Songs, Stories, And more Scott Blasey of The Clarks

A melody can hold a whole life. That’s where we start with Scott Blasey of The Clarks—peeling back the layers of songs that carry grief, joy, and the strange electricity of a room that finally goes quiet. Scott shares how Broken Dove found its shape after a late-night guitar figure unlocked everything, and why Irene needed space, pedal steel, and restraint to let a life story breathe. We talk right-hand rhythm, arranging for emotion, and the art of knowing when to strip a track down to bone and truth.

From the roaring 90s Pittsburgh scene to careful producer touches, the conversation travels through the venues that built loyal crowds, the record-store signings that made releases feel like events, and the long bar nights that sharpened a band’s instincts. Scott recalls writing Hey You on 9/11, a song whose meaning clicks into place once you know the day, and revisits If I Had A Gun, born from the sudden loss of a friend. We hit the bright side too: On Saturday’s playful build, the lyrical puzzle of Born Too Late weaving Hendrix, Elvis, and Garcia, and the steady influence of Tom Petty that still colors heartland rock.

There’s new energy as well: Better Off Without You opening an HBO scene with the Pittsburgh skyline, proof that discovery can arrive decades in. Scott talks openly about family first, slow-and-steady growth, and why new songs remain the lifeblood of The Clarks. If you care about songwriting that feels lived-in, performances that read the room, and a catalog that meets you at every season of life, this conversation is your map.

If this resonated, follow and share the show with a friend who loves honest songs. Subscribe, leave a quick review, and tell us which Clarks track lives rent-free in your head.

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Transcript

Welcoming Scott Blasey Of The Clarks

SPEAKER_08 0:55

Good evening, everybody. Welcome back to the show. I am your host, Harley, joined by my co-host and little sister Taylor and an extremely special guest. Um excited. This has been four years in the making for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

This is honestly lifetime.

SPEAKER_08 1:12

You you were when we started the show, you were my second pick for a guest. I was like, eventually we will make this happen.

SPEAKER_03 1:21

Who was number one?

SPEAKER_08 1:22

Number one is a band called AJR. I'm I'm a giant AJR fan. You were number two. Uh so please, everybody, welcome Scott Blacey from the band, The Clarks.

SPEAKER_05 1:36

Um, you guys are so kind, thank you.

SPEAKER_08 1:43

Uh, I just want to say that your music has been such a major bonding experience for me and my sister for the last twenty two years.

SPEAKER_05 1:56

Um yeah, so great. Isn't that a beautiful thing about music? How it brings people together. It really is.

SPEAKER_08 2:04

Um I have a ton of questions for you, but I also want to tell you that uh your song Penny on the Floor was one of the first songs that I learned to play on the guitar, and it was the first song that I ever played live uh for an audience.

SPEAKER_05 2:23

Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, that's a good one to start. It's not too difficult, you know, just three well, G, D, C, and a little E minor for flavor.

SPEAKER_08 2:33

Mm-hmm. Uh it's it's like the perfect like uh uh rhythm exercise too. You know, it was it was that in December. I would do those for rhythm exercises.

SPEAKER_05 2:44

Great. Yeah, uh right hand is well, if you're a right-handed guitar player, that right hand is so important, um, you know, to be able to hold down a consistent rhythm. That's that's what it's all about. That's that's your your hand's your drummer.

SPEAKER_08 2:58

Yes, yeah, absolutely. Um, so I I wanna first off just show you a couple of things here as as Taylor and I am are super fans.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Uh I I will say I have witnessed Harley fangirl a lot on the show, and I've never understood it. I'm like, listen, man, just take a breath. It's okay. I get it now. And you you and Todd Pipes have been my two fangirling experiences.

Penny On The Floor And Guitar Rhythm

SPEAKER_08 3:26

No, I'm I'm honored. So this this first thing I want to show you here is a picture from 2014.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Um my birthday.

SPEAKER_08 3:36

This is this is Taylor's birthday. We went and saw you guys at a little place in Akron called the Musica.

SPEAKER_05 3:43

Yeah, I love Musica. We just played there a couple months ago.

SPEAKER_08 3:48

This was right after the release of um is it Broken Dove is the album?

SPEAKER_05 3:54

Uh that's a song that's on the album. The album's called Feathers and Bones.

SPEAKER_08 3:58

Yes, Feathers and Bones. Thank you. Um one of my all-time favorite albums, and I just want to jump right in real quick with a quick question on that album specifically. Um, what is the song Broken Bones about? That song means so much to me. Broken Dove. Uh yeah, yeah, sorry. Uh Broken Dove, yeah.

Feathers And Bones Era Context

SPEAKER_05 4:22

Um it's it's really about my father uh dying. Um it's it's uh it's maybe the most personal song I've ever written. Uh I'm super proud of it. Um I wrote it in a style that is not at all similar to how the recording ended up. Um I played it on acoustic guitar and it just wasn't working. Um we we tried a couple different things with the band, sort of at rehearsals. Um, and then we just put it to the side for a while. And it was our producer, Sean McDonald, and I think Rob, um Rob James, of course, our guitar player. I think they were sitting around in the studio one night, and and Rob came up with the guitar uh figure that that is eventually became sort of the the bedrock of the song. And um and they might have put some basic, just some some basic drums behind it. And uh they played it for me and said, What do you what do you think of this approach? And I was like, oh, that's that's fantastic. And then at that point, I think I don't I think at the up to that point, I don't know if I even had a had the bridge written yet. And and the lyrics certainly weren't done. I knew what I wanted the song to be about. Um and then uh you know they they put that together and and I finished it. And then uh I remember building that song in the studio. I think we we took Rob's um uh guitar part and then they they put drums to it. And it's not a real heavy, I mean there are parts of it that that have full instrumentation, but it's it's parts of it are are kind of spare. And uh just built it from there and and you know, bass and then uh acoustic guitar and and my voice. Love that song. I'm so glad that you connect with that. It's that's one of my top five for sure. Um I I as soon as you said that, I envisioned my dad was in real estate in Connellsville, where I grew up in Fayette County. Um, and he had a building where he had his office and he had apartments above it. And he had a you know, this was late 60s, early 70s, and uh I was just a little kid and running around that apart or those those apartments, um, and that office. And anytime that song comes up in conversation or or we we perform it, which is not often, um, my mind just immediately goes back to that that time and place. And that's another amazing thing about music, it's is its ability to sort of transport you to another place and time in your life.

SPEAKER_08 7:12

Yeah, every time I listen to that song, I cry. Like true, like it's so beautifully written. Um, I didn't realize that it was about your dad, I just thought it was gener generally about mortality, right? Right and and kind of coming to grips with your own mortality.

Writing Broken Dove And Losing His Father

SPEAKER_05 7:28

Right. And I think now that I and I haven't listened, I I it's been a while since I've listened to it, and I you know, I I have a pretty good feel for it. But I I seem to recall lyrically, it's not really specific to my dad. I think it feels more like a um a romantic relationship, you know, a person losing a wife or a boyfriend losing a girlfriend, that kind of thing. I think it was I I sort of um I sort of went down that road with it, but it really is uh very specific to my dad. In fact, that album, uh it's one of my favorite Clark's albums. It's it's let it go, I think, at the top of the heap. Um there's a lot of mortality in that album. Um we Irene was Irene's another one, and my dad inspired that one as well, uh, along with Mindy McCready, and we can talk about that too. But um I'm trying to think of the time frame that came out in 2000 and let me see, 2000, probably uh 2003, 2014.

SPEAKER_08 8:35

Yeah, between 13 and 14, because magazine was like all over Froggy 104, right?

SPEAKER_05 8:42

Yeah, Froggy Radios or Introduction to Country Radio, yeah. Um and we had that album took years to make. I mean, we the album before that, um I think was uh Restless Days, and that was probably like 2009 or something like that. So it was a long period. That was one of the longest stretches, um, certainly up to that point that uh with not having released an album. And um so we had a lot of opportunity to write a lot of songs, and and you know, at that three or four year period, um, I lost my dad, I think Rob lost his mother, um, great one of Greg's in-laws, uh, and and and and a couple, one or two friends. I mean, there were just it seemed like every couple months or so we were going to a funeral. And we were all in our 50s, and it was just that time where our parents were were older. And um, you know, I just I love that album. Greg's song Feathers and Bones is, you know, it's it's really about timers and um and um to mortality to a gr degree. And then Irene, um the country singer, Mindy McCready, passed away in 2013. And I was not a huge uh fan of her music, but I I knew she was, and I I thought her story was really interesting. She was beautiful and talented, and she was troubled, and she died young. And I thought, man, that sounds like a great uh great subject for a song. And so I started working on a song called Irene. And it was right around the same time my father was, you know, the last weeks, month or two of his life. And uh by the time I got around to the third verse, even though um uh um it's it's uh the lyrics are are feminine in nature because but the whole third verse was really, you know, I was at my father's bedside and and the whole thing. So that that that is one of my all-time favorite cleric songs, that important, I think of right there at the top where you know, I've written, I don't know, a couple hundred songs maybe over a year career. And uh most of them I'm just kind of like, eh, it's okay. Right. And then then there's maybe 20 or 30. I'm like, yeah, that's that's a good song. I I I thought I did a good I did a good job on it. And then there's maybe a handful that I'm like, man, I just I nailed it. Yeah, and I I I said what I had to say, and it it fits that melody, and everything comes just perfectly. And usually uh the the the production, the recording of the song has something to do with my favorites because I I love the production on Irene, and it was really um that album was the most stripped-down song. It's really just maybe two acoustic guitars, the recording. Um I think there's some there's pedal steel on it, and maybe some sort of really subtle rhythm track in there as well. I can't really recall, but it's it's very bare bones. And it just I'll never forget the first time I heard the the finished version. I was in sitting actually right where I am sitting right now. And at the time my wife had a a desk here on the other side of the room, and I was listening to it, she was listening to it, and uh by the end of the song, I was just crying, you know, uh really of joy because I felt like I I I nailed the song, Sean McDonald nailed the production. Uh Gary Jacob played Petal Steel on it, and his his performance on that is just stellar. Everything about it came together, and I was I was crying when I went and said, Are you okay? I was like, Yeah, that's that's good stuff, man. When it can when it can bring you to tears or get you to it well up a little bit and uh get that lump in your throat, man. That's that's when you know you've really got something.

SPEAKER_08 12:42

Well, and and I love the line how you start the song off with the white limousine and then transitioning to the black limousine towards the end. That was such a clever way to kind of full circle life, man. It was it was beautiful in every sense of the world. That whole album truly is like um you have a ton of other fantastic albums, but that one to me was the most raw emotional album out of your entire catalog.

SPEAKER_05 13:11

Yep, I completely agree.

Irene, Mortality, And Stripped-Down Production

SPEAKER_08 13:13

And it was, it was very stripped down, and and uh the whole album in general was very stripped down comparative to your older songs for sure. Um, the other thing too is you guys played Irene at Musica that night, and it was the first time in my life that I actually got angry at a crowd. Uh you guys kind of started saying, like, hey, you know, we're gonna we're gonna play this stripped down song, it's gonna be just an acoustic guitar, kind of quiet. Yeah, exactly. Shut the fuck up, and then everybody's drinking and partying in the corner, and I'm like, this is the most emotional song in the world. What are we doing?

SPEAKER_05 13:52

Right, that's that's tough, man. I we we as a solo performer, you know, that's sometimes that happens, and yeah, yeah. You gotta be cool, but there's been one or two occasions where I've said, hey man, come on, people. Speaking of of being a solo performer, you want to listen to music, you just want to stand off in the corner and yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Yeah, good thing we have front row seats, so oh good.

SPEAKER_05 14:18

We heard everything. Honestly, I I really think like uh I've had fans and friends um come up to me and say, Man, I was so mad at so-and-so at this show. I just wanted to tell them to shut up. And yeah, and I was like, Oh, I I I barely noticed. I think sometimes our fans get more mad at that than yeah. We're we're kind of used to it. Um but you know, one thing with the band, um, you know, when you've got seven, six or seven guys on stage, uh, we can overwhelm everybody with volume. Right, right. Performing solo, although Irene is it's you know less volume. When I'm performing solo, you know, I I have to tailor my show to uh what kind of audience is this, you know. And I I I pick shows now. I've I'm fortunate the last couple of years I've been able to find venues that are listening rooms. There's no TVs, you know, it's a bar and it seats 80 or 100 people, and and everybody comes, they they come there to listen. Yeah. And uh, you know, those are the kind of shows where you know two thirds or a third of the show is just me talking, um telling stories, introducing songs, explaining where songs come from. And people love that. And I love to be able to do that. But when the opposite occurs, and I'm playing in a bar, or maybe the penguin game is off on in the other corner, and and that's fine too. I mean, uh it's all good. People uh they want to enjoy their night out, and and I'll I can work around that, you know. I get and there's still people paying attention, I'll play to them. But then if I feel like oh, I've got an opening here with oh, I got a little people paying attention because I played uh, you know, I don't know, In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel, and suddenly I'm I've captured a few people. And then you can okay, I'm gonna play cigarette here because yeah, everybody will be like, Oh, yeah, another song. You're solo clear. You know how to go down those avenues. Right. It was rocking chair.

SPEAKER_08 16:23

Oh, yeah, man. Such a fantastic dude. I dude, I love it.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

You know, you know my solo stuff.

SPEAKER_08 16:30

So I listened to that song, and I was like, this is a combination of like uh Catman Do meets like Billy Idol. Like it was like it's so cool. It's like rockabilly enough, but like classic rock enough, you know?

SPEAKER_05 16:46

Yeah, it's it's a Bob Seeger report for sure.

SPEAKER_06 16:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:51

As a matter of fact, I don't know if I should admit this, but I wrote it right after I heard I heard uh Benaloo's getting down.

SPEAKER_04 17:01

It's all right. Benaloo's getting out to know.

SPEAKER_05 17:05

I came home, I was like, oh I'm gonna write a song that's not like Ben Lu's getting out to know.

SPEAKER_06 17:10

That's that's that's what happened. Just turn into a walking chair.

Live Etiquette, Listening Rooms, And Solo Shows

SPEAKER_05 17:14

And the really cool thing about this, it's uh it's on my uh my EP uh here and now that came out a few years ago, if anybody's interested. Scott Blaze. You can get all that information and download, or not downloads, but streaming and videos and stuff. Um but uh I I gave I gave it, you know, I played it for the guys in the band. And it's uh it's a real just straight up bluesy bar rock song. Yeah. And and we call pinky rock. Where where you're you're you're playing those uh those blues things and you're you're using your pinky, and uh nobody really nobody wanted to do it the way it needed to be done. Yeah, but there's one way to do that song. And we were trying, oh let's get, you know, they were trying to get clever with it and and just not playing it straight ahead. And it just didn't work. And and that's fine, that uh that happens, you know. Sometimes it's just not meant to be with the with the clerks. And so I sat on it for a while, and I got a friend, uh really great drummer named Matt Muckle. Uh Muckle's played, he he he came up in Pittsburgh and he played with uh bands in the 90s, Seventh House, and and um uh I can't remember. He's on another band that was signed to Atlantic. Uh I'm I'm drawing a blank on their name. Nevertheless, he he went to LA and he's just he's played with these big time you know acts, and and and he's just fantastic. He's a great drummer, he's really, really good arranger and uh songwriter and producer, and and he's he's just manic, and he's just he's the wild, he's he's a wild dude. Um, and I play I knew I was like, oh, Muckle will get this song. And I ran into him somewhere and we were just you know, mutual fan club conversation. We're like, dude, we gotta work together. And I was like, I'm sending them this song right now. And I went over to a studio in Dormont with him and uh and another guy, and and uh we just we just played around with it and and Matt played the drums, you know. We just laid you know, we just uh built it up, you know, foundation. He I played the acoustic guitar part, we found the right tempo and and the structure of the song. He just played the drums on it, and and uh trying to think of who even came. Oh uh oh man, I'm drawing a blank now on the guys that played on it. We had uh uh Vinny Q um played guitar. And um and it was in a band called The Zippers, and uh and uh Joe Monroe played Keys. And uh Jeff uh Ford Thurston played guitar. Ford's an amazing guitar player that lives in Nashville now and plays with a bunch of country cats. And and um and they just put it all together, and I sang it in Joe Monroe's studio, and I just sang the shit out of it that one day. I was I don't know. Some days you just your voice is just it's there. It was the middle of the day. It's on, yeah. Yeah, it was just like I will, you know. Perfect. And uh it came out on an EP called uh uh Three the Hard Way a couple years ago. Thank you. I love that song too.

SPEAKER_08 20:23

Um let's go back. In time a little bit too. Uh if I had a gun.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_08 20:29

That song not only is it a great song, but it it almost resonates today as well. I'm curious, like when you wrote it, what what was like the story behind that song?

SPEAKER_05 20:42

Well, uh, let me give you the you can go back even further. I grew up in Carlsville in Fayette County, which is uh very rural, you know, very uh Appalachian. And um everybody hunts. Everybody, you know, everybody hunts. And everybody had, and guns were just ubiquitous. Um all good. And then I had my dad had, you know, my dad wasn't a big hunter or anything, but he had, you know, uh guns around and uh not necessarily loaded, but just in the garage. Um and um he was a World War II vet, and it was just you know, it's just not a big deal. Um and so I I I'd never shot a gun, you know. I you know, maybe shot BB guns or maybe 22 or something, but I never really um shot much. And then in the early early 90s, I had a good friend uh from IUP that I went to school with, a fraternity brother named Jeff Warnick from Butler, Pennsylvania. Sweetest guy in the world. Everybody loved him, good-looking dude, and girls loved him. I mean, he's just just a sweetheart, and uh was was tragically killed in a road rage incident in Columbus, Ohio in like 1991 or 92. Um, and uh it really affected me. It was the first person in my life who had ever passed away that I was really close to. I was very fortunate. You know, my parents were healthy. I the my grand I uh you know, I really only knew my maternal grandmother, so and she was still good at the time. So I've never had had to deal with death on that level, right? And it was so it was so violent and tragic and and and sudden and and just like it just shattered my world. Um it was really the end of the innocence. You know, I was probably uh 27, 28 years old, and and I remember that being a a line of demarcation of like uh it's uh it's different now. If life feels different. And uh and so I if I went through a a period where I really struggled with with firearms and just their availability and and and thinking about that. And uh and so that's where that title came from, if I had a gun. Um I had a reason to shoot, if I had a you know, if I had a reason to kill. And uh it just musing on on gee, another song about death. Um those are the ones you seem to be drawn to.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Well, Harley needs terrible.

SPEAKER_08 23:13

Well, we're gonna be diving into those. You have you have one breakup song that might be my favorite song of all time.

SPEAKER_05 23:19

Which one?

SPEAKER_08 23:20

Uh Saturday. Saturday. Yeah, yeah. I love that song. Oh, that's fun.

SPEAKER_05 23:26

That's that's fun. That's the that's the complete opposite of if I had a gun. Um but thank you. I I I love that song too, and there are definitely people who um love that first solo album called Don't Try This At Home from 1994. Yeah, yeah. Which you can all all my solo stuff you can stream on all of the major platforms, uh just search corporations.

SPEAKER_08 23:48

Uh so let's talk about um you had an album come out in the 90s that was more of a collection. Well, I guess it wasn't the 90s, I guess it was the 2000s. Um, but it was more more so a collection of your work. I believe it was called uh between now and then is the name of it.

SPEAKER_05 24:14

Yeah, it was a best of it came out in actually 2005, because it came out after the fast moving cars album.

Rocking Chair, Influences, And Making The EP

SPEAKER_08 24:22

Yeah. Um that album had basically resonated with my childhood, and uh I'm curious on how how did you come about? Oh stop everything right now. She wants to play.

SPEAKER_05 24:42

I know I don't I don't want to interrupt.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

No, you interrupt, you interrupt all day long. What is her name?

SPEAKER_05 24:49

This is Finley. She's a beautiful four-year-old uh French bulldog with a heart with a grade five heart murmur. Oh yeah, she we we have another French Lulu's, who's a little older. Um, and we got her from the same, got them at the same breeder. Um after we got Lulu, my wife heard about Finley because she she the woman that uh uh that breeds them has a Facebook page and and uh she couldn't sell Finley because you know she's she's not not the healthiest. Um and she was just looking for a good home. And she posted on Facebook, and my wife messaged me. She said, We have to have this dog. I texted back, I was like, Oh my god, babe. Uh no, I love Lulu's so easy. She's she's house bridge, you know, she's done, she's good. Yeah, we don't want another dog. So, you know, we got the dog. We are dog people. We are dogs. We are.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

Oh my god. Oh, it's my baby now.

SPEAKER_05 25:49

He just, you know, when I go to sleep, she's she's she's like 20 pounds, finds whatever little nook or cranny in your elbow or side or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

It's like the meme the dads with the dog they didn't want when just snuggling with the dog.

SPEAKER_05 26:09

Nope, I don't want her. No, don't play it. I've got work to do. Um we will talk about on Saturday, which is a song Greg Greg wrote. And it's probably our our our lightest, uh, most just boop doop do do do do do do doop.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

And uh people love it.

SPEAKER_05 26:30

I mean, we we played it so good. Yeah, I can't get out of the venue without playing on Saturday.

SPEAKER_08 26:36

It's one of those like as soon as it started for me, when you start introducing the instruments and they all slowly come together, man. Yeah, that was the first time I had ever heard something like that. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, this is incredible.

SPEAKER_05 26:48

Yeah, our producer at the time, Justin Nebank, uh really terrific producer down in Franklin, Tennessee. Big time, big time dude. Um I think there was a lot of his influence on that particular song, too. I don't a lot of that I didn't I didn't really uh I can't remember coming up with that on my own. I think he said, Hey, introduce things, just talk a little. Um and uh but but the um um the little spoken word stuff that happens in the middle. Um my wife was calling. Um uh I think I came up with that. He's like, Oh, I I was like a placeholder. He's like, Oh no, no, that's great, keep that. Just just talk, just just do that thing. So uh hold on one, give me one second. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

No, no, you're fine. Wife comes first.

SPEAKER_08 27:40

Yeah, wife always comes first.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 27:42

Wife and kids always first.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Well, dog, wife and kids in that order.

SPEAKER_08 27:51

Well, so that was gonna be my question for you, Scott. Butterflies and airplanes. Oh what is that song about?

SPEAKER_05 28:00

Well, I know the meaning behind it, however, I didn't write it. Um Greg wrote it. As a matter of fact, Greg wrote the last three songs you just brought up. Um and that that's that's the holy trinity of Greg Joseph songs right there. Um so, anyhow, uh it's really about Greg's sort of high school experience, just a very broad, broad-based um uh tales from teenage life in in the North Hill of Pittsburgh. Um, and and he has you know specific scenarios that that uh he could talk more about, but um that in a nutshell is what that song's about. I always love that song. I love love the imagery of that song. And here's a funny story about that song. We recorded that we call it the kneebank trilogy, which is just the kneebank, the three songs or the three albums that he produced for us. Yeah, Let It Go, Another Happy Ending, and uh Fast Moving Cars. So that so Butterflies is on uh the first one, it was the first time we'd worked together. And Greg always sang it live. And when we got to the studio, we're like, you know, Greg's gonna sing this song. And Justin was not happy about it. He he's like, there's that you have a lead singer for a reason. Yeah, uh, we're not having Scott play lead guitar. You know, why would Greg sing the song? And we're like, well, he sings it live and people love it, and and it's it's fun to get the other guys involved in that way, and he very begrudgingly agreed to let Greg sing it. And I remember one or two occasions when Greg was doing the vocal, and you know, he never really sung a lead vocal in a studio like that before, and just was struggling with a couple things, and Justin was very disgusted and let us all know that you know he he wasn't on board with this. That said, it it turned out great. Yeah, I mean it's a great sounding song, and Greg sounds great on it, and it's cool because I do the background vocal, and when we play it live, people love it, and it's it's a live thing for him. It gives me a little break uh in the sense uh vocally, so it's it's one of my favorites. We play it 80% of the time on yeah, great song.

SPEAKER_08 30:16

How about Tree House? That one was another one growing up that was very, very influential in my teen years.

If I Had A Gun And Violence’s Aftermath

SPEAKER_05 30:26

Uh-huh. Um Tree House was a song about growing up. Um being a kid, you know, one, two, three, hey Marie. And um uh once you climb that tree up to the sky. It was just it was just this a rumination on on youth, on being a kid, on being eight years old, ten years old, thirteen years old. Um, and uh pretty simple. Uh although it's the it's the opening song of the third album, and um it really introduced that album. And that was a that was a good album. Um, Love Gone Sour Suspicion and Bad Death on it. And there were definitely moments on that album. There was definitely songwriting growth um from the second album. Uh I mean there's some good stuff on there too, but we started to write different styles. There's a song on there called Madeline, uh which got a great vibe. It got airplay up on a really cool station in in Cleveland called 1079 the end. It was like their alternative straight station. It's just like this mid-tempo, moody, uh beautiful song about women. I mean, it's and and so um treehouse was the opening salvo, and it really set the tone for the album. And it it it's very, it's a very very Clark's like song. I mean, that's that's kind of what we did, that what we did maybe best. We've dabbled in a lot of other things, but that sort of straight ahead rock and roll, what you probably now might call Americana style, uh guitar rock. It was it was early 90s guitar rock, uh a lot of the gin blossoms and even the bands that I loved from that era.

SPEAKER_08 32:10

Um the other thing, too, that I wanted to ask you is um this this may be diving back into a little bit of a dark territory, but um is Hey You about somebody that you knew personally?

Saturday, Producer Influence, And Playfulness

SPEAKER_05 32:27

Hey You no. Uh Hey You I wrote on 9-11. I wrote that on really one. I had no intention of writing a song, you know. And so the night before I went out with a buddy of mine, went out and had some beers, and uh came back early because the the band was rehearsing for another happy ending. We were doing we were in what we call pre-production. Our our Justin, our producer, was up in Pittsburgh. We had a house in Highland Park called the Clark House on Jackson Street, and we rehearsed there. And and so uh everybody was coming over Tuesday morning around 10 o'clock or so, or maybe a little earlier, to um to work on songs. And uh so the the next morning, about 8:30 or so, my my cell phone rings. It was a foot phone, you know, it was 2001. And uh my buddy from the night before, and I was I was still half asleep, so I didn't answer it. And then he called right back, and I was like, oh, something's something's up. So I picked up the phone, he's like, dude, turn on the TV, uh, I'll talk to you later. So I think when I turned on the TV, it was me, you know, it was probably 8 45 or so. I can't remember exactly what time the first plane hit, but that's where I walked in on it. You know, the first plane had hit, nobody knew anything really. And uh and I sat there just slackjawed, like what could have possibly happened? And then um, and then I can't remember if somebody had come in before the second plane hit. I think somebody did, and and we just we all everybody congregated, the four guys in the band and Justin, and we sat there for two or three hours, yeah, that long, and just watched TV and and talked a little bit, but mainly just kind of sat there in shock and watched you know our country being attacked, and then the Pentagon, and then Shanksville, Pennsylvania. And uh, you know, as soon as the second plane hit, you knew it was it was terrorism. Right, right. And finally, Justin was like, Well, we we heard reports, you know, the sky, you know, skies are shut down, there's no no air travel, and Justin had a rental car. He's like he said, I'm driving back to back to Franklin. His wife lived there, and and they lived there. And so he drove back, and and then eventually the guys, I was the last one that living in that house. Everybody else was either married or girlfriend and lived elsewhere. And so they they all left. And it's like three o'clock in the afternoon. It's a beautiful late summer day. And I went for a roll, I went rollerblading. I I got out my my skates and I went downtown Pittsburgh. Beautiful, beautiful day, and so surreal because the the streets were empty. I mean, there were just no, it was the middle of the day on a Tuesday, and there was nobody around. There was a guy selling the Pittsburgh Press, which was a newspaper in Pittsburgh at the time, standing on a street corner with a bag and holding up a newspaper, just very um sort of middle of a century-esque, you know, that that that's how people got their news. Um, and still at that time, a lot of people still got their news that way. And so uh it was just so strange, and really it was selling to nobody because it was really, you know, again, there were almost nobody around. Um, a couple fighter jets flew over. I went for a skate, just trying to process, and uh went home, made dinner, went upstairs just to play my guitar just for for comfort, and you know, put the cape on the second front and just started strumming this thing, and and words came out and and the the lyrics are very um they're kind of uh veiled. Um you don't know uh obviously I mean the way you just posed the question, if you don't know it's about 9-11, um, you probably won't associate it with it. But uh I think what's fun about this, not fun about the songs is is good about the song, is as soon as you know it's about 9-11, all of a sudden like the window opens. It's like, oh yeah, yeah. I I get it, it's very tailored to that, right? Imagery. Um, so uh one of my favorite songs, people love that song. Uh we don't do it live a lot, but every once in a while, um yeah, uh certainly a lot of meaning to that one, probably top 10, top 15 for me.

SPEAKER_08 36:47

How do you feel about the exciting news you guys just put out? Um the the new released version of Better Off Without You is gonna be on an HBO show.

SPEAKER_05 37:01

It was last night, it was dude, it was like Christmas morning. It was just uh I was nervous beforehand. I was just like this is this is really cool. You know, tens of millions of viewers, and and the show opens with um the drum intro, and it opens up to the skyline of Pittsburgh as the sun's coming up, and uh one of the sister bridges, and uh a good 30 or 40 seconds of it, very prominent. And uh the main character Dr. Robbie's riding his motor motorcycle across the bridge. And it was so cool. We've known it was gonna happen for the last four or five months. We weren't sure how they were gonna use it in right. But uh I was convinced last night at 8 45 that they were it was all a joke and they weren't gonna use it, and then I was gonna have to explain to everybody why they don't hear it. Completely irrational. I was just nervous pacing around like, oh, they're not gonna use it. This is gonna be a complete disaster. They'll they're gonna change their mind last minute.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Me every day of my life with the imposter syndrome.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Like jokes on you. You're just kidding.

SPEAKER_08 38:14

Um, Scott, are you a bit of a history buff?

SPEAKER_05 38:17

Uh yeah, uh yes, absolutely. Loved history and still do. And I I was more of a history and English type of guy rather than a math and science type of guy. Yeah, uh yeah, like World War II history. My father and my uncle in World War II. And uh yeah, history, particularly American history, the last maybe 200 years or so.

SPEAKER_08 38:37

There are not very many songs out there that make reference to Thomas Edison. Okay, you hold that torch loud and perfect.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

Yes, you do.

SPEAKER_08 38:54

So honestly, I didn't realize this until recently. Um, you have that on your first solo album. Yes, right. Did you do that song before the Clarks?

Butterflies And Airplanes Backstory

SPEAKER_05 39:09

Yes, or yeah, yeah. Yeah, I recorded it. Um I I made a couple solo records with a guy named Rick Witkowski, uh uh was a guitar player in a great band called Prague Band, uh, late 60s and 70s, 70s, called Crack the Sky. And um he's a producer and musician, lives in Weirdon, West Virginia, has a studio at his house, and I became good friends with him over the years. And I I had some and going back to the early 90s, I I would I would have a batch of songs and I would want to get a decent demo of them. I could play them for the the guys in the band and and whoever else. And so I would go to his studio and just take an acoustic guitar and we we would record you know decent demos. And so I put out a solo album called Don't Try This at Home in 1994, which is we talked about earlier, had it if I had a gun, flame and some other really cool Mercury, some cool stuff. Yeah, yeah. Mercury was on there, yeah. Yeah. So in in in 97, we were dropped by MCA, our record label, and we we we were like, Ah, should we even keep going? So we made the live record, and over the course of that time, um we were all writing a lot of songs, and I wrote Born Too Late during that time period, and it was always I always had this imagery of uh um uh referencing famous people throughout history and alluding to what they were famous for, maybe only using one of the names and make it a little bit of a uh uh an uh a history exercise or um a puzzle in some way. And at the time we had been dropped by a record label. I think my girlfriend had broken up with me, and so I was losing things, and so that's where the chorus sort of a hard time leaving this town. I felt like the band was spinning its wheels and losing everything that I found, and and that's where that chorus goes. But those that those characters uh all started with Jimi Hendrix. I was sitting at home uh in the Clark House in Jackson Street, uh Highland Park, and watching a documentary on Jimmy, and I was so inspired, he was so um musically brilliant. And uh when the documentary was over, I picked up my guitar and and just kind of started writing. Um, you know, the first one's Vincent, will you teach me how to paint? And I had already kind of figured out, oh, okay, Jimmy, will you teach me how to play? And that's what that's how this is gonna go. And then it was just filling in the blanks with with people and and how it would, you know, how those people would rhyme together and who to put in different verses with each other. And uh I love that song. It's it's it's a definitely a high watermark uh for me as a sonic.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

It's so good.

SPEAKER_08 41:55

So a funny little fact about me on that song. Um, until Apple came out with the ability to see lyrics on your phone. Yeah, I thought the line was Jimmy, teach me how to play that thing. Elvis will I ever be the be a king, and then it will. I thought it was and cherish all the love that you bring. I didn't realize you were making a reference to Jerry.

SPEAKER_05 42:20

Jerry. That's the only one that ever pe people ever really aren't sure. Because there's like Jerry Garcia, uh, Jerry Lewis. You know, there was a there were a few at the time like Jerry Seinfeld.

SPEAKER_08 42:32

Jerry Seinfeld, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:33

Yeah, there were there were a few options.

SPEAKER_08 42:36

Uh I assume it's about Jerry Lewis, right?

Treehouse, Early 90s Guitar Rock, And Growth

SPEAKER_05 42:38

It was Jerry Garcia. Oh, really? I'm I'm not a deadhead, but at the time I really appreciated uh what he did, and I'd seen some interviews with him, and he's just a funny seemed like a great guy, great hang. Yeah. I was just like, oh, he's a he's a cool dude. And so uh that that's the music verse. That one's Elvis, what um uh uh um Jimmy, Elvis, and Jerry. So there's no in that one.

SPEAKER_08 43:07

Um, so the last thing I want to talk to you about is um basically you've had this incredible, long-standing career. Uh, like I said, you are a Pittsburgh legend.

SPEAKER_06 43:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 43:22

And I moved to Virginia about what, almost eight years ago now. And I recently was in Walmart and heard a Clark song on the radio. Yeah, and I got so excited, I was I was like, that's crazy. And it was one that I hadn't heard before, too, which was even more incredible. So I was like, I gotta find this. Um, but that brought up a great thing that I wanted to ask you is like, what what does it look like in the next couple of years for the Clarks? Like, are you guys pushing hard for a bit more of an expansion?

SPEAKER_05 43:59

Uh no, we're not pushing hard for a bit more of expansion. Now, if we could somehow easily expand without pushing hard, without the effort, we would take expansion. Yeah, but certainly for the next at least the next couple years. My my youngest daughter is a sophomore in high school. I have two in college, and my wife and I are just, you know, we're just getting our transitioning our kids into college and adult life. And until Graceland at least, you know, leaves for for college in a few years, um, my work here is not yet done. So after that, um then we'll see. Um if we're all healthy and and feel like oh, it'd be go it'd be fun to take a long weekend and go to play in Chicago and Milwaukee and Wisconsin. We just do that all the time. We've great fans uh in that part of the country and um go back down to the Carolinas and and to Florida, where there's so many people from western Pennsylvania that have like moved south.

SPEAKER_08 45:02

Exactly.

Hey You Written On 9/11

SPEAKER_05 45:03

So you just go start going down 95 and and you know from from New York to Miami, um, you'll find Pittsburghers, which is awesome. Yes, uh we'll see. I don't know. Uh I I know that writing new material, recording new material, playing new songs is really our lifeblood, and we we continue to do it because we we couldn't do it without uh new music. Uh that being said, we're we're we're like this sort of really big uh ship that's kind of slow and it doesn't turn real fast. Um it's impressive and it's it's steady and it's not going anywhere. But it's not gonna, you know, it's not gonna suddenly, oh go, let's go over here and go somewhere really fast. It's gonna take a little time. Um, but I we're definitely we'll definitely continue to write uh new songs and and record new songs and and try to play fun shows with with some surprises and songs we haven't played in a long time. And um you have to balance you know what you want to play with what you think people might really enjoy hearing. So to answer your question, uh no, no no big fast expansion, but hopefully, and and with the pit thing, um, you know, just just a growth. I mean, just any kind of growth, just sort of slow bacterial type type growth is fine. Just bigger than you were.

unknown 46:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:31

The tentacles just keep going a little bit farther. This person tells that person, and that person turns on this person. And eat and that's the crazy that's the beautiful thing, another beautiful thing about music. And you know, you can be a 40-year-old band and you're still new to a lot of people, someone, yeah. Which is, you know, the certainly the case with the pit, because there will be out of the tens of millions of people who will watch the show, there will be some that'll be like, Oh, I really like that song. Who is that? And uh, it's not hard to figure those things out now. You just search, even if you just search the pit because of the EP that we released, you know, that'll that'll show up in the results and be like, Oh, it's the clerks better off without you. So that yeah, that that's great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Um, I will say one of the saddest things. So I moved from Ohio to Virginia and then Virginia to Florida, and moving to Florida, I didn't realize it until my best friend texted me about ribs and rock. And I was like, Oh, the Clarks are not readily available to me anymore. I have been to many of your concerts, yeah. So, like the fact that that's just like I can't just go to Boardman, right?

SPEAKER_01 47:40

You know, I can't just enjoy and I was I was so sad, it was heartbreaking for me.

SPEAKER_05 47:46

Clarks with Clarks withdrawal, it's a real thing, it's a real thing, and I have it bad. Oh, we need like franchises like Promantees, like we need to hire like Florida. We have the trademark, they're sanctions. They're in Orlando and Jacksonville and Tampa.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

Yeah, I don't think I have ever had, and I don't have like parasocial relationships, that's a little weird, but it was one of those things where I was like, Oh, that is devastating to me. Once I thought about it, I was like, Oh, that is awful.

SPEAKER_05 48:18

Well, that's that's a beautiful thing. You miss your clerks, your music.

SPEAKER_02 48:22

I miss, I miss it bad.

SPEAKER_05 48:24

I'm with you. I would miss it too if I couldn't play it anymore.

SPEAKER_08 48:30

Um, so I just I just want to say this interview has been a dream come true, man. Truly, like I can't thank you enough. Um like your music has helped me through some of the darkest times in my life, in my childhood, some of the most beautiful times in my life. And like I'm I'm so excited for years and years to come of your guys' music and your music, and your writing style is just incredibly articulate and beautiful. Um, I think that uh you really really put your heart into your your songs and it really shows. And I urge everyone, please check out Scott Blacey, check out the Clarks. Um, I do want to play this game with you though.

SPEAKER_05 49:19

Um how do you how do you that was that was beautiful.

SPEAKER_08 49:23

I I dude thank you. I I try not to get emotional, man.

SPEAKER_05 49:27

I I don't want to cry, but like it truly it yeah that's that's that's uh really that is maybe the greatest thing about music is its ability to to get people through difficult periods in their lives and then um being able to celebrate the the good times in their lives as well. Um I I use it too. I mean, I have obviously my favorite artists um have gotten me through a lot. So I appreciate it and I know where you're coming from. Uh so let's play this game.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

So segue. Um here's the game.

HBO Placement And Pittsburgh Pride

SPEAKER_08 50:02

Um, so this game basically what I do with artists is I do a lot of research and I create trivia games based off of your life. Um so this is gonna be for you and Taylor to play because unfortunately I know the answers.

SPEAKER_02 50:21

Okay, so here's the thing. One thing you have to know about me is I'm really bad at these games because something I don't do is research. So I'm just putting that out there. I'm here for a good time, not a long time, you know? Um so best of luck to us. I'm sure Scott is going to come out on top, and that is great.

SPEAKER_08 50:40

Well, it is officially time, everybody, for whose musician is it, anyways, where we talk about trivia with our artists? Um, so it's gonna go in order. We're gonna let Scott go first and then you, Taylor, and I will keep a tally of points.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

Um I can't read.

SPEAKER_08 51:06

That's okay. I'll read it to you. Um you can't read. Scott, this question is for you, sir. Which US city is most associated with one of the longest running independent rock success stories of the 1990s?

SPEAKER_05 51:24

Well, I've been guessing it would have to be Seattle, right?

SPEAKER_08 51:28

Ooh, Seattle would be a great guess. No, no, no. Unfortunately, the answer on this one is Pittsburgh.

SPEAKER_05 51:40

Oh, okay. Well, we certainly had a great run in the 90s. I won't disagree with that, but uh I don't know if I'm gonna go on Allison Chains. Uh that's fair, that's fair.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

See, I wanted to say Pittsburgh, but then I was like, that's too easy.

History Buff Notes And Born Too Late

SPEAKER_05 51:59

Yeah. Now at the time, um Rusted Root broke wide open and and Gathering Field did great, and Brownie Mary and the Clarks, and there were there were a lot of uh uh major label releases and and certainly a great thriving uh original music scene in Pennsylvania. That was I call them the roaring nineties. I mean, especially from 93, 94, uh up through the rest of the decade. It was some of the some of my favorite memories. I mean, we did big shows uh '96, the summer '96 out at Starlake, uh, us and Brownie Mary and Gathering Field and a bunch of other bands. Um did this local music festival, and we thought, oh, we'll get three, four thousand people, and ended up getting uh 17,000 people. It was just it was crazy. And it was at that point, we were like, wow, there's a real scene in this town right now.

SPEAKER_08 52:55

Yeah, the Pittsburgh scene is still alive and well, too. That's that's the crazy part, is that that town like solidified music from I would say like the 80s through like 2007, 2008. And that scene has just stayed to that level for through the rest of this decade. Stage AE, I think, is a big spot.

SPEAKER_05 53:23

That's a great venue. It's it's one of our favorite places to play. Uh, the outdoor venue, particularly, is is just no place like it on a on a beautiful summer evening.

SPEAKER_08 53:34

Um, Taylor, this next one is for you.

SPEAKER_02 53:37

Oh no. I don't know geography, I don't know history.

SPEAKER_08 53:41

That's okay. Before streaming, and this one's multiple choice. Before streaming, what was the most important way for a regional band to build a loyal following in the 90s? Your choices are a lot of choices. Yeah, it's A through D. You've got A radio countdown, B touring relentlessly, C MTV rotations, or D, major label signings.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

What's crazy is my answer is not any of those, so now I don't know. My answer was just standing on the street and handing out CDs and hoping for the best. You know what I mean? Like day in and day out. Um, I'm so sorry. What was A again?

SPEAKER_08 54:30

Yeah, no worries. A is radio countdown shows. Okay, B is touring relentlessly, C T V rotations, or D, major label signings.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

I want to go I want to go touring relentlessly.

SPEAKER_08 54:49

It is in fact B touring relentlessly during the 90s. That did provide the Scott, thank you. The most uh loyal fan bases before streaming.

SPEAKER_02 55:05

Um so why didn't Scott get an A through D?

SPEAKER_08 55:10

Uh that question just didn't have one. Um Scott, this one is for user. What genre dominated alternative radio in the mid to late 90s alongside post grunge? You do have multiple choice on this one.

SPEAKER_05 55:29

Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_08 55:30

A Brit pop, B, Indie Rock, C, New Metal, or D pop punk.

SPEAKER_05 55:42

Late nineties. Can you give me those again?

SPEAKER_08 55:47

Absolutely. Uh that would be A Brit Pop, B Indie Rock, C New Metal, or D pop punk.

SPEAKER_05 56:02

Man. I don't think it's pop punk. I think that kind of, although Green Day was around then, I think that got a little more popular a little later on. It can kind of almost be, you know, I don't know enough new metal to really comment on when that was popular. I mean, I guess it was around the same time, late 90s, like lint biscuit and and corn and stuff like that. Um you know, and I think it's uh in indie rock. Um and and the so what was the very first one? I'm gonna go with the I'm gonna go with A. A Brit Pop. Um, you know, Oasis was really big and and um that's kind of my that's kind of my that's kind of my favorite. So maybe it's just because that's what I was listening to. And you know what else was really popular in the late night mid to late 90s was like uh you know hip hop, gangster rap too was still still going really strong. I mean, that was Dr. Stray and Snoop and Tupac and Biggie, and that was huge then.

SPEAKER_08 57:11

Well, this question is relating to alternative radio, so those alternative.

SPEAKER_05 57:18

Um I'll say Brit pop. The answer is a Brit pop. All right, all right. I think there was pulp and blur and all those one name bands, Oasis.

SPEAKER_08 57:34

Oasis kind of led the revolution on that one. Uh Blur was uh statistically second. Um pulp was also on this list, and then um a band called the Manic Street Preachers.

SPEAKER_05 57:50

I remember that band.

SPEAKER_08 57:52

Yeah. Um Taylor, this next one is for you.

SPEAKER_02 57:57

Can you guys hear the dogs barking?

SPEAKER_08 57:59

Uh no.

SPEAKER_02 58:00

Oh, cool. Okay, okay, I'm ready.

SPEAKER_05 58:03

Hey, hold on one second. Hey Grace, Grace. Uh, never mind. I gotta figure out where Finley is.

SPEAKER_02 58:09

Speaking of dogs, Finley is missing.

SPEAKER_05 58:11

Yeah, give me one second. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 58:13

Yeah, stand by, stand by.

SPEAKER_05 58:14

He was in here and then she left. We're not gonna be bad.

Career Longevity, Family Priorities, And Slow Growth

SPEAKER_02 58:17

We can't let Finlay be alone. So, how's everyone's day going?

SPEAKER_08 58:22

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 58:23

Mine too. I'm chilling. I picked all the skin off my fingers though. Sorry, should I not put that on the internet?

SPEAKER_08 58:34

That's a stress factor.

SPEAKER_02 58:35

It really is, and now my finger hurts really, really bad, and I'm just kind of fighting through it. Um, because it's like picked raw. And I like broke my nail. It's kind of a whole thing. My fingers are a wreck right now. Man, with my new job though, I can get my nails done. Oh my gosh, we haven't told the podcast, guys. If you're still listening, Taylor got a new job. Finley.

SPEAKER_03 59:02

Finley.

SPEAKER_05 59:03

Okay, there we go.

SPEAKER_03 59:06

Oh, of course.

SPEAKER_08 59:07

No, no, I don't mind.

SPEAKER_02 59:09

I got them entertained, don't worry.

SPEAKER_08 59:11

Okay. Uh Taylor, this one is for you. Um which factor most helped regional bands survive without major label support during the 90s? Um, a merchandise sales, b strong local venues, c word of mouth, or D, all of the above.

SPEAKER_02 59:35

That feels like a trick question. That feels like a trick, and I don't like tricks, but I am going to say it's either the venue one, but I'm gonna go D all of the above.

SPEAKER_08 59:47

It is D all of the above.

SPEAKER_02 59:50

Let's go. Let's go.

SPEAKER_05 59:52

Right before you said all the above, I was like, oh, it's all those things. It's all that's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:58

Um there it has to be all of the above, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:00:00

Yeah. Well Scott, what was a a venue early in your career that kind of stood out as like uh, oh, we we love this place.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:10

Uh it was called the Decade. It was in Oakland, in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, where the University of Pittsburgh is. So, you know, around a lot of college students and uh a really famous uh rock and roll bar, um Spring. Scene, Stevie Ray Vaughn, the police, um uh you two, um, just you know, huge acts. Played their Bon Jovi before they were really, really big. And so it's kind of legendary. And we started playing there in probably '88. Um, so we you know, late 80s, early 90s. Um, that was the spot. And then there was another club in in North Oakland called uh Graffiti, which was more of a showcase, more like 600 people and bigger room, but you know, it wasn't the the great bar vibe, um, but still a great place. And and a lot of bands in Pittsburgh played either or, or you couldn't play both. And we're like, why? Because the owners don't want bands you know cross-pollinating with the people. That's that's silly. And yeah, look, and we just said to the club owner, we'll play a show at the decade to the guy, Tony at graffiti. If if you don't want to book us, uh, you'll still sell your show out, you know. If you don't want to book us, then don't book us. But we're not gonna play this game. And we said the same thing to Dom at the decades where we're gonna play a graffiti. And and and finally they were just like, Yeah, and once they realized uh playing in one venue uh and then a couple months later playing in the other one and still doing well in both, they didn't they didn't care as long as they're making their money, it didn't happen. Right. The decade was was the really the the proving ground for the first couple years of the band in Pittsburgh. That's where we we really cut our teeth, um, playing long sets, you know, three to four hours, playing from 10 to 10, you know, taking a break, and drinking and smoking, and just partying, young, early 20s, um having a ball.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:11

I I yeah, I feel like you know that you've kind of hit success because when when I used to play out, like doing those three hour sets as a solo guy is the worst. But I feel like you know you're getting success when you're like, oh, we only play an hour. Yeah, the shorter your set gets, the more, the more successful you are. The higher up the rope you're yeah, those three hour nights were rough, man.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:43

Yeah, we played long band sets, and uh, but but that was good. I mean, that's you you got you get good um just playing all you know all night and you do it every weekend, yeah. And then you start playing other places during the week and quit your day jobs, and ball starts rolling down the hill.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:02

I I remember like being at uh uh a little place in East Liverpool, Ohio, playing a set, and I was like two hours in. And I said, Well, does anybody want to hear Hotel California again? I was like, I I've got nothing left. I have no other material.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:22

I'll done.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:24

All right, so this next one is for you, Scott. Admittedly, I I tried to give Taylor a little bit of uh the easier ones, um, just because she doesn't know these answers much.

90s Scene, Venues, And Touring Reality

SPEAKER_02 1:03:39

Um I'm just a baby, guys.

SPEAKER_08 1:03:41

Uh in the 90s, what format helped albums feel more like an event? Uh, this would have been during not vinyl, obviously, but uh they they used to hold events that uh kind of helped album sales.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:58

Yeah, yeah. Well, we used to do uh record store signings. We we'd go to every record store uh in person and you know just sign C at that time CDs. Yeah, 90s were the the golden age of so that's the I mean that's the format that got big in the 90s. I mean, we we released uh our first album was 88 and it came out on vinyl and cassette, and then the second album came out in 91 on CD and cassette, and then it was CDs um, you know, up through 2000, late 2000s.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:36

That that yeah, that is the answer. Uh it is CD CD signings or or band signings, CD slash band signings.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:46

We would go to record stores and you would play a couple songs, you'd bring some acoustic guitars and you play a couple songs. Really, I didn't know that. Oh, yeah, well, we did, and I I think a lot of bands did. I mean, that was just like you know, why wouldn't you? You're you're there. Um, might as well play just a handful, you know, three or four songs. It wasn't a lot, but um, yeah, we did one at uh it was like a Borders bookstore in Northway Mall in 2002 or something when our uh another Happy Ending album came out, and it was just it was huge, and there were people everywhere, and there were free, so everybody came and there was an absolutely no room. People were outside the windows and along out in the road, and it was just a it's kind of a disaster. Um but most of them are manageable, but that one started out as being like super packed, but yeah, that that was every album, multiple record stores for a week or two after the release. We would be somewhere promoting now.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:50

Now, did you ever attend as like a fan?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:53

I know I can't ever recall going to a record store to see somebody now.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:58

I I've never been to a record store to see a person, but as a vinyl collector, I do attend album release parties for vinyl. Oh nice, yeah. I I actually you guys put uh between here, uh between hold on. I I always mess this title up between now and then on vinyl a couple of years ago. And that's that's like my golden goose right now. I got I gotta find those. You guys only did them in person, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:30

And and I don't think we have any more of the uh the first between now and then we did two of them. Yeah, still have some vinyl in the second one left, but I think all the other ones are gone. Vinyl's expensive to to produce and um or to manufacture, and uh you know, you have to yeah, you really have to order X amount, and I don't need to have five thousand. We we might have gone through five hundred or a thousand um albums, but yeah, uh vinyl's great. I've got I still have all mine from when I was a kid, and then Rob, our guitar player, he he gave me all of his at one point because he just had nowhere to put it and kept you know having to transport. He's like, here man, just just take my art once you want. That was awesome. My collection like doubled. Yeah. Suddenly I had every Van Halen album. I uh I have a fun album. I had one or two prior, but now I had all of them. All of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:32

Fun fact about it oh sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:36

I'm just reminiscing now, and I'm like, oh I'll like great 70s Z top albums like uh um The Guelo and all those given to you. Oh man, they had great taste in music. I'm sure that I know there's a there's probably at least a couple Aussie Osborne albums in there. Probably through some great phases. Um, I like that stuff too. I was big on Crazy Train, but I never, you know, I never bought an Aussie solo album. Black Sabbath kind of guy growing up. Come to appreciate that stuff later in life.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:14

Um fun fact about CD signings. My first actually, my first signed CD, and I think my only signed CD happened at your show.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:24

Yeah, it's rewind.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:26

Yeah. And it was um my first, it was my birthday, my 13th birthday. Um I had just had knee surgery, so we were up front. I was in a wheelchair. Um, and it was a little family event at a bar. And I believe it was the Ohio weather band opened.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:42

Opened.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:43

And they signed their CD for me. It was was it their release party?

SPEAKER_08 1:08:47

No, no. Um it was the Clark show. They opened, they had won the ability from from something, some contest they did to open for the Clarks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:57

And and they wrote me a little happy birthday note, and my it's my first ever signed CD. And you guys told me happy birthday on stage. That was actually that's the greatest moment of my life.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:09

We love to do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:09

It was really good.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:10

And then uh that was I bought your your rewind album.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:14

My rewind album. Yeah, yeah. Oh, 10 out of 10. Anywho.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:19

Rewind, isn't that the that's the album that you did the cover of uh Paint It Black, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:25

Fantastic cover.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:27

All covers from stuff that we we played when we were just starting out, when we were playing three and a half hours a night, and we had to fill the set out with songs from the 70s and 90s.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:45

Oh Taylor, this one is for you. Which activity is which activity is commonly pursued by musicians who enjoy shaping the next generation of artists outside of touring and recording?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:01

Standby and it's not multiple choice. I just hope for the best.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:05

Uh yeah, this one is not multiple choice.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:07

Oh, cool. I can read. Okay.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:10

Um the question itself kind of gives it to you.

Signings, Vinyl, And Fan Moments

SPEAKER_02 1:10:18

I don't know. Interactivity is commonly pursued by musicians who enjoy shaping the next generation of artists outside of touring and recording. Can I throw it to Scott? I literally don't know.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:36

I don't even know if I have the answer to that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:39

What do you well, we can't both not have the answer. You're the musician.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:44

Well, I you know, commonly pursued by musicians now. Um I don't know, you know, maybe uh you you know, guitar tutorials or YouTube stuff, putting things on YouTube. I don't know. What what is it? I'm I'm curious.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:05

Well, Scott, you you're basically there. The the answer is teaching, the greatest gift that you can give to the next generation.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:11

Oh there was no way I was gonna get that.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:16

So I I actually had to to Google this uh to to get this question. So basically, the statistic is 78% of artists, recording artists today also tutor.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:31

Wow, that's a lot, that's a big number. I didn't think it would be that high.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:37

You also enjoy teaching musicians, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:41

I don't do it formally. I'm happy to jam with people and play with people and advise and collaborate and all that stuff, but uh I've never taught a lesson. Oh, really? No, no. My daughters, um, you know, they all sing, and there are times when I'm sure they're learning stuff from me, but it's never very it's never a conscious do this. Um, not that I couldn't do that, I just it just never happened.

unknown 1:12:11

Huh.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:12

Yeah, I thought that was a wild fact as well. 78%. That's a lot.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:18

Well, I I can tell you this, like I'm not a good enough guitar player to really give guitar lessons. I mean, I could I could you know help somebody out and get them started and show them concords and stuff, but I I don't have the the guitar uh talent to to be a guitar teacher. Um and vocally uh I would leave that up to the the sort of the experts, the people who are are sort of trained vocalists. Like it's very difficult for me to try to advise somebody on um vocal technique or or how to because we're also different. And now I know what works for me, and I could you know relay that information, but it would be very difficult for me to um uh hold a formal lesson in with anyone or or singing.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:07

Speaking of easy when you're naturally blessed.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:11

I I I thank you. I I just I love what I do and and I've gotten better at it over the years. I mean it's just it's it's a t you have to have some sort of innate ability, you have to have some musicality. But um, you know, singing can be learned. And uh I've always had an ability to um to sing, but I I've seen way better now than I used to. I I know that I know the spirituality of it. Um there's a lot that goes into it that you sort of discover over many one of the benefits of doing it a long time. You um you just get good at it.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:47

Uh speaking of your daughters, uh correct me if I'm wrong. Um, on your newer EP, the song Here and Now, that was written not for your daughter per se, but like around the time that your daughter was born, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:14:02

Yes, that was that was definitely a love letter to my family. Uh my kids at the time I was uh we had two very young daughters, probably you know, three years old, one year old, and and we're expecting, you know, at least planning for one more. And and uh had just moved back to Pittsburgh from Dallas, Texas, and uh was happy to be back in western Pennsylvania. Um and just uh yeah, just wrote a a very open sort of love letter to my family. I was very happy at the time. And um one of my favorites came out with the on that aforementioned uh EP called Three the Hard Way. And and there's a really cool video uh with that. If you if anybody's interested on my website, scopplayc.com, you can you can find your way around um to to that material, but love that song, love that video.

SPEAKER_08 1:14:59

So this next one, I believe, is for you, Scott. Um, which band is often cited as a major influence on the Heartland roots-leaning alternative rock artists from the 1990s.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:17

The nineties, Heartland and Roots-leaning alternative rock artists. Oh, cited as a major influence. Oh a major influence on roots leaning alternative rock in the nineties. Man, which band? Oh man, the Eagles.

Teaching, Craft, And Voice Over Time

SPEAKER_08 1:15:51

Oh, that that's a fantastic guess. Um but no, not the Eagles. Uh Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Yeah, I could see. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:05

Love Tom Petty.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:07

Heartland threw me. Like I don't I might initially I was like, well, John Mellencamp. Yeah, John Mellencamp, Springsteen, and Springsteen to a certain degree. Um, but yeah, I I I totally agree with that. Tom influenced a lot of people, including me.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:25

Yeah, uh you're a pretty big Tom Petty fan, right? You you kind of love like a lot of that classic rock.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:31

Well, for sure, that was what I cut my teeth on as a kid growing up. Uh Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were was my first uh concert, my first live music experience, 1980, uh Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, damn the Torpedoes tour. I was probably 15. And that album was just so good and so visceral. And their their live show by that point was so on point. And he was still, you know, still had a lot of vim and vigor and energy and and and sort of anger, and and he just they they were they were the thing for me at that point in my life, like 19 late 70s, early 80s.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:12

Do you have a favorite Tom Petty song?

SPEAKER_05 1:17:15

Um, yeah, I mean I so many of them to try to pick one is is a little bit of a challenge, but it would probably be it would probably be something like uh Shadow of a Doubt, a complex kid from from like a radio single or anything, but it's just such a great straight-ahead rock and roll.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:36

Mine's um Learning to Fly. I've always loved that song.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:42

I mean Wildflowers, I mean there's just so I mean it's just it's crazy. And and breakdown and you know the classics and so much good stuff. Miss Tom.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:55

Oh, um uh You Don't Know How It Feels is another yeah that whole album is is stellar, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:04

Pardon me.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:07

I think I only know one Tom Petty song. Freak Fallin' Now Wam, Freak Fallin' Now Wam.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:15

Thank you. Okay, sorry. Oh, you're fine. Just checking on the dogs. It's got a little too quiet.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:22

Um that's a dangerous game to play with dogs. You have to know what they're doing at all times.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:28

Uh yeah, yeah, with with Finley for sure. Lulu's a baby. Lulu, you could walk out of the house and be gone for six hours and come back, and she's just chilling on the couch. But Lulu, um, shit would be destroyed.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:42

Uh Taylor, this one is for you.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:45

Uh I don't know what a World Series is.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:47

Okay, we're gonna pass this one over to Scott.

Here And Now As A Family Love Letter

SPEAKER_05 1:18:51

Well, that's that that was that's that's about as easy a one for me. Uh yeah, I know you're a big sports guy. Well, and and the Pittsburgh Pirates won the 1971 World Series. That iconic picture of Steve Blast uh jumping in the air. You know, just uh I was I was let's see, I was six years old at the time. Um going on seven. Uh I played baseball. I played like at that age, it's called we used to call it instructional league and the minor leagues and then main major league by the time you're 12 years old. So baseball was everything to me um at that age. Yeah, that was the that was my sport. And um the the 71 World Series was the first World Series to have uh night game. I don't know if they had one. They might have there might have been two. It was the first time I night uh ever played a game at night in the world, and it's now it seems crazy to think about that, but they were all day games. And I was in first grade at Southside Elementary School, and I would run home uh from school at 3:30 to catch the last couple innings, you know? Yeah. I mean, I could name I literally could name the starting line.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:17

Um so I when I lived in that area, I worked for Ogden newspapers. I was the advertising. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. So I I've I've seen my fair share of pirates games.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:31

Right. Oh, that's great. I wish they I hope they get good again. I'm a little more optimistic this season. Yeah. They signed a few bats. We'll see what happens.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:41

Yeah. I will say, so I'm I'm a Pirates fan, I'm a Penguins fan, but I am a Dallas Cowboys fan. I I know we were we were on such a good track.

Petty, Heartland Influences, And First Concerts

SPEAKER_05 1:20:51

Yeah, we won't hold against you. You should I actually went to uh uh uh you know and I I I don't I don't hate the Cowboys like I I sort of dislike some other teams, but when I I lived in Dallas for almost four years and went to uh one of my most memorable experiences was going to see the Steelers play at Cowboys Stadium in Irving at the time. It was before the the really big new stadium. Yeah. And and we won, and it was just a great experience. My wife and a couple friends from Pittsburgh uh that lived down in Austin. And so uh yeah, yeah. Uh I'm I'm a huge Steelers fan too. You know, when they won the first uh Super Bowl, the their first Super Bowl in 74, you know, I was probably about 10 10 or 11 years old, and then they went on that run through my teen years years. It was just every it seemed like every year the Steelers were winning the Super Bowl. And how could you not just fall in love with that? So obviously I became a huge football fan. And then and then really, now that we're talking about sports, uh, ended up playing basketball. You know, that became uh played baseball through sort of mid-teens, but then basketball sort of took off. I was tall, I was really good at it, I could jump, I was pretty fast, had good hands, had a great high school team that I started on and uh loved basketball for many, many years. Saw the uh ABA team, the Pittsburgh Condors play at the old Civic Arena. Yeah. Probably early 70s. Um so yeah, lots of good, lots of good sports memories.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:22

Yeah, I sports. I I know Taylor's not super into sports, but I I have a I love it for you guys. I have a very special place in my heart for sports from that area, you know what I mean? Yeah, sure. Especially the penguins. I I saw a ping uh the penguin game where Sidney Crosby got his tooth knocked out, saw it fly right over the glass, man. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:45

Oh wow. Oh, I love the penguins too, man.

SPEAKER_08 1:22:50

So this one is technically for you, Scott, because Taylor passed her question over to you. So I think Scott's winning.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:57

It's crazy you wouldn't give me a sports game or a sports question. That's wild.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:03

Um, which Pittsburgh Steelers head coach led the team through the majority of the 90s and guided them to a Super Bowl appearance during the decade?

SPEAKER_03 1:23:12

Bill Carr. Bill Carr. Bill Carr.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:18

You know, I I I'm living in Virginia now, and I recently ran into um coach uh uh he went to William and Mary College. What the heck is his name?

SPEAKER_05 1:23:33

Oh, you mean uh isn't that Tomlin? Didn't Tomlin go?

SPEAKER_08 1:23:36

Yeah, yeah, yep, Tomlin. Yeah, yep, yeah. I recently ran into him uh a few weeks ago. That's cool. Yeah, he was having a slice of pizza.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:45

Oh wow, and in just a normal setting, how cool.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:50

I'm sure he is. He seems like he's he's he's a cool dude. Yep, yeah, he he was very nice. I I went over, I didn't ask him to sign anything or anything. I was just like, hey, just want to let you know I'm from that area, and I really appreciate everything that you do for the Steelers.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:05

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:07

Um, so this one is for you, Taylor. Which Beatles song opens with a brass band style introduction and serves as the fictional welcome to an anthem of an alter ego band, setting the tone for one of the most influential eras in rock history.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:27

I know it's about I know three Beatles songs. Um, and this one probably isn't right, but the only one in my head is Here Comes the Sun.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:40

Ooh, that is not that's not even close.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:45

Uh I mean it's relatively close.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:50

I'm trying to think of other ones I know. Blackbird.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:54

No.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:55

That's such a good song. I really like that song.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:59

Finley knows that one. Come here.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:01

Finley, can you sing it for me?

SPEAKER_05 1:25:05

Oh, she's so sweet. Come here. Come here, let me see it. Finley Finley knows the answer to that.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:16

Finley, I'm tapping you in.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:18

Come here. Come here, come here.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:23

Oh, look at that little face.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:27

We're Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club band. We'd like to take you on again. Or like to take you to the show.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:39

That's gotta be it, right? That is absolutely it. Sergeant Pepper's lonely hearts club end.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:44

I have never heard that song in my life.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:46

Oh, it's such a great song.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:49

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:51

Right. That was the last question, guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:55

That was really good, buddy. Good work.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:58

So I think it's pretty obvious Scott won that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:02

Oh, yeah, no, for sure. And I love that for Scott. I actually I was going easy on him, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:09

You know, you were being a good host.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:11

I was being a good host. I can't win all of them.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:14

So look at that little dog. Oh man, I'm as soon as the show's over, I'm going to give him my big old great Dan a hug.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:24

You are perfect. Isn't she? She's so good.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:27

Her coat is so beautiful. She's just kind of beautiful. Oh, she's the prettiest dog I've ever seen. She's kind of little.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:35

Oh, she's your best friend.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:37

My wife wants a friend. She's so bad.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:39

Oh, that's Lily. Lily finally introduced herself. Lily. Lily Bird.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:44

Hi. I was I wanted to ask about you the whole time.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:47

Yeah, yeah. We have a little bit. And uh we used to have a bearded dragon, but he's got a cat. And we used to have a Dalmatian. He's a beautiful 12-year-old companion.

SPEAKER_07 1:27:17

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:22

Ah, well, I have to go get an animal now. I don't know what animal it's gonna be, but tomorrow I might be coming home with something I have to take care of.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:30

I really I mean, I I didn't have a lot of animals when I was a kid growing up. Or when I was, you know, traveling with the band, you just couldn't have a dog.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:38

Yeah.

Sports Memories And Pittsburgh Teams

SPEAKER_05 1:27:39

Right. Or really even a cat. It's at a certain point, we were just gone all the time.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:44

Um, but yeah, they're they're great. Hey guys, this has been fantastic. Yeah, thank you. You had some great questions, great history, and certainly knew uh a lot about the songs and and the band. Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:58

Yeah, thank you so much for coming on, man. Is there anything you want to promote before we hop off here?

SPEAKER_05 1:28:04

Uh come to one of my shows, scopblesi.com. I usually list the shows that I have coming up for the next month or so. And there's links to social media. Um, follow me for information and where I'm playing and what I'm doing. And there's links to the videos and the songs and the albums and streaming and stuff. So check it out. Clarksonline.com is the band's website and uh come to a show. Say hi.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:29

Absolutely. Yeah, everybody go check out Scott Lacey and check out the Clarks, and truly thank you so much for your time, man. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:38

Thank you. It really was a dream come true.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:40

Much love to you both. Have yourself a wonderful night, sir. Please come back. We will see you. See you later. All right. That was the Clarks interview, everybody.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:54

It's a long one, it's a good one.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:58

Yeah, that was absolutely incredible. Sorry, I am going to text Lindsay real quick.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:04

Oh, yes, Harley also has a wife. I too should text my wife. Text, text, text, text, text, text, text.

SPEAKER_08 1:29:13

So, as always, do all of the stuff, you know. Follow, like, subscribe, all of that. It has been real, everybody. I gotta get the heck out of here. Yes, that was awesome. It's been real. Peace.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:30

Thanks for listening to the Lincoln Bridge Podcast.