He got his first drum lessons at an age of 7 but he didn't practice that much, but he played with the school band. At an age of 12 he got a job at the music store in San Jose (USA) where he met other (older) musicians with who he could jam. He start playing in some cover bands and he met Bill Tsamis. He joined Bill's band Warlord and moved to Los Angeles (USA) with him. In Los Angeles (USA) they had their kind of rehearsal studio unofficially called "Bill's Place" but it became serious and it grew out to a real studio where both very known bands as very unknown bands came over. Mark Zonder plays in several projects and does producing and engineering work at Bill's Place.