One Stop is the latest release from guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Shane Marler. This new collection of songs finds him joined by some players from his past (Ryan Heinlein, Mark Foley) as well as some he'd never met before (Steve Hatfield). The record is also a return in a way to the work he did with the band Ophil as it carries influence from the ska and reggae music that is deeply intertwined with Marler's love of jazz and rock.
Marler releases the album this Friday, April 20.
Interview Highlights
Jedd Beaudoin: Your first solo album focused on gypsy jazz, the second one had some of that but was largely a singer-songwriter record. This one has a distinct island feel to it.
Shane Marler: It does. I suppose you would say it's a return to my Ophil roots. The first band I was in was a ska-rock band, third generation. It was weird, I just started writing tunes and after I'd accumulated a number of them, they all seemed to have this vein that ran through them, which is the first time that I've had an album that is anything like that.
The first solo record I did was a gypsy record because I really like gypsy jazz. I'm not the greatest gypsy jazz player but I wanted to try something. The second record was me trying to write lyrics, which was a whole different endeavor.
As I was writing songs over the last period of time, I'd take them to my band The Mischief Makers and say, "Hey, I've got a tune." With these, I didn't think that would work. It's not really a ska or reggae band. So, I put these songs in the vault, and after a while, I realized that I had a whole album.
I'm paranoid about songs disappearing, so I was driven to getting into the studio and recording them.
Tell me how you assembled the players for this album. You've got a pretty impressive band here.
I consider myself a pretty lucky guy in that I'm able to make a really good band. And they still answer my calls. I have Mark Foley on bass, who's a monster player, as everyone knows. He's super gracious. I had heard about drummer Steve Hatfield many, many times. It was kind of weird because we've traveled in the same musical circles for probably more than 20 years and I've never met the guy.
Mark Sheltgen, who helped me produce the record, called Steve and I half expected that when he came to the studio I'd say, "Oh, I know you!" I didn't. I'd never seen the dude before in my life but an absolute treat. He plays just what needs to be. It's not, "Hey! Look what I can do!" It was perfect.
Then there were horns. We need them because they go with the feel of the songs. So, I called Ryan Heinlein, who I played with in Ophil. I sent him demos of the tunes and despite being super busy with teaching and his own band, he sent me videos of him playing trombone along lines that he had written. I would send feedback as need. "Hey, that's probably a little too jazzy," or, "That might be a little too complex." It was important to me that we keep that vintage island horn sound which is real simple with lots of chords.
He wrote the horn lines and contacted the horn players. He got Josué Estrada from Carrie Nation and The Speakeasy. I'd never met him, though I had heard about him and heard his playing.
The really weird thing was that Ryan called Sage Jude to play saxophone. Sage's dad, Hans Judd, was in Ophil with us. It made me feel very, very old!
What was it like to work with Mark Sheltgen? And we should mention that that's Mark Sheltgen of Room Full Of Walters, not Mark Shelton of Manilla Road.
I think of recording with Mark like an arm wrestling match. Sometimes you give up just a little bit so you can get something else. He knows more about effects and technical things that I don't. I'm of the school that if it's making noise that's good enough. He helped me with my guitar tones. We're both fans of tones from the ‘80s. His wife, Shalen, also sang on the record and sounds great.
It occurred to me that you approach the guitar solos like mini compositions themselves.
I don't solos to be more than something that just fills the space. I want it to be musically challenging and fun for me to play.
There's gypsy licks on there, Freddie King licks, it all just depends on the song and the feel. I would think, "I can put this country lick in here with that feel." Hopefully, by the end of it, it doesn't sound like delirium. I have to be careful with that. I did spend a lot of time on the solos for this record and I think they turned out pretty good. There's still a couple of them that, when I hear them in the car, I might play a little bit of air guitar while I'm driving. That's what you want. Think of the great guitar solos, and I am in no way saying mine are the greatest, but that's what everybody does, "Oh! I love this part!" That's what you want to create.
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Jedd Beaudoin is the host of Strange Currency. Follow him on Twitter @JeddBeaudoin.
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