WEHM All Access
WEHM All Access brings you inside the 'EHM Studio with artist interviews, festival moments, and behind‑the‑scenes stories. Hosted by Harry Wareing, it’s real conversations and real access to the events, artists and music you love. Get it wherever you get your podcasts.
WEHM All Access
WEHM All Access - Great South Bay Music Festival - Circus Mind
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In this episode of WEHM All Access, Harry talks with Mark Rechler of Circus Mind, a Long Island‑born musician whose years in New Orleans shaped the band’s unmistakable blend of funk, rock, jazz, reggae, and Crescent City soul. Mark shares how Circus Mind grew out of his time at Tulane, playing alongside members of the Meters and the Radiators, and how that New Orleans flavor still runs through the band’s sound today. He walks through their long history with the Great South Bay Music Festival and how the band balances tight studio arrangements with loose, jam‑friendly live performances. With a new album just released and a high‑energy 40‑minute set planned for the Jambalaya Stage, Circus Mind arrives ready to bring a little New Orleans heat to Patchogue.
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It's the EHM Breakfast Show with Harry. Uh EHM All Access for the Great South Bay Music Festival. We're chatting with a whole bunch of different bands that are performing this year. It's kind of exciting to get to know the performers. I'm looking forward to uh seeing them all on the stages at the Great South Bay Music Festival. And one of the bands that's very cool, kind of bringing the sound of New Orleans a little bit to uh to the Great South Bay Music Festival is Circus Minds. And we want to start uh by welcoming Mark Reckler to the uh the virtual studio. Mark, how are you? I'm doing great. How's it going? Very good. Thanks for doing this. I appreciate it. And I guess the the goal of these interviews is to kind of learn about these bands and I think it makes it more fun too when you see them perform and you know a little more about them and kind of where they're from. And I guess let's start at the very beginning. Where did you grow up and uh how did you find your way to music, so to speak?
SPEAKER_01I'm a Long Islander. I grew up in Dix Hills, uh, played in a couple bands, went to school in New Orleans, a Tulane University, where I studied architecture and played in a band. And um, so that's where the New Orleans influence comes too. I uh I sort of hung around with bands down there that I was really loved, and then eventually began playing with them or for them, and then they recorded on some of my stuff. So we loved like the Neville brothers and uh the meters and the radiators, and I ended up you know playing with a bunch of those people, Leo Nocentelli, the meters, the guitar player, and uh did a bunch of stints and tours with Fish Head Stew, which is an offshoot of the Radiator. So that's why you definitely hear the New Orleans sound in Circus Mind.
SPEAKER_00Well, we can't wait to see you perform on that Saturday. Uh actually, uh what day are you performing at the festival this year?
SPEAKER_01Saturday, 4 20. That's that's a lot.
SPEAKER_00Perfect. Uh and uh you'll see Circus Mind there. They're a lot of fun on the Jambalaya stage. Uh as uh we get ready for the festival. I guess first, what's your history with uh with the Great South Band Music Festival?
SPEAKER_01Let's see. I think this might be my fifth time playing the festival, possibly. Um and uh it's been great. We've we've been on that Five Town stage, uh the Clamshell a couple of times. Last year we were on the uh the other stage. Is the what's the other stage called? Do you recall?
SPEAKER_00Uh there's clam show, then there's the jambalaya stage.
SPEAKER_01Oh, last year we're the jambalaya, so I guess we're back on Jambalaya this time as well. And um it's been great, you know. We've made uh new friends and fans out there, and it's definitely good, you know, to spread the word for Circus Mind. We also have uh a new album out, so we're sort of promoting that as well, which just came out last weekend.
SPEAKER_00Well, congratulations. Very, very cool. Uh when did the bands this band start? I know you have a lot of different projects.
SPEAKER_01Uh when is it kind of started around 1998, but we had a different name back then, and I'd say somewhere a year later, it probably was Circus Mind. And I think our our first gig we played at was probably 2001, and we recorded our first album in 2003. I think that came out.
SPEAKER_00You've always blended different types of music: rock, funk, jazz, reggae. We talked about New Orleans soul.
SPEAKER_01Uh when you all of that, all of the above. I'm definitely you know influenced by everything I've you know listened to growing up, a lot of you know, FM radio, 70s, uh, you know, we mix world beat reggae and things, and uh of course New Orleans music, like we spoke of, you know, Dr. John, things like that. Uh so yeah, you hear a lot of classic rock and funk. Definitely like Stilly Down and Little Feet would be like probably two of our biggest influences. But I mean the influence that but the list is so long.
SPEAKER_00When you're writing music, how do you decide kind of which uh lane each song lives in, so to speak?
SPEAKER_01Um, that's a great question. I usually try not to judge songs. I write a lot, you know. I wrote three songs this week. I kind of just let it happen. And then sometimes I'm like, yeah, that's definitely you know not a circus mind song. Sometimes I'll kind of just introduce it to the band, and somehow it it just becomes one because of the guys, you know, and what we're they bring to it. Uh so you never really know. I try not, you know, I might write like, you know, if I wrote like five sad songs in a row, I mean, like, I write, I gotta, you know, we're a funk band, we play bars and live, so I gotta really uh amp it up on my my funky tunes. So that happens too, you know. Maybe I'm like, I gotta lean a little heavier on the the party vibe for the next one. But i I try not to, I try just to, you know, be creative and let it come out.
SPEAKER_00You've uh performed at a lot of different places. Uh I read you New Orleans Jazz Fest, uh the Fat Friday annual Mardi Gras Ball, I believe. You're that's right.
SPEAKER_01We just did Brooklyn Bowl. That was last uh weekend.
SPEAKER_00What's uh what's it like to kind of because uh obviously there's there's studio versions and then there's the live performances for the bands. How do they how do they differ? Or do they?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it definitely does. You know, we could, you know, uh a bit of a jam band when we play live. We like to stretch stuff out. But of course, it depends on the venue and how long the set is. The Brooklyn Bowl was an opening set for Galactic. So, you know, and we kept that of course a little tighter and cleaner and showed off our songwriting and playing abilities in a in a much tighter way. But, you know, if you come see us out, you know, at uh I don't know, Boz Bar, Still Partners, and some local watering hall, we're we're gonna stretch it out and really, you know, have a great time.
SPEAKER_00Well, and take me back to the writing process a little bit. So obviously, uh you know, you don't necessarily join or jump for its own sake for it, but how do you um where does it come from? Does the music start first, the lyrics? Who how does that evolve with the group as a collaborative effort?
SPEAKER_01Probably last for me, but it kind of it depends, you know. If I sit at a piano, I play some chords, I'm like, you know, I hit something, and then I'm off to the races. Sometimes I'm just uh walking down the street and I'm singing something, and uh and I'm like, what is that song I'm singing? Is that a song I know? And then I just thank God for our iPhones, vocal. I record a little Diddy in there. I have you know 4,000 little Diddy's in my phone, and I tried to name them and go back to them. And that's so that's usually the germination, the seed. Uh sometimes, like I told you, if I'm looking to like write some more funky songs, I have a nice trick for that, which is I'll just put on a real funky beat, you know, some break beat or something, and I'll write to that, and boom, you know, I I have I'm already in the the mode of a beat tune. So it kind of depends. And you know, most of the time I am just like sort of sitting around at a piano and hit some cool chords, and I'm like, ooh, what's that? And it just kind of goes from there. I once saw a uh keynote speaker, Neil Young, was speaking at South by Southwest, and he taught me a great lesson, which is if you start writing something and the muses come, you have to finish it. All else must stop, you know, cancel your dinner, your plans, you're meeting your friends. He's like, you have to stay. And I've I've really stuck with that, and it's really helped me. So once I get on a roll and I'm you know riding the horse, you don't get off until you get to your destination.
SPEAKER_00That's uh that's great advice. Uh you've got a lot of different instruments in the band. How do you work them in? How early in the conversation do you start kind of placing horns and different things? Uh, do you know that right away? Or how long?
SPEAKER_01So, like once I have a song that I'm like, oh, this is definitely a circus mine song. I can't wait to show the band. Uh, we'll do a uh a special session of focusing on new material, which you know happens, you know, every three or four months because I'm writing a lot. And so and they mm kind sometimes I show them something with something in my head, and uh, you know, Dan the drummer will like throw a completely different beat on it. And I I'm like, oh, you know, I wasn't even thinking about that. And you know, of course I get veto power, which is nice, but the whole thing about a band is you you want them to bring their skills and thoughts and concepts, and that's really that's what makes a band, a band. Uh and so they're really good. And that's why I like to surround myself with talent because it it adds to the thing. So once we're in the room, uh, they might surprise me with some stuff, and it's really more like when we get to the recording studio and with my producer, Chris Vasulo, also a Long Island guy out of Oyster Bay. He's amazing. He's done my last three records. Um, it that's kind of when we might talk about horns. You're like, you know, it sounds good, you know, let's bring in some girls for backing vocals or whatever. So that kind of is more of a studio thing.
SPEAKER_00You uh you mentioned you wrote like three songs this week. Are you constantly writing things and kind of plotting plotting out things?
SPEAKER_01It comes in waves, but I'm I'm running the wave right now. And so uh sometimes it's I have this weird thing where I don't want to write songs because I feel like you know, it's like having a child. And once, you know, I you have the child, you gotta, you know, you gotta feed it and put on give it clothes and send it to school and ultimately, you know, make sure it graduates so it can go live on its own. I have I feel indebted to these little things that come out. But it at the same time, I don't want to stop it, and you know, so it's it's a little give and take because it could get overwhelming and you know, and it's expensive to record music, you know, it's not cheap. So if you you make something that you're like, oh, I need to, that needs to get recorded, and then like you're you're off on a journey. So that's why sometimes I have reservations. But uh I'm on a roll right now and they're coming out, so I'm just letting it happen.
SPEAKER_00The last record is uh Roadless Traveled, which came out back in June. Um how long do that how long does the average record take to put together?
SPEAKER_01And yeah, that's a good question. It I'd say it's kind of um probably a two-year process from when I write a song until it comes out on the album, because we have a lot of backlog. Like right now, we have some tracks that are just drum and bass tracks, and um, you know, we're gonna get in the studio and finish a bulk of that this summer. I have we have stuff in different variations, which is why we started to release a song like every you know five, six weeks, and we're kind of been in that mood, which is a nice way to you know keep feeding the fans and giving them something. And then we just you know, when we got to the end of 10 songs, or actually 12 songs, we picked the 10 that went together best on a record and you know packaged it up nice with the last drop. So that's kind of how we've been doing it. It's I'm so uh our we'll probably drop a single again um in the next, you know, I don't know, August, probably September. I'll drop any another single of the next record.
SPEAKER_00Uh you're performing this, of course, at this year's Great South Day Music Festival. How do you design that set? Is it different than other perform live performances you're doing, or how do you kind of uh even experience the past?
SPEAKER_01I think that's like a that's a 40 minute set. Yeah. It's really short for us, you know. We'll uh so we we we come in on like on fire. We want to like be, you know, just kind of wild out of the gates and suck them in and be extra funky. Um just kind of bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. I think it's maybe six tunes in 40 minutes, maybe seven possibly. And uh so yeah, you kind of do structure that a little different than if I was you know playing a too long set somewhere.
SPEAKER_00Is it hard to to kind of because you have a lot, you have a pretty big catalog of songs to choose from. Uh how do you balance the new stuff with with stuff you've had for a while?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it it it's a that's a great question too. Um, I don't know. I uh yeah, you you pick a bunch of the singles that are working with the band. It depends also depends how often you could get together with the band. And like everyone plays in other bands and has jobs, so that's a little bit of the challenge of being, you know, running a band as well. So uh I guess the songs we've been playing often and that that have a flow, but uh, you know, I'm always trying to you know introduce those new songs, then you don't want to forget the old ones, and it's tricky, and we like to throw in covers for people. We probably won't do that in a set like you know, Great South Bay is too short. But if you saw you know two sets of circus mind somewhere else, we'd be we'd mix it up really good with some great covers and stuff.
SPEAKER_00Well, uh, you bring up an interesting point. Uh you mentioned day jobs and everyone's got different things they're working on. How do you balance it all? Because it's it's more than a hobby. Um, you know, it takes hard work to to be a good band and put it in, especially when you're writing a lot. How do you balance this with your other projects and other jobs you have?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's uh it's definitely more than a hobby. It's uh it's like a bad habit. It's uh it's tricky to balance. Um I sometimes have to I schedule it, you know. I have to schedule like, you know, all right, Fridays. I am, you know, I'm focused on music. I've I'm not going to my office for work today. I'm gonna get into my studio and I'm gonna finish the song and I'm going to uh you know start recording and mapping it out. And so I I like to have a flow like that. And you know, a couple of nights a week, of course, I'll be sitting at the piano. I might be practicing or just reviewing stuff, and it could happen then. So that's how I keep a flow. And then we we usually try to get in a room as a band together, you know, uh twice a month. Again, we've been playing together so long that we're pretty good on a lot of stuff. It's really like you know, new material or new cover that we need to get together for.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that makes a lot of sense. You've said a whole bunch of different artists has I guess an influence uh on you, including Little Feeds. And I was curious what's the kind of one element of their band that you've really taken and run with and incorporated into Circa's mind.
SPEAKER_01Uh, there's there's so many things I take from Little Feed. First of all, they're playing Sunday at the festival, so I'm very excited about that. Um, they have a cool new lineup. I saw them down at Jazz Fest, and they sounded great. Um, Scott Sherrard, I don't know if you know him. He was used to play with Greg Allman. He's fronting the band, sort of dealing with the Little George thing right now, and he's doing it so well. Um, so uh Lil George, you know, is a huge influence, his songwriting, his sense of humor, um, his wit. Uh there, you know, this sort of uh even like Little Feet, you know, had a spread of sound from New Orleans sound to that sort of you know, steely dan polished vibe. Could you get a little prog sounding on some cool tracks and synth uh with Billy Payne on keyboard? So we take a lot from those bands for sure, you know, and that that kind of you know technical playing.
SPEAKER_00That's interesting. Uh Circus Mind's music has uh a lot of uh ties to different places, like New Orleans, but also New York. How do you kind of balance the two cities in in the songwriting? Is that considered in the what about if you listen to a back thing, oh that sounds more like this, a New York song or a sound?
SPEAKER_01It's not list thought about too much. I mean, uh sometimes I just write a song that's got like a New Orleans vibe to it. Uh I try not to do too many of those on a like a record. I I like to have like a varied group of sounds. There's usually like one or two, and and um I've been lucky enough that I they've gotten some good radio play at WWZ, the my favorite radio station in the world. Down in New Orleans, we have a song called Jazz Fest Time that gets played, you know, all Jazz Fest. And uh I wrote a song called the Nola song. We'll probably play both of those at Great South Bay, but um it's it is I don't really think about it, I guess, as the answer to that. It's just kind of like what comes out, and uh that's what it is, you know. It's like I said, we some we've we did kind of a reggae alternative song on the last record. We sometimes we get like Caribbean vibe. So it's just we like to have fun, really. We're doing it for ourselves, obviously, because we love to do it, and so we're we're playing what makes us feel good.
SPEAKER_00Is it hard to stand? There's a lot of bands out there, and uh they're you know, in the kind of the current jam-leaning landscape. Uh where do you feel that Circus Mind kind of fits in and where do you want them to kind of stand apart from them and be different?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a good question. Well, I guess, you know, uh somewhere in between the Grateful Dead and Stilly Dan, I do, you know, I do like a lot of jam bands. Um and but at the same time, we we don't just want to be considered that. I feel like uh on a songwriting level, um, we do a little better than most of those guys. We have a little bit of poppier flair in there. Um but uh I'm not uh uncomfortable with it either. At the same time, you know, there's so many bands that I like that, you know, within that idiom, like the almonds, and that are just shining stars for us.
SPEAKER_00When you uh when you revisit older songs um on the stage, uh do you reinvent them as you go? Have I imagined some songs have kind of evolved over the years?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, things evolved. We just evolved one for the Brooklyn Ball show. So and that usually happens when we're playing live. Like I don't know if it happens out of boredom, but uh our bass player, uh Matt Fox, started doing something interesting like in the song that I really like. So next time we had a rehearsal, I was like, What were you doing there? You know, and in the end of the song, I'm like, I really like it. And he showed me, and so we we were like, let's let's all do that, you know, let's switch the chords there and change that ending. And then we we did it, you know, we changed the whole ending. So it is good to freshen them up a little bit and add a twist, and people who see us a lot get a little something else they weren't expecting, so that's always good too.
SPEAKER_00Uh circus bond really has uh some layered sounds to it. So with keyboards and uh I guess organ um synth. How do you how do you determine what to use when you when you're writing anything? How do you decide sonically?
SPEAKER_01I try to use all my toys, really. And I try to, to be honest, I like to mix it up just like mixing up the vibe of the style of songs on an album. I kind of think about that a little bit too. I'm like, oh, you know, I use piano on this one, let's use a wortletz or electric piano on the next one, or a clavinet or a Rhodes. And so that might change just the flavor basically of the songs as well. So um I have a great collection of classic keyboards in my studio on Long Island. So we do those out of my home. And uh, and so I do I like to mix up and I love synthesizers and Mellotrons and some of those stuff, and which gives it a lot of it, you know, that 70s flair that I like sometimes. Um, and then you know, we have a sax player in the band, a percussionist, and so you know, they they do that a little bit as well, depending on you know the type of horn that they're playing or the type of percussion they're going to. So it just it's like a different way to use different colors in the palette.
SPEAKER_00Uh a lot of fun live circus mind coming to the Great South Bay Music Festival this year. We're chat with Mark Reckler. Uh looking at down the road, is there kind of a sound or a collaboration you want to explore with the band that you haven't had a chance to do yet?
SPEAKER_01Uh we're always, you know, trying to grow and just keep the recording going. No, I can't say there's like some goal that I'm trying to get to. Uh you know, if I get to get on more festivals, that makes me happy. If I get some big opening spots like we just did at Brooklyn Ball, that makes me happy. Not really looking to hit the road at this point. You know, it's just a little much for me. And the boys, everyone's got, you know, things. So it's really about those special events and um making those happen. And the more we get of that, then it's you know, the more we could share our love of music with everyone.
SPEAKER_00Well, can't wait to see you, Mark. Thank you for spending some time with us. We really appreciate it. Thanks so much. Get to know the band and uh looking forward to the performance at the Great South Bay Music Festival back again for another year of uh performances here at uh Shorefront Park in Patch. Well, Reckler, thank you so much. Circus mine, can't wait to uh listen to the new record more and spend some time with it and see you live. Thanks for coming on.
SPEAKER_01Beautiful. Take care.