Matt Marks Music

Hey…… you.

It’s been a while, huh?

Now, I’m not gonna go all ‘turning over a new leaf’ on y’all and pretend I’m gonna be updating this page every day from now on.

But…

I think I miss having a website. Like, a functional website that people repeatedly check to see what I’ve been up to and how I’ve been doing. Facebook supplanted that for many of us –giving us a centralized location to update each other on our miscellanea– and I got sucked into it along with everyone else.

And I kinda hate it.

I miss having a space of my own. I’m partially worried no one will check it. On Facebook, even the dumbest post will be seen by hundreds or thousands of people. Here, what? Tens? And all people who take the time to think to themselves, “Hmm… how’s Matt doing?” and then make the effort to come to my page. How many people actually do this? I almost never do it for y’all’s pages tbh.

But maybe the answer is Fuck it.

I’ll post my updates on Twitter. Maybe on Facebook too if I return to its cold cold grip.

Maybe you’ll check it here, maybe you won’t. I hope you do.

This place can use some serious housecleaning though. I like the simplicity, I don’t want anything fancy.

I’ll replace my defunct audio links, update my bio, update my press page with recent projects. Lose that hokey banner up top. Add a more extended Discography page perhaps. If anyone has any suggestions, please send ’em along.

To a large extent this place exists as a Who the fuck is this Matt Marks? landing page from people who see my weird posts on Twitter, see a piece of mine in concert, or hear my name spoken, usually, in some new music context. Who knows how many people came to this train wreck of a page and went Well, fuuuuuuuuuck that guy!

Best not to think of these sort of things right?

But yeah, clean this shit up. Update it. Maybe have an Current Projects page? I have way too much music that’s been recorded and has yet to be released (probably around three albums worth) and even more that’s been written but hasn’t been recorded yet.

The best thing about a website, though, is that I can be self-indulgent as fuck. Write a little bit about my new favorite album. Post about recent movies I’ve watched (Roadhouse and Meet Me in St. Louis just yesterday!) All this without worrying that I’m clogging up someone’s feed with a tl;dr FB post or excessively-numbered tweetstorm.

Also I think it’d be good to get into writing more substantial posts. Everything I write on Facebook and Twitter is rough draft fuckin stream of consciousness nonsense, whether it’s good or not. It’s all draft. This will mostly be that too, I mean, you’re reading that right now, but perhaps I’ll put some more thought into some of it.

Cuz like who honestly does that for a Facebook post? The only well-thought-out, revised writings on Facebook are celebrity apologies.

I learned to lose a lot of my shyness and neuroses on this page. I’ve long since probably taken it too far in the other direction and have grown sour on the tacky Mall of America-ass marketplace of ideas that are most social media.

So now I’m taking my ball and coming back home. Hopefully I’ll keep it up.

Keep an eye out for a post about my recent run of my opera Mata Hari, and info about upcoming projects such as my album with Hotel Elefant, my pop-horror miniseries Headphone Splitter I’m developing with director Nick Leavens, and my spoken word rock opera Velocirapture with Tenth Intervention.

And also, just straight up better content. Because, aside from my mom, no one comes to my website to read how I’ve succeeded or how awesome my last gig was. They come, I think, to read interesting shit and listen to cool tunes. And that’ll be my priority.

Btw you can see the banner I went with above, but it veeeerrrry narrowly beat out this pic from New Music Gathering:

It was my poor spelling of the word “kernel” that did it.

I’m performing the first chapter in what I aim to be my next pop-opera, HEADPHONE SPLITTER, tonight and tomorrow (7:30pm!) at Spectrum. It’s a crazy big project for me and these shows will be acting as a sort of first workshop for the piece as a whole. In the spirit of putting it all out there, I thought I’d post the lyrics/libretto for the first chapter.

Here’s a recording of the demo if you wanna follow along:

Headphone Splitter – Chapter One: The Marine Park Salt Marsh

It’s a bright summer Saturday in Brooklyn.
She said, “Let’s get on a bus and ride in the opposite direction of Manhattan.”
And I said, “Baby, all I wanna do is chill with you, lie back and listen to some Peter Cetera.
Baby, can’t we have a lazy day? Lyin’ on my couch, listenin’ to my stereo play?”
And then I heard her say,
“Maybe we could use my headphone splitter, sit close and listen to some early Bette Midler.
Movin’ to the rhythm on my phone.
Chillin’ on the bus, ridin’ all the way across town.
Chillin’ on the bus, ridin’ all the way across town.”
And I was like, “How do we get there?”‘
And she was all,
“We, we, we, we can take the B41, B41, the B41 down Flatbush.
the B41, B41, the B41 down Flatbush.”
“And so where will that take us?
Girl, where will that take us to?”
“The Marine Park Salt Marsh!”

“FUCK. That’s a great idea, Babe!
I say let’s get on that bus and drive down, down to the Salt Marsh
I never been there.
And you know, I bet they got some killer bird-watching.
And that’s some shit I been meaning to get into.
So let’s go.
So let’s go.
So let’s go.
So let’s go.

Baby, it’s so nice to get up out this house.
I know you can’t take any more nights of watching scary movies on Netflix.
Let’s bus it all the way to Avenue U.
Girl, sittin’ next to you, nothing in the world I’d rather do.
Let’s get a seat for two.
Baby, go on pull out your headphone splitter.
Sit close, we’ll listen to the soundtrack of Glitter.
Movin’ to the sounds of Mariah.
Chillin on the bus, riding all the way across town.
Chillin on the bus, riding all the way across town.
And oh my God, what do we see there?
We’re at the park. Let’s, let’s, le-let’s get off the B41, B41, the B41 on Flatbush.
The B41, B41, the B41 down Flatbush.

Look at all that cool shit to do. I’m so glad I’m doing it with you.
Look at all that cool shit to do. I’m so glad I’m doing it with you.

Let’s grab an ice cream cone and walk around the grounds a little.
Let’s stop and watch those little leaguers play, while their parents whistle.
Oh, damn! They’ve got a nature center in this crazy park!
That sucks, they’re closed but you can see stuffed creatures inside in the dark!

Over there, there’s a little telescope on the wall.
It must be there for bird-watching.
You gotta quarter?
I wanna see some crazy birds up in this bitch.
Give me a quarter.
Oh damn, I see a Purple Finch.
Another quarter.
Oh look I see some Slapper Rails!
Just one more quarter!
And a Black Crowned Night Heron
I’m fuckin’ bird-watching!
Bird-watching!

Next, we walked down a trail towards the water.
On the shore there were tiny crabs digging in and out the sand bar.
Two people in a kayak, paddling out in the sunset.
Next time we’ll bring a kayak to maximize our Salt Marsh experience.

Yes, it’s getting late, I know.
Just a little more bird-watching, please?
Thanks babe. Just one minute more.

Babe, do you have any quarters left?
Oh. Just one left?
Shit.

Let’s see what I can see with this last view, a night owl!
Let’s see what I can see beyond those reeds, huh! a young woman walking through the marshy water
maybe a fellow birding geekazoid like me, and she’s wearing headphones,
that’s not a bad idea when your getting your bird on
the only problem is she can’t hear her boyfriend approaching her behind her
wait, why would her boyfriend carry an axe?
Fuck, i don’t think that’s her boyfriend..
Wait, is he lifting his axe, oh SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT. Holy fuck. Holy fuuuuuuuuck.

And my Baby was like, “What? Did your quarter run out?”
And I was all, “No. Uh. Yeah. I guess. I just saw a girl get axed in her head, I think. I mean, yeah. I mean, I just saw a girl get axed in her head, I think. I was pretty far away, but I’m pretty sure I saw it. Wanna take a look?”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Matt?
What the fuck are you talking about, Matt?
And I don’t have any quarters left, remember?
Should we call the cops?”
“Yeah! Wait.. I didn’t bring my phone, remember?”
“And mine is dead from all the music, remember?”
“Shit.”
“Fuck.”
“Shit.”
“Fuck.”
“Shit.”
“Fuck.”
“Let’s find a pay phone!”
“Do they still make pay phones?”
“I think. But we need a quarter. Shit, we need a quarter! Let’s ask that shirtless asian runner guy.
Excuse me. Sir! You got a quarter?
I just saw a lady get axed right in her head. Yes! I’m serious!
I just need a quarter to call the police. I’m not a pan-handler!
Fuck it. Ma’am! Have you got a quarter??
I gotta save a young girl’s life, you see. Why doesn’t anyone believe me??
And baby said, “Matt, it was probably a couple of kids fucking around.”
“I don’t think it is, Babe. But if was really far away…
Ohhhh…. FUCK. What do we do? What do we do?
I’m gonna go out on the salt marsh and try and find her body”
“Bitch you ain’t going anywhere, it’s almost dark and I ain’t lettin’ your dumbass drown!
I think you imagined it, Matt.
I think you imagined it, Matt.
I think you imagined it, Matt.”
“Fuck, maybe I imagined it, Baby…
Maybe I imagined it, Baby…
Maybe I imagined it, Baby…”
“We’ll call the cops when we get home and no more horror movies for a while, Matt.
We’ll call the cops when we get home and no more horror movies for a while, Matt.
We’ll call the cops when we get home and no more horror movies for a while, Matt.
We’ll call the cops when we get home and no more horror movies for a while, Matt.
We’ll call the cops when we get home and no more horror movies for a while, Matt.”

Here’s the info for the shows this weekend:

Karaoke Night @ Spectrum

121 Ludlow St. NY, NY (Near the B,D,F,J,M,Z,6)

Saturday 12/7, 7:30pm

AND Sunday 12/8, 7:30pm

ONLY $10!

FB Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/656562444363821/

I recently finished writing a new piece commissioned by the wonderful mixed quartet, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, called KAMIKAZE KARAOKE. It’s a suite of five songs with text taken from the journal entries of Japanese kamikaze pilots from WWII. Despite the heavy material the piece is heavily influenced by Japanese pop, or JPop, a genre not exactly known for its depth of emotional expression. But anyone who knows me or my music knows such emotional dissonance is my bread and butter. Along those lines, you might also find my selection of vocalist interesting. To sing my songs with CME I chose the popular Japanese virtual pop star Hatsune Miku, a synthetic singer who one can write for using the vocaloid program, which I used in a new English plugin by Big Fish Audio.

I talk about my motivation and inspiration in this fun video I did with Meaghan Burke, the cellist (and more!) with Cadillac Moon Ensemble. Give it a look:

Also, I put up a little excerpt of one of the movements (a mockup with MIDI instruments) so you can get a taste of the piece. Hatsune Miku’s voice is pretty close to what it will be in the final version:

I’m in my hometown of L.A. this week rehearsing with the Philharmonic for our big performance of 200 Motels on October 23rd at the Walt Disney Hall. This is my third time working professionally with this amazing organization: the first a few years ago splitting a concert with them and AWS+The Dirty Projectors; the second being last season when they premiered my mini-opera Strip Mall; and now this, singing one of the solo parts for one of the most insane pieces of all time. Hopefully, I’ll have time to blog more about it, but sufficed to say that it’s been a crazy fun time thus far.

Check out info for the show here:

http://www.laphil.com/tickets/10th-anniversary-celebration-green-umbrella-zappa039s-200-motels/2013-10-23

 

I did this acapella cover about a year ago just after Whitney Houston died.

February has been a productive month. I went into it with one big objective: to work on my follow-up to my pop opera The Little Death: Vol. 1, the cleverly-titled The Little Death: Vol. 2. The MATA Festival has afforded me with a nice deadline to work against – I’ll be performing selections from TLDV2 at Roulette on April 19th – but, to be honest, going into February this is all had planned:

1. Assess the bulk of songs, sketches, themes, and general musical material I’d written around the time of TLDV1, and had set aside for TLDV2. More than enough material for an album, but was it good enough and did it fit/extend the story the way I wanted it to?
2. Work (with creative blinders on) on new ideas/songs and see if any of them shepherded me in new directions, both musically and narratively.

A primary challenge was going to be working in a style, both in terms of the music and the method, that I’ve largely grown away from. The Little Death is a project that goes back as early as 2006, very soon after I wrote some of my first ever through-composed pieces of music. It’s written almost entirely in Ableton Live and involves no written-out music – except in the few cases when I have someone else record a part (though Mellissa did without music more often than not!). Creatively, I hadn’t touched anything Little Death since the end of the TLDV1 mastering process, late 2009. It’s now over two years later, and I found myself in that familiar, yet utterly-unproductive, place of utter speculation.

Now if there’s one thing I’ve learned from successfully writing music over the last 6-7 years (successful as in actually getting it done) is that early speculation about a new piece is about 0.1% of the work you should do (speaking personally, others may have different processes). The more the piece resides in the aether of speculation, the more that speculative challenges and threats will arise, and the more chance there’ll be that the reality of the work will never be able to match that celestial work of art in your imagination. Long story short: I speculated way too fucking long on this bitch, and it came time to lock myself in my studio and see what came out.

What came out, based on my two-point plan:

1. I assessed the bulk of songs, sketches, themes, and general musical material I’d written around the time of TLDV1 that I’d set aside for TLDV2.
   Result:

   I decided that most of it sucked. Or, to be more forgiving of myself, most of it wasn’t worth spending any more time on. I planned to keep some of the themes in mind, but try and start fresh. Biggest fear: I wouldn’t be able to create new music that matched the vibe of TLDV1.

2. Work (with creative blinders on) on new ideas/songs and see if any of them shepherd me in new directions, both musically and narratively.
   Result:

   This went unexpectedly well. I decided to work mostly in Ableton Live (though with a bit more Sibelius thrown into the mix than last time). Most of the music began as melodies I sang and recorded on the spot. Then I’d listen over and over and add what I’d hear in my head, rinse and repeat. A very simple process, and very similar to how I worked on TLDV1. The vibe of the music is little different – I’m a better singer now, so there’s quite a bit more vocals being used as harmony and texture whereas before I would use samples and synths – but the spirit is very similar. Blindly diving into the writing process also helped solve some lingering plot holes and issues that I couldn’t for the life of me think my way through. Funny how my brain keeps insisting that logically problem-solving my way through these challenges is the way to go, even after he’s been proven wrong time after time.

So it’s now the end of February and I have four new songs (totaling almost 20 minutes) that are very likely to appear on TLDV2 – though still firmly in the “demo” stage – and one other I’m currently working on, but I think is going to work.

Here are some tantalizing facts about what TLDV2 is going to feature, based on my work in February:

• More acoustic instruments, including: toy piano (not sampled!), ukulele, cabasa, jingle bells, trumpet, violin, some mallet instruments, and more.
• One track that’s all acapella, and is a cover song.
• Some Pygmalion-esque themes
• A song featuring the lyrics:
  “You know that I know that you know that I know that you know that I know that you know that I know that you know that I know that you know that I know you love me.”
• A nod to Bedrich Smetana.
• A setting of John 3:16
• “Arky arky”
• A whole lotta doo woppy vocals
• The return of a formerly-discarded Little Death idea that Melly calls “Bochco”.

Tantalizing? Hope so. Stay tuned for more TLDV2 updates (hopefully with some samples!).

I recently put some new stuff onto my website (after huh-way too long!), so if you’re looking for a little more Mafoo to get you through your day, check out the MUSIC and VIDEO sections.

Aw hell, I’ll just link here as well:

Here’s my recent Alarm Will Sound piece, about an suburban, in-the-closet, teenage Karen Carpenter impersonator (I play him):

A Song for Wade – 2011

[audio https://mattmarks.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/a-song-for-wade-this-is-not-that-song.mp3]

Here are the wonderful lyrics by Royce Vavrek:

Dad’s office had a salary freeze. Mom’s pissed she has to work part-time. They get home and smoke cartons of cigarettes. Watch the Wednesday night CBS lineup. Cough in unison.  Lost in a cloud of smoke. Someday they’ll asphyxiate.

Mommy hates Daddy. I hate ’em both. Mommy and Daddy, and Sis. My sister loves my Daddy cuz he shells out lots of money. Sometimes the three of them watch QVC and then buy buy buy. Nobody knows where their money goes.

I met a man named Wade. By met, I mean we’ve been chatting online. “I think that I love you,” he emailed to me. He thinks I’m 19.

I told him I’d record him a song. This is not that song.

I think my sister’s boyfriend has a crush on me. He likes to walk around wearing only a towel. Pausing at my bedroom door, saying “Hey Dude!”, showing off his treasure trail. He’s nothing to write home about. But he’s more than my sister deserves.

“I love that you love me,” I emailed back. I think I could love him; but maybe I’ll hate him. Even more than Mommy hates Daddy.

I dream about my sister’s college drop-out, and the internet love of my life, who swears he’s divorcing his wife, I imagine them wrestling, with me as the prize. I gotta record a song for him, Wade… before he doesn’t love me anymore.

Next up is a piece from a recent opera-in-progress of mine, Mata Hari: The Great Imitator:

Mata Hari: The Eye of the Day, from Mata Hari: The Great Imitator – 2011

[audio https://mattmarks.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/mata-hari_-the-eye-of-the-day-11-27-11-mix.mp3]

Jeff Gavett – Voice

Helen Yee – Violin

James Moore – Banjo

Red Wierenga – Keyboards

The lyrics, based on the writings of Captain Pierre Bouchardon, translated by Paul Peers, the director of the upcoming opera:

Mata Hari! “The Eye of the Day” in Javanese, according to the translation she gave me.

When she entered for the first time in my office – That was February 13th, 1917 – I saw a full-lipped woman with coppery skin, somewhat native-like with fake pearls in the ears.

She said her name was Margaret Geertrude Zelle – the ex-wife of the Major Rudolph MacLeod, she said in a haughty tone like a person of importance that had been improperly and unnecessarily disturbed.

Officer Priolet, who an hour earlier apprehended her while she slept in a hotel on the Champs-Elysées.

Then, believing being released from me, she changed her expression and gave me her most gracious smile.

Then she went to the door with swinging of her hips that did not fail to charm.

But she was no longer free, and the stairs leading to the cell were opened before her.

She looked at me, her eyes rolled back, in mute terror.

Also, I have a video of a performance by The Brooklyn Brass, joined by soprano Mellissa Hughes, of my song I Tasted, from my sexy song cycle I [XX]:

I [XX] – 2010

I Tasted:

Lyrics, again by Royce Vavrek:

I tasted another woman in your mouth.

I don’t mind that you have other lovers.

All I ask is that you brush your teeth between engagements.

One of my favorite things about moving to Park Slope, Brooklyn has been our routine of wandering the streets every Saturday morning (and sometimes Sunday) looking for killer deals among the varied stoops of our brownstone-dominated neighborhood. I’ve built up a pretty decent (and quite nerdy) library, largely culled from these excursions, as well as the annual Park Slope book sale at the church on 6th Ave. and 8th St. We’ve also stocked our apartment with all manner of miscellanea we never would have imagined had we not stumbled upon them on the third step of some stranger’s reddish-brown stairway.

Today was a particularly good stoop sale’n’ day. Here is our booty:

Toys (mostly for Jackson…):

Toy Marimba (Nice, made of wood and everything!) – $5.00

Bakugan ball – $0.25

Harry Potter Wand – Free with other purchases

Backrest Pillow (Which Melly insists is called a “husband pillow”…) – $5.00

Clothes:

Dress for Melly, made by Ronen Chen (retails for $96.00, tags still on) – $10.00

Skirt for Melly, made by Gr. Dano (retails for $280.00, stags still on) – $10.00

Two T-shirts for Jackson (one Spiderman!) – $2.00

Vest by Hannah Anderson for Jackson – $0.50

Mittens for Jackson – $0.50

Books:

Chapterhouse: Dune –  Frank Herbert – $0.50

God Emperor of Dune – Frank Herbert – $0.50

Heretics of Dune – Frank Herbert – $0.50

The Icewind Dale Trilogy – R.A. Salvatore – (3 Books) $2.00

Dungeons & Dragons: Player’s Handbook; Dungeon Master Guide; Monstrous Manual (all 2nd Edition) – $3.00 (GEEK ALERT!)

Drawing/Writing Journal for Jackson – $0.50

TOTAL: $40.25

Comparable to a dinner for two at a decent restaurant. Not bad… :)

I recently did an episode of Nadia Sirota‘s radio show on Q2 about my music and the upcoming SONiC Festival, where I’ll be performing my new Alarm Will Sound piece, A Song for Wade (This is not that song). I play a teenage Karen Carpenter-impersonator, it’s going to be a blast.

You can listen here:

SONiC Portrait: Matt Marks

They also play several other recordings of my stuff, including music from The Little Death: Vol. 1, my Revolution 9 arrangement for Alarm Will Sound, my Live on WNYC remix of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and even a Birtwistle piece on which I play french horn.

The Alarm Will Sound show on the SONiC Festival is Friday, October 21st at Roulette in downtown Brooklyn. Be there or be square!

Check it out below. It was great to work with producers Irina Khokhlova and Jonathan Lief of Brooklyn Independent TV.

The video features me working on several pieces, including my Sunrise, Outside Remix I made for the Satan’s Pearl Horses Reel:

My ukulele version of OMG I’m Shot:

And I Pretended, from my song cycle I [XX], which is being performed Thursday of next week at 21c Liederabend.