The Michael Marquart Interview.

BBR:

Tell us about your new project: A Bad Think: Sleep

Michael:

Sleep is my 5th album, and they just keep getting better. You would think I'd run out of things to say but apparently I have a lot to say! I'm hitting a sweet spot or something, in my writing or production, and there has been a ton of responses. It's fantastic to hear ... I do this for the art and all that. I don't do it for the fame or the glory or any of that. Of course, it's fantastic when you put all the hard work into it and someone appreciates it. I do it for the music. All of my albums, I love them all and this one I love too. They are like children, it's hard to play favorites.

BBR:

This was the first record that I reviewed from you and I listened to it in my car. I came home and before I started writing, read through the press materials. Then, I was frustrated, because I was thinking about how I'd write that this record was 'cinematic' and the press release used that same word, 'cinematic.' So I had to come up with a different word!

Michael:

Yes, I've heard that before, that my music is very cinematic, which I take as a compliment.

BBR:

Most definitely. So I took some risks in the review, guessing at your influences. What were your influences on this record? You have so much experience there are probably many artists in your own mind, but which ones stand out?

Michael:

Yes, my mind is sometimes not a very pleasant place to be, but it does produce a lot of great music!

BBR:

(laughs!)

Michael:

I start these songs and try not to guide them. I just let them go where they want to go. Some of my songs are country-ish, classical, pop and heavy. I just kind of let them go where they want to go. It's all me, so it's all my style. It sounds like my sound, so even if I drift into another genre like country, it still sounds like me. It's not like it's sounding from outer space out there or something.

The hardest thing about that is staying out of the way - to guide it and try not to go ... 'well, I want to push it there' ... but maybe the song doesn't want to go there, so it is sort of difficult to do.

BBR:

Well, you run your own studio, down at Windmark? So maybe having your own label, means you don't have that pressure, from anybody, to shape your music.

Michael:

Oh, exactly, for sure. It is such a good feeling. And I have some empathy for the labels. The energy, the money and everything that goes into making records! The videos, the promotions and all of that stuff. It is a lot of hard work. It's all mine, nobody's telling me what to do, I don't have to report to anybody. It is very liberating. I don't have to worry if I'm going to get cut from my label, not selling enough, and that affects how you create music, that's the back of your mind, for example, a producer might change a song thinking ... if we create a two drum beat then maybe it will sell so let's go that route... but I don't have that pressure. I can do what is best for the song.

BBR:

You just seem really excited about your project. I read an article about you from Hampton Roads, the community, about how much you do for them, but also how excited you are about your own work. You definitely like the independence of it and you are in it for the art, it's so inspirational to hear that. It really is.

Michael:

That's so nice to hear, thank you.

BBR:

The writing, the production and the engineering of Sleep, I heard so many layers of instrumentation, textures and tones within each song. And like you said earlier, each song is different than the other, but they all have a combining theme that ties them together, which is your sound. Do you use particular techniques, production strategies to create these songs? How do you get these layers of sound?

Michael:

I do, Bridgette, I do. I've been producing for a long time, and I sit in front of the computer and I'm in the studio seven days a week. I'm working on the next album already. I'm in the studio every day working. I've developed techniques. And layering is a very tricky thing. If you layer it too much, it gets to be muddy, you can't really hear anything. You want it to be absolutely everything that is there, the frequencies and the sounds, and everything that is used is all really important. I spend a lot of time on that - I mean a lot of time. It does make a difference. It does to me, anyway.

BBR:

I don't create music, I listen to it, as a reviewer. So, in your record, I was so happy to hear the textures and layers of the variations in each song. I loved trying to figure out what you were expressing.

Michael:

I'm so glad to hear you say that, you made my day!

BBR:

Every time you listen to it, you hear something new.

Michael:

That's the whole idea.

You listen to something, even if you think, 'Oh, you know, I kind of like that a little bit, even if it's not grabbing me ...' Later, you listen to it again and again, then you go, 'Wow,' now I get it. I like to write music that is not necessarily going to go for the jugular, the pop stuff, or rock stuff, it's just an instant attitude of sounds and productions. As you listen to it, it's got more to it, an emotional component, you feel it, it's got a feel to it that is emotional and internal, rather than externally.

abadthinksleepBBR:

I think that's what's so refreshing about your work. Do you think, Sleep was a concept album? Was there a certain idea or vision that you had?

Michael:

You know, that's a good question! Actually, I've done a million interviews and no one has actually asked me that one. It's funny, they don't start out being a concept album. Sara Lee, the third album, is a complete concept album. The whole thing, from the start to the finish, it's a concept album. When it's all done, and I try to remix it and fix it, it's all part of sort of the same concept. When I hear it again, it comes from a time in my life when things are related. To me, that's how it was getting transferred, so it wasn't designed to be a concept album, but it does sort of feel like it.

BBR:

Yeah, and I love how both this record and in other records, you tend to - I don't know how to say this, you acknowledge that there is negativity in the world, but you always find a way to come around to the hope - even if the hope it quiet - you speak to it ...

Michael:

Some of my music has a tendency to dwell on the darker side, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's more introspective. Music shouldn't be a carnival ride. It should be an emotional experience. Happy songs, like Pharrell's "Happy" I mean, I understand those, and I get them, but that is just not me, that's not how I write, but I do try to get it all to come through, there is hope in all of it.

The fact that you dug into that and you found some of that tells me that you had listened to it.

BBR:

Absolutely! (laughs)

I wouldn't waste anybody's time to write about a record that I had not listened to.

Michael:

When I read your review, and there have been many reviews of the record, you know, you can tell, 'this guy phoned it in - or watched the video, or read the blurb that Doug wrote,' but when I read the review of my record, I could tell, 'Yeah, man - she can talk ... ' I read it and thought, 'Yeah, she said some things that told me 'she's listening.'

BBR:

(laughs)

I took some risks too. I review a lot of rock and blues, I stay away from metal these days. I will review it if it's really good, and doesn't give me a headache. But with your record, I listened to it in my car, I listened to it outside, I felt like I needed to listen to it in large expanses. I just wrote what I heard. And when Doug said, 'Ok, let's do an interview' I thought, 'OK, I guess they did not hate it!'

(laughs).

Michael:

Well, I'm so glad you liked it. It makes it all worth while. When someone listens and 'gets' it. All of the hard work is justified.

BBR:

"Antique Doll" was really sort of chilling. It really made me think of a vintage china doll.

Michael:

Derrick Borte is my media director. And that's the one he wanted to do. He goes around collecting dolls at antique shows, markets, flea markets, and he takes them home and puts these things on the shelf, and then, he spends more time at home. -And when the lights go off, the dolls come to life! At the end, it's that they are there to collect what you owe! They were drawing him in - to define themselves. So he said, "This is the video." And I said, "Man! That's like a horror movie!"

BBR:

(laughs)

It was haunting, the way the story evolved. And it was fragile. The music itself was fragile, which I thought was really brilliant.

Michael:

Thank You.

BBR:

Thank You.

So what was it like to work with Jason Elgin?

Michael:

I love the guy. This is the first album he has mixed for me. Mark Needham, he's a famous mixer. He is just world class. He did the last two. And I've had another guy, but I wanted somebody different and Jason is really great - it was such a great experience working with him because the guy just went the extra mile to make it sound as good as it could as it have. And a lot of these guys, they have big egos, and a vibe that says, 'don't call me back kind of a thing.'

Often, the mixer will have a set amount of time to spend and if you want changes they say, 'This is the amount of time I'm putting into this and that's it.' But there was no change that was too small or difficult that he wouldn't do. And some of it I asked, I knew - I knew what I was asking and they were very time consuming and he did not complain. He said, 'Look, we will keep going until it is right, so don't worry everything is good.' And he worked his tail off on that record. I can't wait for him to do the next one. It was a great experience. And you don't always say that, when you are working with some of these mixing guys.

BBR:

Well, that's really great to hear. The longer I am in this music reviewing business, the more I notice the mixers, the producers, the studio and the sound technicians. I can tell in certain circumstances that these people do make the final outcome of the record sound different to a casual music fan.

Michael:

It makes a big difference. Everybody thinks they can take their song into a little bedroom and sound like it, but the production does make a difference. When you go into a real studio with real equipment and all that, you can hear the difference. It makes the experience of both the artist and the listener so much better.

BBR:

Some producers have signature sounds, even between artists. I've noticed.

Michael:

Oh, for sure.

BBR:

So the readers - will never forgive me - if I don't ask you about the Flock of Seagulls.

Michael:

OK (laughs)

BBR:

What was it like to be with Flock of Seagulls?

Michael:

Well, you know, it was fun - I can't get away from that history, (laughs). I was working with a producer who used to play guitar for David Bowie. His guitar stage tech at the time wound up being a Flock of Seagulls manager. They are friends and they talk, he was working on a record that I was in, and they were in NY and the drummer got kicked out and all of this stuff, so he said 'Well, I was working with this band and let me check to see if the drummer wants to pop up there.' So I flew up and played on the record, it was easy - in and out - and then they asked me to do a tour, so of course, I asked all the questions and all and it was fun. So it seemed like the real deal, they had a tour manager and a bus and all that kind of thing. It was a three week thing, from Ohio down to other cities. It was fun, I had a blast, it was great. Then the tour stopped, they were regrouping, I just didn't want to wind up being 'the drummer from a Flock Of Seagulls' so we wrapped up that three week tour and that was really it. It was a short lived stint for me, there has been a million people in that band and I was just one of them.

BBR:

Which album did you record with them?

Michael:

It was called, Magic. It was really just five versions of one song. And it was on the Crescendo label, a nice studio in NY. It was a short lived thing, no big deal, there have been many other projects since then.

BBR:

Well, thank you for sharing with us about it. People were curious.

BBR:

So your daughter, Samantha, is on Photographs?

Michael:

Yes!

BBR:

The vocalist?

Michael:

She is a singer and she writes her own songs, so I was trying to help her. Some of the songs, I wrote strictly for her. Some of the ones on her albums, I wrote in her key, I wrote in the lyrics she'd like just for her.

I think it was a little bit ahead of her time and I think now she regrets not taking advantage of them. The songs, she sings them so well, and she sings that kind of music so well, it's a kind of pop thing, for a young girl, so I guess that's natural. Yes, she sounds great singing that kind of music, but she's got to find her own way - just like all of us.

My son is a drummer, I try to steer everyone away from music, I try ... But my daughter is a singer and my son is a drummer, so once people decide they're going to get into music for a living, then you have to drink the Kool-Aid! It's gonna be interesting to see how my daughter grows into her style musically. It's a never ending process to see what she is listening to now and what she's writing and it's an interesting process as it unfolds.

BBR:

It brings us back to how we started this conversation. You guide something and then have to let it go. Like children, you guide them, then they have to find their own way.

Michael:

That is a perfect analogy.

BBR:

Really amazing themes you have here.

So, music has changed technologically in terms of its delivery to the general audience, what do you think about that, are you on board with the technology, just kind of living with it. What do you think?

Michael:

It's a bummer. I feel so sorry for musicians coming up. There is really no hope. There is no way a musician can make any money. Everybody expects the music for free now, so there is no way to make any money, maybe you can tour or get some gigs or if there is a movie or something that picks up your song, you can get some residuals from that. You can't raise a family or anything like that because there's no income over time. It's really relegated to a young person in high school to college years. Then you have to move on and get a real job. You can't make a living playing music anymore, it is really so sad.

BBR:

It's kind of sad for people like me. I grew up with LP's, tapes, CD's and radio. I have kind of gotten used to digital, but never completely. When your record came in the mail, I was so happy to have a physical copy of a record, the beautiful glossy artwork, the names of the people who made it, the tangible thing. I miss that.

Michael:

Right, right. iTunes, all of that is going away too. The writing on the wall, the way I see it. Now, everything is going to be streamed. There was consents and albums and mp3's, the iTunes music store, with Spotify, you get every song, on a mega play list, whenever you want it, you don't have to really buy anything, you spend nine dollars a month. It costs about one CD or half a CD from one band, I think it's still changing. If I have to read the tea leaves, that's the way music is going now.

BBR:

So I ask everybody this question. What would you advise the up and coming musicians today?

Michael:

Get out while you still can - or drink the Kool-Aide and don't complain about the colors and hallucinations!

(laughs)

Michael goes back and forth between his studio in LA and writing room in Virgina Beach. He will be doing rehearsals and touring the new record this season. He runs the art and technology side of music through his production work, as he enjoys all aspects of music and is thankful for how much he enjoys the independence at work.

Thank you, Michael, and to Doug at New Ocean Media, for a great opportunity to have an inspiring conversation with such a talented artist and producer.

Read Also:

A Bad Think: Sleep