SUPER SMASH MEDIA
MAKAR INTERVIEW
June 2013
Tony Killerbrew, interviewer extraordinaire
1. So it’s been a while, what has Makar been up to?
Makar has been busy with life my friend. Buying our first apartment and moving to Jackson Heights Queens has been a big change. We finally feel like we have a home. Queens is a super chill place to live and Jackson Heights is one of the most diverse communities in America.
We’re writing songs for our third album, which is going to be completely acoustic, just Andrea on guitar and vocals and me on piano and vocals, no drums or bass this time around. We have about 10-12 songs we’re working on and there’s definitely a very bluesy punk folk vibe to the album, which is pretty much the Makar trademark sound at this point. There’s a lot of Devil at the crossroads lyrics as an extension of the theme of our song Devil in a Dream from Funeral Genius. We’ve rewritten Devil in a Dream sticking a big chorus on it. It’s somewhat like the old version as far as the verses go but then this big swell of a chorus comes in to kick up the energy.
We’ve got this kitchen in the middle of our apartment that is the perfect soundproof chamber, a room within a room. Once the door is shut our neighbors can’t hear us as there are the walls of the kitchen and then the walls of the outer apartment between us with no one above us, so we’re going to record the entire album in there. We’ve been using it as a rehearsal space and it’s the best place we’ve ever had to make music in. As any musician knows finding a place to rehearse and play in New York without bothering neighbors or forking over massive amounts of dough for rehearsal space is the dream. So we’re living the dream right now.
2. Have you noticed your song writing changing over the years, or is it still pretty much the same thing?
Our song writing process has been evolving along with our playing and singing. We’re much more confident as musicians and singers now than when we started and our songs sound looser and less structured. We’re trying to do more improvisational playing using scales and arpeggios, so definitely look out for Andrea to cut loose with some guitar solos on the latest album.
We used the pentatonic scale on our song “America Where Are You” on Funeral Genius, which as you know is the scale most often used in movies and country music to lend that expansive feel of the American West. We wanted that pioneer vibe added to America’s lyrics, which are about the search for America’s soul during the dark years of the Bush administration.
But mainly there’s a languidness to our writing style now. Andrea and I continue to collaborate on every song and having been in a relationship for 16 years there’s an ease to creating each song that just gets better with time. If Andrea writes something it will trigger ideas from me, which trigger more ideas from her and so forth and so on until a fully formed song has been birthed. We’ve birthed so many songs as married musicians that it may be time for us to get down to the real business of birthing tiny Makars.
3. We have talked about the Zombies and some of your influences in the past. Have you heard anything lately that has really moved you?
We saw Sharon Van Etten at the Beacon Theater a few months ago and she blew us away! Absolutely beautiful voice and so funny in-between songs. She had her dad come up and play a tambourine at one point. Very sweet person and wonderful songwriter. She’s a hugger too. Hugged all her band members and special guests after each song. It was a love-in in the best sense of the word. But that voice was pure heaven to listen to. Liked her slower songs better than her newer more rocking material, which didn’t suit her voice quite as well. Felt like someone was pushing her into being heavier but her slower songs are as heavy as anyone needs to be emotionally.
4. Any recent memorable, performance stories?
Did a radio show, WRSU, up at Rutgers University with Geoffrey Page that was a blast. Played 5 songs live from Funeral Genius plus “I Hate My Job” (because a lot of people seem to want to hear that one J) and did an interview afterward, but I’d say one of the most memorable performances of late was at Bar East where Liquid Todd showed up. Turns out he does a broadcast show from somewhere upstairs and comes down to listen to the bands before his show.
Well Andrea was thundering away on her guitar as hard as she always does with that death grip of hers and low and behold broke a string. All of a sudden there was a bunch of dead air so Liquid Todd calls out for a piano solo! Damn if it wasn’t finally my chance to solo onstage and damned if I didn’t do it to a Bossa Nova beat laying into those ivories with all the Latin cool I could muster Makar style. After my solo LT came up and told us we should play some Radiohead. Unfortunately for him (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) we don’t know any covers so that was out, but it was very cool to have him hear our songs. My mom had been chatting him up during the show (because even at 75 and my Dad long gone from his battle with cancer, she’s still on the prowl) and got him to stay and listen to our entire set even though he had a show to do and was cutting it close. Memorable on many different levels!
5. In a cage match, who would win? 1960’s Beatles or Late 1960’s Beatles?
I’ll let Andrea (Makar’s resident Beatles fanatic) tackle this one.
Andrea: It would be a very close match!
In a strange way, I think the early sixties Beatles could kick the late sixties Beatles’ asses because they played like 10 hours a day and they were ravenous. I remember reading that Paul wanted the Beatles to rehearse for the Let It Be film and recording and John quipped, “We’re grown men, we don’t rehearse!” Or something like that. And if you listen to the pure raucous energy of songs like Long Tall Sally, Money, Twist and Shout or I’m Down and compare it to their later stuff, it’s not as ripping. BUT in the mid to late sixties the Beatles’ songwriting stretched the very fabric of music (even though there were signs of it before with She Loves You – using a third person narrative as the basis of the song was pretty revolutionary and that was in 1963). Still, you could say that revolution really began with the clanging suspended chord opening A Hard Day’s Night. That chord creates a leading note tension up to the resolve, it’s wobbly, transitive and transformative. No one had done anything like that before I think. It’s indescribable. And that was the early Beatles my friend.
I think what was also wonderful about the early Beatles is that they were so much more of a team, a united force to be reckoned with. With the Beatles of the late sixties, dissent and conflict was driving them apart which pushed them to create more “solo” compositions. As listeners, we get to hear them as distinct individuals and songwriters and that tension created amazing and challenging music. A Day in the Life, to me is the pinnacle of this friction between Lennon and McCartney. To me that song is a conjoined twin trying to sever the final fleshy connection between them, the epitome of two disparate parts making a whole whether they want to or not. I couldn’t imagine Lennon’s acidy nightmare without Paul’s waking from the dream grounded in the routine daily life. However, they could have been two individual songs, but it wouldn’t have the same profound quality. You couldn’t have one without the other like the early Beatles versus the late Beatles.
It’s funny that you ask this question because I think it’s a Stones versus the Beatles type question in that a lot of people feel strongly either way. Someone once said to me, “I only liked the Beatles when they were young and happy,” which is hysterical in itself because they were still young in the late sixties! But I know what he meant. They seemed to age greatly in a few short years, because some of their later tunes were downright dark and disturbing, especially the ones Lennon wrote on The White Album like I’m So Tired and Yer Blues, dark, fragile and suicidal songs. (Even though Yer Blues was somewhat self-parodying although as a kid, I never interpreted it that way). I’m So Tired to me is downright rage-filled, it was one of the songs I always contemplated whether to skip but it was sandwiched between two of my favs – Martha My Dear and Blackbird and on a turntable, it was a lot harder (took a lot more effort to get up, lift the needle and move it over) to skip to the next song (now that’s a whole other conversation – how many songs are skipped now that should be really listened to even if you feel like you don’t want to?). Happiness is A Warm Gun also unnerved and excited me. As a kid, I didn’t quite understand what it was about. I felt confused by it. I would only listen to it when my parents weren’t around. And if that isn’t a sign of a great song, then I don’t know what is.
So if the cage match were to only feature the challenging nature of the compositions, of course, the late Beatles would win, but you have to consider all aspects of their music to truly crown the winner. I love all eras of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones too, but the Beatles definitely kick their ass and early Beatles definitely kick later Beatles ass.
A little about Super Smash Media
Founded in 1995 SuperSmashMedia (formerly Riotland comics) is and was the vehicle for Anthony Killebrew to produce comic strips, zines, online zines, promote music, create art, record projects and to produce other various forms of media. Over the past 18 years many things have changed with the name. SuperSmashMedia is now solely focused on zines, comics and promoting like minded individuals and their art, movies, projects and music. There have been several interviews folks that are good and you should know about. irresponsible journalism for an irresponsible world.
Sadly at this time Super Smash Media is defunct.