MARY
PRANKSTER
THE EASTER
SUNDAY INTERVIEW
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By Paul Autry My first experience with the music of Mary Prankster came when I found a copy of their "Blue Skies Over Dundalk" album, which I happened to find in a used CD store. I knew the name, but, I never heard the music. As soon as I gave this album a listen, I was hooked. Mary Prankster, the person, was quirky, smart, funny and foul mouthed. But, lyrical content aside, I realized that this was simply a damn fine album, even though it was only about eighteen minutes long. In a matter of days, I had a connection to the band and a copy of their second release, "Roulette Girl," in my CD player and, once again, I was impressed. This release was equally as good as the one before it. Now, I'm not one to jump right into an interview with a band that's new to me, but, Mary Prankster (the band and the person) had such an impact on me that I wanted to help expose their music to the rest of the world and I felt the only way to do 'em justice was to do an interview so you can see just what makes this band, which includes bassist Jon E. Cakes and drummer Phil Tang along with vocalist/guitarist Mary Prankster, tick. So, before I wrote even a single word about Mary Prankster, I suggested an interview and, much to my delight, Mary Prankster (the person) offered to grant me one. So, on Easter Sunday, Mary Prankster gave me a call and we talked for a little over 30 minutes and it was the pefect conversation for this holiday because, out of all the candy that was floating around this year, this was the sweetest and most enjoyable. Since it's better to give than recieve, I'd like to give you your introduction to the one and only Mary Prankster. Paul Autry: You started off in the music business as a solo artist. So, what style of music did you play and was anything recorded? Mary Prankster: Well, it was the same stuff. I mean, I'm not sure what you would call the style of music that we play now aside from rock 'n' roll. It was similar material. Some of the same material that we released later as a band. There's one thing that was recorded. It was a four song EP called "Mata Hari" and it included "Punk Rock Heaven," "Mercyfuck," "Rational Bohemian" and "Mata Hari," just done with me and an acoustic guitar. Paul Autry: That would be interesting. Mary Prankster: Yeah. It was released as a cassette and only a thousand copies were ever made. Sold 'em all and then I lost the master, which was a bummer. Then I found it again, recently, like a few months ago. So, what we're gonna do later on this year is, since we started our own label, we'll be reissuing "Blue Skies Over Dundalk" the album with the "Mata Hari" EP included. All of it digitally remastered and repackaged and everything. Paul Autry: That's cool. I'm curious to hear "Mercyfuck" acoustic. That sounds interesting. Mary Prankster: It sounds a lot like "Mercyfuck" electric except with less instrumentation. Paul Autry: "Blues Skies Over Dundalk," I noticed, had different band members. So, I guess it's safe to say that this release was pre-power trio. So, how did that version of Mary Prankster form, why did it break up and how did the power trio come together? Mary Prankster: Well, with that, since I had already released the "Mati Hari" EP and it was going pretty well, the next step was I wanted to do a full length album with a full band. I didn't have a band at the time. So, I asked a few friends of mine, Cord Neal and Matt Collorafice of The Martians, who are a really amazing, local power punk outfit. Paul Autry: And when you say local, you're in Maryland, right? Mary Prankster: Yeah. Baltimore, Maryland. Paul Autry: I was under the impression that you were a Pennsylvania artist because you're like, a big name over here. Mary Prankster: Well, we've had a lot of luck outside of just Baltimore, which is great, especially in Central Pennsylvania where the fans are amazing. But, I had asked them if they were doing anything and if they'd help me with a studio project in just recording this record and they said sure. They were both in other bands at the time, so, it was kind of an understanding that they would just do it to help me out to make the record. As luck would have it, they had been playing with a band called Skin that Jon, our bass player, sang and played guitar for and Phil played drums. They played with them for years and years and years in various incarnations. When Skin broke up, I was introduced, actually, it was a little bit before, Cord introduced me to Phil and then Phil introduced me to Jon and the rest is history. So, it was really nice. Paul Autry: I noticed that Phil was thanked on that album. Mary Prankster: I had just met him at the time like right when the album was being recorded and ready to put together. I was trying to get a band for playing out. I just met Phil and we really hit it off and, when the artwork went to press, I hadn't yet met Jon. Paul Autry: I was really impressed with "Blue Skies Over Dundalk" because it's a really good album. But, did you come under fire for being too, for lack of a better word, vulgar? Mary Prankster: Fire...no. Well, I had been banned from a lot of places in Annapolis to play. Every music venue at one point had banned me because of my mouth. So, when this came out, it was like a natural progression. It didn't suprise anybody. But, what was kind of ironic is that, before I put it out, especially with "Tits & Whiskey," which I just think is so fucking funny, like it's just a hilarious song. Everyone who heard "Tits & Whiskey" from my management to my booking agent to everybody, they were all, "This song is really great...it'll never get played on the radio, not in a million years." They were like, "Why would you release an album that can't be played on the air?" My answer was, "Because I think they're cool, I think they're great. I love these songs. Paul Autry: It's true rock 'n' roll. It's an album that's cool to listen to just for the fun of listening to it. Mary Prankster: Thank you. Yeah, that's why I made it. It was fun to make, we had a ball making the record. I'm pleased with it. As an artist, I look at this and I'm totally happy. I feel that record best represents where I was, what I was doing and what I was about at that one period in time. Given the circumstances, if we could have done it all over again, I wouldn't want to change a thing. Paul Autry: That sold 11,000 copies. Mary Prankster: Is that something? Paul Autry: Yeah, especially for not being able to get it on the radio. Mary Prankster: Here's the really weird twist. I sent out a copy to all the local stations in the area. There was this new DJ named Lou and he heard the album and he thought it was hilarious. He started playing "Tits & Whiskey" every morning on his show, on the air. Paul Autry: Does he still have a job? Mary Prankster: He does. He's actually one of the program directors. So, he's gone on to something bigger and better. But, at the time, he was this morning DJ. So, I heard like, third hand that they were playing "Tits & Whiskey," the song that everyone, even my closest friends, said would never be on the air. It was on the air...how about that? They bleeped out all the "fucks" and, you listen to this thing, it's less than a minute and a half long and half of the song was completely bleeped out. It was the funniest thing you ever heard, man, like eight in the morning. You just turn it on and you hear beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. So, because of that, he got behind me and started doing a concert series and we would broadcast from a different location. I would play a couple of songs, people could come and win prizes. Everytime we would have a show, he would announce it on the air. We got this incredible, unprecedented, total fluke and all of this support ended up allowing us to sell thousands of records. Over and above what I ever thought. Paul Autry: So, I guess it's safe to say that "Blue Skies Over Dundalk" met your expectations? Mary Prankster: Blew 'em away...completely. Made me want to make another one. Paul Autry: Well, you did make another one. But, this one seems...and I don't know if mature is the right word to use with this band...but, it seems more mature. So, how would you describe Mary Prankster from album one to album two and, if I'm not mistaken, some of the songs on "Roulette Girl" were older material, even before the first release? Mary Prankster: Yeah, some of them pre-dated "Blue Skies Over Dundalk." It was really just a matter of timing. All the songs seemed to fit together for the first one. For the second one, some had been written just prior to going into the studio to record it and some were years and years old. I think the biggest difference with the second one was that there was actually a band at the time. We had been playing together for over a year and a half when we went into the studio to record. And, I had made an album in a studio, which I hadn't done with the first one. I had never done that before. A lot of it was just figuring out, okay, how do you make a record. Having already had one and then having the foundation of playing with Phil and Jon for as long as we have, we were able to go farther with the instrumentation and expressing the songs more. Letting the songs themselves dictate how we were gonna do it. We were more experienced. Paul Autry: How has the reaction been to the new released as compared to the first one? Mary Prankster: It was a slower build. That record's two years old now and it still continues to get playlisted...we just did a re-release on our own label, PCR. So, we did a 2001 edition of the album. So, it's been playlisted on stations in the USA and internationally. It's been getting a lot of web attention. The great thing about records, and I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and also the thing you have to be careful with and not cut corners on is when you make a record, you're making something permanent...like a tattoo. It's a piece of art that's gonna last forever. So, you have to do your absolute level best. Give it your best shot and do the most quality work you can because it will out live you. It will go on for years. Like this thing we did two years ago is now having a direct effect on where we are as a band right now. I'm so happy that we took our time with it and didn't rush it to try to get something out the door to sell. We're taking even more time with the third one because we feel so delighted with the material. It's the strongest stuff I've ever written. Hands down, far and away, it's head and shoulders above anything else. The band is really into it. We love playing the new stuff. We've already toured a few different studios to try to figure out the best place to record because we feel so strongly about doing our absolute best and making the best album that we possibly can. Paul Autry: Yeah. You don't wanna do a George Lucas like he did with the "Star Wars" movies. Mary Prankster: I felt betrayed, Paul. When I went to see "The Phantom Menace," and I'm a huge "Star Wars" fan, I was like, this is gonna rock, it's gonna be so awesome...and it was Disney crap. Paul Autry: I haven't even seen it. I had no desire to either. Mary Prankster: Good for you. Don't even bother. I was pissed off when they released the older editions and they added more space creatures and the injected new shit into the old movies, that was so unnecessary. Oh God, it made me so mad. Yeah, no George Lucas here. Paul Autry: So, if you release an album that you're not happy with, it's safe to say you won't pull a George Lucas? Mary Prankster: I will never release an album I'm not happy with. I'll just leave that shit in the vault. Paul Autry: When "Roulette Girl" came out, were people more or less looking for the vulgarity and the smart sense of humor and did they feel let down. I mean, for the first time fan, when you listen to the "Blue Skies Over Dundalk," first, it's gonna shock you. But, once you look past that and you realize it's just a damn good album, it quickly grows on you. Now, "Roulette Girl," for a lack of a better word, isn't as dangerous. Did people notice that or, put it this way, did people expect you to be the Mary Prankster of the "Blue Skies Over Dundalk" album? Mary Prankster: I think it's kinda like looking at someone's eigth grade middle school picture. You can see the elements in that that made them the person that you know. But, you know it's not exactly the same person. There's been some growth there, same sort of thing. Not very much changed from one to the other. On the first album, I chose to use a lot more of the tarter tongue material. On the second one...they're very different records. But, you can tell that they came from the same band. Some of the stuff, at least for the subject matter, on "Roulette Girl" is a little bit more less shocking. But, it's more like...I don't know, a song like "New Tricks," that's gonna get at you in a way that a song like "Mercyfuck," even though you understand the sentiment behind it, it's a little more unrelenting. And because it doesn't have the same kind of profanity ("New Tricks"), you can't quite write it off as quickly. Paul Autry: There's one thing I quickly picked up on concerning "Roulette Girl," you have a thing for "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", don't you? Mary Prankster: (laughs) "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is awesome. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is great. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is a movie that should be required viewing in like, every junior high across the country because the message is "don't dream it, be it" and you can't ask for a more positive message to send out to today's youth. It's sexy, it's funny, it's smart and it has awesome music all written by Riff Raff, which is great. Everyone should see it, learn it, live it and dress up in costume. I think it's wonderful. Paul Autry: I was checking out your web page and I noticed you had some various theme shows. What's the deal behind that? Mary Prankster: The theme shows were something we did at our favorite club in Baltimore called Fletcher's. Phil had the idea actually. We would decorate every time we would play Fletcher's because we just love to play this club. So, it started from that. We wanted the bands that we played with to feel at home and to feel welcome and appreciated. So, we'd hang stuff up. Then Phil had the idea that we should do "Mary Prankster Goes To Hell" and I was like, "What's that?" He said, "Well, let's do a theme." So, we bought a fog machine and Phil and a bunch of our friends got together and painted copper and bronze flames and we put 'em up around the stage and from there it just snowballed. Every time we played Fletcher's, which was maybe like six times a year, we would come up with a different theme. They started to get more elaborate. Paul Autry: Yeah, you "Bought The Farm" and "Sleep With The Fishes." Mary Prankster: Yes! We "Entered The Dragon", which was awesome. The audience started getting into it too, they started coming in costume. It became this really weird community theatre/rock 'n' roll thing. It was awesome. We did our last theme show there on New Year's Eve when we did "Mary Prankster: 2001 A Space Oddissy." We all came dressed as different characters from different space movies. It was completely over the top. We always had give away's that we would throw out to the crowd too. For "Enter The Dragon," we had those little Chinese finger prisons, for "Sleeps With The Fishes" we threw out packets of tarter sauce. There was always something that people could leave it. Probably my favorite was "Mary In Wonderland," we did this whole like, saulte to Louis Carroll, which was a suggestion from my best friend, Wenona Daniel. She's like, "Why don't you do "Alice In Wonderland?" So, we decked out the whole place and people came dressed as the Queen Of Hearts or one of the Card Men from the rose garden. It was awesome. Paul Autry: The Mary Prankster Horror Picture Show? Mary Prankster: See, it lends itself to so many things. But, we discontinued the theme shows after New Year's to just go for the rock 'n' roll show. Paul Autry: For your live show, are you an all original band or do you throw in some covers? Mary Prankster: The only time we've ever done any kind of cover at all has been to soundcheck or at one of the theme shows. We did "White Rabbit" for the "Mary In Wonderland" show and we did "Major Tom" for the 2001 show. Other than that, it's all original. Paul Autry: What are your influences? Mary Prankster: I can't say that...well, there's always been bands that I like. As a group, with the three of us, we all have different music that we grew up with and music that we like coming into it. But, there was no one band, person or act that I wanted to be like. Paul Autry: So, you're really not influenced by anybody other than yourself. Mary Prankster: Uh, yeah, you could say that. There's no one we're trying to ape or copy. There's plenty of people that we have respect for, but, part of the thing about playing original music is it should be original. It should be an expression of the song that comes from your heart as opposed to trying to ape someone elses style. I hate that. Paul Autry: Speaking of original material, how would you descrbie the music of Mary Prankster? I mean, I've seen power trio and punk and, the one that really stood out was "cowpunk." Mary Prankster: Yeah. Cowpunk was when we first started with the band and people were like, that was the first question, what kind of music do you play? It was so difficult to describe what it was. I mean, you listen to an album like "Roulette Girl" and you hear ragtime, strings, horns, celtic influences and yet, at the same time, it's not one of those all over the place genre bending albums...it's rock 'n' roll. So, we had no idea. A friend of mine said, "Hey, call it cowpunk." So, we did. But, rock 'n' roll is really the only way that I would feel comfortable to describe me. Back in the day, rock 'n' roll was everything. It wasn't until the bean counters got involved and it started to get splintered off into different genre's and the only reason it did that was...that's a marketing base distinction, it's not an artistic distinction. You know, what kind of audience you go for and then you give it a name. Paul Autry: So, what kind of audience do you go for? Mary Prankster: I don't know who we go for but, I can tell you who we get, which is every damn body. We get everything from nine, ten, eleven year old girls to men in their 50's, to families, husbands and wives who bring their kids out. It's amazing. Paul Autry: Well, I really wouldn't want to be the first person to describe Mary Prankster as family entertainment. Mary Prankster: I know, I know. But, there are people who are like, "My son/daughter love you but they're not old enough to get into a 21 or older show. So, I thought I'd bring them out." It's crazy. The people who really get it and can listen past some of the words that shock the more delicate. Paul Autry: Like "Fuck." Mary Prankster: Yeah. It's a good time. It's a good show. We get everybody. I would have no idea on how to describe our crowd. But, it tends to be mostly, rugged individualists who don't give a good Goddamn what anyone else thinks of them. Paul Autry: That's probably why I like the album then. I could give a rat's ass what people think of me. Mary Prankster: Yeah. Age wise, racial, male, female...you get a pretty good mix of everybody across the board and you can look out and see everybody from nine to fivers to skater punks and, just for one night, everybody's all cool with each other, which is nice. Everyone has a good time Paul Autry: On some of your songs, especially the ones where you're saying "fuck me, fuck me, fuck me," do you ever have any problem with male audience members who are like, "You're up there saying that, so, let's go to the toilet for a few minutes." Mary Prankster: Nah, it's not our crowd. Seriously, they get it and the folks who don't get it aren't the kind of guys who would come up to talk to me to begin with, you know what I mean. Paul Autry: How would you descibe Phil and Jon? Mary Prankster: It's such a seemless situation that we have. It's so without internal struggle between the three of us. We're so totally commited to making the music as good as we possibly can, making the band as good as we possibly can. It's a commitment to quality that enables us to do what we do and to work together so well. It's exactly what I've always wanted. I never wanted to be a solo artist. I always wanted to be in a band and travel around in a van and have adventures and play rock 'n' roll. I always just assumed, growing up, that all bands lived together and they were all best friends...this was the picture I had of it growing up. I always had this totally romantic view of what being in a rock 'n' roll band was all about. I'm really, really lucky because these guys had the same view and we all found each other. Paul Autry: So this is your dream band. Mary Prankster: Yeah and there's too. They always wanted to be in a chick fronted band and they really dig the material. We all get so much joy out of this. Paul Autry: You have your own record label. Are you gonna do like Ani DiFranco did and start to sign other bands or is this just more for Mary Prankster? Mary Prankster: At least for right now, it's just for us. Of course, I have a great deal of respect for Ani DiFranco's career. This was not how I saw any of this going or any of us saw it going. It was something that we created more out of necessity because the deals that we were being offered by labels or the distribution deals that we were finding weren't as good. At the end of the day, the numbers didn't add up nearly as well as what we could do on our own. So, we took a real hard look at the bottom line because this is not a hobby. This band is our lives and we absolutely want it to be successful. Paul Autry: So nobody has a day job? Mary Prankster: Phil and Jon still do. I got canned from my last straight job last June and have been booking and managing and doing the press and all that stuff. Paul Autry: Well, don't feel bad. I got fired from every job I ever had except for the music thing. But, I don't consider this a job...and even if I did get fired, I'm not losing much because I don't make any money from music. Mary Prankster: Exactly. It's so worth it in the end. But, yeah, they still have jobs. Eventually, we want this to be our only source of income. In order to do that, you've gotta be smart. You can't sign away the copyrights to your back catalog for a skimpy distribution deal that's only gonna pay you pennies on the albums that you sell. Not if you care about it. We've done very well doing it on our own and, of course, it gives us complete control. We have total ownership and economy, which is so worth it. The bands that sign bad deals, there's just so much information out there right now, there's enough education, that no one should be signing these God awful, horrible, deals anymore. Paul Autry: Is your real name Mary Prankster, I mean, did you go all legal with that or is it just a stage name? Mary Prankster: (laughs) What's in a name, Paul? A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet. Paul Autry: So basically it's a stage name then? Mary Prankster: (laughs) Paul Autry: I guess I more or less covered everything that's Mary Prankster. So, is there anything else you'd like people to know about you and the band? Mary Prankster: Um, let's see...what's imortant to know about the band? Yeah, I think you pretty much covered everything. Just let people know that our commitment to quality is absolute as we give a damn about what we do. we'll never put out any kind of substandard material or cheap T-shirts or bad gig dates. We're commited to it because we love the rock! http://www.maryprankster.com
Copyright 2001, BallBuster, The Official Int'l Underground Hard Music Report |
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