90s prison stint inspired former Sudburian's new single

About two decades ago now, Mark Stansfield was arrested in a big drug bust in the Sudbury area, and was sentenced to spend a couple years in prison at Millhaven, near Kingston, Ont.

With a lot of time on his hands, Stansfield, a Sudbury-based musician who had his own group, Stansfield and Beers, and who'd recorded some of his tunes, did what came naturally — he wrote songs.

One of them, Broken Hearted, was inspired by the story of his cell-mate, who'd had his heart broken by a woman.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since Stansfield wrote that song.

After he got out of prison, he decided to turn his life around, and in 1999, he moved out to Victoria, BC., and now works for the provincial government in the area of homelessness and addictions.

“I'd never done anything else but music until I got out there,” Stansfield said. “Then I figured I'm going to need a pension at some point.”

While his day job pays the bills, 63-year-old Stansfield is still a musician. He can often be seen playing at clubs in Victoria under his stage name, MFields.

Just a few years away from retirement, Stansfield recently decided to ramp up his musical career.

He took a look at his catalogue of original songs, and recorded Broken Hearted as a single at Bryan Adams' studio The Warehouse in Vancouver. It's the first single he's recorded since 2000.

Stansfield said he thinks people will identify with the soft-rock tune, as everyone has had their heart broken at one time or another. He's hoping the song gets some radio air time.

The musician also plans to record a full album — he said he has enough original songs to record three albums, if he had the money. “This is the time of my life to pull it off, before I lose my voice,” he said.