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WALSTIB Productions
Presents: |
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Ratdog Bob Weir
Mark Karan
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I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Karan just before he left for the Spring 2001 Ratdog tour. I heard rave reviews from the tour, many of them echoing one particular phrase: 'The Magic Is Back.' I spoke to Mark on the phone mid-tour and he said: 'This is some of the best music I've ever played,' which speaks volumes for the evolution of Ratdog today. I caught the Warfield show on May 4th and these guys are on fire. For the first time in a very long time I felt that 'Magic' on numerous occasions during the show. Ratdog will be appearing with Phil & Friends in select cities across the country in July. Both bands have come into their own......on their own. We are truly blessed to be able to watch and experience their evolution as they travel So Many Roads I Know, So Many Roads To Ease My Soul. Ratdog will be playing at the Black & White Ball in San Francisco on June 2, 2001 and hits the road again in August with Rusted Root and Tiny Universe. VS: Ratdog has really grown in the last couple of years. Can you talk about some of the musical growth both by the band members and the music you’re playing? MK: Well musical growth wise I would say that the main thing that I’ve noticed that’s been going on is that Ratdog has become more and more of a “band” so the musical communication has gotten a lot better and I think, as a result of that, Bob is more comfortable trusting the band and letting things take a little bit more of a free reign kind of a format, allowing things to be more freely improvised, and taking more chances with the music… exploring more than he used to be comfortable doing with this band. After all the years with the Grateful Dead and the sort of intuitive or telepathic thing that had developed in that band, I think Bob was afraid to really give this band the freedom because we didn’t have the benefit of 30 years of being together to draw from. Now I think he is starting to feel like he can trust what’s going on. VS: Comfortable enough… MK: Yah. I think so… I can’t really speak for him. VS: That’s what I’ve seen. There’s been a definite kind of communication meld that’s happened in the last year. MK: Yeah… and an improvement in the overall level of musical trust. VS: You guys have been rehearsing for the last couple of weeks, what can we look forward to on this tour? MK: None of your business [laughs….] Come see the band. VS: I’m gonna. MK: Yeah, well you’ll come see the band at the end of the tour. you see? I know [laughs] VS: You take me on tour and I’ll go. MK: Yeah, Yeah….[laughs] VS: There are no opening bands scheduled on this tour. will it be one or two set shows? MK: As far as I know we’re doing 2 sets. VS: How did the choice to do 2-set shows evolve? MK: It’s something that we’ve been working towards all along. I think it’s something that Bob would prefer to do. It’s a huge book and even now, there’s some sense that, once again, we don’t have the 30 years to draw upon that the Grateful Dead did… and so the idea that there’s some 500 or 1,000 songs or whatever the fuck is out there… we haven’t had ready access to that. We’ve had ready access, without a lot of repetition, to do a two hour show, not a 3 hour show or 3 hours worth of music. VS: So now you have more stuff that’s rehearsed? MK: We have more stuff because of the last several tours. We’ve been adding songs every tour, which gives us whatever we started out with, plus whatever the new material is each time we go out so the book is getting bigger. Again, I think that one of the results of Bobby (and all of us) feeling more comfortable with the jamming and what not is that there is a freedom to take the songs out further which means more time on stage with fewer songs… so ten songs doesn’t have to take under two hours, it can take three hours to get through ten songs. VS: Before you had said you liked the one set show better because there was no stopping and it was the building of momentum. MK: If it were up to me, which it isn’t, I would still be in favor of performing 3 hours worth of music, but personally I’d prefer to just stay up there and have it be 3 hours of non-stop music, rather than whatever it’s going to be….an hour and fifteen minutes and then a break and then an hour and forty-five minutes or whatever. That’s all well and good and I know the promoters need to sell beers and I know the merch people need to sell T-shirts, but… [laughs] VS: Yes, they do and that was one of the complaints by the vendors at Furthur, not enough vending time. MK: Now, wait a minute they had Zigs, so they the time between Zigs and The Other Ones… VS: but it was never very long… MK: I guess that depends on your definition of long. see, now, when I was going to concerts more often, nothing annoyed me more than a big ass long break between bands. If they could get the next band on within 15 minutes, that was awesome. the momentum of the show kept going. I had no interest in breaking for an hour and then coming back to more music. I wasn’t paying to wander around the venue, I was paying to see the music, but yeah, there’s a whole economic structure that exists around Dead related tour. VS: And the business of music… MK: Well the business of music also, but specifically Dead related tours. you know, if you go see a more main stream show like Ricky Martin or whatever, there is not some big break in the middle for you to go hang out in vending. People go in and on their way in they buy their program and their Ricky Martin T-Shirt and on the way out they try to sell the Ricky Martin T-shirt cause they hated the show… (laughs) no… VS: There are also openers where everybody shops during the opening act. MK: Yes and no. Some of those tours, they don’t have an opening act. Some friends of mine went and saw Van Morrison at the Warfield a few weeks ago. The show was listed as starting at 8:00 and they got there at 8:30 or 8:45 thinking they’d skip the opening act. Instead, what they’d done is miss the first half hour of Van Morrison… so you never know. Also, I have to go on record here and say that I’ve been in numerous opening acts and I was always really bummed out at the way the audiences would treat an opening act as though it were something TO miss. Let’s face it, there were times when the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix or whoever were the opening act. You never know what the hell it is you’re going to miss by skipping that. I used to hear stories on Dead tour of amazing acts like Traffic opening for the Dead and everybody staying in the parking lot. VS: Not me… MK: …and it’s like HELLO you’ve got one of the most brilliant bands in the world… VS: …THE… MK: Well [laughs] I don’t think there is any such thing, unless maybe it’s the Beatles [laughs] but you’ve got this opportunity to see this really amazing music and just because it’s not the primary band that you came to see, you’re going to stay out in the parking lot? I mean… that’s incredibly limiting. VS: Yeah, I agree. MK: Of course, I find that sometimes people’s musical tastes in general are incredibly limited. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had flat out arguments with heads who make blanket statements like: “I hate country music.” And I’m like: “Okay you hate country music, but you like Bertha and Mama Tried and Dire Wolf and [laughs]… VS: ...a lot of original country tunes. |
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MK: ....all these country songs, many of which are covers by people like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. What….you don’t like country by anybody except the Grateful Dead and then country’s okay? I mean, what’s that? VS: And they didn’t write all those songs either. MK: That’s what I’m sayin’. I’ve got a running dialogue with this one really close friend trying to get her to listen to Merle Haggard’s version of Mama Tried… VS: and she doesn’t want to listen… MK: She doesn’t want to hear it. VS: Okay… whatever… [laughs] MK: there ya go… VS: Will there be any particular structure to the first and second set besides the timeline you just talked about? MK: I hope not. VS: There won’t be a drums/space in the middle or bass solo or opening with acoustic songs… which I highly recommend opening with the acoustic songs. [laughs] MK: Opening the whole night with the acoustic songs? VS: Well, yeah because then you build. the acoustic is like the beginning. if you do that in the middle… MK: I’m sure that won’t happen. Well, I’m not sure of anything… but I would tend to disagree with that planning process… only because my thinking is to come out with a bang and then fairly early in the set calm it down to the acoustic vibe and then build it back up again. to start with the acoustic is kind of like starting with a whimper. I’d rather come out with something that hits a little harder. VS: Acoustic “deal” by you? MK: No, that’s probably not going to happen either. Knowing Bob there probably will wind up being some form of structure because that seems to sit well with him. He seems to like to have some kind of at least vague format to work within. That having been said though, I think we’re all really intrigued with the possibility of trusting the muse… and what we’re really working towards is something that the Grateful Dead themselves didn’t even really do towards the end which was basically operating completely without a net. We want to do it without any kind of set list. Right now we’re not really in a position to do that, the general sense is that we can keep it as loose as possible and certainly we can “call an audible” or make a change in the last minute if we choose to, but we’re starting out with a framework. Maybe as soon as this year’s fall tour, we’ll toss the set lists. I don’t know. I’d like to see that. VS: Me too. VS: So you won’t be singing any leads with Ratdog? MK: That’s relatively safe to say, but everything’s subject to change, obviously. I’ve gone on record with this before and I continue to say the same thing. Bob and I talked about all that during Furthur 2000 and his sense is that Ratdog is the first real opportunity he has had to really pursue his musical vision… what he wants to do and how he wants to do it… at least at this point in time, is to have the focal point be the single singer and take it somewhere with that as the pivotal point and I respect that. VS: It's like Puddleduck is for you…. MK: well… yes and no… because with the whole Jemimah Puddleduck thing, Arlan sang some tunes…Bob sings… VS: I don’t mean about singing, but just about it being your thing and wanting to do it your way… MK: Yeah, it’s my vehicle to express more like that and as Bob has said when I have mentioned that I missed singing in the context of Ratdog, “well that’s why you have your band” and I agree with that. all I can say in answer is that’s the truth and that’s why we can expect to see quite a bit more of Jemimah Puddleduck in the future. VS: Cool!!! [laughs] Are you looking forward to playing some new areas like Boise, Idaho & Bozeman, Montana? Or do you even know where you’re going? MK: I actually have some vague idea as to where I’m going because we finally got our tour books. I’m curious. I don’t know what to expect from Boise or Bozeman. There are places that we’ve been in the past that I’m particularly looking forward to. VS: Like? MK: I’d say New Orleans is an obvious one. I’m looking forward to Memphis and Nashville again. I’m hoping be able to partake of the local color there. Memphis is a big BBQ town which is one of my big thrills. Nashville is a great country music town and the little bit of running around that I did when I was in Nashville, I had the good fortune to go on the main drag there and see some of the local acts. there were some pretty awesome Tele players, so I want to see some more of that. New Orleans…? hmmm… food, music, sex [laughs] what does New Orleans NOT have to offer? Spring Break in Florida… VS: Is it going to be Spring Break? MK: That is my understanding is that we will be there during Spring Break. VS: That’ll be interesting. MK: Should be fun. A lot of enthusiastic young folks [laughs]. Asheville… I’m looking forward to going back to Asheville. I really enjoyed that town. I thought it was a really interesting… almost an east coast or southeast version of Santa Cruz… VS: Really? MK: Yeah, a lot of hippies… a lot of art and culture in the downtown area… so I’m looking forward to going back there. VS: Why do they mix the sax player louder than the guitar in Ratdog? MK: I don’t know that they do. VS: A few people have commented about that. It goes back to an interview I read where you said that what you hear on stage is not what the audience hears. MK: That’s definitely true. Anybody that’s actually got a beef along those lines should be talking to Mike McGinn (Ratdog’s sound engineer), not to me. VS: Someone wants to know which fret do you rely upon most in the second set? I’m not entirely sure this is a serious question… MK: I don’t want to insult anybody, but… [laughs] VS: Are there any post-spring tour plans for Ratdog? MK: We’re trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the year. I’m not sure if there’s going to be any kind of a Furthur or if we going to relegate ourselves to doing a fall tour or what. I’m going to try to get the Duck out and about as much as I can and there has been some talk about the possibility of Ratdog doing a movie soundtrack, a film score, which would be awesome if that comes together… VS: yeah, that would be. MK: …but nothing solid.
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Taking Speakers and sound to a new level!
The "Brown Cabinet" is made with hand Courtesy of K & M Analog Designs, the Two-Rock Amplifier |
Mark 'Gears' Up For Tour VS: You got some new gear for the upcoming Ratdog tour. Do you want to tell us about it? MK: I got a new amp and a new speaker cabinet, actually thanks at least in part to Mr. Kimock. I’ve been working with Steve on and off now for three years, I’ve always really dug his tone and I’ve always been a tone freak myself… always looking for the next greatest thing. Steve’s been working with these guys up in the Cotati area, K & M Analog Designs, and they make an amp called the Two Rock. It’s sort of a culmination of a lot of hours spent with Steve and his favorite 50 watt Dumble, taking it apart and having them build something and him A/B-ing and listening to stuff and basically saying: “nah, this sucks” and them coming back to him with another one… until finally they built an amp that comes real close or maybe even surpasses his favorite Dumble. I’ve always liked Dumble amps but I’ve never been in a position to afford to own one and even if I had, I don’t know if I would have been willing to shell out the $10,000 that it would cost. These guys are making something as good or better that is extremely pricey, but considerably less pricey than the Dumble. I went up and listened to their stuff and fell in love and bought an amp. I also had a speaker cabinet put together with, interestingly enough, some speakers that Steve also had a hand in developing. In fact, if you go to www.kimock.com under his gear page right now there is a pretty thorough discussion of the origin of those speakers. They called Tone Tubbies and they’re being marketed by A. Brown Sound in San Rafael. They’re sort of like an upgraded version of the old 15 Watt Vox Celestion Blue Speaker, sort of a cross breed between those and the old beautiful Jenson’s that Fender used to use back in the Tweed days, P12Ns I believe they’re called. I’m a tone freak, but I don’t go quite as far into it as Steve does. [laughs] In addition to the new amp I had all of my pedals and things organized into a rack set-up with loops and whatnot so that when the pedals are actually being used they’re in the signal path and when they’re not being used, they’re in a loop that actually gets removed from the signal path. the tone isn’t being adulterated when the effect isn’t actually being used. It keeps your signal path cleaner and having them in the rack like that allows me to have one master pedal at the front of the stage where I can select any of the effects that I want to utilize or any number of them in a pre-set format. So… if I know that on a such and such a song I want… oh I don’t know… a fuzz box, a delay and some sort of a chorus pedal on all at the same time, I can hit one button and they’ll all come on… as opposed to do the proverbial guitar player tap dance and jumping around hitting three different pedals to get the sound that I want. VS: Do you think that your new gear will have a substantial effect on the Ratdog sound? MK: Probably not. VS: It sounded awesome at New George’s. MK: I think that the sound of the stuff is great, but I don’t know how much impact it will really have on the sound of Ratdog as a band as a whole. It’s bound to effect me which will infect [laughs]… which will affect and infect my contribution to the band which, since the band is improvisational in it’s structure and what not, will affect how other people react to me… so in that sense, yeah, it will have quite an impact… but I think it will be less the actual sound and more how the inspiration sourcing from that sound affects all of our playing and interaction. VS: Do you use stock or custom gauge strings? MK: Custom. VS: Why? MK: Because I’m a freak for Pyramid Guitar strings. The sets they offer with the majority of the gages that I want have a couple of strings that don’t work for me, so I have them make some changes. I use Pyramids with a 12 for the high E and that comes normally with 2 G strings so that you have an option of an 18 plain or a 24 wound for your G and I prefer an unwound G in most situations, but the 18 is too light so I have them substitute a 20 for the G and the heaviest, the bottom E string is a 54 in that set and I like a lot of chunk on my bottom end so I have them throw in a 56 for the low E. So it’s basically the 12 set that Pyramid normally offers in the round wound, but with a 20 plain for the G string and a 56 for an E. VS: What is your preferred slide: steel or bottleneck? MK: I assume by bottleneck, whoever asked that question is meaning steel vs. glass. Steel would not be my favorite anything. Brass would be my favorite metal slide, although I do use a chrome plated brass slide because the texture of chrome is smoother against the strings so the slide action is nice, but I like the weight and the heft of brass. I don’t think it’s an either or situation. I also use glass slides. It’s a different sound and a different feel so it really depends on what it is that I want. I definitely prefer thick walled shorter slides in general. The brass ones I like to be very, very heavy and the glass ones I just like to have a nice thick wall as opposed to say the thin walled Corriciden bottle type thing… like the Duane Allman ones. VS: Someone wants to know what you think of Piezo pick-ups? MK: Crap… VS: Do you have preference for closed back or open back speaker cabinets? |
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MK: Depends on what you’re going for… a friend of mine is fond of saying “there’s an ass for every seat”. Closed backs have a particular sound. they tend to be more focused and directional. they tend to reproduce a tighter, bigger sounding low end. On the other hand, open backed cabinets tend to offer a more open airy spacious sound… but you do give up some of the low end response. Sometimes the best thing is to have some of each, if you have that luxury. VS: Do you? MK: Do I personally? VS: Yeah… MK: Not so much with Ratdog. We try to keep a relatively low compliment of gear. We try to keep things as simple as possible, both so that we don’t have to have a huge truck and drag a ton of gear out with us and also Ratdog tends to be a pretty low volume band on stage. Obviously, the more stuff you have, the louder you tend to get. Right now the cabinet that I am using is a 412 Cabinet with 4 of those Tone Tubbies in it and it has a port in the back about the size and shape of a football so you get some more of the focus and some more of the low end that one would get in a closed back cabinet. having that port allows the air to escape, not just from the front and not just via the speakers and therefore you also get some of the benefits of an open backed cabinet. If I could do anything I damn well pleased I would probably have a closed back cabinet and a couple of open backed cabinets on either side of it… maybe do something like three 2x12 Cabinets or something where the center one would be a closed back and the two end ones would be even more open that the cabinet I’m currently using, but again… we try to keep the stage gear down to a minimum. VS: Until you get to those big stages where you have five times the room… MK: even then the days of the wall of Marshalls is a thing of the past….[laughs] While on tour with Ratdog this Spring both Mark and Bobby were given new guitars. MK: "Special thanks to Zeta/Owens Guitars for the extremely cool aluminum body resonator guitars that Bobby and I got and the "Statesboro" hollow body electric. Unfortunately, these came to me post interview. They are really great instruments. more on them later. " |
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Photos courtesy of www.shotlivephoto.com |
Jemimah Puddleduck is scheduled to play June 17 - Dawg Kingdom's It's A Family Affair Featuring: Jemimah Puddleduck, Fact Or Fiction, Garaj Mahal & many more - Located Between Gold Beach & Port Orford in Oregon. JP is in the process of scheduling other dates in June so check the gigs page on MK's World for more info. If you haven't seen or heard these guys, you can listen to some real audio files on MK's World. The show they did on January 19, 2001 for Musicians for Medical Marijuana is one of the hottest shows I've seen in a long time. Adding to the magic of the evening JP was joined by specials guests: Terry Haggerty, Barney Doyle, Martin Fierro & Barry Sless. VS: Okay Puddleduck… What’s happening with Jemimah Puddleduck? MK: We’re in a pretty hairy phase of transition. Our dear drummer John Molo has been busy all along with the Phil & Friends thing and with the duties required of a father and a husband. recently his jazz project, Modereko, got signed to Blue Thumb and part of their agreement in signing the deal was that they be willing to tour and be an actual working entity. John expressed a lot of disappointment at needing to bow out, but there are only so many hours in a day and only so many days in the week so we have had to make a change there. In addition Arlan, our illustrious and insane keyboard player, has decided to focus his energies elsewhere. So, right now Jemimah Puddleduck is myself and Bob Gross. I think we’re going to do this next run of shows with a guy that we met in Los Angeles, Jason Smith. He’s a really, really creative and talented drummer who was actually slated to play in SKB right before they decided to go with Rodney (Holmes of “Santana”). he completely blew my mind when we first got together and jammed. I threw in a couple of little quotes in the midst of the jams and when we were done, not only did he recognize the songs and know their names, but he knew who did them… and they were pretty obscure references. he knew who did the songs, when they were done and what label. In other words, he’s as much of a music geek as I am and that’s important to me… having the people in the band have a pretty broad background in different types of music. I’ve got a pretty eclectic set of musical tastes and a pretty huge collection of music to listen to. to me, the more different stuff you’ve been exposed to through your past and the more different stuff you can embrace, the broader your musical palette when you go to paint your own stuff and I think that Jason may have that really wonderful and huge vocabulary. I’m really looking forward to playing music with him. VS: And the keyboard slot will be…? MK: ….for the time being it’s going to float. I want to do some gigs with Pete Sears. If he’s available, I’d like to do some shows with Rob Barraco. maybe we’ll pull Rob and Molo because Molo still expressed interest in doing some stuff with us… just not as the permanent guy. John “JT” Thomas from Hornsby’s band… maybe Molo’s former keyboard player from Modereko, Zach… maybe Chip Roland. I’d love to play with Chimenti. if he’d like to, I’d love to do something with Jeff. Just kind of let it float around for a while and see where the dust settles… see if there’s somebody out of the whole bunch that really falls in love with what we’re doing… that we really fall in love with playing with. VS: The East Coast is wondering when they might get to see and hear JP Live. Any plans to bring the band east? MK: Well… yeah. There are no specific ones… no plans with a date attached… but certainly the intention is to get there and I think it’s safe to say that the intention is to get there this year. VS: Any new MK vocals we can look forward to? Are you working on/writing any new songs? MK: I’m always working on that, but as to whether or not… let’s just say I haven’t been a really prolific writer in quite some time. I went through several periods in my life where I was writing all the time. For some reason that doesn’t really seem to be my focus or it doesn’t seem to flow creatively that readily from me right now… so as opposed to writing two or three songs a week like I used to, two or three songs a year is a more realistic expectation. I have some older songs that I’m reworking and I’m always looking to write. I shot off an e-mail a few weeks ago to Hunter to see if he has any interest in collaborating. I figured as long as we’re in this scene and I have semi-access to such a brilliant lyricist why not see if I can cast my lot with him… and actually one of Bobby’s good lyrical buddies, Gerrit Graham is working on a tune with me and I may hit John Perry Barlow up… I don’t know. I’m always talking to Bob about writing together, but Bob’s idea with regard to writing in Ratdog seems to be more sort of an organic “catch as catch can” kind of an approach where we write songs that just sort of morph out of some jam that occurred at sound check or at rehearsal somewhere… rather than me coming in with a half written song and finishing it with Bob or that kind of thing. I’ve run it by Bobby that way a few times and his response usually is that he’d rather go with what we come up with on the natch as a band. VS: JP has played two shows for Musicians for Medical marijuana. Your support for this cause is greatly appreciated. Are you involved in any of the political aspects of Medical Marijuana?
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MK: I’m not a political activist for the cause particularly, other than my contributions via being an artist at the benefits or a verbal proponent of the concept. I, myself, had the pleasure of becoming medical partially as a result of the last time we played a benefit for that organization. It’s been an interesting experience. I had 16 years clean and sober and in every other respect I’m still clean and sober, but I’ve taken to personal medication with the noble herb…and would have to say that I’m rather pleased with the results. I have always felt that it’s irresponsible at best to lump marijuana in under the umbrella terminology of “illegal drugs” or “controlled substances”. If you tell a kid that drugs… all drugs… are bad and addictive and are going to screw up your life and that kid goes and experiments with marijuana and it doesn’t do anything bad, then the trite old axiom of marijuana leading to harder drugs becomes true… not because marijuana led to the harder drugs, but because the lack of education about the truth with regard to drugs led to all drugs being lumped into one category. It’s never been my experience that marijuana has caused anywhere near the kinds of difficulties for its users that cocaine or heroin or our good old friend alcohol causes for people, nor do I find that cocaine or heroin or alcohol have any positive usages in terms of expansion of consciousness or raising the bar of a person’s spiritual growth…..whereas I buy into the whole Richard Alpert/Baba Ram Das, Tim Leary, Aldous Huxley thing… the concept of the doors perception where it’s not necessarily the end, but certainly a means to an end where some of the windows and doors that one gets to peek through under the influence of psychedelics and psychotropics can be really…oh what’s the word I’m looking for…..well at the risk of being phenomenally trite…..enlightening [laughs]… VS: Why would that be trite… MK: Enlightenment is the Goal… I don’t know. VS: Shuddduuupppp… MK: Where have I heard that before… [laughs] VS: I don’t know… MK: His job is to shed light… VS: …not to master [laughs] Mark pulls a pick out of his pocket that, when you press on it, it lights up… MK: Do you think this will fuck the deadhead’s heads up? VS: Yes, I do think so [lots of laughs] MK: Preferably the ones that are on pot and acid… do you think they’ll see it, if I do it this way? VS: Yeah. you can see it through your skin. MK: That’s probably even cooler than doing it this way (not showing through his skin, but just holding the pick normally). VS: I think a little bit of both. Now if you’re like the magician, you can be playing the guitar and have the one pick and then slip that one in and out so no one actually sees what you’re doing. The Musicians for Medical Marijuana show in January was truly amazing. What was it like having so many special guests sit in with JP? MK: I dunno… it was fun. [laughs] VS: Terry was amazing. MK: well, Terry’s a story unto himself. probably as big an influence as the Grateful Dead were on me during my pre-teen and teen years was the Sons of Champlin. My friends and I used to follow those guys around like puppy dogs. We’d go to every single show they did. We came from Half Moon Bay to Pepperland in San Rafael, Lion’s Share in San Rafael, Town & Country Lodge down in Ben Lomond… anywhere the Sons were, we were there… and Hags was God… God himself on guitar doing this just incredibly out, wonderful, stretchy, diminished flat 5, fucked up, wonderful, jazzoid, psychedelic shit over Billy Champlin doing these James Brown grooves with Baba Ram Das lyrics… and it was an awesome band that gets far too little attention and is far too unknown. VS: They're touring again this year though…. MK: I guess that’s true. I’ve heard that, yeah. Having Hags sit in was brilliant and Barney Doyle is a wonderful guitar player. I enjoyed having him sit in. I like listening to Barney. Barry Sless… wonderful player, I’d love to play more with Barry… maybe even do a show with him as part of the band sometime, if he’s into it. Certainly having pedal steel as a voice in that format was really interesting. I’d like the opportunity to have Barry play pedal steel in less country oriented music because I know he has the ability to make that thing just sing sweet and spooky… VS: it’s another dimension. MK: Yeah. Plus, I’d like to have him in the format playing straight up guitar because he’s also great at that. VS: Patrick really enjoyed the cover of Beck’s Bolero from the Humpty’s show last year and would really like to hear some more Beck in the repertoire. Is that something we can look forward to? MK: No. VS: Are you a big Beck fan? MK: From that era, yeah. Jeff Beck from Yardbirds through I guess it was referred to as the Jeff Beck Group, the records that had Bob Tench and Max Middleton and all those people on them. I thought Beck was brilliant. Blow by Blow I think was a wonderful record. A lot of his fusion stuff, it’s not that I don’t respect it, just didn’t touch my heart the same way… so the There and Back and some of the stuff he did with Jan Hammer, I didn’t really care about that much… the Beck/Bogart/Appice stuff etc… and the stuff he’s done recently I’ve been very disappointed in. He’s been doing a lot of this sort of techno/trance type stuff with his guitar playing over the top of it. I don’t relate to the music itself, so even though his guitar playing is still brilliant, it leaves me cold. VS: It’s like the Rave kind of music… MK: Yeah, it’s not my thing. VS: Me either. Do you have any other solo or side work plans? MK: Well I keep threatening to make the Mark Karan record and one of these days I’ll probably do it. VS: How about a Rembrandts' reunion tour? MK: Actually the Rembrandts are back together in their original format. I wound up being in that band because the two guys that had been the partners that originated the band had a falling out, interestingly enough, over the Friends theme. One of the guys always wanted to have a certain amount of punk street cred and felt that the Friends theme completely blew any potential for that, which is probably true. However, they were a band that already had a three album history before it ever did the Friends theme and was never particularly punky… was always kind of like Everly Brothers meet the Beatles. They were actually a cool band. They did what they did and they did it well. They’re not for everybody. If you didn’t like three minute pop tunes, you we’re not going to like the Rembrandts. I hear an awful lot of people in the deadhead community criticize that band and criticize three minute pop songs and it’s interesting to me because you’ll have conversations with those exact same people and they like the Beatles and what were the Beatles if not genius masters of the three minute pop song…..so like I said “there’s an ass for every seat”… enjoy what you enjoy. VS: And be careful what you criticize… |
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| As always, it's truly a pleasure and a heck of a lot of fun interviewing Mark. Thanks honey!!!!! | |
