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9/17/99
Marc's Tales: A Day On The South MallHow I Got StartedI've been working in the music biz for the past four years since I graduated from UT in 1995 with a Geography major. I've played in a couple rock bands, managed others, booked for others, headed up publicity campaigns and learned a lot about the music biz. Near the demise of my last band--Breastfed--in 1997, I decided to go back to the basics. I was never a strong songwriter, but I loved to write songs. My biggest problem was melody. I couldn't write one for the life of me. I was no guru on the guitar and the only songs I was good enough to write it were some faced paced punk tunes or some space rock.In 1990, my dad gave me one of
his autoharps. He plays every folk instrument under the sun. So I started
fiddling with it. Picked up a Mel Bay autoharp
book, and started learning some strums. By the end of October '97,
I wrote my first couple tunes and was on may writing more. Occasionally,
I learned a couple cover tunes, but like Chrissie Hinds of the Pretenders,
I didn't have the patience to learn other people's songs. My Early RecordingsIn March o f '98, I felt I was ready, but I needed a demo...something with which I could show my stuff. I called a Stuart Yaros, a guy who had a studio in which Breastfed had mastered our first EP. He's rates were cheap, but he had good equipment and was eager to record anything even though he played in punk and death metal bands. He humored me.I went and began recording. And at $8 an hour I kinda got carried away. I decided, "What the heck! I'll record a full-length CD." Thus, was the birth of Geography, my first solo album. Stuart did an outstanding job. He not only captured the sound of the autoharp, but he made it unique. I've yet to hear another 'harp that sounds like it, though admittedly, I don't listen to many autoharp albums. Geography was the first time Andrew and I played together. I met Andrew in college. I was his resident assistant at Moore-Hill Residence Hall. We never did much of anything musically, but he did see me play the guitar a lot in the dorm. He tells me that's how we first met. From day one, we were friends, but it wasn't until I decided to add a flute to a couple songs that we became musical partners. Andrew recorded two songs with
me--Bella's Highland Jig (a song I wrote while watching Braveheart
with me then girlfriend, now fiancee'',Nancy aka Bella [beautiful in Italian,
pronounced with a Veneto dialect pronunciation beh-uh) and Lounging In
La La Land (the very first song I wrote with the Autoharp). He did a splendid
job, and instruments were amazingly Very compatible. We talked then about
forming a band, but his business OEM Computers was just starting up, and he didn't
have time to really focus on music. The Journey BeginsThree months later, I quit my job at the Texas Department of Health to focus on business. My resignation was in the form of a song I recorded specifically to quit the job. I began focusing on booking Plow Monday and other bands around Texas. Plus, I started going to Central Market two times a week and playing out there for families at lunch time.It was terrifying at first. You see musicians playing on the streets all the time, but to actually do it takes a lot of guts. You wonder, "will they like it?", "will they run me off?" Well surprisingly, they loved it. In a week, the whole staff was out smiling every time they saw me. And it made me feel good and more confident about playing in public. Unfortunately, I was not the best
of booking agents. And booking for rock bands is terribly unprofitable.
So by October, I had one last chance before I ended up Having to get a
job again. I recorded October Sessions, a four-song EP, and hooked
up with the National Association of Campus Activities
(NACA). I went to a conference then came back looking for a job. There
wasn't quite a market for any of the stuff I was working with.
Back To WorkIn November '98, I started temping at UT. I knew UT would be the perfect environment to showcase my still-growing talents, and I love the college environment. I started working in the tower and began coming down daily at lunch time to play my autoharp. It began as a practice session...write new songs, work on old ones. See what kind of response I was getting. My music at the time was a combination of folk tunes, Italian tunes, and modern rock tunes, all on the autoharp. I sat in the grass with song lyrics scattered at my feet. I felt like a hippie. I could almost see scores of ghost images sitting around me singing "Khumba Ya" with me playing the autoharp. As if it was something from Woodstock or something.At first I felt annoying, as if
I was interrupting people's relaxing on the South Mall, but then people
started sitting around and coming up to me and telling me how much they
enjoyed hearing me play. The Fall semester ended and I was looking
forward to Spring. Bard RenaissanceIn January, I returned to my regular location out on the grass playing my latest tunes. I was surprised to hear a couple people come and ask me to play tunes they remembered hearing in the Fall. The Daily Texan made their first trip out to take pictures calling it my Irish autoharp songs. I laughed thinking, I play .. what .. four Irish-type tunes...haha haha. Then a lass approached me and asked if I'd like to play in a renaissance faire...whoa! I've always loved Ren Faires and had considered trying our for them a couple months earlier, but just never got around to it. She gave me a name and I called and set up an appointment.A few days later, I was telling Andrew about it. I was excited, but of course, I only had a couple Celtic tunes that I could play at the time. Andrew was just as excited and casually asked, "umm, can I play with you" or something, and I was more than happy to work with him. We put together five songs (including our rendition of Pachelbel Canon and the Irish Ballad by Tom Lehrer) for the tryout and headed out to the Excalibur Fantasy Faire in Smithville, out by Bastrop. We pondered over a name and came up with the Brobdingnagian Bards (Mendicant Minstrals was just to far back in the alphabet). A few days later, Glen Martin gave us the yeah, and I think we are all glad that he did. Andrew began joining me on the
South Mall as preparation for the faire, and we played daily as usual,
but instead of playing in my old location on the grass, we moved up to
the statue of George Washington, and made ourselves a stage. More and
more people started to listen and sit around and occasionally stop say
thanks, and it boosted our confidence. By the time the faire started,
we were well-used to performing for the public. And by then end of the
faire, we had a whole new crowd of people enjoying our music and Glen
gave a fine speech honoring us for all the progress we had made. We'd
captured numerous hearts and souls as well as some great leads.
And now...In April, we began our mailing list, and we started truly working on the bard persona. We've been bards all our lives, but it wasn't until we teamed together as the Brobdingnagian Bards that we really started sharing our love of the arts and romance with the world. We played our next faires, each time receiving invites from vendors or staff or performers to other faires and decided finally in July to record a CD--Marked By Great Size. And at long last it is finished and available for all those who've been asking.A summer of playing in the hot sun lead us back to the tree-covered glen in which we now play. Nearly two years since I began playing the autoharp, ten months since I began playing on the South Mall, and not even seven months since Andrew and I formed the Brobdingnagian Bards, those ghostly images I imagined listening and singing along have at last been realized in the form of you. And I humbly thank you. To paraphrase one of my favorite songs that we play and the first track on our new album, "I am no king, and I am no lord, and I am no soldier at arms,' said he. Marc's Band and Album ChronologySkander (1995) Intent On World DominationBreastfed (1996-7) Breastfed Ichabod (1997-8) Geography Marc Gunn (1998) October Sessions Brobdingnagian Bards (1999) Brobdingnagian Bards Demo Brobdingnagian Bards (1999) Marked By Great Size Visit the Bard Market to get your copy of the above-mentioned albums. |
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