Al and Mark
DRIVING IT HOME
Music for Nations are putting an incredible amount of muscle into promoting DRIVE SHE SAID, so much so that their MD Martin Hooker now manages the band who consists of two multi-instrumentalists, Al Fritsch and Mark Mangold.
Mark has quite a background, being a member of bands like VALHALLA and the near successful TOUCH who toured with RAINBOW in Europe and even played at the first Donington Festival in 1980. Mark has also worked with MICHAEL BOLTON and written songs for sure and the Paul Rogers/ Kenny Jones collaboration THE LAW.
Al was a session singer/ musician until they met up in 1986 via some mutual friends and released their self-titled debut album in 1989 through CBS in America. MFN took up the option of issuing it in the UK and are about to release their second, titled Drivin' Wheel, which fluctuates between the soft sound of the first single "Think of Love," to the harder edges of "Drivin' Wheel" and "Veil of Tears" to the soulful "When You Love Someone."
I met up with Al and Mark in Mark's hotel room while they were over in London recently, and got talking about the differences in the tracks.
Mark explains:
"You don't realise tension's there unless you have release. It's like sex, you wouldn't know an orgasm if you were constantly having them."
What about the songs that you write, did you ever decide you were going to point in one particular direction?
"I think that we have tastes in music that are very close," Al discloses while Mark chases the last remnants off his lemon sorbet around the dish. "It just kind of gelled, we never sat down and said, 'OK we're going to do this,' whatever that is."
So, every day you are just learning more about yourselves as songwriters?
Mark:
"Learning and applying what you know. It is a skill that when you do it year after year after year, you kind of get the knack of it. What you want to do is be undisciplined and to open up your brain to let irrational ideas enter. So it's not a process of being algebraic and having a formula, it's a process of being uninhibited and just letting it rip."
What about other musicians involved in Drive She Said?
"We have the same band as last year. It's very much a band," confirms Mark.
The band includes Ricky Kolster on guitar, Paul St James on bass and Mike D'Angelo on drums.
Do they have their individual say when it comes to interpreting one of your songs?
"Well it's a party," Mark continues. "We don't work with anyone who we don't respect."
Al, who's sitting on the bed propped up against the wall, adds:
"If somebody suggests something, obviously we'll say, 'This sounds great or this sounds like shit' y'know. So, that's basically how we play with that. We're not the two Hitler's in the band."
Mark:
"I wouldn't say that there's really anything suggested that isn't good, or real fucking close. That's cos we work with a lot of really good players. And they're friends. We wanted to keep Drive She Said basically, Al and I. Our musical tastes are similar and we haven't had a disagreement in six years about anything... It's nice. Plus, we don't have to deal with other people's egos. Y'know, we can look at our drummer and say he's a nice guy, but I don't like this drum part, or I don't like that bass part. And, if Al doesn't like the bass part, he just does it himself. He plays bass, he plays guitar, he plays keyboards, just for the moment he plays everything."
"It's true, it's true," Al rolls his head against the wall in a mock bout of immodesty. A broad grim then develops.
"No! Seriously," emphasises Mark. "We are not ashamed that we can play. Why should we keep it a secret? I think it will be revealed more when we tour again."
Are people sometimes surprised by this extra dimension to you?
Mark:
Mark:
"Absolutely. Prople don't necessarily want you to be able to do that. Maybe not people per se, but certainly record companies and people like that. They want to pigeonhole you, and they want to be conveying that this is this style of music and he does this and don't confuse them by picking up a guitar and playing the shit out of it, or don't walk over and play the keyboards. Unfortunately it's true, I see it all the time."
Were you both aware from an early age that music was what you wanted to be involved in?
It's unanimous: "Yeah absolutely."
Mark:
"From that point, it's comforting, because you do meet people who are 25, 35, still looking for what they want to do. Our decision has been made for us somehow, which is good in one way, and on the other hand it's a tough route. It would probably have been much easier to be a doctor or a lawyer or something like that. But that would be prison, as far as I'm concerned."
Mark and Al both live in New York, a place that has been described in the press lately as the Dying Apple, as opposed to the Big Apple. Does living in such a place inspire your song writing?
Al's quick wit springs into action:
"If we really let it inspire, there'd be the new single 'I Just Got Stabbed on 42nd Street.' It really inspires everything but it keeps you on your toes, that's for sure."
Peter Grant
Riff Raff
October 1991
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