Marcy Playground

Part 1

0:00Marcie Playground welcome. Thanks. Thank you so much for coming in everyone. It's a new record coming out. Yeah, July 7. It's the date is firm. The record Dylan was telling me, mixed, finished, recorded, all ready to go. Yeah, it's coming out on EMI Music Canada, and it should be July 7th. Nice. So we already have the release date. It's called Leaving Wonderland in a Fit of Rage. In a Fit of Rage? I just, I knew Leaving Wonderland. I know that second part there. Yeah. That's cool. It's the full title. And you're going to play some songs from it for us? Yeah. Cool. And I heard it was supposed to be like a, it was a solo record at first. Is that true? Yeah, I mean, it was all my records were solo records at first. So really? Well, because what I do is I write them, and then I record, right? I write and I record and I kind of work on my songs with recording. I listen back to them, and I sort of, you know, I'm not somebody who just sits there with a guitar and finishes a song.

0:46It takes me a while to actually really feel happy with the way a song is going to come out. And I always have to listen back to it. So I'm always recording. And you're living in a fine country? It fine, it means it. Fine, it means it. Yeah. I am in Toronto. I'm writing and recording in Toronto. Well, Vancouver. Yeah, I own a recording studio called Mushroom, and... That's yours. That's like the biggest studio in Canada. Seven years. Well, there's a couple, I mean, Warehouse, Brian actually. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah. So his metal works out in Toronto. Oh, it's pretty big. But still, to be in the top three is amazing. Yeah, well actually, I bought it in 1999, and I had it for seven years, and I recently sold it when I got married, because my wife's from Toronto, you know, I sold a bit. Yeah, the wife always wins, I understand. Back to me. Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of where that is.

1:31But that was like two years ago. I kind of, I left, a little over two years ago, I left her. Cool. Left her, not the wife. Think of her. Not the wife. Yes. Keep the wife. Yeah. Let's lose the studio. So back alley tonight, 15 bucks, what time are you on? Do you know? Yeah, I think we're probably hitting some time around, what? 930, 10-8. It's been, what was the last time you guys played Calgary? Must have been a little while ago. Yeah, I think it was probably back when the record was... When the first record came out. So almost 10 years? Yeah. That's about right. That's crazy. Why do you hate us? What's wrong? What do we do wrong? No, it's not bad. It's just, you know, we kind of stopped touring. Was there like a contradiction behind there or just kind of everyone went their separate ways for a little while? Oh, there was, well, a little of both. We consciously stopped touring. Yeah. And we all kind of went our separate ways.

2:17Yeah. I guess that would be the case. Yeah. So, and then, but now we got back together and you were asking the question about it being a solo record. Well, it's just, you know, it's just a matter of... It's, you know, it's... Marcy Playground has always been me and Dylan, right? And then... Well, don't forget about him. I'm not forgetting about our drummer, Shlomi. I'm just saying that it's... You know, we've had like, we've played with like eight or nine... I mean, we've played with a lot of drummer. Mm-hmm. And Shlomi is definitely part of that. He's definitely a fixture for us right now. Yeah. We're not gonna let him go. Good. He's amazing on the bongos, which everyone's gonna hear in a few minutes. Yeah. The bongos and Shaker and Tambourine and brushes. I'm signed for 20 years. Yeah. Long-term contract. Very nice. You're gonna play a song? Yeah. What do you feel like starting with? Yeah, I'll start with good times.

3:03I hear that's gonna be the first single, kind of, maybe. Yeah, it's definitely in the running. I mean, that song and also another song that I'm gonna play called Star Baby. Cool. When you play them back to back then, that way people can judge and they can call in 736 fuel and let us know what they think the show should be. I would actually love that. Yeah? That would be great, yes. Give you a little outside opinion on what people... Would be amazing, yeah. Well, what's going over better in concerts? I know you... This isn't the first show on the tour, right? You've been on the road for a little while now? Yeah, we've been on the road for what, a couple weeks now? Yeah. What? What in California? Cool. We played a show in New York City. People like them both. Yeah? They're both going over all off? That was the question, right? Yeah. Yeah, actually, yeah, they do. I think people dance a lot more to Star Baby, the Marav tempo, but good times goes up really

3:50well because it's a bit more of like a ballad. Yeah. I know. People really kind of... They like it. People relate more to ballads, it seems sometimes. Yeah, exactly. Cool. Well, John, take it away. Okay. Okay. Just got you down. And everything about it makes you blue. Pick up, keep, because that's the very best thing you can say.

4:46Hey, what's whatever this is? It's alright. It's two shot pass. It's a lesson in your life. Yeah. Yeah. It's a time in my chair being back all the good times.

5:39They were alright. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. And in brains, the struggle just to get up from the bed. Hey, hey. It's alright. You shot pass. It's a season in your life. Yeah. Yeah.

6:25I remember all the good times. But you will. You're my star coming now when you come to star a gazer. I'm in love with you.

7:30Every time it's landing right on you waiting. Just to see. Just to see your perfect shining light. My heart is light. I'm in love with you. I'm in love with you. I'm in love with you. Every time it's landing right on you waiting.

8:45Just to see. Just to see. Just to see your perfect shining light. My heart is like a photograph. Album of all the good times in the bed. And I've had some where I miss this girl. And I miss that girl. I don't miss that girl. But sometimes I miss this girl. You're my star. Baby, you're my star.

9:34Well thank you so much. Very nice. Five questions I ask every band when they come in. One more answers. You guys can all answer if you want to show them. I'll move the mic around. Rode or studio? Studio. I'll choose Rodeo. Rodeo. In Calgary. Very good answer. Landon or McCartney? Landon. Landon.

10:20I can't answer. I'm sorry. Alcohol and marijuana. Alcohol. Unfortunately. Billin? These are very hard questions. That's why I ask them. Song you've written your most proud of. Doesn't ask me one word obviously. Oh that's a tough one. Probably. Probably good times. It's one of the most, absolutely most proud of. It's one of the most personal songs better. Renn. Cool. My favorite song he's ever written. Yeah. Nice. Very hard for me. Sorry. Yeah. There's no one answer or anything. All right. One word. Marcy playground. That's two words. Funny guy. One word to describe the sound of your band. Or how you feel about the band. I just always see this as just a rock band.

11:05We can slip into any skin. We can play soft acoustic songs. Whatever. One word. One word. Okay. Rock. Rock. There you go. Yeah. Rock. Sela. That's in Hebrew. That's rock in Hebrew. Nice. Rock. Rock in roll is really kind of like three words with all the apostrophes and stuff. It can be hyphenated though. Roll. You can hyphenate it and it works. So you're going to play the big hit for us. Yeah. Actually I want to change my answer to that. All right. Yes. Cheers. Whimsical. Whimsical. Whimsical. I like bigger words. That's nice. I know what it means. Fun. Yeah. All right. Whimsical.

11:50Whimsical. Whimsical. It's going to play the big hit. Yeah. We were talking before a little bit about some bands dig their big hits. Some bands hate their big hit. Where are you with it now? I love it. I mean, yeah. I wouldn't play it if I didn't still like it. Really. I wouldn't regardless of whether it was a hit or not. I enjoy playing it. I like the reaction we get from our fans when we play it at concerts. I mean, it's awesome. It's just like this one big giant musical hug that everyone gets. You could probably even just point the mic out. Do you even sing it anymore? Because everyone knows every word. Yeah, exactly. They do. No, it's awesome. I mean, it's definitely one of the highlights of the show because everyone's just like still in the same mind frame at that point. It's fun. Cool. And now you're going to play it exclusively for us. That's right. I'll give a story behind Poppies.

15:09Poppies is actually its own story. It's the historical sort of song about the history of the opium trade and how the UK came to Hong Kong. It's a lot more political than I realized when I was 12 and I bought the CD. Yeah, I mean, it is. It's a completely political science. A really interesting story. England was in like a massive portion of the GDP was going to China for tea. So they needed to balance the trade deficit. So they went because they were colonizing India. They found opium in India and they started trading at first legally to China for tea. And then once opium became a massive problem in China, China outlawed it and it's called the Opium Wars.

15:54There was a war between England and China in which England ended up with the port of Hong Kong. That's crazy. And then they signed a treaty and then they had to be given back in 1997. Yeah, something like that, right around the end. Crazy. So that's what the song is about. A lot more fun to listen to than the actual story behind it, eh? It's a very sad story, but the song is very happy. This is cool. Yeah, well, I mean, I like to have an educational program, Dylan. The British were big drug pushers really at that point. They totally turned the tables and they were making massive amounts of money selling opium to China. Crazy. So you're going to play Poppies before you guys go back alley tonight in like an hour

16:40and a half or so. And thank you so much for coming in. Totally, man. You're going to come out? I would love to see every time. I'm on the air until one in the morning. Oh dear. I know. But I got my own little performance right here. So it kind of works out for me. Yeah, man. Well, thanks for having me. I'm happy. And hopefully it won't be another 14 years before you come back. It won't be. No, definitely. You got to push the new record July 7th. Yep. Wonderland strange plate. I wonder land in a fit of rage. I love it. It's amazing. John, Marc, the playground. Thank you so much. Thanks. Long, long ago in China, I'm told to England was traded soon.

17:29And so super fake in pieces of a on England and off. Poppy, Eunice, majesty, sent soldiers in the fees till India is searching for gold. Instead from the ground, some magic they found. Or something far better. I'm told Poppy, Poppy, drum solo.

18:55And now the story told from days before home. When Gossamer Dog is impatiently weighed with pieces of A. So everybody could smile. Poppy.

Part 2

0:01Alright, so John, welcome to the show. Thank you. Olympia, Washington, a homecoming of Sore-Tour, talking about before. You went to school here? I did. Yeah, to college. It's Evergreen State College. Crazy. Any stories about this town that people should know about? This is an amazing place. I mean, you know, this is where, this is where Nirvana got their start. This is where... In Olympia, not Seattle? In Olympia. Oh, really? Yeah, okay. Yeah, they started here. And, you know, did most of their first few years... No, I got here in 92, so those guys were already rock stars. Right. But, you know, there was other bands like I knew, I went to school with...

0:49There was a band from here called Onwai Island, and I went to... I had a class with Sarah, who was the bass player. I was the bass player. Kimi, we used to play at the... There was a restaurant called Bands, you know. I didn't know you were a Seattle band. No, we're not. I think more than anything, we're a New York band, because that's where we got our... That's where we started. And that's where I met Dylan. So, in 95, I moved from here... After I stopped going to New York, met Dylan, the bass player,

1:38that's where we pretty much started the band. But I was playing around Olympia from 92 to 95. That's great. And now we're back here? Yeah. This is actually the first time we've ever played in Olympia. Huh? Which is I. After all this time? Yeah, a lot of times in Seattle, Portland, you know, you spoke in and we played, but never in Olympia. And last night we were in Bellingham. We never played in Bellingham either. That's also a really cool time. Yeah, that's where death comes from. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. I didn't know that. You learned something new? I'm glad I can teach you. You're supposed to be teaching me? Yeah, no, that's a happening little town, yeah. Well, the New York... Well, not New Record anymore. But New, since we've talked last, last time we talked to the record, I haven't come out yet.

2:23It sounds like you've been really working on New Guitar Play. Don't take offense to that. But there's a lot of intricate guitar work on it. It's a lot of acoustic, riffs and interesting stuff. Yeah, yeah, you mean Memphis and stuff like that? Yeah, and Irene and things like that. Yeah. That comes from my mom's side of the family's from the south. She's got a lot of... Most of them play music. At least to Grandparent's house and about roots music from the listen to them. I don't know if it's gospel so much, but it's just, again, the spiritual.

3:13Right. The spiritual folk songs. And some just really cool folk songs. And, you know, there was a roots part of my friend that came out for sure on this record. Yeah, definitely. America, you know. Do you feel the kinship to Memphis? I mean, throughout a song about a city. Yeah. Yeah. I do. I mean, it's a strange city. How so? I'm not going to go out in the way it's a strange city. All right. You've had some experiences there. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, this is like, I always have like, really interesting experiences when I go there. Some of them great, some of them weird. Yeah. But it's a place, you know, it's an interesting sort of mecca that on your journeys.

4:09We will. We have and we will again. Oh, okay. That's a must do. It is. Well, it's weird because it's a house. It is. You go there. It's like the Graceland Mansion. It's just a house. Yeah. It's true. I was even alive when Elvis was around, but it's just, there's a mystique. It's like the Beatles. Yeah. It's a, well. Yeah, not, not at all the same, but writing and titling a song called Blackbird. There's got to be a little bit of second thought on that, should I do it or not? Was there? Did you even think about it? It was just like, this is the song that's coming out. It has to be called Blackbird. Yeah. I mean, the lyric sort of insisted, insisted on the title. I think I got some gnats going on over here. Well, maybe it's summertime now.

4:55Yeah. Those, those typically doesn't have a lot of flying insects. Whoa, check it out. It's a seagull up there. Yes, it is. Like, peek it in. You can't see it. Like, that's crazy. That is really creepy. Anywho, we're live. ADHD. That's all good. It's all good. Vancouver kind of inspired the record, leaving Vancouver. Yeah. Like getting underland. Kind of getting on in my life. And, you know, it also, underland represents a lot of, sort of, a lot of things, you know, a lot of mythology and a lot of, like, you know, for me it represented the loss of innocence.

5:41You know, getting really personal record about relationships. You know, nothing complicated. I mean, the relationships were complicated, but the music is not complicated. It's just, you know, something I think most people can relate to. For sure. Having... You mentioned yourself a lot in the record too. You see your name a few times in different songs. It's different. Well, the reason I do that in, uh, Good Times is because it's a, that song is about self-soothing. It's about, you know, telling yourself everything's gonna be alright. Yeah, exactly. So, but, you know, what was the other one I did that?

6:28Oh, right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, that's kind of the, it's like, uh, that's sort of the... You second guess putting your name? They're personal. And so, no. No, fair. I never questioned that. You're in Toronto now when we were talking about that before. Do you have a studio there? Cause I know you used to own mushroom and run mushroom. I did, yeah, seven years. Um, I had that about it in 99. And sold in 2006. You missed it. Well, you know, I missed the community and the people that I, you know, made, I made a lot of great friends owning that studio. And, uh, I don't really necessarily miss some of the, you know, some things about it.

7:20It was a big commercial facility. It was a difficult business to run in the middle of the Pacific Northwest. Um, not exactly. And, you know, Vancouver has makes a lot of killer records. But people go there for people like, you know, to have Randy Star work on something and, like, Fraser work on something. You know, they go for those people, right? They don't necessarily go for the studios. Um, they go to, they'll go to New York and LA for the studios. It's tough to run a business like that. Toronto's a little bit easier. New run of studios going up in Toronto. They get in the last year like, um, there's also, well, yeah, I mean, they're all indie.

8:07I actually mean that Toronto scene. But there's some big ones. There's some big ones. I mean, um, Henry Goderham's building a place, uh, behind the Cadillac lounge, Mobile Street Studios, and that place is going to be phenomenal. It's a massive room, um, for your life, tracking of music and stuff like that. Um, he's owned a studio in a town called Red Line Reporters Forever. But the place he's building is phenomenal. I mean, he's putting a fortune into the place. So there's some, there's some places that are going up that aren't just, like, you know, band guys deciding to, like, in a room somewhere, like millions of dollars.

8:55Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. All the guys there were, uh, no, he's not actually. Dylan came on board after, uh, after the record was finished, uh, played a farm and he really dug it and decided he wanted to be part of it. And whenever Dylan, I mean, we're only a trio, right? Yeah. So whenever Dylan and I do something, it just becomes, well, it seems so with it would be rotating amount of trouble as you've had over the years. Yeah. Yeah. And there's been a lot, and on this record, there's like three or four. All different people have different groups for different things. Right. Yeah. Exactly.

9:41And some people were more appropriate for other tracks than others, you know. Fair enough. But to answer your question about a studio in Toronto, I don't have one yet, but I am in talks with somebody to, to, to, to get another studio. Although I have all the cool gear. Uh, I've been already, really, really excited. Yeah. What's going on? Um, you're supposed to be coming out on EMI in Canada. Yes, it is. Um, well, we don't know because we're focusing right now on the end Dabo, the end Dabo record. What's not? We recently did. Well, there's a website called endabamusic.com. And what it is, is an online collaborative music creation site. So musicians from all over the world, I think last time I talked to Dan, he told me that there was, um, uh, somewhere along the lines of like half a million members all over the world.

10:37And they're, uh, throwing musicians or mixers or whatever remixers. And they get together on this site and somebody will come up with a piece of music and somebody else will get invited into the session. So, almost like an online recording studio. Uh, they invite other people into the session to see if they want to work on it. So, for example, if I was to come up with a guitar part and a vocal and put that up on the site, I could invite different musicians who I like to come in and get involved in the session. And then come in and get involved in creating the rest of the song. So somebody in, you know, uh, Argentina could be playing the drums and somebody in France could be playing the bass and somebody in, you know, Iceland could be playing keyboards or whatever. People make music like that every day.

11:24And so what we did was we were, we've been working with them and uh, we decided to load up all of our stems, all of our root tracks from this new record, um, onto the site to get involved and to remix the entire album. And so they, uh, you know, to reimagine it and reinvent the songs and do whatever they wanted to. They just had to, you know, the one thing was that the vocal at least had to be there. Yeah. You know, something had to remain of your soul and all sorts of stuff like that. Yeah, it's unbelievable. We got 320 remixes back, which is a lot. That's a lot. There's a lot. And I had to go through and listen to all of them. And no, there's some incredible stuff to, one of them that I really like is an acapella, like barbershop quartet version of it.

12:17It's really great of Star Baby. Oh, really? Yeah. I don't even think of the high note there, too. Yeah, it's really cool. And uh, let's see what are some of the other cool ones. There's one like, like, Gin and Money, which is a pretty solid rock song. This guy Ben Kriya, who's from Australia, he did this incredible disco, almost like roller skating, disco, dance, remix of Gin and Money, that is, I mean, it's unbelievable. And I think we're probably going to release that as a single for the record, because what we decided is, so we picked, we picked actually 13 tracks. There's two blackbirds, because there were two that were so good. There's one that kind of sounds like the Beatles.

13:04So we picked 13 of those and we're releasing with the M.I. We're releasing a remix album. It's going to be a disc, too. Yeah, we're sort of debating the title, we were thinking about calling it like, Mercy Playground, I'll mix it up, or Leaving Wonderland, I'll mix it up, or... Yeah, something like that. That's due for release in August. Soon. So that's why the Rarities is kind of been pushed under the back burner for the time being. But then again, the Rarities have been being pushed under the back burner for the last 10 years.

13:53That's a DVD, too, from these, in Toronto. That's right. So we did a, when we played a, please palace, we recorded. We filmed it and we recorded the audio. What does that come to? I'm not really sure because that's going to take a little bit of time to do the editing for the video. Yeah, when do you record it? We did that and not too soon after the release. I think it was the release. Yeah, it was right after the release. So probably September. Cool. Something like that. Before I let you go, relationship with Saksa and Candy. Do you love it? Do you hate it? How do you feel about it? It was two of my favorite things. Yeah. Well, because every songwriter has a big song has a different kind of relationship with it. Some come full circle and loving it again. Some people hate the fact that people are probably scream for it every night.

14:40No. People hate the fact that we probably ask about it every day. That song has been very, very good to us. And I'm proud that I've wrote it. And it allows us to do what we, you know, what we currently do. And it's always a fun time when we play a lot. There was a time in 1998 when we probably played it 600,000 million trillion times. Yeah. Where it's like, okay, you know what? Haven't you heard the song enough? Yeah. But really after that it just became fun again. I would play it in the crowd loads it. But you know, the funny thing is that's not the song people yell out. Where do they want to hear? Oh, they yell out, you know, wave motion gun.

15:26There's one that they always want to hear. I forget the names of my own songs. The Cloak of Alvenkind. You know, there's songs from the first record that people have fallen in love with over the years. And they're like that better than the sex we've been. And, you know, that's from the first album. And then, you know, there's a lot of people who come out to the shows that have all the albums. Yeah. And so after the show's all end up photographing records like Zach Bobbie, which came out. But so they'll have that and the first record. And Shape Schichter and MP3 and some singles. So, you know, I mean, it's been still getting played on the radio.

16:25It's amazing. I know. I can't thank the world enough for continuing to play it. Well, don't wait five years between records. That's a problem. We won't. You know, but life intercedes. It does. And it did these past ten years of intercedes. And we were only able to get, you know, one record in, you know, besides this. Right. But it didn't really tour. In a while. Or like, Marcy Playground to be out there and doing the rock and roll. It really has. Yeah. Yeah. But it's wild to see the people that come out to the shows, you know, it's a young crowd. I guess they, you know, their parents like the band and the other. I don't know. No, it's fine music in weird ways these days.

17:11Yeah. Yeah. But we have a young crowd that comes out. Amazing. Well, thanks, John. I appreciate it. Absolutely, man.