Essentially, it gives an inside look into the creative process with each artist sending their music out to television, radio, film and the media.
Contact: Alex
Gitlin
Tel: 617-697-6200
Also, on YouTube, the tracks can be either located individually or as
the full album at:
with individually clickable links:
Barely Alive 2:56
Ain't No Use In Hanging On 4:09
Soldier Boy 5:19
Mad Painter 4:24
Never Mind 5:56
Smile 4:07
Beware of the Dream 4:35
Goodbye 3:43
Letter 2:55
Gone Gone Gone 6:06
Ain't No Use In Hanging On 4:09
Soldier Boy 5:19
Mad Painter 4:24
Never Mind 5:56
Smile 4:07
Beware of the Dream 4:35
Goodbye 3:43
Letter 2:55
Gone Gone Gone 6:06
Hear the disc on Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/madpainter-x/sets/mad-painter-album-mixes
Send this information via this link
https://tinyurl.com/trackbytrackmadpainter
GOING TRACK BY TRACK
1)Alex, what was the concept before recording and why does the album start with "Barely Alive?"
Mad
Painter is a throwback band, acting and operating (writing and
recording) as if this was happening 45-50 years ago. The genre, be it
heavy rock, blues rock, pop or rock'n'roll, is less important. It's the
ethos, both visual and aural/sonic, that have to be authentically 70s.
The image and the music. Like pretend this is not Boston 2019, but
London 1974. You get the idea. Who are your competition? Sweet, Uriah
Heep, Mott the Hoople, Rory Gallagher, Deep Purple. You're not trying to
copy them. You admire them. But you write, record, produce and then
play live with that mindset. Operate within those parameters.
I
didn't choose Barely Alive as the opener, our then-producer, Curt
Cornell, did. He lives in Michigan, but we go back to the 90s, when he
was local. He traveled all the way out to Massachusetts a couple of
times and did these sessions. He brought with him a portable recording
studio, it was 100% "do it yourself" job, no "name" producers, no fancy
studios. We just rented a room with a drum kit, he brought everything
else - microphones, stands, the whole nine yards. We had no steady
guitarist at the time, it was a real revolving door, so he wound up
playing all the guitar parts himself. He'd actually record us
guitar-less (but jamming along on his electric), and then brought the
recorded tracks back home and added the proper guitar tracks of his own.
He sequenced the entire album the way he saw fit, but it's all virtual,
since there's no tangible media release, at least at the moment, no
vinyl or CD, only a bunch of sound files. We just kept this sequence for
the YouTube album, since we liked it.
2)Who engineered and produced the music?
Curt
did. He's got his own country band in the Midwest, but he's a fellow
Uriah Heep fan, so definitely we have some overlap. He saw them live in
Flint, MI, in 1975. And he and I saw them together in Foxborough in
2011.
3)Are the musicians the same on every track?
Besides
me, there's John Geary on bass, Curt on guitar and Evo Ivanov on drums.
None of them are in MP anymore. (The album was recorded in 2016). Only
the last track is different - Gone Gone Gone is just a two-man job -
myself on keyboards and vocals, and Ross Jackson on everything else.
He's another fellow Heep fan.
4)How did you sequence the album and were the songs recorded in the same order as they appear as listed?
Curt
chose the sequence, and I at the time deferred to his expertise. He
wanted a strong rock'n'roll opener (Barely Alive) and a strong closer
(Letter), but we tagged "Gone" to the tail end later on, cause we didn't
want it to go to waste. And I honestly don't remember the order in
which we recorded the songs. We've shuffled the order around so many
times, it's hard to remember what the track order was in our past live
set lists.
5)Mad
Painter visits different rock genres, is the special blend or formula
intentional or do you choose to follow your inspirations?
For the most part, we just follow our inspirations. When a band visits too many different genres and has a hard time sticking to a particular formula, that's a sure sign of a band still in search of an identity. I know this from past experience. We experiment, try pop ballads, hard and heavy rockers, straight-up rock'n'roll (our bass player, Kenne, always makes references to Faces, Bowie, Mott the Hoople, etc.), try anything for size to see if it works, gels, has chemistry. I have a hard time coming up with heavy metal numbers, but seems live they're most popular and make the best impression. I'm much better at penning a pop tune. And soft, orchestrated ballads are good for album tracks, but they don't work live at all. I know eventually, we'll have to choose one path and stick with it, so people can "pigeonhole" us as a pop band, a heavy rock band, a progressive band, etc. But it's too tempting to fool around and experiment with everything, and pretend to be this one day and that the next. It's like playing a part in a movie. Today you're this cerebral, esoteric muso, writing clever passages with twists and turns and excelling in complicated solos and structure, tomorrow you're a straight-faced heavy metal stalwart or a glam rocker, and so forth.
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6) Is there something unique and heretofore unknown you're bringing to the world of music?
In
the conventional sense of “new and unique”, probably not. We’re not
inventors of new genres or styles. We’re not breaking any new ground.
But what we’re doing, we feel, is bringing real music back. Real
melodies, real arrangements, warm analogue production, from way, way
back, cause it’s all been long forgotten. If you look around and check
out what people play or listen to in 2019, it seems sometimes like the
humanity’s forgotten how to play real music, even rock’n’roll. It’s all
long shifted into this zombie-like life-form, very weird and alien, and
it didn’t happen overnight, it might have started with grunge or
nu-metal or industrial, who knows. Somewhere along the line the real
values of rock’n’roll have been forsaken and abandoned. Except people
still listen to 45 or 50-year old recordings and get off on them, partly
because there’s nothing new out there on the market that is even
remotely of that quality. So when I say we’re bringing the 70s back, the
reality is, we’re trying our best to bring MUSIC back, an art form
that’s mutated so much, it’s now way beyond recognition.
7) What's Mad Painter as a CONCEPT all about?
To
recreate the atmosphere of rock’n’roll of 1969-79 on record and on
stage. Sonically it means making it sound as close to that era as
possible both in writing and production. And on stage it means wearing
period gear as much as possible and providing an illusion to our
audience, an experience of being temporarily teleported back into that
era. It’s no different from being in a theatrical play and wearing
period costumes.
8) Who came up with it and how was it born?
MP
is my brainchild. I had the notion of having my own band and calling it
Mad Painter as far back as 1990, when I was 20 years old. It was a fantasy. But it became reality in late 2015.
9) What is the pre-history of Mad Painter, did it exist under a different guise in the past?
Since
Christmas 2015, MP has been through many line-ups, and except for me,
none of the members in the current line-up were there originally when it
got launched. But
I feel the current line-up is the best and most potent one we’ve had
yet, at least it’s the one that’s giving me the most hope. We’ve not yet
gigged with our new guitarist, but the vibe in the band is now
fantastic, better than ever.
Back
in the 90s, I was in a group called Silver Star, with Dave and Derek
Malone, respectively, our drummer’s dad and uncle (he hadn’t been born
yet). So, in a way, we’re keeping it all in the family. We had high hopes at the time and recorded in a professional studio a 5-track EP CD we called “Foot Stomping Music”. The
closing number on it was a ballad called “Kindness”, which Joel
Simches, who was a DJ at HMV in Cambridge at the time, put on heavy
rotation. It was fantastic to walk into a major music store and hear
your own song on repeat play! Many many years later, Joel and I have
reconnected at WMFO, Tufts College radio, when we did the live show for
him last May (CD still in the works).
(Kindness)
10) What's more important in your act, studio work or the stage show?
Theoretically,
everything should be equally important, as you always keep your viewer,
listener and audience in mind and want to deliver quality, entertaining
product. With this band the only studio experience we’ve had was the
aforementioned “shoestring budget” first album, and with the current
line-up we’ve yet to record in a studio. So at least for now we’ve been
putting all our efforts into developing a killer stage show.
11) What is the stage show like, what are you trying to project in a live setting?
If the audience is there, it’s always fun. No matter how heavy it gets. Oddly enough, girls pick a heavy metal number, Beware Of The Dream, to dance to, I can’t explain that, but as long as they have fun... Interaction with the audience is crucial. Some incidental banter, a singalong, encouraging them to clap their hands and move around, all part of the act. Being “stuck” behind the keyboards, I can’t do any acrobatics myself, but so far I’ve been pretty lucky with audience response, even though we mostly play original music, they do like the songs and respond to them well, especially the catchier numbers like Never Mind and Smile. I don’t like to “play” a rock star, it’s not a role that comes naturally to me. I feel more like a student at an oral examination. The stakes are high. It’s a nerve wracking experience. Everything has to be perfect. Everyone must remember their parts (which is why we rehearse so much). I have to remember all the lyrics. My voice can’t let me down, I have to retain it throughout the show, if I lose it, it’s a disaster. It’s very hard to let loose and just enjoy myself at first. But a positive and lively audience reaction makes all the difference. It’s so encouraging, it transforms me, where usually after the first number I’m in control, I’m the ship captain or a reverend, and the guys and gals in the crowd are my parishioners. And we have a great time together. My guys on guitar, the rhythm section, and the backing vocals, usually have plenty of fun also. We’ve never ever had a boring, uneventful show to date.
Alex Gitlin
Mad Painter is a new band in the Boston area, deeply rooted in the melodic rock tradition of the 1970s. They play
mostly original music, ranging from Woodstock-era psychedelic rock to
glam-tinged rock'n'roll a-la Mott the Hoople and the Faces and to epic
heavy anthems in the vein of Uriah Heep. It consists of four individuals
with wildly ranging backgrounds and ages 20 to 64.
At the center of Mad Painter is Alex Gitlin, the songwriter and creator of the concept.
He is backed capably by a young and amazing drummer Flynn Young, as well as bassist Kenne Highland, a true veteran of the Boston rock scene (ex-Gizmos, Hopelessly Obscure, Johnny & The Jumper Cables) and the newest addition is guitarist Al Prince, who plays with Kenne in Glider.
They've played, in different line-ups and guises, many venues around the Boston area, such as the MIT, Out of the Blue Gallery, McGann's, Hennessy's, Club Bohemia and C Note in Hull, as well as the Winter Tanglefest in the Poconos. It's always a good time when you come to their shows, and you know what to expect - nostalgic 70s rock vibes and stage gear to match, great musicianship and songs that will make you get up and bop around, singing and clapping along. A party.
http://www.madpainter.co.uk At the center of Mad Painter is Alex Gitlin, the songwriter and creator of the concept.
He is backed capably by a young and amazing drummer Flynn Young, as well as bassist Kenne Highland, a true veteran of the Boston rock scene (ex-Gizmos, Hopelessly Obscure, Johnny & The Jumper Cables) and the newest addition is guitarist Al Prince, who plays with Kenne in Glider.
They've played, in different line-ups and guises, many venues around the Boston area, such as the MIT, Out of the Blue Gallery, McGann's, Hennessy's, Club Bohemia and C Note in Hull, as well as the Winter Tanglefest in the Poconos. It's always a good time when you come to their shows, and you know what to expect - nostalgic 70s rock vibes and stage gear to match, great musicianship and songs that will make you get up and bop around, singing and clapping along. A party.
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Hear “Kindness” - it is not Mad Painter, it’s Alex Gitlin's 90s band, Silver Star. Mentioned it in the story, it is useful to provide this link for illustration of pre-Mad Painter years!
https://soundcloud.com/madpainter-x/kindness
The Tracks again on MAD PAINTER
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The Tracks again on MAD PAINTER
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