What do you get if you cross Stevie Wonder with Herbie Hancok and a dash of Joe Sample? Niko Marks.

He is a unique singer, songwriter and performance musician with a voice of gold and a freshness of spirit that transverses time and genre.

Hailing from Detroit, MI, Niko started honing in on his musical skills at the age of 7 – inspired by a family of talented vocalist and musicians including his mother, a pianist who played at the church they attended.

Niko’s first instrument of choice was drums. At the time, his family was unable to afford a drum set so he would use plastic toy bowling pins as drum sticks to beat on boxes and stairs, imitating the rhythms from songs on the radio. At the age of 13, Niko got his first drum set, given to him by his oldest brother.

In early teenage years, Niko became inspired by artists such as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Paul McCartney, Elton John, George Clinton, Herbie Hancock, Al Jarreau, Miles Davis, Chaka Khan and others which led him into playing instruments such as harmonica, piano, and percussions. He then formed a band called “Detour” which consisted of some his high school classmates.

The next phase in his musical career led him to team up with Michael Banks of Submerge, formulating a production team called Members of the House dropping hits such as, “Summer Nites” written by Niko and featuring him on lead vocals and piano, as well as “Share This House” and “Somethin’ About You”. Niko also collaborated with Michael Banks under the group names, Unit 2 and 365 Black. This mission stemmed forth the high-spirited grooves, “Sunshine”, released on Happy Records and “Keep Your Head Up” written by Niko and Raphael Merriweathers – featuring Niko on lead vocals and keyboards and was released on 430 West Records.

Niko further developed his writing and production skills when he later began working as a producer, writer and engineer on projects with Michael J. Powell, of Vanguard Productions, who produced for artists such as Anita Baker, Rachelle Ferrell, The Winans and Randy Crawford.

Taking a leap forward in time, Niko spearheaded an experiment aimed at tearing down the stronghold of the categorization of music. The second component needed to complete this mission would be the skills of long time cohort, Eddie Fowlkes. The outcome: "Niko Marks and the City Boy Players” featuring Eddie Fowlkes, which was a collage of artistic expression that housed an array of Detroit vocalist and musicians. Their other collaborative works included: “The Detroit Soul Project”, the "Pre-Amp Brothers” and “Angel In My Pocket”.

Niko has also been involved with releasing dance records in the United Kingdom which includes “Sonny Daye” and “Ufo’s” with the group, Ujuzi on Pan Records, “Truly Something” and “Chune” on Planet E, “Major Arterie” and “House People Know” on Subject Detroit, “Carnal”, a 12-inch which contains the funky track “Zombia” and the french-styled broken beat track "Moon Cycles” – released on U2XProductions and licensed to New Religion/EMI just to name a few.

As a self-sufficient artist, Niko continues to write, produce and release projects on U2XProductions to which he has several hot releases. When performing live, he is usually accompanied by a duo which consists of a bass player and drummer. Together they perform one of the most eclectic and diverse electronic music dance sets!