June 16, 2023 • 30 mins
Join us for an exciting interview with recording artist Mark Westin as he takes us on a journey through his latest album, "Tales." Discover the character-driven narratives that shape his songs and dive into the creative process behind this captivating collection of stories.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
You are now listening to Vigilantes Radio, presented by the Only One Media Group.
This is the people's choice for qualityinterviews, celebrities and special guests,
hosted by Demetrius Denny Reynolds. Callin to join the mix at seven eight,
one, one three. For thecomplete archive of episodes, visit only
(00:21):
One Media Group dot com and beshorter like us on Facebook. At Vigilante's
Radio, we welcome all. Enjoythe show. Ladies and gentlemen, please
(00:49):
welcome your host, Demetrius Kudinie BlackReynolds. Enjoy the show. At dollar
seed dot com, all of ourseeds are only a dollar a pack,
and we have online resources that teachyou all about the rewarding hobby of growing
your own plants, flowers, herbs, and vegetables. Imagine the joy you'll
(01:14):
feel when your children actually help youharvest your first garden ground, or the
pride of knowing you'll never need afloor ust again. Visit dollar seed dot
com and grow a little magic ofyour own for just a dollar dollar seed
dot com. What could be healthier? Hello? Hello, what is going
on? Guys? Welcome to anotherincredible episode of Vigilantes Radio live right here
(01:37):
on my heart to radio and I'myour Hostdany. We have a very special
guest for you guys, so youdefinitely want to stick around for that.
And as a matter of fact,text your buddies, your family members are
even shared on social media right nowand let them know that we are about
to dive deep into another interview.Before I bring my guest on, I
do want to say, you know, you have to take your emotions and
(02:01):
translate them into action, Like whatare you talking about, Timmy? Okay,
So what can you do with yourworries, your fears, your anger,
and even your frustration. You cantranslate them into action. What can
you do about your hopes, yourdreams and desires? You can translate them
into action as well. And thebest use of frustration is not to settle
(02:23):
you or keep you in that particularstate of emotion. The best use of
frustration is to spur you into sometype of action. And the saying goes
for anger, wary or fear.And at the same time, dreams are
not meant to forever continue as dreams. Yeah, they are yours to be
(02:46):
pursued, to be fulfilled, tobe brought into reality as a result of
your actions. I don't know.Sometimes, you know, we want to
be rich and famous and have allkind of norariety and you know, stature
not But I think sometimes just anopportunity to do something as to win,
(03:07):
you know. So let the negativethings move you forward, and let the
positive things move you forward. Translatethem into a positive, effective action.
There's no value in staying frustrated.The value comes when you decide to do
something positive about that frustration. There'sno value in empty wishes. The value
comes when you decide to do whateverit takes to fulfill those dreams, whatever
(03:29):
happens, whatever you feel, translatinginto a positive action and move your life
ahead no matter what. Take thatfrom me, Coachdini, that is my
word. And word is Have youstruggled budgeting your finances? Don't worry,
You're not alone. Humbled budget dotcom. That's hum bled budget dot com
(03:51):
is the help and resource you've beensearching for. Humbled budget dot com is
a personal finance and educational website witha great variety of topics when it comes
to budgeting, taxes, investing inthe popular topic of fire, financial independence,
retire early. Humbled budget dot Comas a goal, and that's to
help you reach your financial dreams.No matter what your goals are when it
(04:12):
comes to finances, it doesn't matterwhere you start, where you come from,
or where you are right now,humbled budget dot Com can help.
What are you waiting for? Takethat first step to the financial life you've
dreamed of and go to humbled budgetdot com. That's h U M b
l E ed bud get humbled budgetdot com. All right, all right
(04:35):
again, welcome to the show you'relistening to vr L. That's Vigilantees RADIYO
old live right here on iHeart toRadio and I'm your host DNI. Our
interviews are designed to go beyond themusic, news, books, art,
acting, films, technology, education, entrepreneurship, entertainment, and sometimes even
(04:55):
past that thing that we call theego. Our interviews are designed to go
behind the scenes into the minds ofthese incredible human beings, you know,
the ones we're out there given it. They're all for me, for you,
and for the world. Ladies andgentlemen. Welcome to a truly enchanting
episode. Today we have the pleasureof speaking with the immensely talented recording artist
(05:18):
Mark Weston. Prepared to be transportedinto a world of character driven narratives as
Mark unveils the stories behind this latestalbum. It is called Tales, So
get ready to dive into the artof musical storytelling and embark on a captivating
journey with Mark Weston. With that, let's say, welcome him to the
(05:41):
show. Hello, Hello, howare you hey, Danny? How are
you doing? Great to talk toyou, absolutely, Oh man, we
have a lot to talk about.I guess we can start with the album
Tales. It's a collection of characterdriven narratives. Could you share more about
the inspiration behind this approach and howyou crafted those stories within the songs?
(06:06):
Oh? Boy, sure, Well. I always look at songwriting me personally,
as I sometimes think of it likeinvestigative journalism, Like you're watching things
happen in the world and you're reportingon it. And I've always been a
word guy, and I see picturesin life and I put words to them.
(06:29):
You know, it could be assimple as like being in the coffee
shop and you see a conversation goingon, and from the body language or
from whatever you can tell, there'sa scene happening there, and sometimes you
know, you reflect it accurately,and sometimes you use that as a spur
for just your imagination, and youtry to envision the dialogue and I try
(06:50):
to bring life to it. Ifeel like if I've done my job well,
I use you certain details that bringout a person's character without literally saying
it, because there's always been yourapproach. Oh gosh, no, I've
been writing songs for probably really longtime. So I started when I was
(07:12):
like a teenager or even earlier thanthat, and I used to write,
you know, funny songs just tocrack my friends up, stuff like that.
And then, you know, whenI got around high school, I
started writing the typical love songs thatyou write to the girl that you're hoping
will look at you in high school, and it was all the kind of
I Love you and Sky's Blue stuff. It was pretty bad. Honestly.
(07:32):
I still have those notebooks and Iread them every time I start thinking I'm
good at what I do. Bringsme back down to earth a little bit.
I you know, evolved. Iused to, Well, here's the
thing. I was a guitar playerfirst and foremost. I played all sorts
of stuff. I played blue grass, I played banjo and a blue grass
(07:53):
band. I played electric guitar.I've been in rock and roll bands,
and I was always kind of theguy on the side. Somebody else was
the singer, or somebody else wasthe front man. I was Keith,
someone else was Mick, if youknow what I mean. So, you
know, I started writing songs justbecause I felt like it was it was
starting to come out of me.And every so often, as I got
(08:16):
older, I lived more life,I felt like I got a little better
out. I felt like I actuallyhad something to say that was in my
own voice, and I couldn't findanybody who would sing my songs, and
other bands wanted to do my stuff, and so I became a reluctant frontman
and became the performing songwriter that Iam today. And you know, as
(08:39):
far as did I always take thisapproach, you know, it changes over
time. When you're young, you'rea product of your influences. You hear
certain people and you're like, Iwant to sound like that, or I
want to write like that, andyou steal things from them, and then
you start finding your own way tosay things, and you know, gradually
that evolves, and you know,I've gone down a lot of pathways for
(09:01):
the sake of what I thought wasfashion or commercialism. You know, I'm
going to write like this, I'mgonna play like this, And none of
that ever worked for me. Andwhen I finally let go of all that
and said I got to write forme, that's when I sort of stumbled
into what I do now. Andthat's also not to say that my next
record won't be totally different, becauseI'm still evolving. Yeah, what were
(09:24):
some of these things that you haveto say? Well, you know,
I think I like the idea ofbeing like doing social commentary or subtle political
commentary. But I've never been aslogan guy, you know. I've never
been one to you know, jumpup and down and chant something. I
(09:48):
prefer to tell the story around itand have the sort of the moral of
the story be the social comment orthe political comment And I do that by
creating a car character and voicing thesong as if that character was singing it.
And I'm hoping if it works thatwhen you hear those lyrics, you
(10:09):
get an insight sort of like watchingan actor on screen. You know,
an actor says certain things, makecertain gestures that show you the kind of
character they are, even without literallycoming out and saying I'm the bad guy
or I'm the good guy. Youcan tell by the demeanor and by the
attitude and by some of the dialogue. And I take the same approach to
songwriting. Man, I understand that. Wow A right. So to catch
(10:39):
us up the speech just a littlebit, you have close to fifty songs
written. Oh, you did haveclose to fifty songs written during a two
year period of what period was this? If you mind me asking? No?
No, Absolutely, honestly, thepretty much the Lion's Share of the
Tales album came out of this.It was the COVID lockdown. I was,
(11:05):
you know, stuck inside and youknow, for a while, the
you know, the phone isn't ringing. It's not like there's going to be
any work even if it was,And so, you know, I had
nothing to do but sit around andplay guitar. And I'm very fortunate to
live in a really great creative community. I live in the Hudson Valley in
New York, and there's just atremendous supportive creative scene here for artists,
(11:30):
musicians, all walks of life.And a friend of mine who's also a
songwriter, started what he called thesong game, and every week, he
would send out a prompt like twoor three words, you know, just
a random phrase and not an obviousone, something that like he pulled out
of the middle of a book orsomething, and we had one week to
(11:52):
write a song using those words exactlyas they were in the phrase. And
that was something that just kept meoccupied during the first part of COVID,
And you know, that was thespark. But once I started writing a
song a week, it kind ofopened me up and I went, oh,
you know, I could just writeall the time, and so you
(12:15):
know, just this stuff came dumpingout of me. And not all of
it was great, but some ofit, like I wrote it and it
came out in one shot and I'mlike finished, done. That's as good
as it's ever going to get.Other times I'd go back and look at
it and go, well, youknow, it needs bridge, it needs
a second verse, or you know, I don't really like the way I
said this, but the idea,there's a germ of an idea there.
(12:37):
And then I went back and developedthose and polished them up until they became
something that I would call a song. So basically writing all through COVID,
and then when it came time tomake the album, I just went through
the entire catalog and picked what Ithought were the ten best and the ones
that hung together thematically, and becausethey all happened to be those character driven
(12:58):
narrative, I was like, oh, okay, so it's a story song
album, you know, and it'sthe first time I've ever really done something
with that much intention behind it.My other my previous records have just been
more collections of songs. This isone I kind of went in with this
concept. Yeah. Wow, thatwas a crazy period to write during UM,
(13:24):
but picking ten out of fifty songsis even challenging, I think,
just to you know, find somecohesion between the records and can't you really
believe though not too uncle ago,we were classify it as none essential and
essential workers. You know. Ijoked with my wife sometimes about it.
(13:46):
You know, I was like,Okay, put on a haz met suit
and put on my pork my porkpie pork pie hat in briefcase and all
the work I go and you haveto stay home. But you know,
that was definitely a lot of thesituation where, you know, I think
we didn't know what we didn't know. I mean COVID. This was a
(14:07):
completely new experience for the world,really, I mean in modern times certainly.
And there was obviously a lot ofskepticism in one place and other people
were overly cautious in the other place. And you know, it was you
know, I'm not going to pointthe fingers or talk about the politics of
it, but it did find didfind it funny that the I mean I
understood the hospital workers, but thatthey classified like door dash drivers as essential
(14:33):
workers because people got to have theirfood, you know, and that was
kind of funny. You would thinkof essential workers more like firefighters and ems
and that kind of thing. Butyou know, the world was we we
got a moment to sort of pausefor reflection there, and I think some
people came out of it better thanothers. I lost a real good friend
(14:56):
to COVID in the very early daysof it. He's actually one of the
people but this record is dedicated tohis name, was Mike Karen. He
was a tremendous music fan. Hewas a writer and author, and he
and I used to sit up,you know, and drink all night and
talk music and lyrics and words.And he was one of my best friends
for many many years, and hedied in May twenty twenty, which was
(15:20):
just a couple months after the wholething started. He got it and nobody
knew what it was, and therewas really nothing they could do for him.
He lives inside me every day.And in one of the songs on
this record, called Terrible Business,the narrator of the song is named Mikey,
and that's my tribute to him,because he was We called him Mikey.
(15:41):
That was his friend's name. Nice, nice, rest on Mikey.
All right, so, Tales Man, So this project is very meaningful to
you. The recording process for Talesevolved working with your band, the restless
(16:02):
Age, and a lot of settingtell us about the dynamics and collaboration within
the band during this recording session.Well, the first thing I have to
say, The restless Age is notmy band, by any stress. The
restless Age is a band, andthey're a tremendous band of really talented,
world class musicians right here in theHudson Valley up the road from where I
(16:26):
live. I had been familiar withthem for several years through a variety of
sources, and when it came timeto make this record, I had done
a lot of recording during COVID too, and I did it all myself at
home. I have a decent homestudio set up, and what I would
do is, you know, I'dcall up my friends who are musicians,
(16:48):
and I'd say to them, youknow, hey, you want to do
a track for me? You know, I'd send them like a rough demo
and they have recorded at their homeand they'd email it to me, you
know, because we couldn't be youknow, social distance, we had to
be apart from each other. Andthen eventually that evolved into people coming over
and you know, standing on theother side of the room with a mask
on while I recorded on this sideof the room. And it was you
(17:11):
know, I was able to keepbeing creative and being productive, but it
felt kind of sterile to do itthat way. And so when I knew
I was going to make an album, the first thing that came to my
mind was I want to do thisthing live. I wanted to be in
the moment. I want people tojust be there and play, and we're
gonna do it like an old jazzrecord. We're gonna go in with charts
(17:33):
and we're going to make a takeor we're not, and if we don't,
we'll try again and get another tank. And I needed musicians who were
capable of playing on that level,and the guys in the Restless Age absolutely
fit that bill. So I wentup to their studio, which is a
big, old kind of wooden barn, really cool space, big and open,
(17:56):
airy, you know, very creativeroom when you walk into it.
And we did two days, twosolid days of recording, you know,
basically four or five songs a dayessentially, and you know, we went
in like they played live. Iplayed guitar and sang live. They played
(18:17):
bass, drums and keyboards, andwe put down takes. Sometimes we do
one and we'd be like that thereit is. Can't improve on that.
I don't think anything. Took morethan three takes to get any of the
songs. And at the end ofthe day, I went back and I
re sang a couple of them,only because I knew I could do better,
and then we just kind of playedwith some overdubs. I knew I
(18:41):
wanted some some really lush harmony vocals, and they have really nice three part
harmonies, and I also wanted tooverdub some electric guitar parts. Little you
know, things here and there,just to you know, fill out the
production of the song. So,but the basic guts of what you hear
was recorded live in two days byfour guys in a room, and then
(19:02):
there was like a couple of daysof the overdub in the mixing, and
then that was that. It wasoff to get mastered. Yeah, but
recording this album took two days.Right. That's wow. Superpowers one of
the songs. The guys even learnedon the second day. I hadn't intended
to record it, but after Iheard the rough mixes of the first day
(19:26):
and I knew what we were ontoo, I came back in the next
day and I brought them charts andI said, guys, you know,
this is not a song I hadshowed you in advance, but we're gonna
do this one. And they likelearned it in the moment, and I
think in a couple of takes wehad it down. You know. I
can't say enough good about them.They're just amazing musicians. Yeah, that's
what you call talent. Wow Wow. All right, we're getting ready to
(19:51):
play one of the singles. Allare welcome here, All right, We'll
be right back with Mark Weston,Stay tuned. The red tabby cat curls
(20:18):
upon the bar, not far fromthe warming fire. The barkeeper WAPs off
the brass with his tongue, cleaningup, winding down. In a booth
by the door is a moun sinyall who is falling asleep on his beard,
(20:41):
just over his head. And noticethat red to those who pass these
pottles have no fear, honest men, grifters, young poets, no old
time drifters. All couples conspire incorners and snugs, unaware of the ravenous
(21:33):
eyes. A singular student take solaceand stout, hoisting up, drinking down
at the back. All the boystrying PROI imploys to advance their romantic careers
through courtship and cuckoldry love, liesand lust, furtive glances and devious smiles
(22:02):
and genuine honest men, drifters,young poets, old time drifters. A
welcome. Who are we now?And when we're in our course, then
(22:34):
go we become. When we openedthe top of what comes out, we've
emptied the glass. All three whowe are to be? They swoombers,
(23:15):
and all of it much more thanonce, and it saved many lives in
its time. There's been quite afew kittens and keepers curling up, wapping
down. Even when it's unspoken,these walls understand when a spirit gets broken,
(23:40):
with silent compassion for lost generations,last weekends and hours and years,
they say, loud and clear,honest men, drifters, young poets and
the old time drifters. All right, guys, welcome back man. This
(24:34):
song was truly remarkable and chanting.Even soundtrack. I could just kick back
and you know, listen to thisand let the lyrics paint the picture VI
vividly. Right, very good,very good, very good. All right,
let's bring Mark Weston back on.Hello, Hello, welcome back here.
(25:00):
Alright, alright, So looking ahead, what can fans and listeners expect
from Mark in terms of future projects, collaborations and maybe artistic explorations. Well,
at the moment, I have afew shows booked through the coming months,
and I'm adding more right now,I'm basically going up and down the
(25:22):
East coast between Right now, thetargets are Boston at one end, in
DC at the other end, whichis going to happen through the summer.
The best thing I can do issteer people to my website, which is
www dot MarkWest dot i N.It's no dot com, no dot org,
no dot net. It's Mark Westdot i N. It spells out
(25:45):
my name, my schedules on there. There's links to all my socials,
my videos, records, etcetera,etcetera. As far as collaborations and things
go, I work with a coupleof vans that are also going to be
out and about this summer. Oneof them is a kind of a heavy
blues trio called Tiny Rhino. Weplay around New York and New Jersey.
(26:11):
And the other one, which isa brand new project which I'm really excited
about because it's just good fun,is a pretty serious metal band called Maximum
Satan. All right, sounds cool? Sounds cool? Where can our words
that m vinyl? Will vinyl albumsbe available? Yes? Vinyl is available
(26:37):
if you If you go, youcan go to either my website and there's
links there, or you can goto markweston dot bandcamp dot com and you
can buy your choice of either downloadin whatever digital format you like, a
CD which has some nice packaging andstuff and some liner notes, and the
(27:00):
deluxe limited edition one hundred eighty gramvinyl record, which I think sounds fantastic,
and I was nervous about it becausesometimes you never know what you're gonna
get with vinyl. When when thatbox first showed up and I slapped the
first one down on the turntable,I was holding my breath and then I
went like, oh, yeah,this is good. This is really good.
So I encourage people to buy thevinyl if you have a turntable.
(27:22):
It's in a little more expensive,but I think it's worth the reward for
the sound quality it was. Itwas mastered beautifully by a gutting Allan Doush
just up here, who just dida great job. I mean, everybody
who worked on this thing from topto bottom really brought their a game to
it. And you know, I'mthrilled because I'm a collaborative guy, and
(27:44):
you know, if everybody's on thesame page, it just makes it so
much better. Absolutely, well,Mark, thank you so much. It
was a pleasure chatting with you.It's a pleasure talking to you too,
all right, take care of agreat night. Thank you, my Vigilanci's
family. As all ways, forchecking out my podcast over here at Vigilantes
Radio Live. All episodes are availablefor free download and you can grab it
(28:07):
from either Spricker dot com, ForwardSlash, only one media group Spotify,
cast Box, i Heearts Radio,iTunes, YouTube, the app podcast Addict,
or over at our website, whichagain is only one media group dot
com and that goes for every singleshow that we've ever aired. If you
(28:27):
like to request some music or sendingsomething for me to play, email it
to V Radio at only one mediagroup dot com that is V as in
Victor. And here's my disclaimer.We are jump or free. We do
not judge, and we absolutely donot base our opinions on hearsay but facts
alone. And actually scratch all ofthat because all of my opinions are always
(28:51):
right. As the bottom line,this is my show, so deal with
it. Just kidding on bath ofmyself, Denny, I appreciate all you
guys for two and in either afterwardsor alive with us, spread the word
because sharing is caring. We stuckup our game just for you guys and
our guests to make sure that youhave the best experience here on our show.
(29:11):
Be sure to connect with me onFacebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler,
snapchat, TikTok at all social mediasites as well as Sprincker YouTube.
We always follow back. Okay,well, just remember to put yourself into
everything that you do and never stopinvesting in yourself. Peace, Love,
(29:33):
grilled cheese and talk with you later. You and now listening to Vigi Lancy's
Radio, People's choice for quality interviewson music and hots up Eggs hosted Bonds
(29:59):
and Meet your Is Housini Black Reynoldsof the duo no Longer the Hero.
All episodes of this podcast are availablefor free download at www. Dots only
one Media group dot com. Thisis a seventh Sign Regime Rebirth Worldwide Syndicate exclusive
You are now listening to Vigilantes Radio, presented by the Only One Media Group.
This is the people's choice for qualityinterviews, celebrities and special guests,
hosted by Demetrius Denny Reynolds. Callin to join the mix at seven eight,
one, one three. For thecomplete archive of episodes, visit only
(00:21):
One Media Group dot com and beshorter like us on Facebook. At Vigilante's
Radio, we welcome all. Enjoythe show. Ladies and gentlemen, please
(00:49):
welcome your host, Demetrius Kudinie BlackReynolds. Enjoy the show. At dollar
seed dot com, all of ourseeds are only a dollar a pack,
and we have online resources that teachyou all about the rewarding hobby of growing
your own plants, flowers, herbs, and vegetables. Imagine the joy you'll
(01:14):
feel when your children actually help youharvest your first garden ground, or the
pride of knowing you'll never need afloor ust again. Visit dollar seed dot
com and grow a little magic ofyour own for just a dollar dollar seed
dot com. What could be healthier? Hello? Hello, what is going
on? Guys? Welcome to anotherincredible episode of Vigilantes Radio live right here
(01:37):
on my heart to radio and I'myour Hostdany. We have a very special
guest for you guys, so youdefinitely want to stick around for that.
And as a matter of fact,text your buddies, your family members are
even shared on social media right nowand let them know that we are about
to dive deep into another interview.Before I bring my guest on, I
do want to say, you know, you have to take your emotions and
(02:01):
translate them into action, Like whatare you talking about, Timmy? Okay,
So what can you do with yourworries, your fears, your anger,
and even your frustration. You cantranslate them into action. What can
you do about your hopes, yourdreams and desires? You can translate them
into action as well. And thebest use of frustration is not to settle
(02:23):
you or keep you in that particularstate of emotion. The best use of
frustration is to spur you into sometype of action. And the saying goes
for anger, wary or fear.And at the same time, dreams are
not meant to forever continue as dreams. Yeah, they are yours to be
(02:46):
pursued, to be fulfilled, tobe brought into reality as a result of
your actions. I don't know.Sometimes, you know, we want to
be rich and famous and have allkind of norariety and you know, stature
not But I think sometimes just anopportunity to do something as to win,
(03:07):
you know. So let the negativethings move you forward, and let the
positive things move you forward. Translatethem into a positive, effective action.
There's no value in staying frustrated.The value comes when you decide to do
something positive about that frustration. There'sno value in empty wishes. The value
comes when you decide to do whateverit takes to fulfill those dreams, whatever
(03:29):
happens, whatever you feel, translatinginto a positive action and move your life
ahead no matter what. Take thatfrom me, Coachdini, that is my
word. And word is Have youstruggled budgeting your finances? Don't worry,
You're not alone. Humbled budget dotcom. That's hum bled budget dot com
(03:51):
is the help and resource you've beensearching for. Humbled budget dot com is
a personal finance and educational website witha great variety of topics when it comes
to budgeting, taxes, investing inthe popular topic of fire, financial independence,
retire early. Humbled budget dot Comas a goal, and that's to
help you reach your financial dreams.No matter what your goals are when it
(04:12):
comes to finances, it doesn't matterwhere you start, where you come from,
or where you are right now,humbled budget dot Com can help.
What are you waiting for? Takethat first step to the financial life you've
dreamed of and go to humbled budgetdot com. That's h U M b
l E ed bud get humbled budgetdot com. All right, all right
(04:35):
again, welcome to the show you'relistening to vr L. That's Vigilantees RADIYO
old live right here on iHeart toRadio and I'm your host DNI. Our
interviews are designed to go beyond themusic, news, books, art,
acting, films, technology, education, entrepreneurship, entertainment, and sometimes even
(04:55):
past that thing that we call theego. Our interviews are designed to go
behind the scenes into the minds ofthese incredible human beings, you know,
the ones we're out there given it. They're all for me, for you,
and for the world. Ladies andgentlemen. Welcome to a truly enchanting
episode. Today we have the pleasureof speaking with the immensely talented recording artist
(05:18):
Mark Weston. Prepared to be transportedinto a world of character driven narratives as
Mark unveils the stories behind this latestalbum. It is called Tales, So
get ready to dive into the artof musical storytelling and embark on a captivating
journey with Mark Weston. With that, let's say, welcome him to the
(05:41):
show. Hello, Hello, howare you hey, Danny? How are
you doing? Great to talk toyou, absolutely, Oh man, we
have a lot to talk about.I guess we can start with the album
Tales. It's a collection of characterdriven narratives. Could you share more about
the inspiration behind this approach and howyou crafted those stories within the songs?
(06:06):
Oh? Boy, sure, Well. I always look at songwriting me personally,
as I sometimes think of it likeinvestigative journalism, Like you're watching things
happen in the world and you're reportingon it. And I've always been a
word guy, and I see picturesin life and I put words to them.
(06:29):
You know, it could be assimple as like being in the coffee
shop and you see a conversation goingon, and from the body language or
from whatever you can tell, there'sa scene happening there, and sometimes you
know, you reflect it accurately,and sometimes you use that as a spur
for just your imagination, and youtry to envision the dialogue and I try
(06:50):
to bring life to it. Ifeel like if I've done my job well,
I use you certain details that bringout a person's character without literally saying
it, because there's always been yourapproach. Oh gosh, no, I've
been writing songs for probably really longtime. So I started when I was
(07:12):
like a teenager or even earlier thanthat, and I used to write,
you know, funny songs just tocrack my friends up, stuff like that.
And then, you know, whenI got around high school, I
started writing the typical love songs thatyou write to the girl that you're hoping
will look at you in high school, and it was all the kind of
I Love you and Sky's Blue stuff. It was pretty bad. Honestly.
(07:32):
I still have those notebooks and Iread them every time I start thinking I'm
good at what I do. Bringsme back down to earth a little bit.
I you know, evolved. Iused to, Well, here's the
thing. I was a guitar playerfirst and foremost. I played all sorts
of stuff. I played blue grass, I played banjo and a blue grass
(07:53):
band. I played electric guitar.I've been in rock and roll bands,
and I was always kind of theguy on the side. Somebody else was
the singer, or somebody else wasthe front man. I was Keith,
someone else was Mick, if youknow what I mean. So, you
know, I started writing songs justbecause I felt like it was it was
starting to come out of me.And every so often, as I got
(08:16):
older, I lived more life,I felt like I got a little better
out. I felt like I actuallyhad something to say that was in my
own voice, and I couldn't findanybody who would sing my songs, and
other bands wanted to do my stuff, and so I became a reluctant frontman
and became the performing songwriter that Iam today. And you know, as
(08:39):
far as did I always take thisapproach, you know, it changes over
time. When you're young, you'rea product of your influences. You hear
certain people and you're like, Iwant to sound like that, or I
want to write like that, andyou steal things from them, and then
you start finding your own way tosay things, and you know, gradually
that evolves, and you know,I've gone down a lot of pathways for
(09:01):
the sake of what I thought wasfashion or commercialism. You know, I'm
going to write like this, I'mgonna play like this, And none of
that ever worked for me. Andwhen I finally let go of all that
and said I got to write forme, that's when I sort of stumbled
into what I do now. Andthat's also not to say that my next
record won't be totally different, becauseI'm still evolving. Yeah, what were
(09:24):
some of these things that you haveto say? Well, you know,
I think I like the idea ofbeing like doing social commentary or subtle political
commentary. But I've never been aslogan guy, you know. I've never
been one to you know, jumpup and down and chant something. I
(09:48):
prefer to tell the story around itand have the sort of the moral of
the story be the social comment orthe political comment And I do that by
creating a car character and voicing thesong as if that character was singing it.
And I'm hoping if it works thatwhen you hear those lyrics, you
(10:09):
get an insight sort of like watchingan actor on screen. You know,
an actor says certain things, makecertain gestures that show you the kind of
character they are, even without literallycoming out and saying I'm the bad guy
or I'm the good guy. Youcan tell by the demeanor and by the
attitude and by some of the dialogue. And I take the same approach to
songwriting. Man, I understand that. Wow A right. So to catch
(10:39):
us up the speech just a littlebit, you have close to fifty songs
written. Oh, you did haveclose to fifty songs written during a two
year period of what period was this? If you mind me asking? No?
No, Absolutely, honestly, thepretty much the Lion's Share of the
Tales album came out of this.It was the COVID lockdown. I was,
(11:05):
you know, stuck inside and youknow, for a while, the
you know, the phone isn't ringing. It's not like there's going to be
any work even if it was,And so, you know, I had
nothing to do but sit around andplay guitar. And I'm very fortunate to
live in a really great creative community. I live in the Hudson Valley in
New York, and there's just atremendous supportive creative scene here for artists,
(11:30):
musicians, all walks of life.And a friend of mine who's also a
songwriter, started what he called thesong game, and every week, he
would send out a prompt like twoor three words, you know, just
a random phrase and not an obviousone, something that like he pulled out
of the middle of a book orsomething, and we had one week to
(11:52):
write a song using those words exactlyas they were in the phrase. And
that was something that just kept meoccupied during the first part of COVID,
And you know, that was thespark. But once I started writing a
song a week, it kind ofopened me up and I went, oh,
you know, I could just writeall the time, and so you
(12:15):
know, just this stuff came dumpingout of me. And not all of
it was great, but some ofit, like I wrote it and it
came out in one shot and I'mlike finished, done. That's as good
as it's ever going to get.Other times I'd go back and look at
it and go, well, youknow, it needs bridge, it needs
a second verse, or you know, I don't really like the way I
said this, but the idea,there's a germ of an idea there.
(12:37):
And then I went back and developedthose and polished them up until they became
something that I would call a song. So basically writing all through COVID,
and then when it came time tomake the album, I just went through
the entire catalog and picked what Ithought were the ten best and the ones
that hung together thematically, and becausethey all happened to be those character driven
(12:58):
narrative, I was like, oh, okay, so it's a story song
album, you know, and it'sthe first time I've ever really done something
with that much intention behind it.My other my previous records have just been
more collections of songs. This isone I kind of went in with this
concept. Yeah. Wow, thatwas a crazy period to write during UM,
(13:24):
but picking ten out of fifty songsis even challenging, I think,
just to you know, find somecohesion between the records and can't you really
believe though not too uncle ago,we were classify it as none essential and
essential workers. You know. Ijoked with my wife sometimes about it.
(13:46):
You know, I was like,Okay, put on a haz met suit
and put on my pork my porkpie pork pie hat in briefcase and all
the work I go and you haveto stay home. But you know,
that was definitely a lot of thesituation where, you know, I think
we didn't know what we didn't know. I mean COVID. This was a
(14:07):
completely new experience for the world,really, I mean in modern times certainly.
And there was obviously a lot ofskepticism in one place and other people
were overly cautious in the other place. And you know, it was you
know, I'm not going to pointthe fingers or talk about the politics of
it, but it did find didfind it funny that the I mean I
understood the hospital workers, but thatthey classified like door dash drivers as essential
(14:33):
workers because people got to have theirfood, you know, and that was
kind of funny. You would thinkof essential workers more like firefighters and ems
and that kind of thing. Butyou know, the world was we we
got a moment to sort of pausefor reflection there, and I think some
people came out of it better thanothers. I lost a real good friend
(14:56):
to COVID in the very early daysof it. He's actually one of the
people but this record is dedicated tohis name, was Mike Karen. He
was a tremendous music fan. Hewas a writer and author, and he
and I used to sit up,you know, and drink all night and
talk music and lyrics and words.And he was one of my best friends
for many many years, and hedied in May twenty twenty, which was
(15:20):
just a couple months after the wholething started. He got it and nobody
knew what it was, and therewas really nothing they could do for him.
He lives inside me every day.And in one of the songs on
this record, called Terrible Business,the narrator of the song is named Mikey,
and that's my tribute to him,because he was We called him Mikey.
(15:41):
That was his friend's name. Nice, nice, rest on Mikey.
All right, so, Tales Man, So this project is very meaningful to
you. The recording process for Talesevolved working with your band, the restless
(16:02):
Age, and a lot of settingtell us about the dynamics and collaboration within
the band during this recording session.Well, the first thing I have to
say, The restless Age is notmy band, by any stress. The
restless Age is a band, andthey're a tremendous band of really talented,
world class musicians right here in theHudson Valley up the road from where I
(16:26):
live. I had been familiar withthem for several years through a variety of
sources, and when it came timeto make this record, I had done
a lot of recording during COVID too, and I did it all myself at
home. I have a decent homestudio set up, and what I would
do is, you know, I'dcall up my friends who are musicians,
(16:48):
and I'd say to them, youknow, hey, you want to do
a track for me? You know, I'd send them like a rough demo
and they have recorded at their homeand they'd email it to me, you
know, because we couldn't be youknow, social distance, we had to
be apart from each other. Andthen eventually that evolved into people coming over
and you know, standing on theother side of the room with a mask
on while I recorded on this sideof the room. And it was you
(17:11):
know, I was able to keepbeing creative and being productive, but it
felt kind of sterile to do itthat way. And so when I knew
I was going to make an album, the first thing that came to my
mind was I want to do thisthing live. I wanted to be in
the moment. I want people tojust be there and play, and we're
gonna do it like an old jazzrecord. We're gonna go in with charts
(17:33):
and we're going to make a takeor we're not, and if we don't,
we'll try again and get another tank. And I needed musicians who were
capable of playing on that level,and the guys in the Restless Age absolutely
fit that bill. So I wentup to their studio, which is a
big, old kind of wooden barn, really cool space, big and open,
(17:56):
airy, you know, very creativeroom when you walk into it.
And we did two days, twosolid days of recording, you know,
basically four or five songs a dayessentially, and you know, we went
in like they played live. Iplayed guitar and sang live. They played
(18:17):
bass, drums and keyboards, andwe put down takes. Sometimes we do
one and we'd be like that thereit is. Can't improve on that.
I don't think anything. Took morethan three takes to get any of the
songs. And at the end ofthe day, I went back and I
re sang a couple of them,only because I knew I could do better,
and then we just kind of playedwith some overdubs. I knew I
(18:41):
wanted some some really lush harmony vocals, and they have really nice three part
harmonies, and I also wanted tooverdub some electric guitar parts. Little you
know, things here and there,just to you know, fill out the
production of the song. So,but the basic guts of what you hear
was recorded live in two days byfour guys in a room, and then
(19:02):
there was like a couple of daysof the overdub in the mixing, and
then that was that. It wasoff to get mastered. Yeah, but
recording this album took two days.Right. That's wow. Superpowers one of
the songs. The guys even learnedon the second day. I hadn't intended
to record it, but after Iheard the rough mixes of the first day
(19:26):
and I knew what we were ontoo, I came back in the next
day and I brought them charts andI said, guys, you know,
this is not a song I hadshowed you in advance, but we're gonna
do this one. And they likelearned it in the moment, and I
think in a couple of takes wehad it down. You know. I
can't say enough good about them.They're just amazing musicians. Yeah, that's
what you call talent. Wow Wow. All right, we're getting ready to
(19:51):
play one of the singles. Allare welcome here, All right, We'll
be right back with Mark Weston,Stay tuned. The red tabby cat curls
(20:18):
upon the bar, not far fromthe warming fire. The barkeeper WAPs off
the brass with his tongue, cleaningup, winding down. In a booth
by the door is a moun sinyall who is falling asleep on his beard,
(20:41):
just over his head. And noticethat red to those who pass these
pottles have no fear, honest men, grifters, young poets, no old
time drifters. All couples conspire incorners and snugs, unaware of the ravenous
(21:33):
eyes. A singular student take solaceand stout, hoisting up, drinking down
at the back. All the boystrying PROI imploys to advance their romantic careers
through courtship and cuckoldry love, liesand lust, furtive glances and devious smiles
(22:02):
and genuine honest men, drifters,young poets, old time drifters. A
welcome. Who are we now?And when we're in our course, then
(22:34):
go we become. When we openedthe top of what comes out, we've
emptied the glass. All three whowe are to be? They swoombers,
(23:15):
and all of it much more thanonce, and it saved many lives in
its time. There's been quite afew kittens and keepers curling up, wapping
down. Even when it's unspoken,these walls understand when a spirit gets broken,
(23:40):
with silent compassion for lost generations,last weekends and hours and years,
they say, loud and clear,honest men, drifters, young poets and
the old time drifters. All right, guys, welcome back man. This
(24:34):
song was truly remarkable and chanting.Even soundtrack. I could just kick back
and you know, listen to thisand let the lyrics paint the picture VI
vividly. Right, very good,very good, very good. All right,
let's bring Mark Weston back on.Hello, Hello, welcome back here.
(25:00):
Alright, alright, So looking ahead, what can fans and listeners expect
from Mark in terms of future projects, collaborations and maybe artistic explorations. Well,
at the moment, I have afew shows booked through the coming months,
and I'm adding more right now,I'm basically going up and down the
(25:22):
East coast between Right now, thetargets are Boston at one end, in
DC at the other end, whichis going to happen through the summer.
The best thing I can do issteer people to my website, which is
www dot MarkWest dot i N.It's no dot com, no dot org,
no dot net. It's Mark Westdot i N. It spells out
(25:45):
my name, my schedules on there. There's links to all my socials,
my videos, records, etcetera,etcetera. As far as collaborations and things
go, I work with a coupleof vans that are also going to be
out and about this summer. Oneof them is a kind of a heavy
blues trio called Tiny Rhino. Weplay around New York and New Jersey.
(26:11):
And the other one, which isa brand new project which I'm really excited
about because it's just good fun,is a pretty serious metal band called Maximum
Satan. All right, sounds cool? Sounds cool? Where can our words
that m vinyl? Will vinyl albumsbe available? Yes? Vinyl is available
(26:37):
if you If you go, youcan go to either my website and there's
links there, or you can goto markweston dot bandcamp dot com and you
can buy your choice of either downloadin whatever digital format you like, a
CD which has some nice packaging andstuff and some liner notes, and the
(27:00):
deluxe limited edition one hundred eighty gramvinyl record, which I think sounds fantastic,
and I was nervous about it becausesometimes you never know what you're gonna
get with vinyl. When when thatbox first showed up and I slapped the
first one down on the turntable,I was holding my breath and then I
went like, oh, yeah,this is good. This is really good.
So I encourage people to buy thevinyl if you have a turntable.
(27:22):
It's in a little more expensive,but I think it's worth the reward for
the sound quality it was. Itwas mastered beautifully by a gutting Allan Doush
just up here, who just dida great job. I mean, everybody
who worked on this thing from topto bottom really brought their a game to
it. And you know, I'mthrilled because I'm a collaborative guy, and
(27:44):
you know, if everybody's on thesame page, it just makes it so
much better. Absolutely, well,Mark, thank you so much. It
was a pleasure chatting with you.It's a pleasure talking to you too,
all right, take care of agreat night. Thank you, my Vigilanci's
family. As all ways, forchecking out my podcast over here at Vigilantes
Radio Live. All episodes are availablefor free download and you can grab it
(28:07):
from either Spricker dot com, ForwardSlash, only one media group Spotify,
cast Box, i Heearts Radio,iTunes, YouTube, the app podcast Addict,
or over at our website, whichagain is only one media group dot
com and that goes for every singleshow that we've ever aired. If you
(28:27):
like to request some music or sendingsomething for me to play, email it
to V Radio at only one mediagroup dot com that is V as in
Victor. And here's my disclaimer.We are jump or free. We do
not judge, and we absolutely donot base our opinions on hearsay but facts
alone. And actually scratch all ofthat because all of my opinions are always
(28:51):
right. As the bottom line,this is my show, so deal with
it. Just kidding on bath ofmyself, Denny, I appreciate all you
guys for two and in either afterwardsor alive with us, spread the word
because sharing is caring. We stuckup our game just for you guys and
our guests to make sure that youhave the best experience here on our show.
(29:11):
Be sure to connect with me onFacebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler,
snapchat, TikTok at all social mediasites as well as Sprincker YouTube.
We always follow back. Okay,well, just remember to put yourself into
everything that you do and never stopinvesting in yourself. Peace, Love,
(29:33):
grilled cheese and talk with you later. You and now listening to Vigi Lancy's
Radio, People's choice for quality interviewson music and hots up Eggs hosted Bonds
(29:59):
and Meet your Is Housini Black Reynoldsof the duo no Longer the Hero.
All episodes of this podcast are availablefor free download at www. Dots only
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