You had worked with countless musicians by then, so why do it solo?
- A few reasons and some may have changed over the years, but the one that remains at the forefront is simply logistics. Working with the material in demo form has given me such a well-defined idea of what I want, not just with parts, but also tones, the only way I could expect one to follow that closely is to pay them. Around 89 through 91 I did have a good thing going with a cat named Ron. He was also a multi-instrumentalist. I remember working on a vocal line and I could hear him in the other room playing the harmony on an unhooked bass. He was the best drummer I ever had and took up much slack with vocals too.
The rule was, I’d give a demo and we’d meet a week later and he had to nail every part, which he did. Once someone does that, the natural thing is to want to know they would do with it. Once he played it the way I wanted it, there was instant respect. And I’m much more open when it comes to any live setting.
The idea of holding a band together never worked well for me, because I’m too vested into the work to depend on others to put as much on the line. I also didn’t want to have a band meeting about every decision. Even with a band, I’d be responsible for everything. When I moved to the country, it became even harder to sustain than just putting down a track in my underwear at midnight when I’d get a sudden window. With clients and playing in bands founded by my mates, it was always nice to jump outside of myself and hold up a mirror as it were, to reflect someone else’s vision. It was here I’d discover something new in my own playing I hadn’t known. But when it came to my own vision, I never had any questions. I don’t ever remember once asking someone if they liked a song of mine. I wrote it. I like it. If I share it, it’s more to do with who I share it with. It says more to me about them. But I do love hearing their imagery. When they get it, it's the same patterns, but with their own associations.
I’d love to have a band, but I can’t afford one. It wasn’t until shortly before starting production on No Man, that I decided to do it solo. It was the only way it would ever get done. Most of the songs were not even intended for me to sing when I wrote the melodies. When I started singing them, then lyrics came. I’m not hard to work with. It’s just difficult to expect qualified players to devote so much into someone else’s work without a lot of compensation. They’re worth it. It’s a respect thing.
One day when I was needing to drum up some studio work I thought, how can I put something together I can take out and play live with to showcase that would be quick to set up and even faster to strike? I thought, I’ll play to tracks and just open anywhere. Something I called Express Racking. Then I thought, hey, bring the drum kit. In and out... I had seen this kind of thing at conventions and expos. Then someone with a huge name played a club in my town like this and it didn’t go over so well.
I felt that if I were gonna do something like that, there would have to be a visual element to it and as much of the feel of a live show in the surroundings of what I play as well. Every morning I’d wake up with some new reason I felt this was a good idea and the covers would fly off. So it was no longer about the original idea of a quick and easy thing. It took 12 weeks to shoot the video that illustrates what should happen within 12 hours. It would require no more than to roll out a band, but it became just as much task. I still needed to find qualified people to work with. It just changed from other musicians to a search for the right crew. So, I haven’t been able to play out with that.
You need an album in stores to really play out with your own, but for me, the whole reason for doing the album was just to play out. I ended up a studio shut in instead. As the mediums are changing and CDs are now about the equivalent of a business card, it’s even more important to get out there. There’s only so much I can bring across in a demo video. I miss the connection and energy from faces. But I won’t lose my art over it if I can’t make it out there. I’m not the only one. One of my favourite bands is in Sweden and they’ve only been able to make it to the States twice. They also have the same idea of playing for all the right reasons, no matter what. Right now the most important thing is to feed creativity with the few I do get to share this with right here and explore new possibilities. I’ve begun with production for my next work of 12 or 15 songs, but I can’t wait to complete them, so I’ll divide them into 3 or 4 little releases. To be honest, all I’m thinking about right now is to do the work I’m most happy with and be as honest with myself as I can, whatever the medium and create within my own means. The centre suffers by the minutia of what to do with it or even how to get it out there enough to create a demand for a life thing.
My life and music are more entwined than ever for me, to such that I find it in the sweeping of my control room floor. In the dynamics of real time, I’m finding my favourite creativity. I accept the struggles of life and make and share music whatever state I’m in. So, enough with the logistics outside of that. I must serve this. It’s not just a solo album. I do everything out here with AEP as well, so the challenge is balance and presence. The trade off for not depending on others is that it crawls and takes more time to do things. Good thing I love the greater part of my work. My Son Levi though, excels in areas where I am slow and has been a tremendous help over the last couple years with his talents.
What is next for MDC?
- There is a song line up. All but one has already been demoed. This one plays out in four parts :-D But, I am convinced that they should also be released as such. The focus right now is to treat the development and creativity properly for all things considered relevant to it and start at the same place thematically as well as productively. This is the first time I’ve been able to think like this. Although I’ve lived with this material for a while now, it’s back to the root on all fronts. I am enjoying where I’m at with this. I’m having a good time, this season particularly. It’s pretty free of any consideration other than the music itself.
As an artist I’m faced with having to streamline a few lifelong goals and trim the fat as it were to have the environment and sessions ever more conducive to keeping the music and the love of it alive. And there is music being played round here. ;-).
When do you believe that you will make the next songs available?
- The best answer to that question I’ve heard so for is, “How long is a piece of string?” But, really.. I’m aware by now of how long it takes me to wax a hot one. Mostly having to do with all I must tend to and those I care for in life. AEP is a small company and things out here do move in their own time. That’s how and why we make the music we do.
So again, I believe the releases should be incremental for the next body of work so as to have more gratification of finished bits in between the trenches. Three to five songs at a time with perhaps some video and archives in each. Maybe that will scootch it along. I’m not even sure I’ll press them outside of these walls, but the intention is to make them available. So far, ‘No Man is an Island’ has sold Two CDs outside of the record release party and one of those was by Tim to see if the CD Baby account was working properly. :-D The other was a recording client. By a comedy of errors, my promo funds for the CD got sucked into the vortex of home and auto maintenance and I had a nice full computer systems crash about two weeks after the release for a month. Can’t say I was bored though. But it’s been something that brings round the question of why I started this in the first place. I think I’m rediscovering that these days. And some of those fundamental reasons have changed as well. I like my walk and I can’t wait to see something go foil or copper even. But I am here finding answers where I thought I might. The honest answer is soon as poss.
What is next for Mark Dean the person as opposed to the artist?
- Count my frikin blessings for one. They are abundant. I’m happy with who I surround myself with. I feel like I’ve only begun to truly live in the present moment over the last few years. Life comes through like a bus. Next stop, the sun! =-O Breathing is nice… This interview for example, is something that I’ve enjoyed being present for, Kev.
It’s about the hands that lay down the how to, when it comes to connection. Appreciating the life that doesn’t go according to plan. Dynamics that come with the unexpected. Sunsets, the simple beauty of a leaf :-) Simplicity itself amidst the adventures in volume. The grace that comes with being understood. The hard questions that make you look and thank your invisible star someone asked.
What realistically do you believe you will be doing five years from now?
- Although my gut does not say maybe, my crystal ball says “You don’t know” with lot’s of reverb. I’ve tried seeing myself in five years. It’s easier to see myself in five Willion years as the holy dung we all are in whatever crunch or expansion we may ride.
I can certainly tell you what I’d like to be doing, but I can only hope to manage my affairs accordingly to what comes my way. I’ve worked so hard and long at all I do, that I rarely glimpse at the toll. I’ve got broken cartilage in one knee, a deformed foot, and a hereditary umbilical hernia I can no longer ignore. So, I’m tending to myself along with others and cooling out on the back flips, for now. :-).
Maybe I am just an artist after all, but I find there’s an art to just about everything I see. I’m still at the point in life where I feel it would take lifetimes, but I’d like to think that within five I can truly articulate what life means to me and share that as I gather more about what life means to others. I’m digging it so far.
I thought I’d be touring and have my “Live album” out by now, but I got to watch my son grow up and we have always been very close. Trust me, that’s quite the tour of life. I didn’t use my life as a template for his. He has his own talents and strengths from which sharing life together has made me a much better person. In this, I have missed nothing.
He’s grown up now, so there’s a live one. Five years ey? Ya know, I do ask myself that. But, only about once in six months. Sometimes longer.
I’ve been intrigued by the study of human nature for about the last eight years. For all that may be read, one does not do this alone. There are such fine and present souls out there. Depending on the angle and pitch of light, you can be looking through a window one moment and a mirror the next. Such are the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever beheld. It makes every stranger more interesting. Mine is to continue to seek a mastery of how to shine back like that, as I appreciate each time the pitch shifts again to tell me I already have and I do. One reason this interview is with you, is because your book of life is well travelled when it comes to attention given to and insights with artist. Yet we have all these responsibilities, so you might find as absurd as I do that one of my son’s teachers asked him if he is “realistic or artistic?” Levi flunked that teacher.
With the pragmatic comes a quest for the greatest balance of all. Never lose your childhood dance. Handle your shit, but we’d better dance in our bones. When you ask, what realistically, do I believe, I find it a more balanced question and it sets a fine ponder. After all, it has been well over six months by now. :-).
Just as music and life are the same to me, so should be the balance of dream and reality, Heaven and Earth, the sky and this long dirt road I walk. The pragmatic and the artistic… It should all be shared.
Hmmm… What did I forget? Oh yes, time. To take and make. Truth? I didn’t forget. It goes to that mastery of balance, again. I should love to pin that one down. Surroundings. The real thing. The real ones. Including all to whom I sight by first name here. It’s what it’s about. Keepers of the faith. Gotta love that.
And the fine sip of Chai. The breathing that makes senses alive. And glimpses of convergence fleeting to the finer place in you, as tethered and rooted to the best of the best for safe keeping. Brings round. And lots of fluff.
Thank you Kev, for asking.
