Light banter aside however, the fact that a man from Melbourne, Australia has become an established name within the world of piping is a testament to the talents and imagination of Mark - who is set to wow islanders next weekend as he plays An Lanntair, Stornoway on Saturday night (August 12).
The question therefore begged to be asked: 'How did Mark first become interested in playing the bagpipes?':
"Well, although I'm from Australia both my parents were originally from England and they kinda freaked out when I told them at the age of 11 that I wanted to play the bagpipes," Mark explained in his jovial and personable manner.
"I wanted to learn to play a musical instrument and something a bit different, but my mum told me that I couldn't play the bagpipes as you had to be Scottish to do it. This lasted in my mind for a couple of years until one day I saw an Asian guy playing them and said to my mum 'Well he can't be Scottish, so can I play the pipes?'. I joined a local pipe band and started to learn, and things just took off from there."
And took off they certainly did, as to date, Mark has become one of the world's most successful and respected contemporary composers of bagpipe music, pushing the idiom to new territories, yet still remaining true to the folk tradition and accessible to wide audiences.
With a background steeped in pipe band tradition, the young musician travelled to Scotland every year between 1989 and 1994 to compete in the World Pipe Band Championships with the Victoria Police Pipe Band. This no doubt gave Mark a foot in the door of the established piping world, and since 1993 his international profile has grown steadily with the publication of two collections of his contemporary bagpipe music, as well as the release in 2004 of his solo album 'Mixolydian'.
Now cited as a major influence on a new generation of pipers, Mark's unique combination of pipe and dance music has become a favourite with festival goers the world over, and produced the emergence of The Mark Saul Band in late 2004.
"The band really arose as a necessity of trying to play the stuff recorded on the CD live," he revealed.
"It really has been quite amazing the development that has been brought to my music, however, since we got together. The last CD was written by myself, and over quite an extended period of time - some of the tunes were a couple of years old while others were only written weeks before being recorded.
"Now the new tunes are more a collaboration of the band and I've found my music has taken off in new directions that I didn't even plan for, but I'm loving it! It is a direct result from working with the guys in the band and I'm having a ball playing and touring with them."
And it's lucky that the group get on whilst on the road, as since January 2005 the Mark Saul Band have travelled to the UK to perform festivals such as Celtic Connections, Glasgow's Piping Live Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, Ireland's Celtic Fusion, the Eastleigh Festival, Skye's Feis an Eilein, and even Lewis' own Hebridean Celtic Festival.
"I'm so looking forward to playing in Stornoway again, as the last gig we had up there was the Hebridean Celtic Festival and it was brilliant," Mark said with excitement in his voice.
"The tent really exploded when we were playing and everyone seemed to have such a great time and enjoy us. Stornoway is now one of the most anticipated gigs on our tour as we all know how good it is to go up there. I hope lots of people go to the Saturday gig, and if they go off as they did at HebCelt then it should be a great gig!"
It seems that the mix of traditional bagpipe sound, merged with funky dance beats, is a winning formula - according to audience reaction - but the development of Mark's one-off sound is something which feels natural to the talented musician, as he explained: "During my teenage years I didn't listen to 'pop' music, I was obsessed with traditional music - Irish, Scottish, anything Celtic. As I grew older I started to listen to other sorts of music and for a long time I left traditional and concentrated on other types.
"It was as if I had two musical lives that were completely separate - they ran side by side, but they never crossed," he chuckled at the memory.
Indeed, from 1994 to 2002, Mark concentrated his musical energy on electronic and rock/pop music, playing with two highly successful bands 'Mumonkan' and 'Sonic Animation'.
He continued: "Traditional music is just dance music at the end of the day - you have your jigs and your reels - and electronic music is a music of the people - it can be made in a bedroom, a back yard, with a computer and electronic equipment.
"It seemed to make sense to me to merge the two and as I write my own reels and stuff I wasn't messing with the traditional music as such, but with what the instrument could do, evolving the instrument and what it can do."
And it is this novel approach which has won Mark a place in many piping hearts across the globe, an aspect which the piper is somewhat humbled by, but deservedly takes great pride in: "It's wonderfully flattering to be told that I am influencing young pipers, and it feels now that I have started to make my mark," he admitted.
"When I started learning the instrument I always enjoyed it, but I did have trouble accepting some of the traditional ways - I suppose that was because the heritage wasn't there in Australia though.
"Now nearly 20 years on, to know I'm making an impact and that people see me as becoming something of an historical aspect of piping - it really feels now that I'm a part of it rather than an outsider," Mark concluded, his Australian twang rich with happiness.