Mark Hopkins of Pretty War

We had a great night hanging out at Weatherly Studios with Maryland, Singer/Songwriter, Mark Hopkins of the band Pretty War. We talk Paul McCartney, Maryland Music Awards, creativity, shower songs and more. Mark finished off with two of his killer songs includin   "Nola Girl"....it was a great night!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Well, welcome to another episode of Session Friends. Music and Arts Pocket. Hey, Chris, what's new, buddy?

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Uh, nothing. Same old work. Uh, album's almost done. Yeah. Yeah. Brad uh has just finished the last track for the vocals. I'll have it back from John probably next week, and then we'll sit down and master the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

So what are we thinking? Platinum record? I mean, what do we got? We got gold standards here?

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Oh, I don't know. Everybody keeps talking about my kid gonna win a Grammy before I do, and I'm pretty bullshit. Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

He's playing what? The keys now?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Piano now, yeah. Well he was bass for a little while, and then he switched over to pitch percussion, and then recently he's just got this new influence of he's killing it. He's learning all the Mario themes, and then he came in and he was like, Hey, that thing you play on the piano, can you show me that he can play the Altro, the simplified version, the Alterto Layla now?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

That's one of the things that I absolutely love is um and with what I do where I work, you know, being able to um help out a lot of new and young artists come through and with the open mics, and then the possibility of them being booked where I'm working.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Um, but also one of the biggest things, too, is one of my drives is I absolutely love to be able to have a hand in helping young kids, man, young aspiring musicians get in there, especially the ones that really are not financially able to go out and buy the the instrument that they absolutely love to play. Yeah, so that's one of the things that I've actually been working on at Double Group Brewing. Is um the last time I did it was like four or five weeks ago. Um, we did a taco bar out on a completely free, completely free taco.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

I know I had a gig. I missed it.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

On the on the parking lot.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

I was with old man Jones at Barrel House and I wanted tacos. Bill showed up afterwards and I was like, Where's my taco?

SPEAKER_01 2:11

I pulled a I pulled my uh my six foot um big giant rig smoker, trailered smoker there. We lit her up and we did cornitas and chicken and all kinds of stuff for hours on end. It was completely free. And I didn't ask for any tips whatsoever, and everybody's just throwing money and throwing money and throwing money. And I'm like, I don't need this. And then I'm like, you know what? This is actually kind of cool because I've been wanting to be able to acquire some funds to be able to buy some instruments, yeah, get them in kids' hands. Some of the kids out there that are just fucking killing it, man. But they just not, you know, funny actually just can't do it. Yeah, you know, I I understand that. I, you know, I definitely understand that um from where I'm from.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Well, you know, that's that's the whole premise of Weatherly. And when me and Kyle started Weatherly 10 years ago now, is how can we help? We both have careers, we both have our our lives set. Weatherly's our retirement, so right now we're not really worried about making money. We just want to help people get content. Like everything that we did with with Tract at J Ville back when I did that with Dan Houts, that was pretty fun. Yeah, we got some really good recordings out of that one. Absolutely. Yeah. I have a uh a a fun thing that popped up on my memories today that I wanted to call out. What is that? So uh so two years ago, me and Kyle were at Ramshead um waiting to hear Tony Corelli's name called for best producer instead of Weatherly Productions. What for the Maryland Music Award. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Awesome. Well, I mean, I guess that's not awesome, but it is awesome, you know, because everybody knows Tony, but for you guys it wasn't so awesome, right? I guess no, it was amazing. Just to be on that list a little bit. Just to be in that building at that particular time is gonna be incredible, man.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Yeah. It was actually the first time I got to see Kelly Belt. I you know, it's funny live.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

We'll I we'll get into that another time, but I I've I used to follow Kelly back in the in the day when he was playing in the Gardenville, Baltimore City area at an old club called Cafe Tattoo. Oh, yeah. And I was underage at the time. Okay, so we would sneak in and just kind of hang out in the back up like wallflowers in there. They had a train that used to go all the way across the room up in the like kind of like up against the wall.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

And um, I remember that train like it was yesterday. But Kelly, but I remember watching him as a young cat, man.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Oh, that's great. I didn't know he was a wrestler. He still wrestles to this day. Yeah, it's fantastic. He's awesome. Uh, we have uh something fun coming up with Point Break soon.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yes, we do.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Barbecue Bash.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Barbecue. Yes, so uh point break. So this will be the very first full band gig this year because it's so flipping difficult to get all five of us together at the same time. It really is. Um but yeah, we have a fantastic, um, fantastic gig coming up. It's called the York County Barbecue Bash or Barbecue Festival. Barbecue Bash. Barbecue Bash, yes. But it's not actually in York, PA. It is located in what is that? Um on the other side over there. Peachbottom? Oh, yeah. It's over by Peachbottom, yes. A little bit closer. Yeah. So anyway, it's a yearly event. It's um usually two days long. Um they have local, local and um national competitors come in. They set up all their pits and they do all kinds of cooking. Meanwhile, there's all kinds of entertainment, and we will be one of the uh bands listed, but um there's a lot of uh fantastic, fantastic bands that are on that bill, aside from point break. Um so if you are anywhere near that particular time, or you can go on the internet and look up your county barbecue bash and get an idea. But uh, we'd love to see you guys.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Yeah, and we'll put a link in the comments. Yes, we will.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

All right, oh, did you hear that?

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Uh, I think I did. Uh, it's another doorbell. Go check me in.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

All right, I'll be back. Hold on, guys. We'll be right back. Hey, what? No flipping way. Mark flipping Hopkins.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

Dude, I didn't know you were coming tonight. I mean, I had nothing else to do. My family's like, get the hell out of the house. What else am I gonna do, man? This is crash this part. Thanks for having me, man.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah, very well, dude. I've been looking forward to this one for a very, very, very long time. Um, you know, it's funny to get our schedules together because I know you're super busy with the band and and your music and life and everything, and and with us trying to get this studio because some of the podcasts actually take place at my house and my downstairs where I have a little setup. But um the boys from Weatherly wanted you in particular to be here at this studio.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

Well, that's very kind of y'all.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

So big shout out to Weatherly for allowing us to be in Weatherly uh studio tonight. Kyle and uh Chris, appreciate you guys.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Absolutely. So um, to all of our listeners out there, um, welcome. Appreciate you guys hanging out with us tonight. We have uh Mark Hopkins, who is the lead guitar player and lead vocals, and the uh band Pretty War. Is that so let me ask you a question because I've seen you a handful of times, and I know what I think your selling music is, and I've mentioned this a dozen other times in previous podcasts that I hate pigeonholing, you know, well, you're this or you're this or they're this kind of genre. So I looked online to see like a lot of the your biography and the stuff that's online about your band, and it it was coming up as Americana and Roots Rock with a blues twist. Is that how you would describe it?

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Yeah, I I would say that's accurate. I was having this actually this conversation not even like four hours ago with with a friend just talking about how I really feel like pop music is my like where my heart beats. Okay, believe it or not. Like Paul McCartney is my ultimate hero. Right all like I have two pictures of him in my office, like that my wife got me when we were dating.

SPEAKER_05 8:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

Um, but like pop music is really what kind of like sparks my soul. Okay, and um mostly because of songwriting, and even though I'm in a jam band, sure. Like you say we're a jam band if you want. Um, I think the thing that sets me apart from other jam bands is like I'm very intentional about the songwriting. Like I am a hundred percent about hooks.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yes, and that's very, very clear on your live performances as well as your recordings. I've noticed that, and it's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Well, thank you. Yeah, but I'm super um, you know, specific about lyrics. Uh, I care a lot about lyrics. I didn't used to when I was younger. Like when I was in my old band Tribe of Ben, um, when we were coming up and playing the record and all that, it was a bunch of like noodly jam band type lyrics. So it was like as far as I'm concerned, like some of my friends will be like, no, you're wrong, man. There was some good stuff back then too. But I don't think I cared as much. I think I was trying to write a hook, I was trying to write a good melody, I was trying to like reach people and get people dancing by the groove in the melody, right? Right. Um, but ultimately I didn't want to be another jam band. Like when I moved back here um down back down from Boston, I was had a huge intention of being, you know, hooking up with great musicians that I that can push me that are better than me. Sure. And I wanted to write great songs that can capture the attention of an audience. So it's it's always been that for me.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Right. I feel like. So what is so while while we're in there, what is your your writing process? Like, is are you one of these guys that needs to go somewhere and just kind of be chill away and just with a notebook and a pencil? Or is it are you just go day by day and something might hit you, and you write it down and you just continue on and then something else might hit you?

SPEAKER_03 10:19

I think some it's all over the place. Okay. I think some of my best songs, believe it or not, I've written in the shower.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Right on. You know, you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. I sing I sing our songs in the shower all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

So I feel like that stuff, like we have a really popular song called What's Your Name? And um, it's like a New Orleans-y kind of funk kind of thing. And I wrote that literally in the fog on the glass in my shower. Did you roll it? Like the melody came to me, and I started thinking about what I wanted to talk about, and then I started writing the lyrics in the fog on the on the glass, and jumped out of the shower, butt ass naked, ran to my computer and hit like record and just like sang it that way. That's cool. So I remember it. And that happened again, like maybe three weeks ago or so. Sure. Um, same exact thing. I had this melody in my head, and it sounded very like Tom Petty, poppy, like, and I was like, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, and like jumped out of the shower and grabbed my phone and hit my notes and like sang into it. And at that time, which what was weird is my process usually starts on the instrument. So I'll either be at the piano or I'll be with my guitar and I will find something that hits me. Um I might be sitting watching TV and I'll just be like mindlessly playing and practicing. Maybe I'm working on arpeggios or something, and something just happens, and I'm like, oh, that little nugget was kind of cool. And I'll like start to develop it, and it's easier for me at that point because at least I I have a like key signature, I have a tonal center to go from. But when I'm singing in the shower, it's usually just like whatever, which is kind of nice. I'm finding it's nice because I'll sing where my voice feels comfortable, you know. And I'm 46 now, so my voice has changed a lot now. Absolutely decade or so. Absolutely. But um, but what was weird about this most recent one, and I might even play it tonight if I get the the balls enough to do it, but um I felt like I when I sat at the piano, I was like, I'll figure it out on piano because maybe that that palette will help me, you know, develop this melody and find the cool harmony behind that. And I could not find it. I could not find it. And then the band came that night, and I was talking to my bandmate John, and I was like, I might need you to help me figure out where this is. And he's like, Yeah, we can do that. And I was like, Okay, well, maybe we'll get together this week or something again. And then that night I got my guitar and then it came.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

See, that's better so much better than saying, I'm just gonna put that on the back burner for right now, and I'm gonna try to attempt something else. You just stuck with it. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

Yeah, and I, you know, that was it was nice because my family was out all day. They went, I don't know where they were, but they weren't getting back till late. So I had like the freedom to be loud and to be sure obnoxious, sing terribly, and like try to find it.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

But you know, but it did, but you found it.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

But I did, and I was really, really happy with it. And then when I recorded it under my phone and I sent it to the band, I was kind of like prefacing it with hey, this is this is a pop tune. Right. This is not because I had recently just wrote another tune, like back to back. I wrote two songs in one day. Oh, so that's cool. And the other one is like the antithesis of what this is. That's when you know you're in the pocket.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Right. You know what I mean? You know you're in the pocket when you're banging them out like that.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

And my point will to your question is like sometimes lightning strikes and you gotta catch it. Sure. And you just have to run with it. And sometimes I've I've started songs, I have a song that I've dude, I've been beating it to death for two years, and I'm like, I it's great. And I've and I wrote it on piano, and it's I just cannot figure out where to go with it. So it was kind of like playing Tomb Raider or something, or you know, sure. You know, I had just like I'm I'll put it down for a little bit, and maybe if I come back with a fresh perspective, then it'll come to me. What were you aiming for? Do you know? I was really in a sad place when I was writing it. Sure. It was close to like after my dad had passed away. Um, and I did write a song about him called Empty Chair, which is a whole nother freaking, you know, heart blasting uh song. But um and I it just like I was in this melancholy thing, and piano was like where I was writing a lot. Right. Um, and I think I was just trying to like do something different. Um and I had been listening to a lot of Bruce Hornsby's record Big Swing Face. I'm a big Bruce Hornsby fan. That record is m is absolutely one of my favorite Bruce Hornsby records, and it got shit on hard when it came out because it's got a bunch of electronic produced drums, like programmed drum beats, and it just is not the like Bruce from the Dead era. Right, no, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Which was a cool era, though.

SPEAKER_03 14:59

It was a cool era, yes indeed. Big swing face has got some gnarly, dirty, greasy ass music on it.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Definitely different than Mandolin Rain and whatnot.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

Yeah, but I was trying to like experiment, I think, and and maybe maybe I just wasn't ready at that time, but now I am. You know what I mean? That's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

So that is great. So pretty war. Um, how long have you guys been together now?

SPEAKER_03 15:22

So, well, you know it started with as Mark Hopkins and the Pretty War. That is correct, yes. So that band started in 2015.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Oh, so you guys been around a minute.

SPEAKER_03 15:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:35

But um it was me and hired guns. Okay. And that was just wearing on me. And um I, you know, John Maurer's been one of my closest friends since we were in our 20s, early 20s. I know John, he's a good dude. Um and uh so he was in Kelly Bell, and we were just, you know, he was sitting in and playing a bunch of gigs with me and uh when we could, because we just are friends and want to hang out and play music together. And at some point he told me that, you know, he was thinking about slowing down on the Kelly stuff, and I was like, you know what we should do? You should join this band. We can drop my name because I'm not a megalomaniac, and we'll just call it Pretty War. Right. Then we've got two songwriters, two lead singers. We can give each other breaks if we're not feeling or if our voice isn't feeling good that night. There's a whole lot of benefits to what we could be doing.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Absolutely. Having two full-time vocalists is pretty damn good.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

And then Ryan, the bass player in Pretty War, is has been playing with me since dude.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

And that's Rumbly, right?

SPEAKER_03 16:41

No, no, no. Ryan Lahom.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Oh, Ryan Lahome.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Oh, okay.

unknown 16:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Ryan Lahom. Uh Rumbly sat in last year at the festival. Okay, Ryan was out of town. Okay. Um, but he's been playing with me since like 2004. Oh, wow. On and off. Sure. But we've been close for a long time. And uh he was playing with me in the pretty war, uh, Mark Hopkins in the pretty war for the probably the past five years.

SPEAKER_05 17:06

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Um, but then I was booking some gigs, and John was like, Okay, I'm in, let's do this. And then I was like, we gotta get up, we gotta lock down a drummer man. And uh I have this other guy, Tristan Gilbert, who plays with lowercase books, yeah. So I'm very familiar. And he would be playing, he'd play with me a lot. Um, usually whenever I could get him, I'd get him because he's a big fish head too, and he loves Daws and all the same music. Sure. Um, great dude, great drummer, and um sounds like spinal tap. Great guy, dude's great dresser.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

The sound that three people can put out in that band just blows my mind.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Oh, I know, dude. Oh, the bass sick. Yeah, BJ's ridiculous. Yeah, um, but anyway, so Tristan wasn't available all the time. I had like four gigs offered to us, and John was like, You should call John, John Robert Buell from Kelly Bell. And I was like, he's gonna be busy with Kelly, he won't be able to book anything this far out. He's like, You should just try it, man. He might be open. So I hit him up and I was like, yo, can you do this date? And he was like, Yeah, I can do that. And then I was like, two days later, I was like, Can you do this one? He was like, Yeah, the one for Double Grive that we're playing on the sixth, right? And I was like, Hold on a second, what's going on? And then he called me, he's like, I'm leaving Kelly too. Wow. So John, both Johns, John Squared, both left Kelly, and now we are the pretty war. So it's me, Ryan, and both Johns.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

That's awesome. I mean, you know I'm a huge fan. Um, that's actually how you and I became friends. Um, yeah. I I um somebody threw one of your songs at me online. Oh, really? Yeah, I listened to it and I was like, damn, dude, this is funky as shit, and it's just got the blues and it's got funk and it's just it's got everything I love because you know I mean I'm a big jam guy personally. But um anyway, and then I wound up seeing you guys um down into Cat's Eye, and then you guys played Beer Vinyland Vittles at Double Group Brewing, the music festival that I run up there. Um, and then just recently I saw you guys at the famous Cat's Eye Pub and located in Baltimore. And that's when Josh I noticed John Maurer was there.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

Yeah, only two 50% of the pretty war was there. Okay, because Rumbley was sitting in and Frank Young.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

That was a great show, though.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Oh, though, yeah. Yeah, both of those dudes killed it.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

I mean I recorded that one actually. I think I posted that one on the uh Session Friends YouTube page.

SPEAKER_03 19:29

Oh, cool. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Yeah, I did. There's a good there's a good clip on there.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

That was a beautiful day. That was like the first nice day of spring. Do you remember that? Yes, dude. Everybody and their mom.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

We actually made a day of it, and um we it was my wife and I, and then it was um Chris and Bobby, um, who happened to be Evan Buckley's mom and dad. I don't know if you're familiar with Evan Buckley. Yeah, yeah, local blues, very young, incredible blues player. Anyway, um, we all hang out, and Chris was like, you know what? Um Mark's playing Cat's Eye, and she's like, it's a beautiful day, and we haven't been to Kisslings in a while for wings.

SPEAKER_03 20:04

And I'm like, I'm so in. My brother lived right next door to Kisslings for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

I would be 500 pounds if I lived next. That's crazy. But he was. But we went down and we did the whole classic, you know, you got to get a bucket of rolling rocks, and then you get your wings. But we anyway, we made a day of it, and then we headed over there to um to Cat's Eye to hang out with you guys. It was just one of them really cool days, man. You guys were fucking killing it.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

It was fun, man. It was fun to see your face in there too. I mean, it's it's anytime like random friends roll in, I'm like, oh hey. Yeah. Um, one of my friends from high school showed up one time and she was like right in front of me, and I was playing, and I hadn't seen her in 10 years, probably. And then I mean, you know, I'm in my own world, and then I opened my eyes and she was like like staring at me like, hey, buddy. And I was like, oh my god, what's going on? Like her and her husband were there. So it's just it's so fun when that stuff happens.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

It was a good man, it was a great one. You I just you seem like you were locked in. Um, you know, you had the you had the you had the Mark Hopkins face, you know, fucking getting into it, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 21:04

Yeah, I know. I make some gnarly.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Oh, dude, but you can just tell your it's the passion is there. You know what I mean? That's awesome. So let me ask you a question. I know outside of Pretty War, you do a lot of solo stuff as well. Um during your your solo phase and of course your full band phase, what what do you consider one of your biggest accomplishments?

SPEAKER_03 21:27

I mean when I was younger, the second record that Tribe of Ben released, WRR's Bill Wright, who who did like the jam scene, sure, voted our album third of the year for the year. Oh, that's killer. And that was big. And then the next record we re released, he voted at number one of the year. That was pretty you know, that's gnarly. He's no longer with us, unfortunately, but um but that was that touched me. Um you know and And and TMDs has been pretty, you know, supportive of my music. They spun the shit out of um that song Waiting off my last record. And Nola Girl. Nola Girl too. Oh yeah. But um I don't know, man. I think like honestly, the most rewarding stuff is just being able to have the ability and like feeling I don't even like hashtag blessed however you want to say it, but like the ability to still be doing this and people give a shit.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

That's awesome. That's it's gotta feel good, you know what I mean? It's gotta feel good knowing that people love the art you're putting out.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

And the fact that, like, you know, I I was talking, my wife's been talking about this a lot with me too, but the like pretty war is a whole new realm for me because for the past two decades of my life as a musician, I've been at the helm with no support. Anytime I've recorded a record, anytime I've done any kind of travel or whatever it's for the band, it's been all out of my pocket. Oh, yeah. There's been no like, let's take the band fund.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

There's no sponsorships.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

No, and like now the like pretty war, it's like we're all in it together for the right reasons. So it's like, hey, let's take this money from this gig that we just played at Mothers and we'll buy t-shirts that one of the Chris is wearing right now.

SPEAKER_05 23:19

Very cool.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

But so we have just like, you know, spent the money to invest back into the band, and like everybody's cool with doing that, and everybody's cool with like making sure we're you know doing things the right way and like making decisions, decisions diplomatically. Yes, you know. Um it just feels good. I I just feel a huge weight off of me now.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

So that's gotta, yeah, that's gotta that's gotta be a huge help too, you know. Just being comfortable, yeah. You know, just being completely comfortable. Um you guys got to play one of the biggest shows in the state of Maryland, the Maryland Music Awards back in the day. What year was that? Last year. Last year, dude, how incredible was that.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

It was cool. And uh that song, when we uh when we were asked to do it, um, when Vance asked me to do it, I was like, uh what like are we gonna fit? Right. Because we're not like your normal, like we're a jam band, like we're gonna roll up in there. And it was cool though, because he was like, No, I want you to do what you do, man. I've known him for a long time, like back when he owned Sheffield and stuff. Okay. Um, so like when we started talking again, he was like, Wow, what do you think about opening the show? And I like sent him a couple tunes, like, what which one of these tunes do you want me to play? Um, and uh he chose, you know, and we we decided to just go up there and do our thing. And it's weird. Ramstead Live is a very weird sounding room, eh? Um, like I couldn't hear my voice at all that night. Like, I was just hoping I was singing and kind of in the ballpark. Sure. Um monitors weren't just doing their job. Because they had like they had us come the day before to do sound checks, which was great and all, but I'm like, I know there's nothing to this, none of this is gonna stay the same. No, like I'm gonna show up tomorrow. But the funniest, I'll tell you a funny story about that night. Um, we had to get there, you know, wicked early, and I am in the hallway, probably about a half an hour before we go up. And two of the other so Michael Palmasano was playing with us that night. Okay, who's guitar gate. I don't know if you know about him, but um, so Michael Palmasano was there, and my old sax player Jamie also played um guitar, so he would do like rhythm stuff when we play. He's now with Kelly Bell. So Kelly took Jamie and I took John's. Okay. Um, but uh we were in the hallway, Jamie has his PRS around his neck, Palmasano has his PRS around his neck, and I have my 335 around my neck, and Paul Reed Smith comes walking up the hallway because his band played there that night.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

And he walked up, and we were all like tuning and like just I was warming up and stuff, and he like looked at both of their guitars and looked at them up and down, like you know, you know, nod of approval for you two, and then he looked at me and like looked at my guitar, and I just looked at him and smiled, and I was just like, Yeah, I'm not playing one of your guitars, man. This guitar is better. I mean, it's funny, uh you know, saying like I am technically a PRS artist and I've had several, and I just can't drive with them.

SPEAKER_04 26:25

I don't know what it is. Really?

SPEAKER_03 26:26

It just doesn't. It's like I just bought a Les Paul last August and I sold it already because I'm like, I look like a dumbass with it around my neck. Anytime I see pictures, it just doesn't look like me. Well, what is your favorite guitar right now for live music as opposed to my 99 Shoreline Gold Strat that I bought for $700 from a guitar center? And wow um, but uh it was funny because and then I talked to Paul. I was like, you know, because I had met him at NAM a couple years earlier through my friend Brian Ewald. Um, and we were just talking about Brian Ewald and our connection there. But he was cool and all, but he definitely like looked at me like, how come they're playing PRSs and you're not? I'm like, if you want to send me one, send me one. Sure, send me a silver sky and I'll be happy.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Silver sky, sure, why not? Why stop there? Yeah, that's crazy. So I know um I know you're a big jam fan. I'm a big jam fan as well. So anybody that you know that's on the show, um, and I know they're in the same boat as we are, I always ask them grateful dead or fish? Fish. Really? Okay, I'm a big, I'm a grateful dead guy, but I'm older than you are.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

So my older brother is a huge deadhead. Yeah. And that's where I got exposed to it. But then when I heard Junta coming out of his room, I was like, oh shit, what is this? Really? Because I, you know, I grew up uh, you know, listening to Grunge and heavier music. Sure. So when I heard chalk dust torture, like off, you know, of picture nectar or whatever, and I heard um You enjoy myself, or you know, um, I don't know, the middle of fluffs, like fluff's travels, stuff like that. That blew my mind. I was like, Oh, it is crazy. Do this on guitar. That's what I literally thought. I was like, you can do and I think I said that to my brother. My brother doesn't play any instruments, but he was a huge influence in terms of like he turned me onto the go-go record, the Schofield record.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Trey's sick, dude.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

Oh, dude, he's by far one of my biggest heroes, like for sure. Yeah. Um, we did a whole show at the Cat's Eye where we did a whole night of fish, two sets of fish, and the stuff that I had to learn for that kicked my ass and made me such a better player in those couple months that I was shedding. And I had forgotten about it. Because for a long time, that's all I did was shed on Mo stuff and fish stuff. Really? That's all I was listening to and working on my chops. Right on. Um, and when I got back into it, I was like, oh my god, I forgot how much fun this stuff is. It's like guitar acrobatics, but it's like when you start getting into it and the muscle memory that happens, it frees up your fretboard.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

I was curious, so you gotta know your fretboard first of all.

SPEAKER_03 28:53

You do, and you have to have a certain bit of facility. Um and I talked to those guys when we were picking the set list, and I was like, we should do you enjoy myself. And they're like, dude, this is a one-off gig. Like, right, nah, like we're not gonna learn something. And we did some crazy stuff, like we did Maze, and we did a couple other tunes that are a little bit wacky. Um, but uh we they were like, nah, I'm not because I was like, let's do it's ice, let's do all these wacky, like really heavy guitar.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

I wish I'd have seen that when that had to be awesome, though.

SPEAKER_03 29:23

Some of it's on my YouTube channel. Is it? Yeah, there's like three, there's like a um Mike song thing that's like 15 minutes long, a video that's like 15 minutes, 20 minutes long. It's just like two songs, the segues, but it's yeah, it's on my YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Very, very, very cool. Yeah, man. Um yeah, everybody's it's it's kind of 50-50 so far, you know, the 50-50, and um, it's either it's either the fish or it's great for dead. But um, so pretty war, you guys release an album.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

No, not yet. Not yet. It was so that which one we have four singles that are coming out this summer, um, over the summer, into the fall. So the album eight. That's Mark Hopkins and the Pretty War.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Mark Hopkins and the Pretty War. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

That's my last record.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Okay, so that's one of the albums that I got hooked on. Okay. Totally hooked on. It's fantastic. One of my two of my favorite songs, Waiting and Always. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely love both of those. Uh, great, bluesy, jammy, just perfect groove. I mean, the songs are just awesome. Thanks, dude. They're actually in my playlist, um, 24-7.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

Oh, thanks, man. Yeah, dude. Um, you know who Joey Landrith is?

SPEAKER_01 30:33

You know, I was getting ready to ask you how it was how it was working with him.

SPEAKER_03 30:37

So he um he is uh he's become a really good friend. I started taking slide lessons with him in 2015 and I took one lesson with him, and this is before he was teaching, but uh I saw him on the Andertons YouTube channel. So I found him, I like stalked him and found him on Instagram. I was like, yo, dude, do you teach slide? I was like, I am not a stalker. I went to I went to Berkeley. I'm a student of music. I'm very serious about this, and I really want to like cut my teeth on slide stuff. Would you be willing to like hang out with me for an hour and just teach me some stuff?

SPEAKER_05 31:08

Right.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

And he said, Yeah, dude, let's do it. So we we did it. It was awesome. I learned so much, and then I was like, give me like a month, and then maybe we can do this again. He's like, Yeah, that's fine, just hit me up. So I hit him up again, we did it again, hit him up again. Third time, he's like, Here's my phone number, buddy. So, and then we just got close, and um, I've done a bunch of stuff with him on my podcast. He's been on my podcast more than anyone.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

I would love to talk to him too.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Yeah, he's amazing, dude. Um he's the sweetest guy, but he also is the most humble musician you'll ever meet. Like, I mean, he's Canadian, so yeah, that's what they are. But um, no, that was great. He didn't he didn't come down here, so I sent him the tracks to Winnipeg. Okay, he just recorded it in his home studio and sent the tracks back here.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

So, what was the inspiration behind that album? Where'd that title come from? Eight.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

That was my eighth record in my career so far. And my daughter was eight at the time.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

So it kind of the stars aligned with I was just like, I'm just gonna call it eight. You know, there's a lot of reasons too.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Sure. So but uh well, I mean, I guess it works out that way.

SPEAKER_03 32:16

Yeah, I don't give album names too much thought, I guess. I mean, there was a Travebend album called Grass Sofa Jamboree, and everyone's like, Oh, you guys smoke so much weed. I was like, no, it was literally sat in a circle. We sat in a circle and like said everybody said a word and we went around until we found something funny. Right. You know, it was that kind of thing. Um, I mean, I don't really put too much energy into that stuff, but so on that album, how many instruments did you play? I just played guitar on that. Uh, did I play bass on one song? No, I think I just played guitar on that because I had a bunch of great musicians play on that record. Um waiting, Christian Stangle, who used to be in Speakers of the House. Okay. In fact, people don't know this, but do you know the band Speakers of the House? I've heard of them. So that was Christian's band. He started that band um with this guy, Pat Westcott, back in the late 90s, early 2000s. Um, Christian is like retired, no longer plays music. That's just a shame. He is such a killer drummer. But that 6'8 Groove, right? That's Christian. Um, and um, yeah, I had a bunch of great players on that record. Um, but no, I think I just played. But you know what's interesting about that record is that whole record is me playing in either C open C tuning or C standard tuning. So it's like a baritone guitar.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 33:40

So none of the guitars on that record are in standard tuning.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

Wow. And that was on purpose.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

That was on purpose. My voice was I had a really hard time. I thought I had nodules. I went and got, you know, I went to a uh voice specialist and stuff um and got checked out like shortly after that. But I I had to like I I was just going through a phase of like I really want a deep guttural sound coming from my amplifier, and like maybe I'll be able to like adjust where I'm singing um to fit this kind of baritone tuning. Sure. Um, and then I've come to learn, I've taken a bunch of vocal lessons um with uh uh Pete Strobel. Oh wow, and um he was like, dude, I don't know, you're a tenor, I don't know why you're having a problem, like why you're having issues. And it's probably a lot in my head. Um, but I'm working a lot on my voice in the past six to maybe a year. I've been working on my voice pretty heavily, more than playing guitar.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

You're you're you're prime right now, brother. It's getting better. You played the other night when I heard you was my voice felt good the other night. Dude, you were hitting them.

SPEAKER_03 34:46

Yeah, it felt good the other night.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Yeah, no, you got into a couple of those Grateful Dead songs, man, made me happy. That was awesome. That was very cool. So, aside from you being um an incredible musician, um, you also have an incredible podcast that's called At Home with Mark, right? Is that what that's called? So, how long you've been doing that? Since 2020. 2020. So does that was that one of those uh the world shut down, I need something to do things? Yep.

SPEAKER_03 35:15

Uh, and I was gonna do one a month and um Joey was my first guest, and then I just sent out a bunch of feeler emails to all these cats like Charlie Hunter and fucking um you've had some big names on there, man. Yeah, Ariel Posen, um Tomo Fujita, uh Josh Smith. So many guitar players I really admire, and they all said yes, and I was like, oh shit. Now what do I do? I I know what I did. I did two a week for the first five months of that show. I did two a week, and like my buddy Terry, who did all does all my uh artwork, he's up in Canada too. Um really good friend of mine, he hated me at that point, and he was like, brother, this is great. You're keeping me busy, but he was like, We gotta go back to one, and my wife was like, Bro, nah you you can't do because I was doing one Tuesday night and one Saturday morning every week.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Oh wow, so you were really getting into it.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

Oh yeah, and um I definitely cut my teeth doing that thing. Um, but you know, I felt very comfortable always doing it. My dad always was like, You have the gift of Gab, you should come into my business, which was being a stockbroker.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

And I was like, Hell no! Oh god, no.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

Um, but uh I loved that he thought of me like that. But I always felt comfortable doing it. I never felt intimidated. I the I feel like there's only been one time where I felt intimidated, and it was for like a fraction of a second. Sure. Um, and it was kind of like that scene from Lost when Jack is talking to Kate about like you get scared, you let it in for five seconds, and then you just let it go. Yeah, and it was with Charlie Hunter, and uh, because that dude, I've been listening to him since college, and I said something about the voodoo record, about the D'Angelo record, because he played on that. And I was talking to him about I was like crazy that D'Angelo played drums on that tune. And he's like, No, he didn't. And I was like, Yeah, he did. It says it in the liner notes on the record, and then I was like, Oh shit, I just corrected Charlie Minor. Oh, and I was like, Oh god, oh god, oh god, and I was like, just let it go, even if you're right, just let it go. Um, and I let it go. But that's the only time I've ever had a moment where I was like, oh shit, I fucked up.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

You know, I um you're probably I I would imagine most podcast hosts are all pretty much the same way. You can tell within the few first few minutes of just having a conversation how it's going to go, and like, uh, am I really hitting that mark? You know, am I in that groove right now, or am I really, really struggling, you know what I mean, to find my groove right now?

SPEAKER_03 37:55

Yeah, man. I mean, it's it's the whole goal for me. Uh my favorite shows, honestly, my favorite shows have been when I don't know shit about the the guest.

SPEAKER_05 38:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

When somebody tells me, hey, you should have this person on, I think you get along.

SPEAKER_05 38:09

I'm like, okay, sure, why not?

SPEAKER_03 38:10

I'll check it out. You know, and sometimes it could be a gear manufacturer, sometimes it could be, you know, a YouTube guitar personality. Uh, it could be a musician that I'm not super familiar with.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

Right.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

I had Mark Ford on from The Black Crows fame and stuff. It's awesome. We uh it was I had to pull it out of him. But once we got going, it was fine.

SPEAKER_05 38:33

Right.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Um, same thing with Dave Grissom. I had him on and uh it was tough at first, but then it got a little easier. Uh after about 20 might 20 minutes, 25 minutes, because sometimes people want to feel you out, like what's the deal? What's your deal? Do you really know your shit? Right. Blah blah blah. You know. Um, so it's there's been moments where I've felt like I'm working too hard. But the biggest goal is to not talk that much. And I know I had a good show and I don't have to talk that much.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

That's exactly right. Exactly. If you're if if you're doing your job and you're asking the right questions, then they're giving you the perfect feedback. On your podcast, what is your most memorable moment on or who was your best interview?

SPEAKER_03 39:18

The one of the most memorable moments. I don't know if it's my well, that was a pretty damn good interview, but um, do you know who Jarl Bernhoft is?

SPEAKER_01 39:25

I don't, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_03 39:27

Alright, so everybody in this room tonight should go find the album Um Ceramic City Chronicles. Ceramic City Chronicles. You hear that, guys? Uh, and he is Norwegian. Okay. He's a funky ass dude, and he is a multi-instrumentalist. He sounds like um it's like that blue-eyed soul thing, but uh anyway, absolutely that album is fantastic, and the rest of his records are killer too. But he came on and he I was like in love with that record, like Ceramic City Chronicles, uh, probably around 2010, maybe is when I really when I heard it for the first time, or 2009, right around there somewhere. And um loved that record forever. And then I reached out to him because he like liked one of my guitar posts randomly.

SPEAKER_05 40:22

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_03 40:23

And I was like, Oh shit, strike while the iron is hot, buddy. So I sent him a message and I was like, hey man, I saw you just liked that post because I might I must have been doing one of his tunes. I think that's probably what it was. And uh he was like, Yeah, I'll do it. So he came on, and this is and I put this on a highlight reel. My after my first season, I did like a highlight reel, and I never did it again. I should have always done it. But I did this lightning round thing at the end of my shows where I asked 10 rapid fire questions, and I was doing that before everybody and their mom was doing it. Um maybe the only other person was Sammy Hagar, and uh so he I remember I just remember I asked him a question because he's Norwegian, so English is not his first language, of course. But when you hear him sing, you would never ever know it. And we were cracking up because I was like, Can you please tell me how the hell you can write in English? And I was like, I don't know if there's idioms and things in Norwegian that you would normally put in the Norwegian language. That's crazy. But how are you gonna? I was like, there he has a lyric in one of his songs about like basically it's chat on the fan. And I was like, You're not American. Oh, where the hell did you hear that? Right. And he was dying, like cracking up, like because you know it I my goal with my show is with every musician, and even like the big name dudes like Dave Cruson or the dude.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

I that was one of my favorite episodes. But you know I'm a big Pearl Jam fan too.

SPEAKER_03 41:51

That was one of my favorite too. The story he told about um going to see the police.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:56

Yeah, I mean that I'll remember that forever. But um, but like it's really strange to like have these conversations with these people, and I don't want to ask them to can stuff that they always get asked. I just don't want that. My whole goal is to come at it like a really nerdy musician. Like I'm gonna ask them stuff about theory, I'm gonna ask them stuff about their gear. I'm gonna get into the nitty-gritty of like what it is actually like to be on the road. Like stuff that I don't want to hear the fluff about how and if you want to talk about your record, I want to talk about where were you taking a shit when you wrote these lyrics. Right, right. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I want to get in there. Yeah, and I don't want to get the like canned questions that they're gonna you know get on the road, you know. Um, so that's always been my approach, but I also wanted to feel like we're both just sitting in a guitar shop talking.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Yeah, so that's always been my um that's always been my thing. I just wanted to just a couple of people hanging out, you know, just bullshitting, just like we would any other time. Totally, yeah. Just you know, everybody that way everybody's comfortable and uh just makes the whole interview just so much more fun. Enjoyable. You know? Yup. So what do you guys have going on this summer?

SPEAKER_03 43:04

A lot, dude. Um so we just played at Falling Branch this past weekend for their 10th anniversary.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

Falling Branch Brewery. That is located in Street Maryland. Street, Maryland. Yeah, it's that is a local farm brewery.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

Been going playing there for five, eight years, long time. Sure. Um, so we're doing that. We're doing um Watchtower Festival, whatever I can't remember, whatever it's called. Oh my god, I shouldn't know what it's called. It's on June 6th.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

Oh, that's uh Watchtower Brewing in uh Aberdeen. Yeah, they're doing it. That's a new place. Yeah, they have that festival on the June 6th. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:36

So in the morning, we're playing the first slot, and I was like, we need to play first because we're playing double groove that night. So we're doing a double as the full band. Um we had a bunch of other cool stuff. We're playing at um Eastport Rockin' festival. We're playing at the end of the summer, we're playing at Hot Hot August Blues.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

That's a great show.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Yeah, so that was a pretty big bill. Get Uh and then we're playing at the County Fair. Are you really? Yeah, in September. Which which county? The Baltimore County, like uh at the fairgrounds. Sure. We're playing that. Timonium. Yeah, Timonium. That's cool. Um and we've got two, we've got uh four tunes coming out. The first song is called Breadcrumbs, that's one of my songs. We did two of mine, two of John's so far. Um and I said I just wrote two more songs, uh, which we'll probably go in and do. And we'll probably put out a whole record in early 27, but we're gonna kind of take the Volfpec approach and do like uh release a single with possibly visual you know, in the studio playing it live. Yeah. Um and we'll probably do that one a month from June. And we're gonna try to release it the day that we're playing at Double Groove. We're gonna try to release breadcrumbs that day. That would be a good one. Or that Friday, right before it. Um but yeah, dude, we we have a lot going on.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

Um where are you guys recording?

SPEAKER_03 44:56

Um we usually work with Drew Mazerick.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

Um he has a studio in his basement. We recorded these tunes at in between the Peabody Institute and the studio there and at his uh studio in his house.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

Right on.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

Um we might be going in to do I'd like to go do the pop tune I wrote. I would kind of like to do that with a different person with a different set of ears like Tony Corelli. Yeah, of course. Because he's kind of got those pop ears. I want to work with there's this guy named Murray Pulver. He's in Winnipeg, Canada. He um has produced all the Brothers Landra stuff and all of Ariel Posen's stuff, and he was actually in the Crash Test dummies years ago.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

Oh, okay. Um I forgot all about that.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Yeah. But he's a monster guitar player, monster singer, he's been on my pod twice. Um we've become pretty close too. When I wrote that pop tune, I I sometimes I'll just we'll just randomly text out of the blue, and I sent him this text and I was like, yo, can you listen to this and tell me if it's shit or not? Because I wrote this and I really think it's it's got something, but like I I could just be like too close to it. And be honest. Right, and he always is. Um he's like, Alright, I'm gonna walk my dogs and listen to it, I'll get back to you in a little bit. And he hit me back within the time that it took to listen to the song. He must have just started listening to it as soon as I hung up with him. Um and he was like, dude, I I can hear this as a top 40 man. He's like, I'm not bullshitting. If you're if you record this the right way and capture the performance the right way, I feel like this could be something for you. So I was like, shit, dude. Um and I wanna I wanna get him, I wish I could get him, I wish I could afford to get him to fly him here to produce it because he's got such a great ear for that stuff. And I I I hate singing in the studio. I just do not like it. I feel so vulnerable. I it I'm like kinda like Chris Cornell, where I wish I could just be like by myself at the console, have everybody leave and just sing as much as I want to sing. And I don't know what it is. I don't I'm not scared to sing in front of people, I do it all the fucking time. Sure. But there's some sort of vulnerability of putting your voice on a recording that's different to me.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

Yeah, I'm I feel the same. I I I have to be honest though, I really enjoy being in front of a mic in a studio.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

Really?

SPEAKER_01 47:12

Yeah, I do. Um I don't know, I just feel I don't know, I just feel kind of free actually doing it. Singing.

SPEAKER_03 47:19

Um Yeah, I don't mean man. I feel like I'm mime. I'm like trying to break out. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

I mean now there are times, and I've been I've been in music a long time, a very long time, and a lot of different bands, but um with point break, there are times where I'll look out in the room and I'll read the room and I'm like, alright, man, we're gonna have to work really hard with this room tonight, you know. And maybe I am a little nervous, you know. Because you know, we already know per after the first two songs whether they're digging what you're doing or not. You know? It gets to be hard. Yeah. You want to play a couple of tunes for us tonight? Yeah, I'd be happy to. All right, all right, party people out there. Big, big shout out to Mark Hopkins for stopping in and hanging out with us tonight. Uh man, what a blast. I've been looking forward to this one for a very long time. Uh you get a chance to go out there, uh go out and see Mark, go out and see Pretty War. It's an incredible show. Get out there and support local music, most importantly. Um support the live venues as well. Um, everybody's out there just trying to scrape by and uh without the attendance, it's just an empty room. So uh I guess I'll catch you guys on the rebound to everybody out there in Session Friends Land. If the bus pulls up, absolutely next time.

SPEAKER_04 49:14

Back against the wall, a head full of hurt and alcohol Spit all my green bags on a day from the wall leaves. She burned this like whiskey in a bear full of gas and rain. I'm tired Tryna make two things cry Well, sweet hot deed if you can't really gotta get you, girl. Yeah, but no one playing out all afternoon throwing snake at evil dice Nobody told me about this by you girls wearing skirts so tight. Yeah, it's was about a little urban and I'll face up on my face It was a man and a plan Was my life won't ever raise I'm side made to die Oh sweet hot teeny to generally gotta get you girl yell no one about the hell yeah She's a no butt been out all afternoon Get my head cracked open like a stand she was on the floor Rear I thought she was an angel surfing on the bayou, swinging on a star Think twice before I get the inclination on vacation in a French colour bar I'm tired Tryna make you wrong to rain What a sweet hot date if you can't relate Yes you girl yeah from the morning From the Lane From the Lum This is an exclusive See if I remember all the words This song's called Find Your Halo Tossing and turning I ain't slept a winking days Feel like I'm moving But I've never left this place When my time comes to shine I'm wanna grab the bull by both horns I never screaming oh so loud, loud, loud, loud Got a fire in my soul And it never pulled it out Onward and upward I got places I must go And don't be so awkward You like polishing his shows When my time comes to shine I'm gonna grab a bull by both holes I'll never scream a no so loud loud loud loud Gotta find my soul and never put it out of the bottom Where do we go? I can't see you in the absence of the starlight might be you Oh it's a piece death I've been shaking from the room Now that nobody try and fabricate the truth to fight by your halo But everything will be all right I can't stay to you In the absence of the song I might be you