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Hello Frank, thanx for taking some time to answer a
few questions. When did you pick up the guitar? You started as a drummer. Any advantages to that when
you did pick up the guitar? Which type(s) of guitar and amps do you use? You like to construct a lot of the material you use
yourself. Can you tell us what you've constructed and what
you would like to construct to use on stage? Lots of amps and effects nowadays are digitally based.
Do you prefer the digital or the analogue versions and
why? If you could choose to release your music on LP or CD,
what would you choose? Any tips to sound better for low-budget
players? Can you train a musical ear and is it important have
it, when you just listen to music? Playing and singing together seems extremely difficult
to me. How did you practice it? How do you keep your voice in shape? How do you practice? Do you've a favorite chord or
root? Any tips, tricks or licks? How do you compose a song and can you express freely
on the guitar? Do you see any advantages in the Internet for
musicians? The last cd you released in 2000 was Eye of the Storm.
Can we expect more musical projects in the future? Do you have other creative hobbies? You play a lot of instruments (drums, guitar,
mellotron etc.). Is there any other instrument you
particularly fancy to play on? Your impressive career lasts now for over 30 years.
What lessons did you learn from that long time you're on the
road? Highlights? You recently did the Legends of Rock-tour in the UK.
Can you give a short impression? So if anyone wants to bring you back to Holland/Europe
to do a tour with your own band. How can they contact
you? Frank, thanx for answering the questions! The last
lines are for you...........................
Early
80's .....I was bored and had a beer in a local pub. "Are
you coming?", asked a friend, who just came in. "We're going
to Paradiso(Amsterdam) to see Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush
and we've got a ticket left", he said. "Frank Who?", I
didn't know that name. I went to the show and a fan was
born. Impressed by this great show I started to collect
everything I could get from his hands and every time I was
touched by his music.Other
info about the band was hard to find until I found a site on
the Internet. A site called Strange
Universe with
almost everything you would want to know about Frank Marino
and Mahogany Rush. This site is maintained by
Wild
Willy Parsons
and can be found on http://www.mahoganyrush.net.
Here I learned that Frank Marino was born in Montreal ,
Canada, on November 20th 1954.He
began recording his first album Maxoom (KoTai records) in
late 1971, just prior to his 17th birthday. The fact is that
after a musical career of more than 30 years, he's still
going strong. So
if.............................?"I
first played guitar when I was 13 years old. I learned to
play while I was in hospital recovering from psychedelic
drugs. I was just a kid and I needed some type of therapy to
keep my mind off the trip, which was not a nice situation.
There was a guitar in there for the kids to use, so I began
to use it as much as I could. By the time I came home, I
would only want to play all the time. My mom bought me a
guitar and that's how it all started"."I
believe the ability to play drums was a very definite
advantage, yes. I feel that understanding rhythm is a key to
understanding phrasing on guitar or any
instrument"."As
far as guitars go, I use mainly SG guitars and occasionally
I'll use a Stratocaster for a track or two. But I've have a
few custom made SG's, some with different kind of pickups
and even one that is hollow. For many years I only used the
1961 SG Les Paul. I have a couple of those. Lately I've been
using more of the custom made ones, which are all basically
copies of the original one anyway with a few modifications.
I basically build pre-amps that are tube type, based on a
cross between a Fender Twin and a Mesa Boogie, and with that
I'll use any kind of high-powered amp like a Crown or
something like that. The majority of sound is in the pre-amp
though and it really doesn't matter what power amp you give
me, it'll sound pretty much the same as any
other"."Well,
like I said,there's the amps. But also the pedals and the
pedal board, the speakers just about everything is made by
me. I take a pedal from the old days and I modify it till I
like the sound a bit better. I try very hard to make it
noiseless as possible and hum-free if at all possible. But
the bottom line is that it absolutely must sound musical to
the ear"."I've
always preferred analogue , and I still do. Digital is only
OK for doing editing really. Anything else sound better
analogue. I could go into a dissertation here explaining the
technical reasons,but space probably won't allow it. Suffice
it to say that with digital,what you get is a representation
of music that is based on momentary 'snapshots',while
analogue is more like reality. Listening to digital is like
looking at a 'flip-movie' , and listening to analogue is
more like looking at 'real life'. But the problem with
analogue is the noise level. It's not as quiet as digital,so
many people think it's not as good. Analogue can be made
very quiet if you take the time to fix it
properly"."Well
I still like CD's better than LP's, even though they're
digital. The best way of listening to analogue music would
be to put it on 1/2 inch 30 inch- per- second analogue tape,
but nobody will do that. For all that digital does wrong to
the music vinyl is in some ways even worse, for a whole set
of different reasons. So, like I said, the best is large
tape, then CD and then vinyl"."Budget
really hasn't got a lot to do with sounding good. I know a
lot of high budget situations that sound awful and low
budget ones that sound great. The basis of a good sound is
really the amount of work put into it by the producer or the
musician. The fact is, if something sounds 'bad' to someone
and then they take the time to tweak it and fix it till it's
'good',the result is more a measure of their care than their
'talent' or money. But if you simply accept second best in
your own heart, then you'll probably give that impression to
the listener. The best thing to do is LISTEN, because that's
what it's there for. Music is all about
listening"."A
musical ear is something I believe that most people have,
but I don't really know it. For instance, if there's a
birthday party and someone begins to sing happy birthday,
usually you can chime in and be in key with the melody. Most
people are not out of tune in such an instance, but if you
ask to sing a song they don't know very well and if they
feel there are people watching them, suddenly they think
they haven't got an ear. Even at sporting events, when
crowds of thousands chant "We will,we will rock
you......",you can make out the melody and the tuning as be
correct. So, while it's a 'gift', it is also a gift that I
feel everyone has but doesn't realize. A bit of confidence
in one's self usually helps. That's the beginning of
training a musical ear"."Playing
and singing, for me, is extremely natural. I've never had to
get used to that. It just works. Kind of like walking and
singing. I don't feel the need to walk in step with the
timing of a song in order to sing it and most people can do
that. But when they get on an instrument . They begin to
watch themselves play and then the timing gets screwy
because of the watching. If you treat it like walking,
you'll find it's really easy to do"."My
voice isn't what it once was because I smoke a lot and I'm
getting older. I didn't believe I actually could sing until
I was quite a bit older. In the beginning, I did a lot of
"talking vocals", if you know what I mean, because I was shy
about singing. By the time the 80's came around, I began to
believe I could sing OK, but I haven't done too many albums
since then"."The
truth is, I don't practice at all and never did. Certainly I
did a lot of jamming with people, especially early on, but
I've never sat down to practice in my life and quite
honestly, I don't believe in it. I feel that is the way for
everyone,not just myself. If I was training a student of
guitar, I would tell him not to practice in the classical
sense, but to use the time to play with people and hopefully
with people better than himself, especially early in their
development. As for favorites, I don't because it's just the
lowest string!"."I
compose a song mainly in the head, without a guitar. I then
play it on the guitar and, yes, I can express rather freely.
That is, I usually am able to simply transfer the idea from
the head to my hands, without too much getting used to,
although sometimes I'll tend to compose something that is a
bit more technical and then I've got to get used to the
fingering and stuff"."Well,
the advantages are that they can get their music to the
people directly. The disadvantage is they can't promote it
widely, and that a lot of people will just download it and
won't pay them for it, so they may find themselves unable to
continue to afford to make records. It's a vicious
circle"."You
will see a double cd, recorded live in Montreal on September
8th 2001. This is ready to go as we speak, but I don't know
exactly when it will be available. My stuff has always been
really hard to find, even when I was on Columbia because
record companies have never believed in our kind of music,
so they don't promote it. But whatever happens, my stuff
will always be available through the website
(Strange
Universe), even if it is on
a label somewhere and in a store"."Many.
I design and build stuff, invent stuff. I used to be a
race-car builder and driver, but I stopped that awhile ago.
I write Theology and I draw also. Just about anything that's
a challenge I try to do and I hope to do it
well"."I'd
love to play tenor saxophone, for one, and I wish I was a
better piano player. But at my age and with the fact that I
never practice, I'll probably just remain where I am with
those instruments"."I
learned a lot about the way people in this business can be.
There's a lot of pettiness, rip-offs, and general danger to
the young inexperienced musician. I wish I knew then what I
know now, but that's all water under the bridge. Some
memorable highlights would be the shows I did for Bill
Graham and some of the large festivals, not because of their
size, but because I got to meet some people I had long
admired as youth including Bill"."Well,
it was very different for me. First of all, I haven't played
a short 40 minute set for almost 25 years. So that was
really hard for me. I had a hard time really playing well in
such a short time. But I got a bit used to that after
awhile. Also, I only had my drummer(Josh Trager) and had to
get a bass player and guitarist over there and teach them
the songs in about one day. Now, for a jam-band like us,
that's hard to do, because it isn't about 'songs', but it's
about feel. But Francois Garny (bass) and JJ Marsh(guitar)
did such a great job and were so friendly and professional,
I felt that they really saved me, especially JJ. I loved to
hang out with Uli Jon Roth, Jack Bruce, Glenn Hughes, JJ
Marsh and Clive , well just about everybody. We had a lot of
fun, although there were some behind the scene things that
were a bit of nuisance, but nothing too serious. All in all,
I had a great time, mainly because of the feelings of
friendship. And I love touring anyway and haven't been to
the UK for 20 years or so. The only other problem was that I
was only added to the show very late and they didn't get a
lot of time to promote the fact that I was there, or to tell
people that Michael Schenker was not, so we ran into a few
situations where some fans felt upset about Michael not
showing up, and might not have known I was there not to
mention that we went on so early that there was usually very
few people when we began. But after we played, it usually
turned out OK, and the halls filled up before we
finished"."Would
I? Man, just say the word and I'll be there! If anyone over
there wants to contact me to get us over there, they only
have to go to our page(Strange
Universe)and write me
directly. We'll do whatever we can to make it all happen,if
it's at all possible"."Well,
I'd just like thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I
do this because I like to meet people and so it's always
refreshing when people such as yourself take the time to
talk to me, and when fans take the time to read
it".
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