EXPOSED VOCALS
DECEMBER 2016
https://exposedvocals.com/features/makar-shares-the-goods-on-exclusive-interview/
So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Mark: I grew up in New York on the upper east side of Manhattan, which is probably the least artistic place in the universe. However, both of my parents were artists. My dad graduated from Cooper Union with a degree in calligraphy and taught at Pratt until he got sick of what he perceived as the students’ bad attitudes and left to become a firefighter and my mother studied visual art and photography at the University of Hartford and has been making art her entire life. She has several shows going on right now in fact that Andrea and I need to get to, but haven’t been able to because we just moved and have been stuck in packing/unpacking mode for the last month! So I grew up in a very artistic household, and the people I have been the most drawn to in life have always been artists or creative in some sense, but it wasn’t until college that I realized I wanted to be a musician full time. Luckily my folks didn’t put a lot of pressure on me to do anything but graduate. What I did after that was up to me, so I sat down and thought about what I’d do if I didn’t care what anyone else thought about my decision. If Mark Purnell could do anything with his life, and money wasn’t a factor and status wasn’t a factor and what friends and family thought wasn’t a factor, what would that be? And the answer came back loud and clear, almost as if it were being sung by a choir of angels…MUSIC you idiot!!!!!!!!!! And that’s my story.
Andrea: I grew up in Northern New Jersey in a little town called Mendham. Rural suburbia. When I was in first grade, we all had to complete a school project that involved us writing and illustrating a book entitled “All About Me”. One of the questions Mrs. Lacy, our teacher, wanted us to answer was “what do you want to be when you grow up”. I said artist and drew a picture of me with a beret painting pictures and said I would sell my pictures to everybody. Many years later I found this handmade book and showed my dad that by age six it was already too late to mold me into being anything else. [Photographic evidence below] I’m not a painter but even at that young age I knew I wanted to create. That I wanted to be an artist and my idea of an artist was an easel, a beret and a canvas. I never really considered anything else.
When I was in fourth grade I wrote my first short story about a beast that didn’t exist and from that point on I knew I wanted to write. I think D&D re-enforced my passion for story-telling although spending hours in basements past the 7th grade stopped my role-playing adventures and being a spontaneous dungeon master. But I enjoyed creating worlds and participating in a world limited only by your imagination.
It’s funny when I graduated college I didn’t have any idea of a conventional career. It wasn’t a vision in my head, like I will work at this kind of company move up the ladder to this position by the time I’m this age, blah-de-da. I didn’t have a plan except that I wanted to write and knew I needed a day job to pay the bills.
At first, I applied to editorial assistant jobs in publishing but the paycheck wouldn’t cover my commuting costs from Jersey so I settled for jobs that ended at 5 allowing me time to work on my writing. I never thought I would become a musician even though I played guitar as a kid. Music seemed like something unfathomable, something I didn’t know the language for. Luckily that turned out just to be my shyness talking.
How did you come up with the name Makar? What was your inspiration behind it?
Mark: I’d like to tell you that it came from the depths of Mordor, chiseled from hot molten lava and forged into the finest Orkin steel under the clouds of Mount Doom and the ever watchful eye of Saruman, but unfortunately I can’t do that. It came from a dictionary, an actual physical dictionary, Webster’s I believe, as Andrea lay reading it one day in search of some word or definition for her debut novel, Pushed. People believe it to be an anagram of my name, albeit with an extra a, but it’s not. It means poet in Scottish, though neither of us is Scottish nor descendants of William Wallace and definitely not Mel Gibson, holy hell!
What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Mark: All of our music is free and available for streaming/downloading on our website (www.Makarmusic.com) and all the other websites we’re on like Spotify, CD Baby, Band Camp, Soundcloud, ReverbNation, Youtube etc. etc. Our debut album, 99 Cent Dreams, and our latest album, Funeral Genius, are up there, and once we’re done recording our third album, Fancy Hercules, that will be up there for free too! Either Summer or Fall 2017. Music sharing is wonderful in that it allows a band to build their audience and get exposure. As an artist, music sharing is the fastest and truest way to reach people who may be interested in your music. As a developing band, music sharing is indispensable and has brought it all back to touring bands making money on the road selling merch while making albums that can be listened to by people who then might come to your shows. Music sharing has taken money away from the selling of albums, but has broadened fan bases and live audiences while democratizing the distribution process and giving more power to the artist over the label. It has also challenged musicians to make a living in other ways, like licensing, monetizing videos, broadcasting shows from the street, one’s living room or bedroom to a paying audience, etc. For Makar, music sharing has allowed our music to be played all over the world and gotten us a lot of attention. It also kind of tests one’s resolve in that you can’t really be in it for the money today because there is none. You really have to love making music for music’s sake.
Andrea: For accessibility’s sake you really need to have your music available free of cost. You don’t want the price tag in the way of someone enjoying or hearing the music.
We will probably always have some of our music available for free. Unfortunately, we have to revamp our website and are trying to use Squarespace to replace the old one and Squarespace doesn’t have the capability for downloading sound files. Maybe by the time the new site is up and running, that feature will be available. But we will have music available for free on other sites. The most important thing to us is that our music gets listened to and downloaded.
Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Mark: Make real connections with people at shows, blogs, radio and in the industry. Most people involved in the arts are in it for the love. Most of the people who have played our songs or supported us don’t get paid. They do it for the love of music plain and simple. So the coolest people you will ever meet are spinning tunes at radio shows at colleges or online or interviewing bands live or in print because they love music and are F’n awesome! So don’t go out there looking to step stone your way to success. Appreciate the love and enthusiasm that anyone has for your music and don’t ever take that for granted! You might make it big, you probably won’t (not because you’re music isn’t great but because it’s a soup of luck and so many other variables, talent and hard work being only two factors, that will get you to the toppermost of the poppermost). So enjoy the ride and everyone you ride with. We’re members of the Recording Academy (Funeral Genius was on the 55th Grammy ballot) and we have friends who have won Grammys that still have day jobs. Money and art generally do NOT go hand in hand (although checkout Ari’s Take if you want to learn how to make a decent to amazing living playing colleges and even busking on the streets). So make art that you love and are proud of, that expresses who you are because at the end of the day if you want to make money there are many more guaranteed ways to do that than Art. Become a banker or lawyer or invest in the stock market. Art is about who you are and you don’t want to copy anyone else just to make a buck. You want to express your uniqueness and singularity. You have one life, let people know who the hell you are, cause you’re worth knowing. Every decent person is…not the assholes. And for the love of god hire a publicist. With an amazing publicist, radio promoter and music attorney who can answer questions and look over dodgy contracts, you can navigate this big old bad music world. Get an awesome team together that loves your music, but watch your ass and send your music directly to clubs and radio DJs establishing relationships. This business like any business, like life, is about establishing relationships with real people who come to care about you and that you come to care about. Period! And if you make it big too, then that’s icing on this big old delicious cake, but life is what happens when you’re making other plans, so don’t miss it. Balance your music goals with your non-music life. You made the coolest decision to become a musician and live a fulfilling extraordinary life, so you’ve already won.
Andrea: Life is long and you have to be in for the long haul. Don’t do it for money or fame, those things are rare and also illusory. Enjoy what you do and who you do it with.
Also, expect to hustle for yourself at first. You are going to have to do a lot of grunt work on your own. Most likely you will be the one reaching out to radio hosts, music directors and music writers. If you have the means, hiring an indie publicist will get you opportunities that would be impossible to get on your own. But make sure you stay involved in the process. A lot of artists don’t relish promotion and social media but if you want to be heard, you have to put some time into the business of music and you will meet the best people along the way.
Copyright all your songs and demos and if you love your band name you should really consider trademarking it because you could put all this work into name recognition and lose it all when someone else beats you to it. It’s expensive but if you’re putting your blood, sweat and tears into your music, you don’t want someone else to take the credit or confuse your fans.
If you have questions don’t be afraid to ask other indie musicians. The worst that can happen is that they don’t get back to you.
Be aware that it will be hard to justify the money you may spend on all the music promotion and administrative stuff along with recording but if it’s important to you then you have the right to determine its monetary worth. Don’t judge your success by conventional standards, it’s like determining the monetary value of a rainbow. Are you happy? Are you growing as an artist? Then you’re getting somewhere.
Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
Mark: All the time! The difference between a professional and amateur or even a smooth brother and an uncool fool is in how you handle it. Most people, unless they are at a U2 concert and know every note, have no idea that you didn’t play a part or messed something up. So never let the audience see you sweat. The day I realized that, was the day I learned to relax and enjoy our shows warts and all. We’re not perfect as people, so how the heck are we going to be perfect as musicians? A friend who plays classical music said that even musicians in the Philharmonic make mistakes, so trust me, if those mofos can make mistakes, and they are all top notch virtuosos who practice 6 hours a day, so can the rest of us. Live performance is about the energy, the excitement, the audience, the electrical power coming through those amps. Soak it in and enjoy it. Practice as much as you can to minimize mistakes, but realize that mistakes will happen. You will forget lyrics, you will forget where you are in a song, your hands will get nervous and shaky, but that’s the fun of it man. Singing a verse twice cause you forgot what the 2nd verse is even though you’ve been playing the song for years. Making stuff up just to fill in the gap or just singing non lyrics to fill in the gaps. Most important rule of thumb for any musician playing live…when in doubt stay out. You don’t know what to play next, just don’t play. Better that the rest of the band plays the part correctly then you stomp all over it out of time playing the wrong chords. And sometimes happy accidents happen. You stay out of a part and realize that it sounds better without your part. Adds more subtlety to what you’re doing and you never knew until you blanked because of nerves. Silver linings happen all the time.
Andrea: I swear there must be something called stage amnesia and that all performers suffer from this phenomenon. Sometimes, I get so excited or nervous or some jittery cocktail of both that my fingers slip and slide so I’ve started taking beta blockers before a show to combat those jitters. You have to keep going whenever you make a mistake. When I was a kid in the fourth grade we had a gymnastics performance in my elementary school. During my session on the balance beam, I fell off in front of everyone. But I jumped right back on! It was an automatic response. My dad said it was like I never fell in the first place so I always think of that natural reaction to keep going and try to do the same whenever a song gets derailed by a fumble, you have to get back on the balance beam. No one cares that you fall, just that you get back on.
Does anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
Mark: Well, we’re not really a touring band. Pretty much just based in New York, playing gigs here, New Jersey, Canada and San Fran, but as far as local gigs go, we have definitely had our fair share of strange encounters, crazy sound guys and funny stories. There was the time the whole band was sick with the flu and we were slotted to play the Meanyfest. CBGBs was packed and the lineup was all these hard rock/metal bands and Makar going on at midnight. We didn’t really get why we were on this bill and were all coughing and wheezing up a storm on the way to the gig, but when we got there the energy of the crowd lifted us up. We couldn’t wait to get on the stage and lay it down, until a dude with an electric viola and a beat box stepped onstage to play his set. To say that he deflated the energy in the room is a gross understatement. He killed it as if energy no longer existed in the universe. If E = MC squared, then Electric Viola Guy + CBGBs + Meanyfest + hard rock + excited crowd = zero E squared x a googolplex which = Makar completely fucked. The entire room bolted and only we and the four judges were left watching this guy tinker away. Now, I for one found his music interesting and compelling, but whoever dropped this guy in this lineup must have had a wicked sense of humor or a hate on for Makar because when we got up to play, there was just us, my mom, the bartenders and the judges left. So we launched into our set as best we could with our hearts on the floor. Midway through our first song, The Monkey, the mic smacked me in the middle of the forehead. My eyes were closed so I didn’t see that Andrea had begun pulling her Pete Townshend windmill moves on the opening chords leading to said hand hitting the end of my boom mic and sending said mic crashing directly into my forehead. After figuring out what was going on and seeing Andrea and the rest of the band laughing their asses off, I readjusted my mic to lip level and we played our hearts out while coughing up phlegm and wheezing through 6 more songs. When it was all over, the judges said they loved us but couldn’t score us because there was no one in the room left to vote. Even electric viola man had disappeared back into the ether making us all wonder if he had even existed in the first place.
Andrea: I remember one of the judges saying afterwards, “That wasn’t what he submitted to the fest!” When people were streaming out because truly this electric viola, beat box, one man band was not their cup of tea, Mark’s mom complained to our bass player Ben at the time, pulling at his sleeve, “They’re all leaving!” So Ben, in his usual joking manner said, “Nancy you’ve got to stop them! Go get them!” Hysterical!
A couple of years ago we played a great venue in Brooklyn called Freddy’s Backroom. The woman who played after us was an amazing blues player in her sixties. It was magical to sit there and listen to her lived in voice and guitar.
Being a musician in NYC can be really strange at times. Recently Mark and I tried out a new rehearsal space. We ended up in bizzaro world. We went to the address in the middle of a desolate part of Long Island City Queens. The address we had led us to an ice hockey rink. We thought that couldn’t be right, but that was the address that came up when Mark booked online. We walked through the rink. No one, nothing but ice. Next to the rink was a parking lot and a storage facility. We went all the way around the other side to a paint ball/laser tag place, talked to a nice cashier who directed us back to the other side. I could hear live music, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Mark called the rehearsal space several times, no answer. Finally as we made our way back to where we started, the rehearsal place picked up the phone and directed us to the parking lot/storage facility. The guy said “ok, I’ll be right there” and then came out on a fork lift, saying “Hey it’s me.” When he took us to the space in the storage facility, Mark thought, “hey maybe he’s taking us to his kill room.” But that didn’t deter MAKAR. We followed and ended up in a storage room converted into a rehearsal space next door to a band that sent shockwaves of feedback and bass through the walls and floor.
Oh well, it was only $15 an hour.
Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting rocess?
Mark: At this point, Andrea and I usually come up with songs while rehearsing. We used to start a song individually then work on it collectively. Now it’s the opposite. Usually we cannibalize our own chords coming up with new songs by just noodling around during practice. We have a top secret song we’re writing as huge fans of the Walking Dead. We’re going to submit it as fan art even though most fan art is visual. We’re hoping they might play it on the Talking Dead, which we’re also huge fans of. But that song came completely from me noodling around with the I, IV, V chords of another song. As soon as we heard the chords together we knew it was special, but had no idea what the lyrics would be. Then Andrea started singing them and it was one of those moments when you look at each other and you know that you have something special. That’s the magic of music. You don’t even know what you’re going to create until it gets created and at that moment you are as much an unsuspecting fan of the work as the creator.
Andrea: Inspiration can come from anywhere. I find I’m a very visual person so sometimes when I’m walking around the city, I see or misread a street or store sign and that becomes the impetus for a new song. That’s what happened with the title tracks on our first album 99 Cent Dreams and on our upcoming album Fancy Hercules. Both were names of actual stores! My songwriting process can be all over the place. Mark reins me in, focusing my stream of consciousness. I think the hardest way to write a song is to come with some inflexible notion of what you want the song to be. A song always has its own ideas and you have respect that.
What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
Mark: I’ll take that to the grave thank you very much. Because if I told you, I’d have to visit early, and I’m not quite ready to go!
Andrea: Embarrassing to who? I mean I do listen to Ace of Base! And every Easter I have to listen to the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack – Broadway and London productions. And I can’t let go of Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy or Wang Chung’s Dance Hall Days, still a fav of mine! Eighties forever!
If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Mark: Makar world tour!!!!!
Andrea: Totally Makar world tour, play everywhere and travel and snap photos. Spend every day writing songs and stories, playing music, taking pictures. Having more time for everything. To paraphrase Daniel Johnston through M. Ward’s cover of To Go Home –
“God, it's great to be alive
Takes the skin right off my hide
To think I'll have to give it all up someday”
I want more time for everything I want to do. Because even though life is long, it’s finite too.
What are you working on musically, right now?
Mark: Besides our top secret ode to the Walking Dead. We’ve been recording our upcoming third album, Fancy Hercules, which will be available everywhere, maybe even in vinyl Summer/Fall 2017. It’s Makar’s usual poet, pop, folk, rock, blues, punk mix, but Fancy Hercules definitely veers into weirdest album yet territory with the addition of whacky musical theater musings, songs about insomnia, depression, brain tumors, the meaning of time, family problems, the old ball and chain, a reworking of Devil in a Dream and very strange horror film/Mars attacks type chords. Not to mention an examination of the myth of Hercules and how he slaughtered his whole family as our title track. And did I say we sing about the devil a lot?
Initially we were going to do an acoustic album, but now we’re working with Livia Ranalli, the awesome drummer from the End Men, and possibly either our old bass player, Mark Nilges, who rocked all over our second album, Funeral Genius, or our good buddy Joe Crespo from Hello Nurse fame to round out the sound.
Andrea: At first we were only going to have 12 songs but now it looks like 14 although two of our upcoming tracks are under 2 minutes. And we’re actually still working on two of the newer songs for Fancy Hercules.
One is an ad-lib track called The Bird-Bee where Mark sings the melody with vowel sounds, nonsense syllables rather than actual words over an acoustic guitar. The title is an ode to a pre-internet joke with my family because my dad and I swore we saw a creature that was a combination between a bird and a bee, it looks like a weird hummingbird. But my mom always says “rubbish” when we bring it up and that the creature is in fact a bug. Because of the internet, I was able to figure out that the bird-bee in question may be Snowberry Clearwing moth. But we still tease my mom about it.
The other song still in progress is I Want To Be Loved in which the melody and lyrics came from a dream. We’re still sorting that one out!
How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Mark: What’s worked best for Makar is to promote our music through social media and send our CDs to radio shows and bloggers we like. Some sites we really like are ReverbNation, CD Baby, Band Camp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Sonicbids. We’ve hired varying levels of PR along the way, some better than others, so you have to get out there and find the best PR person for your project. Melissa Nastasi of City Bird Publicity has been doing an amazing job for us, and she also signed us (from back in the MySpace days) to her label Sizzleteen Records, but now she is a full time publicist, and in today’s music business that and a great radio promoter is kind of all a band needs. Besides your own elbow grease and supernatural charm, a publicist can get things that artists can’t get on their own. There are still doors that require keys and publicists can open those doors for an artist.
Andrea: When checking out a radio station, I will not only send to the music director but email and/or mail appropriate shows directly. It’s important to not blindly send out CDs and emails. You absolutely should check out the places you’re sending to. The majority of these indie radio shows and blogs are labors of love and are a vital part of the music community.
If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
Mark: Robert Johnson probably, down in some Southern juke joint. Would want to ask him about the cross roads and how he got so good in one year. If the devil really lent him a helping hand and what not. Him or Howlin’ Wolf, but just make sure I wasn’t playing with the Wolfman during a full moon. Awoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!
Andrea: There are so many! But if I had to choose -- Paul McCartney, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry and The White Stripes. Although I would be stunned into stuttering and shaky limbs performing with any of them. We were fortunate enough to see Paul McCartney play this summer at the Met Life Stadium. The energy he has is incredible at any age but at 74, he puts most twenty-somethings to shame. There’s such joy in his performance, it’s a revelation to watch. And seeing him is the closest I will get to seeing The Beatles live. Patti Smith is pure transcendence and she’s also a poet from New Jersey. If there is a heaven and I got to go, I’d be able to sing back-up on Gloria – G-L-O-R-I-A! Recently, we were able to see Blondie at Madison Square Garden opening for Morrissey. Her vocals were flawless and enrapturing. Legend. I love singing Rip Her to Shreds so I wish she had sung that one. I love her energy and beautiful rocking voice. And I dream of playing our secret zombie tune with The White Stripes or Jack White solo on The Talking Dead, the after show for The Walking Dead.
So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Mark: Besides our top secret zombie song and upcoming album, Fancy Hercules, we’re always working on new material. I probably shouldn’t talk about this now because we haven’t even finished our third album, but we do have a side project in the works, a kind of solo album from the band that both Andrea and I are working on. It kind of splits our personalities down the middle as far as the title, and we already have quite a few songs for it, but it may be more of a spoof than a real deal all serious Makar album. We’ll keep you posted on that one. Also, we’ll have a greatest hits collection coming out in the Spring 2017. It’ll be cherry picked songs from our 18 song debut album, 99 Cent Dreams, and our 12 song follow up, Funeral Genius. Probably a ten song package deal.
Andrea: Greatest hits collection? Ha! It’s more like “all the hits we never had”. Yeah, the album after Fancy Hercules already has a title: The Balladeer and the Banshee. I’ll let you guess who’s who.
If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Mark: Models and bottles.
Andrea: Shut up. I never imagined writing songs, singing and playing guitar but I always saw myself writing. I never seem to have enough time to write about all the things that interest me. I would also love to do more with photography. Photography at times intimidates me, the sheer wealth of talent out there can be both inspiring and dismaying. It makes you wonder what do you have to add that hasn’t been done before. Also, I’m aware of the importance of staying in the actual moment and not compromising your experience in the cause of over-documentation. But I feel off-kilter when I haven’t taken any photos for a while so it’s a compelling desire that someday I will be able to explore more.
Mark: Seriously, I’d get involved with social services and the mental health industry. I’ve always wanted to be a psychologist or pursue a PHD in sociology. I’d focus on my writing more, maybe try some acting and devote myself to physical exercise and martial arts. Like Bruce Lee, I want to be like water. And to anyone I’d say, “be like water my friend, be like water.”
Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
Mark: Don’t actually remember buying it, but The Who’s, Who’s Next, was the first record I bought. I discovered it when I was nine years old thanks to my pal Marcus Cederquist who said I had to listen to it. It sowed the seeds for me wanting to be a musician and definitely influenced the dramatic bombast in Makar’s songs and my piano playing.
Andrea: I think the first album I must have bought was The Yellow Submarine. My dad had a copy of Meet the Beatles. But I truly fell in love with The Beatles after watching The Yellow Submarine film enough times to alter my brain. I wanted to always have a bit of that fantasy with me at all times. I remember being so happy when I bought the record and then being disappointed by the whole second side of orchestral film score, those tracks didn’t live outside the film for me. And then my brother’s friend Craig only added salt to the wound by declaring that The Who were better than The Beatles any day and he would single out my newly purchased album as evidence for The Who’s superiority. Still holds a special place in my heart along with the growl of Hey Bulldog.
How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Mark: It’s all about discipline and hard work. It’s funny, you think becoming a musician is going to be this 24/7 party, but you soon realize it’s a lot of hard work, and today with the internet and all the opportunities it affords that workload has expanded exponentially. The new drug for musicians is marketing man. You can get really addicted to social media and marketing, so make sure to have a balance in your life between the work you’re doing to promote your music, the actual creation, rehearsal and performance of your music and then the rest of your life which you need to enjoy as much as possible, especially time spent with your loved ones. Luckily for Andrea and me, making music is like being on a date, so we get to spend a lot of time together and do what we love. You can’t beat making beautiful music with your lady love.
Andrea: It can be very overwhelming at times! But we have each other which is awesome. I know I can depend on Mark and he can depend on me. There is stuff he doesn’t like to do but which I feel compelled to do and vice-versa. The dirty secret of indie music is that most indie artists have to have a day job to pay the rent. And with one foot in the cubicle world, you feel like you’re living two different lives, but the only one that feels real is your artistic one. I feel like an alien most days, that I’m Cinderella in the off-hours and then I turn into a pumpkin during the 9 to 5. But by design, I have a day job where my personal time is very clearly delineated. If you’re reachable 24/7 your time for your passion will be compromised. I try not to do a lot of promotion, music business stuff on the weekend, leaving that time for playing and creating music. I love social media and there’s more tools than ever for independent artists, but people get sucked into the interweb vortex so you have to make sure you spend most of your time outside of the virtual world.
What should fans look forward to in the next year or so?
Mark: This looks to be Makar’s biggest year yet. Seriously, Zep airship to follow with Andrea and me standing outside on the tarmac wind in our hair. Well her hair, mine’s pretty short. Between all the work we’ve been doing, our real deal AAA radio station campaign starting October 2016 with radio promoting legend, Peter Hay of TwinVision, the publicity Melissa’s been doing and all the new Makar tunes coming out in 2016/2017 it’s going to be a banner year in the Bender family, so smoke up Johnny!
Andrea: I count any year that we’re still around a success! We’re still standing just like Tyrion and my guitar teacher said that sticking around to record or even play a gig is an accomplishment in this business. We’re working away on our third album Fancy Hercules and hope to release a few orphan tunes along the way. More music, more writing and more rocking.