Listen to Maplewood - IndieRec Interview with Maplewood, February, 2004
By David DiSanzo
http://www.indierec.com

"Canyon Rock"....maplewoodfeelsgood.com
Maplewood does feel good.
Maplewood are a Brooklyn based band that is unique these days. They create a music that is rooted in the West Coast. Melodic and harmony driven, Maplewood are resigned to bringing back the thirst for 70's pop textures via a music merge of 80's alternative jangles, 60's psych leanings, and modern intelligent songwriting. Strummy acoustic guitars, 12 string lead, electric solos that ride the melodic wave of sunshine, four part harmonies, and a mature, experienced rhythm section deliver the goods. Each song sounds like something you think you must know already. How could something this good and this consistently good be unknown? Hopefully soon with the release of their forthcoming debut record (on as yet unknown label - the boys are still shopping around and deciding whether they should do it themselves), that will change.

The band consists of Mark Rozzo, Steve Koester, Craig Schoen, Ira Elliot & Jude Webre. Co-front man Mark was nice enough to answer some of my questions regarding his band. Read on to hear what he has to say, then check out www.maplewoodfeelsgood for additional specs.

IR: How long have you been making music professionally?

MR: Well, I'm still not sure if I'm making music professionally, but I've been doing the indie-rock thing since about 1995/1996 with varying degrees of unsuccess.

IR: Was Champale's "Simple Days" your first release?

MR: Yeah, I suppose "Simple Days" was the first official release I was involved with. that came out in the summer of 2001, and was recorded in '99 and 2000.

IR: What's the status of Champale now that you are doing Maplewood?

MR: Well, Champale has kind of been in remission because Maplewood has been my priority since about early 2002. part of the reason is that Champale, as you know, as/is a bit unwieldy: seven members and many of them in other bands. Jason from Clem Snide (cello) went to live in Paris, David the trumpet player moved to Jacksonville, and Erin (vibes) has been in Taiwan the past two years, so it's kind of been hard to organize rehearsals. But, amazingly, there's a smattering of new Champale stuff in the can, recorded in New York and in Los Angeles over the past two years, so please stand by.

IR: Do you balance the time between the two bands and which do you enjoy more?

MR: They really are apples and oranges, with maplewood being the oranges. and, thankfully, fewer of them.

IR: Who is in Champale that is also in Maplewood?

MR: Ira Elliot (drummer) is in both bands, as well as nada surf. the man is relentless.

IR: Rick Nelson seems an influence. Care to discuss?

MR: A very subtle influence, so good ears to you! his "are you really real" from the "garden party" LP is kind of a minor touchstone for us. We modeled one of the arrangements from our record off it. too bad none of us has his cheek bones.

IR: Is it essential to have a booking agent in NYC?

MR: Probably not. I've never really used my agent for New York stuff, only for touring.

IR: The extended Maplewood family includes musicians from other bands in addition to Nada Surf. Is coordinating schedules a major effort and how committed are all the players?

MR: Everyone is totally committed to the band and to each other, which means no one gets down on anybody else for pursuing their creativity, whether it be me with Champale or Steve with Koester, Craig with Winterville, Ira with Nada Surf, or Jude with his various projects. We're all fans of each other's music, which is why we decided to do this in the first place.

IR: All interesting side projects I might add. All worth seeking out. Where do you want to be in five years time with regards to your two bands?

MR: Living in a retirement community in Florida and letting my lawyers handle things.

IR: While a lot of the alt-country bands today embrace the spirit and sounds of Gram Parsons, Clarence white and Gene Clark, you seem not afraid to extend those influences to west coast harmony pop (Poco, Eagles, CSN). Do you have a master plan for the direction and sound of Maplewood, a mission statement so to speak, or are you simply doing what you feel is inside you, what feels right?

MR: Well, Maplewood does feel good, if that's what you're getting at. Basically, I've always been obsessed with West Coast sounds: Byrds, Beach Boys, Gene Clark, etc. Maybe I got reinspired in this direction after the first Beachwood Sparks album, but started thinking about stuff that had never really been re-explored in a kind of post- punk/pop context: America, Bread, CSNY, Rick Nelson, 70's Beach Boys, McGuinn-Clark-Hillman, Burritos, solo John Phillips, stuff like that, some of which falls into the hidden treasure/guilty pleasure category. So yeah, we'd hate for anyone to think we're alt-country, as much as we have nothing against that genre. we just hope we're doing something different. Actually, I don't think anyone is really doing what we're doing. The closest bands are probably The Thorns and The Thrills, at least in attitude, but we don't really sound like those bands either, and they probably didn't even exist when we started recording.

IR: Do the other band members have their own ideas for the sound that the band is shaping or is it a shared vision?

MR: Oh God, yes. We've all had a huge collective hand in arranging the material, even though each of us pretty much wrote songs in isolation. And Craig played a major role - as essentially producer/engineer/heavy lifter. But most of us have studio experience (especially Ira), which allowed us to just pursue this project down in our basement, by ourselves, without any hovering authority figures, on our own time, and with lots of mellow vibes.

IR: There is also a cosmic and organic psychedelic element to your music as well. I hear some of the Notorious Byrd Brothers in there. In fact your song Be My Friend reminds me quite a bit of the Byrds' version of Goffin/King's Wasn't Born to Follow and I found your live version of The Ballad of Easy Rider better than the Byrds version...actually more Byrdsy if that's possible. I mean that as the highest compliment. Is this jangly psych sensibility something you are trying to attain or just a happy accident?

MR: Well, both probably. I did model "Be My Friend" off "Wasn't Born to Follow" and, to a lesser extent, "Easy Rider." Both of those happy precedents are practically public domain, they're so traditional in their ways. As for jangly psych, that's been, more or less, my sensibility -- or one of them -- forever. "Notorious" is one of my favorite all-time records.

IR: When is the Maplewood album expected?

MR: The record is due out this spring, probably may. It keeps getting pushed back.

IR: Can someone purchase music now if they wanted to?

MR: Probably not, although we just recorded a new song for something called e-music, an mp3 web site. We're kind of merch-challenged at the moment.

IR: Do you have plans to tour outside of the Northeast?

MR: We do indeed. We're opening for Camper Va Beethoven at SxSW in Austin and playing some shows with the Damnwells and Gingersol in the southeast in March. Check local listings -- or www.maplewoodfeelsgood.com -- for dates and times.

IR: Thanks for the time, the honesty, and the beautiful rock and roll!!!!