private lesson is to get them to where they can change chords in time," he said. At that point they are ready to play in a band. "Then we go to one private and one jam instead of two privates."

"After I get the rust off the adults, it becomes like a jam partner, and then when I start singing, they're really enjoying having a professional singer jamming with them. And then I take them with us when we do the events and then they get that live experience as well. It's all about performing around town."