The Slackers

Interview with Marcus Geard of The Slackers - circa 1997

1997 - Tim & Dan

Basically give us a rundown of the band and what they do...

Marcus: What, you want a lineup?

Yeah.

Marcus: Ok. My name is Marcus Geard, I play bass, TJ Scanlon plays rhythm guitar, Vic Rugierrio plays keyboards and sings, Marc Lynn Sings, Luis Zuluaga plays drums, Jeremy Mushlin plays trumpet, and Dave "disco" Hillyard play saxophone, and lately we have been accompanied by Dave Hahn on Guitar.

What's the deal with Jeff Baker?

Marcus: Jeff doesn't really play with us. He was playing with us for a while before he got busy and he played with us on the record. But he's been really busy and ever since then he's ben playing with all sorts of other people. So, he doesn't have time for peons like us anymore.

When did you guys get started?

Marcus: We started the band in September of 1991, I think.

Since then what types of musical styles have you explored?

Marcus: Well, when we first started we were kinda a two-tone and punk thing...

Yeah, I heard some of your earlier stuff and it sounded kinda two-tone, how did the transition to more traditional kinda ska style come around?

Marcus: Well, our favorite band was the Specials when we started so through that we started exploring the traditional Skatalites style ska and rocksteady and we picked up a rocksteady influence early on and we tried to do ska, but because we didn't have a horn section it never really gelled properly, we did it as traditionally as we could but it never really came together so then we started looking around trying to get a horn section together. We also had a strong R & B influence that was more pronounce back then and we wanted to do more R & B tunes too. We were more Mod influenced than punk, we were more of a ska-mod band than a ska-punk band and thats where our R & B influence came and expressed itself through.

What about Jazz influences?

Marcus: We all like Jazz, the serious Jazz influence comes from the horn section, Jermey and Dave are serious Jazz fans, but they love ska and rocksteady too, but they are big Jazz fans. Vic is a big Jazz fan too. Luis is into Jazz too, Luis is influence by Art Blakey and that whole school of Jazz drumming.

What about Swing Jazz?

Marcus: I must admit I'm a big swing Jazz fan.

Swing Jazz is the coolest! Who is your favorite swing artist?

Marcus: What's his face, the drummer, Buddy, (we suggest a couple) I don't know. You are confusing me boys, you are confusing me. I don't have a favorite swing artist I don't know them well enough.

You guys are sort of set apart from the whole ska scene in the sense that you have your own original style, were you aiming to develop that?

Marcus: Our only real intention was to be true to the roots of the music we strive to know what we are doing as far as knowing the music we play and if we start out to play a song or write a song we try to be distinct in our approach we'll feel it around and we'll try different genres and different venues of the genre of ska and we'll try it and say "Why don't we try it more rocksteady or a little more Traditional" and we work it around from there. And I think as a result of trying to adhere to the roots we ended up unintentionally with our own sound. These are pretty long winded dull answers.

We've got some funny stuff to ask you. We've got some rebuttals we'd like to hear from you concerning a certain Pietasters interview that was done.

Marcus: What did they say.

We didn't put this in the interview, the other guy from Mind Toliet Magazine asked about it, but they said something like, well, I think you guys said something about the Pietasters having small...

Marcus: (Laughing)

And the Pietasters said something about you guys always saying that because you...

Marcus: Aha, that's good! Well, I got that thing from the Pietasters from the keyboardist, Paul, who is due over here any moment now, and it's not like he mentioned this to me recently, he mentioned it to me a year and a half ago while we were both quite pissed, and I don't know if he was being funny or if he was telling the truth. I don't know, it's his option to speak these things in public should he wish to. Besides, maybe Steve was speaking solely... Well, you see, they didn't deny any of the mentioned charges, or come up with an excuse for how people would know this and since I know this is not the true and I know how the knowledge was gotten I can only assume that they are verifying the truth through their lack of denial.

The Pietasters are a funny bunch of guys, they told us Paul was dead.

Marcus: Yeah, I read that. No, I talked to Paul on the phone about an hour ago.

So Paul is not dead!

Marcus: No, and from what I understand he just did some work on the new Stubborn All-Stars record and will be playing bass, that's right, bass with Skinnerbox. So we'll be going out on tour with him shortly.

Dave Hillyard used to be in Hepcat right?

Marcus: This is true.

He's not in Hepcat anymore is he?

Marcus: Not technically, well, not really at all, but from what I understand he is probably going to be making a guest appearance on their next album.

Who is your favorite Simpson's character?

Marcus: That's tough, I love all the Simpson characters, Otto Parts is probably one of my favorite characters, and you've gotta love Bart, but then again I empathize with Homer so much.

What are some of your favorite bands to tour with?

Marcus: Well, we haven't toured with a lot of bands, we toured with Skinnerbox, actually that is pretty funny because you just asked me does Django play with us anymore and I said no and the last band we played with was Skinnerbox, we did a jaunt into the Mid-west, and he played with us all the time and a bunch of the Slackers played with Skinnerbox. We don't play together but he's so busy with his other projects that he doesn't play with us on a regular basis.

Speaking of band members coming and going have you added a new guitar player?

Marcus: Who, Dave Hahn? We'd like to add him, he also plays with Skinnerbox, I think his main band is Skinnerbox, but Jeff being so busy he had a lot of free time on his hands and he started playing with us a lot. He is one of our favorite musicians in New York and he is our #1 choice to have as accompaniment. We have a basic band of seven but we occasionally have other musicians play with us so you might go to a Slackers show and see a group of 10 or 8 on stage.

Who wrote "Our Day Will Come"?

Marcus: I don't know, we didn't.

Who sang that on the album?

Marcus: Doreen Schaeffer, she's the singer with the Skatalites. She was a friend of our manager at the time and she graciously agreed to sing for us, so it was cool, so they were kinda hanging out anyway so. It is not like anyone in the ska world is rich so you take work where ever and whenever you can get it.

Aside from Jazz, Swing, Ska, and Punk what other stuff do you like?

Marcus: I am a big R & B fan. I like the southern stuff better than the Motown stuff, not that I don't like the Motown stuff, I do, but the southern stuff has a much more twangy, harder, bluesier edge to it. I am also a big fan of rock-a-billy and surf music. Basically I listen to shitloads of Rocksteady and Jamaican Dub music, you know like King Tubby Augustus Pablo, Lee Perry is the man amongst men. That is really what I listen to most, Lee Perry's stuff.

What is the band's favorite movie?

Marcus: Hmmm... that's a tough one, It's hard to pick a favorite movie, you mean the one movie I could watch...

over, and over, and over...

Marcus: Well one of my favorite movies would have to be "A Clockwork Orange" but then again for sheer entertainment value I'd have to go for something really stupid like a nice Trauma film like "Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid" that was a great film.

What about "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"?

Marcus: Fine, fine film with an all star cast. I agree that that is a great and classic film. I saw a really good movie the other day, what was it, oh, "Robin Hood" the original "Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn, you know the 1930's version. It was so good, I mean, it made the Kevin Costner movie look sad in comparison.

Well, the Kevin Costner movie was sad.

Marcus: It was, it was a terrible movie, but here is a movie 50 years older with no special effects, and 1/20th the costuming budget but yet the film is a million times better, the characters are more interesting and more believable it was a good film. Yeah, put that down as one of my favorite films too "Robin Hood" that was a classic.

What about "Garbage Pail Kids"? Yeah, right Dan!

Marcus: Sorry, I missed that one. I'm not a big renter of videos so I don't get to see all the crappy movies I would see were I a big renter of videos. I'm a big fan of Russ Meyers' films, you guys ever see a Russ Meyers' film?

No.

Marcus: You are missing out there lads, you go rent yourself a Russ Meyers' film and have yourself a good time.

What is your favorite club in NY to play?

Marcus: That's an interesting call, of the places we've played I think I like Irving Plaza the best.

Coke or Pepsi?

Marcus: Pepsi, I like R.C. even better but Pepsi, definitely.

Strawberry Quik or Chocolate Milk?

Marcus: On a regular basis?

Yep.

Marcus: On a regular basis, chocolate milk, every now and then, Strawberry Quik.

Favorite Disco Band?

Marcus: Probably the Hughes Corporation, or KC and the Sunshine Band.

Favorite Funk Band?

Marcus: That's easy, Parliament.

Favorite Alternative Band?

Marcus: That's rough, there is a few of them, I will decline to answer that one on the grounds that it is too tough for me to make a decision.

Favorite Techno Band?

Marcus: I can't answer that one.

Not a big fan of techno, huh?

Marcus: Not that I don't like it, I just can't tell one band from the other.

Favorite Robert DeNiro Film?

Marcus: Taxi Driver. How about this. I want to know what people think, Upright or Electric Bass?

Upright, Upright definitely (Dan says) like Charles Mingus.

Marcus: Like Charles Mingus, well, let's not go too far I need to do something other than practice during my day. But I agree, Upright over Electric. Let's see what else, Singer's in tight leather pants.

No way! I think that died with Jim Morrison!

Marcus: Excellent a big vote for the No Singers in the Tight Leather Pants routine. I couldn't agree with you more, or English pop bands.

Oh God, that's something we don't need more of.

Marcus: Good Point, good point. Another good question, what don't we need more of? Bad American imitations of bad English Pop bands.

Examples are?

Marcus: Almost anything from the Seattle region. Another thing we could definitely do without is Marilyn Manson, definitely we do not need a re-hashing of the whole Goth thing. Ooo you're so scary you're wearing your mother's clothing, I don't need that.

What's your take on the whole cult thing?

Marcus: Very interesting the whole cult thing but my favorite quote from it was that "It is perfectly legal for an adult to disown all his/her worldly possessions and to break off all ties with people they know and love and go off and join a cult" I thought that was very funny, it was advocating the whole cult thing. It's like "yep, let's put that on National TV". I don't feel too sympathetic for these people, that is what they wanted to do. I don't understand it personally, but they did what they wanted to do and that is fine, I support their right to make stupid decisions.

Stupid decisions are the basis of America.

Marcus: I couldn't agree with you more. In a country where the supposedly intelligent and capable governing parties regularly agree that the American tax dollars would be best spent on museums for Lawrence Welch and...

GUNS! We need more GUNS!

Marcus: That's a good point, we live in a country $300 billion on defense and $28 billion on education and then can't figure out why their educational system is collapsing, excellent brilliant planning gentlemen!

That is another thing we can deal without, Democrats and Republicans.

Marcus: Yes very True.

Which leads me to my next question, Democrat or Republican?

Marcus: Can't vote, not a citizen.

Not a citizen!?!

Marcus: Yep, not a citizen.

Where are you from?

Marcus: I'm an Australian Citizen born in Tasmania in the city of Hobart.

O.K. if you were a citizen would you vote Democrat or Republican?

Marcus: Well, it would depend on the candidate, I would probably vote for Rudy Giuliani. There you go, that'll shock my leftist friends, but other than that I would probably vote Democrat. But I can't say that I'm a Democrat because they all too often run some schmuck who I could not in all good consciousness vote for no matter what, like Clinton. No way I could have voted for Bush, and no way I could have voted for Dole because he is a hopeless sell-out, but I did support Dole over Bush in the primaries in 1994, but then again, Dole changed his status over a while.

And he keeps on saying his damn name.

Marcus: Bob Dole, you gotta like that though.

It's cool but it gets old after a while. Did you see the Visa commercial with Dole?

Marcus: Yeah, that was funny man, American Politicians, the lowest of the low, no sooner did he lose the election that he is doing fucking national commercials. Ahh, terrible, how the mighty have fallen, it started with the collapse of the British royal family. That's what brought the whole thing on.

Back to band questions. Which is your favorite song on the record?

Marcus: I really dug the groove on "Our Day Will Come", my favorite song to listen to or play?

Favorite one to play.

Marcus: My favorite one to play is probably "Contemplation".

That doesn't get played too often.

Marcus: No, it doesn't get played too often, most of the songs off the album don't ever get played. We play a couple of them which are Runaway, Tonight, Pedophilia, Sarah, Treat me Good, Two-face, You don't Know.

Sarah and Pedophilia seem to be pretty big audience hits, Do you agree with that?

Marcus: Yeah, I think so too.

Who writes most of the songs?

Marcus: Predominantly Vic writes most of the songs. Generally speaking Vic will write the lyrics and either he or he and Dave will write a chord progression. Dave usually writes a song or two a record and Vic writes the rest.

Did you enjoy doing the Oí/Skampilation?

Marcus: We enjoyed the show, were you there?

No, I couldn't make it.

Marcus: It was a fun show, we did it wearing Bald head wigs. It was pretty humorous. But we only got one 1 minute track on the record which I thought was kinda lame, everyone else got two tracks and we got one track that was somebody else's song, I thought that was stupid. There was something wrong with the tape and when they went to get a Slackers tune the tape was all fucked up and they didn't have anything to choose from really. They only had the first minute which was before it became apparent that there was a problem with the recording, so that was all they could really use from that tape.

When can we expect a new album?

Marcus: You can expect new tunes on a profile compilation which'll be out fairly soon and the new record, we just finished recording it and I don't like how it's mixed so we have to re-mix it.

Any word of advice?

Marcus: Eat right and Exercise.