Two of my songs, Whatever Happens, from the 2003 eponymous release, and Skinny Wrist from our latest double album, all the little mornings, are featured on a new compilation put out by the UK based E-Zine/Record label, Aldora Britain Records. The Collection is called Fourteen Songs For a Friday Night and is available at bandcamp.
http://thealdorabritainrecords.bandcamp.com/album/fourteen-songs-for-a-friday-night
Also, stay tuned for an interview I will be doing with them in the coming days.
My Dream #6
Daydream
The top right corner of the page was folded as a place marker. Page 107, the seventh page of the seventh chapter. This is where she must have left off. To know her long slender fingers had delicately turned these pages gives comfort and sends my thoughts through a certain sensation. If I was sitting next to her, as I often do in my daydreams, I would trace them with mine after she put her hands to her side palms down on the green leather couch. It sends a shot of warmth up my spine.
She suggested I read the author, Marguerite Duras. And so I will. And so I am. Another way to keep me connected with her, not that there needs to be a reason. As I’ve said before, she is hardwired to my soul.
Daydream (January 28, 2020)
I have a reoccurring daydream. I will look out a window, as I did today giving a piano lesson, and for a moment I have this feeling or memory of being from the American Civil War period. I must admit that it’s a very good feeling. It happens a couple of times a year.
Fragments of a Dream (January 30, 2020)
I’m in a closed in horse and buggy with a non descriptive male friend and his female counterpart. I with mine. My friend and I are singing “Donkey Rides A Penny A Glass” by the Small Faces. At the top our lungs, ‘I like wasting away in a caravan!” The dream shifts and this friend and I are now in a house drawing the curtains to let the sun in.
Here is an interview I did with the French online zine, Fanfare.
See the translation below.
https://fanfare-pop.com/les-secrets-les-mieux-gardes-de-la-pop-27-marc-teamaker/
The Best Kept Secrets of Pop (27): Marc Teamaker
The best kept secrets of pop
By Quentin L. February 1, 2020
Marc Teamaker’s first two albums, Lust for Wanda and Ping !, will soon be available on Bandcamp. In the meantime, you can (re) discover his eponymous album from 2003, as well as more recent productions recorded with his group The Soul Shop, including the youngest, All The Little Mornings. From Connecticut, Marc returned to us on the genesis of this opus and on the meaning of one of his first songs, Gabriel. He also talked about some childhood memories, his bedside records and the last books he devoured.
Hello Marc, where did you grow up and did this place inspire you for your songs?
I was born in The Bronx and when I was 4 our parents moved us to Yonkers, NY, which is about 25 minutes north of Manhattan; so being from New York City, and growing up in the shadows of it, I found it to be very inspiring. Not only for my music but for many things. All the major, and not so major, acts came to play NYC. I saw my first concert in 1972 when I was 12. It was Humble Pie, Edgar Winter and Ramatam. It was held at Gaelic Park, which was a soccer(football) stadium.
Was there a lot of music at home when you were a kid?
Yes! My mother and father always were listening to music, mostly Classical and Jazz. Stuff like Debussy, Count Basie and Frank Sinatra. When the Beatles came it changed everything. As a little kid I was enthralled with them but kind of leaned toward soul music. Motown. Stax/Volt. It pretty much ruled Top 40 radio in New York, along with The Beatles and other pop music of the the late 60’s.. I have older brothers and they turned me on to the music of Santana and Crosby Stills, Nash and Young etc., but I was always aware of all the great music. I was drawn to it.
Any musician in the family?
My grandfather and uncle on my father’s side of the family played clarinet and violin respectively.
Do you have any funny or emblematic story to tell about your childhood (not necessarily related to music)?
Hmmmm….let me see. This is not related to music but here goes. During a hot summer day, when I was about six years old, I was complaining to my mother that I was bored. All the kids were away at camp, or doing something else, so there was no one to play with. My mother always could figure things out so she gave me a paint brush and a coffee can filled with water and told me to go paint the stone wall in front of the house. I thought this was the greatest thing! I had to keep filling the can with water, but I got to feel like I was doing something important while daydreaming for a few hours; which to this day is one of my favorite things to do. See…my mother knew. She encouraged my imagination and I could never thank her enough.
Can you give the first song that comes to your mind?
“Walk On By” sung by Dionne Warwick, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Bacharach is one of my musical heroes.
Is there a specific artist or an album you always come back to?
There are a number of them. Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Wave.” Nick Drake’s “Bryter Layter” The Small Faces. So many. Sorry I couldn’t give you just one.
Who (not musician) would you name as your main influence and in which aspects?
God..there are about two or three, but if I would have to say one… it would be my Mother. She gave me the joy of imagination and reading…and food. On top of that she was deeply spiritual and that certainly rubbed off on me. She was the sweetest and most loving person that I ever knew. All of this helped in my journey as a person and a musician.
What was the first record you received as a gift? The first one you bought?
Gift? Hmmm. That one is hard to remember but it was probably a Beatles record. Maybe, Help!, which is still my favorite Beatles record. Probably given to me at Christmas/ Birthday by my parents. The first record I bought with my own money was the single “I want You Back” by the Jackson Five.
If you could travel in time, which period of the history would you choose and who would you be?
Off the top of my head it would be the Victorian era and I would be Charles Dickens. I wish I could write like that…and dress like that.
Do you have a specific place and time to compose, a specific instrument?
Generally after breakfast, around 10 A.M, in my apartment. Guitar or piano.
What can you tell us about your new album (inspiration, style, partnerships…)?
My latest album, “all the little mornings, is a double record of 23 songs written and recorded between 2010 and 2019. There were many different inspirations, but mostly the women in my life. The split with my first wife, my daughters, another girlfriend, and then I got remarried to a women from Chicago, Kathleen, who was the love of my life. Unfortunately she passed away in 2016 , which devastated me. She was amazing!
A writer too. She also wrote lyrics and we made a record together under the name Albany Park Wirephoto. It’s called “Random Acts of Commandment.” It was written and recorded in Chicago where we lived from 2011 – 2016.
Back to ATLM…I sang and played all the instruments, except the drums. Jared Nixon played Drums, some Bass and some background vocals, and Ray Herrmann played drums too. These two players are great friends and, along with me, comprise The Soul Shop. The cello’s on “Unravelling” were played by Dan Cho. It’s basically a rock record in a very 70’s vein, but it also was inspired by the music of Neil Finn and Paul Weller, to name a few.
Who was Gabriel from your album Lust for Wanda?
Gabriel was the archangel. You know the cat who blew his horn signifying “Judgement Day”…mix in Louis Armstrong who’s nickname was “Pops.” The song was kind of stream of consciousness and somewhat of a spiritual nature, in a playful way. Giving in to life and just trying to be.
Will you be playing in France?
I haven’t had plans to but would LOVE to. I am planning to hopefully get back to the UK, where I’ve played a number of times, and perhaps I could get over to Paris if the right situation presented itself.
What is the question you would have loved a journalist to ask you?
Well you’ve asked a number of great questions. Maybe what specific writer’s, as in prose and poetry, were an influence on me? You kind of did that though.
Is there something else you would like to talk about today? (completely free topic)?
Well..there are two books that I am reading right now that I am very excited about One is called “Sula” by Toni Morrison and the other is called “The Majesty of Calmness, Individual Problems and Possibilities…” by William George Jordan. It was written in 1900. It talks about taking control of yourself, self reliance etc. It’s very practical and spiritual at the same time. Quite inspirational. Sula is just plain brilliant! The African American experience from the early to late 20th century through the eyes of females. I recommend both books highly. I get very jazzed by great literature.
Which of your songs could illustrate this interview?
This is not obvious.
You can choose from these 3 there: Unraveling, Time is Just a Sham, or Skinny Wrist. All from the latest album All The Little Mornings.
Good thing, Skinny Wrist is one of my favorites!
Discographie
All The Little Mornings (2019, Fair Square)
Albany Park Wirephoto – Random Acts of Commandment (2017, Fair Square)
Tomorrow’s Today (Volume Two, EP, 2008, Fair Square)
Tomorrow’s Today (Volume One, EP, 2008, Fair Square)
Marc Teamaker (2003, 9 Ball Records)
Empress Polecat (EP, 2003, Olong Songs)
Ping! (2000, Hive Music)
Lust For Wanda (1997, Hive Music)
marcteamaker.me
My Dream #5 (January 20, 2020)
Dream
There were wooded hills on the edge of some suburban streets. Stax, my Whippet, was scampering about in them.
There was also a deer there who would come up to me for some affection. It was a doe.
Daydream
Tiredness can diminish imagination. So sitting here, on a day that features a lack of sleep from the night before, trying to dial something up, I am reminded of a hot summer day probably around 1966; when at the age of six I complained to my mother that I had nothing to do. All the kids in the neighborhood were at camp or elsewhere, for some other reason. Maria, being the beautiful spirit she was, said, “How would you like to go out side and paint the front wall for me?” I looked at her with my head tilted like a confused pup. But after a few seconds I thought…that sounds like fun! Yes! She then handed me a paint brush and a coffee can filled with water and told me to get to it. Andiamo, Marco! Of course I had to keep going to the spigot to refill the can. I did that for a few hours but the joy of this endeavor made it feel like a few minutes. Being a songwriter, I pride myself in having a very good imagination. After all, I learned from the best. Maria Alberta. My steam.
My full Bandcamp discography is now available at a 20% discount. And coming soon are my first 3 full length albums, Lust For Wanda, Ping!, and Marc Teamaker.www.marcteamaker.bandcamp.com
My Dream #4
Fragments of a dream.
We are in a house that my brother built. At the beginning of the dream the mother of a student of mine is there with me. She is younger than me by about 15 years, and blonde. There is someone else there too, but I don’t know who. The mother goes down into the basement and I go looking in a cupboard, under a sink, which is off to the side of the kitchen. I am trying to find pot…the green kind. I find it and want to share it with the mother but the other someone says that it wouldn’t be a good idea. Now I go looking for a room upstairs, where I can smoke it, and come upon one of the attic kind with grey wall to wall carpeting. The windows are low to the ground.
The dream shifts.
The house is to be sold now and I am still there with a different other someone. I couldn’t tell you who that was either. There is also a 6 year old boy with me and we both go out back and around to the side of the house where there are steps leading up to the front. Steely Dan’s ‘Kid Charlemagne” is playing but it doesn’t sound the same as in the waking life. The boy says he likes it.
My Dream #3 January, 14, 2020
Daydream
Tell me how you really feel from behind your glass of wine. The kid’s a romantic with visions of other places and times. Short snippets of inhabiting someone else’s body…or flashes against a window to the sky.
Like a room service double play I fell for you twice. Once in this life and now in some other dimension. A beautiful golden dream like space in my mind. I imagine, still, that I’ve always known you and we are walking down that dirt country road. The one that leads to summer. The one that leads to hope. We are twelve or thirteen. The best age.
My Dream #2 (January 11, 2020)
The girl at the top of the steps, who looked like a young Helena Bonham Carter, said you should go to church this morning. Just as she said that I awoke to look at my watch. It read 3:33.
It’s a spring day on January eleventh and that sends my mind wandering. We are on walks over to Kedzie via Lawrence eastward passing the Brown Line glancing to the right and spying the Huddle House. It was possible that we found ourselves there at four in the morning after a show…the waitress saying in a cigarette gruff voice, as she puts down a Denver skillet and a Swiss cheese omelette, “Looks like you two had a rough night.”
With weather like this the roughness of the night before is tempered a bit. But now I have to snap out of this daydream prayer because I have responsibilities to attend to eight hundred and twenty seven miles east. It was nice spending time with her again…just for the moment…light years away. Yes. Perhaps. But she is hardwired to my soul.
My Dream (January 10, 2020)
I took a wrong turn and wound up in this beautiful place. I was on an icy winter road and then found myself in a golden city on the water. I asked a couple of pretty strangers where I was but they couldn’t tell me. A young blonde girl named Morgan was watching her blonde friends dancing in a dance troupe clogging up the middle of the street that was under a roof. It was kind of like an outdoor mall or place where tourists would go. She was with a young boy with curly hair on a bicycle. He had a very warm feeling about him. Then an old lady phoned Violeta’s mother and she said that help was on the way. She put a radio on a table and it said that one thousand troops from New Town would be coming to help. The old lady said a boat would be coming to pick everyone up. I looked out of a window to see a small body of water leading out into a larger body of water. There was a lot of green and across the way a beautiful city. A European looking city with domes. I tried to guess the name but a voice said not to try.
For a number of years, Jared Nixon, my longtime friend and band mate, had encouraged me to come up with a Christmas song; or at least a seasonal piece of music. Never one for this type of endeavor, I always kind of fluffed it off with. “Maybe I’ll get around to it” or “It’s really not my thing.” However, in the past year, finishing work on “all the little mornings,” it started.
We were done with a session and as we sat down to a well deserved cocktail, Jared presented my Scotch with a pad and pencil. We were obviously to begin. Actually during the day’s session I showed Jared a piece of music I was working on and I’m sure this was the impetus for him handing me these tools.
I had this one dummy lyric I was using for the chord changes I was showing him, “I think of the time now.” So naturally we agreed to put that line down first. It sang well in what would become the chorus. We were off to the races…or sleigh ride.
We both agreed that we didn’t want it to be cheesy or kitschy. We wanted it to be seasonal but crossover into just a regular rock song. We bandied about some more themes and lines and got a nice back and forth going… but we didn’t finish it there. In subsequent weeks and months the song came to fruition. Jared sent me the wonderful verses and I handled the chorus and bridge sections. Instead of describing it I will let the lyric speak for itself.
Scenes From a Snow Globe. (Think of the Time)
Good God I had
Another dream about you in my head
A sugar plumb vision dancing
At the foot of my bed
I think of the time now
It’s cold and lonely
At this time of year
So I tried to write a letter
But a letter won’t get you here
(Chorus)
I think of the time now
When everything slowed down
If I could rewind now
Back to you
(Bridge)
It’s a scene inside a snow globe
We’re two little figures
On a sleigh ride
Side by side
(Bridge 2)
Over a blanket of cotton
Yeah we’re two little figures
Winding our way back home
A scene in a snow globe
Good God I had
Another dream about you in my head
A sugar plumb vision dancing
At the foot of my bed
I think of the time now
When everything slowed down
If I could rewind now
I think of the time now
When everything slowed down
If I could rewind now
Back to you
I think of the time now
When everything slowed down
If I could rewind now
And think of the time now
Winding our way
Rewinding our way back
Words and music by Marc Teamaker and Jared Nixon copyright 2019 all rights reserved .