Mark Geary Interview

Mark Geary has just played a blinding show at Cork's Cyprus Avenue and he takes a quick aside for a natter with R13 about how it's all going...

R13: How are you?

MG: Ah, this is why I like to do interviews afterwards, because even thousands of gigs later I still worry before the show, I call it the Itty-Bitty-Shitty-Committee that lives in your head, like a constipated annoyance, but I'm great now...

R13: Can you describe your music and what you do, for our readers...

MG: Well, you'd probably explain it as the singer-songwriter thing, and where I'm coming from is the Nick Drakes and Dylans and all that, The Beatles... It's not about huge radio play and huge hits like the James Blunt phenomenon, there's still something very brave, to me, about being able to walk out onstage with a guitar and for it to be everything; for it to be a rocking gig, put a bit of comedy in there, and to take risks in the songs and do whatever you want to do. So that's kind of how I'd describe what I do...

R13: Who then, are your main influences and heroes?

MG: Loads, like Nick Drake, and Radiohead... I'm a huge film fan as well, but it's interesting too, because what I'm starting to find, the deeper you get into writing, you start to block out those sorts of influences... They're in my mind, you know, The La's, The Stone Roses and all these kind of things, stuff that I absolutely love and have played to death, over and over, I never tire of the music, but at some point... I have a couple of records out now... and I've started to recognise my own thing, my own way of phrasing and so on. So that's started to happen, you kind of step back from all of your influences and you find your voice...

R13: You say you're a film fan, any favourites?

MG: You know, I always admire these people that can do their Desert Island Disks and 'pick your top ten movies' or whatever... but, like, 'Once Upon A Time In America' was on the other night, with De Niro and James Woods, those kinds of people, Tuesday Weld, they're incredible, I remember watching these films when I was younger and them blowing my mind.
There's another good one I watched the other day, 'Gangster No. 1', I think Paul Bettany is a real talent, and Malcolm McDowell, and one of my favourites of his, apart from obviously 'Clockwork Orange', is a film called 'O Lucky Man!'; Lindsey Anderson directed it and it's... it's just incredible, just can't believe the story, all of that kind of stuff... Linklater, yeah, I like him too, actually when I was at Sundance they showed a couple of his, as well as some Herzog, 'Grizzly Man', a documentary with a guy who talks to bears and things, classic Herzog you know...
My manager's actually a film-producer, so I go and see a lot of movies with him. It's a lovely thing, on a tour there's a lot of downtime, so I love sneaking off, finding a good movie theatre. When I first got to New York there was a place called Theatre 80, and for five dollars you could do a double-bill matinee everyday and it would have 'Blue Velvet' and whatever, all smoky in there, and the next day you could go in and see Robert Mitchum in 'Cape Fear' and 'Night Of The Hunter', unbelievable, just these classic, classic movies, sat there watching them on the big screen, that was kind of an obsession of mine a few years ago...

R13: And these cultural interests make it into your songs...?

MG: I guess they do, I think a lot of what I write is based on visual imagery... I couldn't say I've taken one movie to form a song, I remember I tried to, it was with part two of 'Chinatown', and I remember sitting there and trying to write this song with the idea it was going to be down-and-out, and that was the first time I ever did something like that... You don't write songs like that usually, but I can say you reference stuff... and you're not even aware that you're writing about certain things...

R13: And what about musical reference, we heard a bit of Ray LaMontagne during your gig...?

MG: Yeah, I'm loving Ray, loving the record, I love that record, and it's amazing that it got embraced, when you first hear it, he's got the voice of Otis Reading, and it's super earnest, you know... There's my great friend Glen from The Frames, it's just the mutual appreciation club, sometimes it's just necessary to do something that other people can get into... There's something of a community, and in Ireland that's maintained, which is an amazing thing, there's a lot cynicism around it, because just as a nation, people are kind of naturally suspicious of anything that's cool or whatever, but it does exist here, and in Dublin...

R13: There is a great scene there...

MG: Absolutely, absolutely. But the cynicism comes from the people that aren't in it, because they perceive that they're not allowed in it and all that kind of thing... But it's not a secret handshake club, it's just good, it's good for your soul, to be and to make friends. There's a real thing in music, it's about the selling, the selling, there's a lot of work and you're not really doing it for your own... your own thing, some of time, so it's good to have friends here.

R13: Indeed, so how's the tour going?

MG: It's kind of a funny one, because I just got back from America to here and I've got one in Dublin and then I go back in early June to the States, so it's not really a full tour of Ireland; if I had the choice I'd like to do that, but it's a small island and you can't really do that...
So I'll be going back to America and doing the East Coast there, and somewhere in the midst of all that I'll end up in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bratislava, so I'm looking forward to that...

R13: And how's the new album coming along?

MG: I'm writing... thinking about it, thinking about it... It comes in stages, you go into the studio with X amount of songs and that isn't the complete picture. Six months later when you're actually mixing down the tracks it's gone through every eventuality, it's not recording a song you've just written, there's a whole process there that you have to let go of. You go into the studio and it's such a controlled environment, I don't have this concept for the albums, making a record's about these decisions and I don't think, as musicians, we're very good at that... for the playlist or sequence creating...

R13: But you enjoy the process?

MG: I do, I really love it. It took me a while to get into it because I'm such a live guy, I love being in control of a room... so it took me a while to learn, but I love it...

R13: So, I hear you're in a new film...?

MG: Is there a film coming out? It's weird; I don't know what's going on right now. My brother Karl is an actor and we both did a movie with Christopher Walken ('Trance'), it came out a while ago, it's a horror movie, shot in New York, it was great... horrible movie, fucking horrible... but horrible in that kind of way that it might end up being a classic... Hammer Horror sort of thing...
It's never been something that I've pursued because it's such a hard deal, the emotions going in to doing an audition, it's like getting up on stage and getting the first four or five seconds out of a song and someone going 'Listen, we'll call you, let you know...' That'll be pretty hard, so never something that I've really done. Woody Allen though, if Woody gave me a call I could just be myself, be goofy and stuff.

R13: Why then, do you have 'Let Go' written in marker pen on the back of your hand?

MG: It's that thing I was talking to you about; before a gig, if you feel terrible and you stop, physically, you'll actually think differently. I just started writing a little note to myself... It's amazing the amount of gigs I've done where you can actually see the exit signs and you're sort of tempted just to run for it, and nothing has changed in that respect, it doesn't matter how many records you sell, people come out to hear you and are unbelievably supportive. I think that's part of the process, you get filled to the brim with doubt and being uncomfortable, getting really paranoid... So, 'Let Go' means 'stop thinking'.

R13: What are your immediate plans for the future?

MG: This last gig in Whelans in Dublin and then go back to America. Going to go to Chicago and meet with the musicians I'm recording with, we'll just go into a room and bash away and then after the Czech Republic and that tour, I'll go back to Chicago again and get into the studio, and we might go in and start making some basic tracks, there's no masterplan, that's what I love about it. I'm still in control of it, I've been very lucky with the people that have been on board with it, they been benefactors to the process... So, recording in the near future and that's the plan I guess.

R13: Very good, very good. So, finally, any stories you want to tell me about locked doors?

MG: Um, oh yeah... We did this gig in Tipperary and we were invited back to this place, kind of under duress... we didn't have a place to stay, and this guy took us there and his girlfriend was clearly not too happy with us being there. So they put me in the living room and I sat there and I heard this lock, a door getting locked, and then I hear the bathroom getting locked and the kitchen getting locked, every room in the place was locked... I don't know what they thought I was going to do... eat biscuits or something...
So, I'm sort of locked into this room and at seven in the morning I heard crrggghh, 'unlocked', and that was Tipperary hospitality, really creepy, really weird, I never saw them again, but yeah that's the story, that's the locked doors...

Well, thank God he was released from captivity, because Mark Geary is the real deal; an earnest singer-songwriter, a true gentleman, and top chap... Look out for news on his new album, but in the interim check out '33 1/3 Grand Street' and 'Ghosts', and go see him live. It's more than worth it...