How Chicago Shaped His Musical Identity

My mom is from Mississippi but her family moved up here when she was in her early 20s. So, for me growing up, it was a lot of Chicago church music, gospel music, and things like that. And then obviously learning about Chicago's rich history with blues and jazz. I mean, the Green Mill is an iconic place. It was actually Al Capone's speakeasy back in the day. And I love Kingston Mines. Actually, I was bartending the other night and these ladies were in town from Maui, and they were asking me for recommendations and I was like, Kingston Mines all day. My music director, he actually played there quite a lot, pre-COVID. He was a regular.

It's top-notch. I'm talking about all night, too, like they go to 2 to 3 in the morning. And it's cool because it's so culturally diverse: You've got young people because DePaul University is right there, so you've got young kids who come in from there, and then you've got a bunch touristy people coming in from downtown, and then you've got the regulars. It's such a cool vibe.

What He Learned As A Session Musician

I think the biggest lesson I learned was, it's not your project. You obviously want to add your character and your flavor into things, but one thing I learned right away was "play for the project." Play for what they want, not play what you want. Sometimes, you had to learn the hard way. If you listen to some of the best session musicians like Steve Jordan or Pino Palladino, those dudes are so solid, but along with them being solid, they can float around and do different stuff when time allows it.

Does He Allow Musicians to Improvise?

I'd say it's 50/50. To be honest, there are some times where I'll be like, "Dude, there's this one part, you have to play it," and then there are times where I'll come in and one of the guys has added something, and I'm like, "I never would have thought of that." So I guess there's beauty in allowing both to happen naturally.

But you know how it is, when you get a song sent to you from the heavens or wherever, and you get a melody in your head, once you hear that, it's kind of hard. Sometimes it sucks, because if you want to change the melody, it's like, that original melody in your head is always what remains. Whatever the part is, you can hear it and you know that it needs to be there, and it's the tone that it needs to be. You know, this is how it needs to sound if it's arpeggiating, whatever it is, you know exactly what it is.

On Being A Self-Taught Musician

I learned on my own. I started when I was around five - I just started tacking on shit like pots and pans. I think music has always been in my family. I just found out that I
have an aunt, like a secret aunt. You know, that always happens - like, you get older and you found out that granddad was creeping. So I found out that I have an aunt who's a gospel singer in Detroit, and I was like, "What! That's so dope." I guess music has always been in my bloodline.

I taught myself to play drums and bought myself my own drum set when I was 11 - I cut a bunch of grass for my neighbor and bought this really crappy drum set from my boy for 50 bucks. The hi-hat didn't even close, it was like it had duct tape on it. Then my brother was DJ-ing at the time, and so I'd be in the corner trying to not annoy him because he was older than me. And I would still get my chops in, and then I was allowed to play basically until my mom came home from work. So that was a good two hours to mess around with. Then, I took piano lessons when I was a kid, but never really went through with that. So I've kind of always known how to fiddle with stuff. But over time, I just kind of learned by ear. I was blessed to play in churches and just grow up around cats who were beasts. Then you learn the hard lessons of staying in time and not over playing and all that other good stuff.

My boy Matt Walker, who was kind of like a mentor to me, played drums in Smashing Pumpkins when the dude got sick. He also tours with Morrissey, and now he just went out with Garbage. But the thing about this dude is, they call him the human click. This dude is just on, bro. I played in a David Bowie cover band with him. I do percussion on sting, and sometimes I play drums, and I look over and watch him. He is dead on. That's something I've also learned from him over time is just practice to a click, and be consistent to that click, because that's literally your job.

Dropping Out Of College For Third Eye Blind

My mom has two master's degrees, and she raised me and my brother as a single Black woman, so she was dead set on us getting an education. So, college is what's in my bag, man. I actually went to community college and then I went to Columbia College, which is an expensive-ass music school in Chicago. Great school.

But I actually got an opportunity with this guy from my high school who was in this big punk-rock band called Spitalfield. They went to my high school and they were on MTV and shit. I graduated from high school in 2005, so this was back when Fall Out Boy didn't even exist. Fall Out Boy used to open up for my boy's band… we're talking 'bout OG, bro. We just thought they were the coolest.

I was in a band with this guy's little brother, and people knew me around town as a drummer, and so randomly I got a call from him when I'm in the college, and he's like, "Do you want to go play a couple of shows with Third Eye Blind, like opening up for Third Eye Blind?" And I was like, "What?" The most random shit ever - that's how my life is. But so I was like, "Okay." And then it was finals time or whatever for college, and one of my teachers was like, "Bro, you can't retake this shit." So I was like, "So I'm failing, like, the whole semester?" And he's like, "Yeah, you can't miss it." I was like, "Bro, I'm going to school for music... like, this is an opportunity right now, and you're telling me that I cannot take it." This is so ass-backward, bro. So, I was like, "Fuck it, I'm out." So I left school then.

The 30th Birthday Deadline

I told my mom if I'm 30 and I don't make a career where I'm sustainably making money off of music only, then I'll hang it up and I'll go back to school. I'd been hanging out with Twilite Tone - he's a producer for Kanye West and Common - for a couple of years. Just hanging out, literally like a little brother, and he finds out that I sing. I'd randomly sing in studios at night with my boys - I would just be like, "Yo, sing the part this way," and they'd be like, "You fucking sing the part that way - go in the studio, like go in the booth right now." So then I'd be like, "Alright dude, I'll show you." So, you know, my drunk ass sings and then forgets about it, doesn't even remember that shit. Then, my buddy Chadwick's in the car, and he pops on the song, and Tone's like "Who's this singing?" He's like, "Bro, that's Marcus." And Tone's like, "Why didn't you tell me that you sing?" And I was like, "I don't sing, really." And that's how it all started. So he brought me out to dinner on my 30th birthday, he got back from New York, and he was like, "Dude, I want to help you...you've got to do this.... blah, blah, blah."

It was my 30th birthday, and I was like, "Wow, that's some serendipity." I straight up told my mom if I'm 30 and it's not happening I'll quit, and then I get a pretty big nod from somebody that I really respect.

Singing On The Gorillaz Album Humanz

It was the first day we were there in the studio and I didn't even know what Damon looked like from the dude walking down the street. I mean, I could have done some research and found out, but I didn't really care about that kind of stuff. I just figured I'll meet you when I meet you. But he just has this presence.

"Hallelujah Money," with Benjamin Clementine, that was the first song. It's actually a really not well-known song, it's one of the b-sides on the back of the album. But it is a beautiful song, and this dude has such an interesting voice and the vocals have this swelling thing (scats the melody). We were just swaying there, and we didn't know each other... we were just all the vocalists that hadn't met each other yet and it was just beautiful. Really, dude, I'm getting goosebumps, like it was just a beautiful moment of music that speaks more than language and boundaries and barriers. I think we all just met a couple of hours ago and we're all making beautiful music.

Let alone being on the Grammy-nominated album with a band that I grew up idolizing and watching and listening to, I think it just proved to me that you really can do amazing things if you just keep pushing and persevering. It showed me that the universe speaks back to you when you take a shot. And I wanted to take a shot because I felt like I could live my whole life thinking about what would have happened if I did or did not write an album. It was like something where I was like, "You know what, bro, if this is the first and last album that I ever do, this is what I would want it to sound like, this is who I would want to be on it and let's move forward."

His Song "Lonely"

There's like this energy where you're both just "blah" about [being together] and that's almost worse because at the same time you're both needing a connection and you're bored. But it just blares even louder that there's no emotional connection between you, so that makes you even lonelier. There's no connection, you know, there's no vibe, there's no fluidity. You can be attracted to somebody but not vibe with them - that happens every day. Yeah, it was one in particular that was inspired by somebody.

His Song "Feels Good" And The Buena Vista Social Club Influence

That's one of my favorite songs, and I'm really hoping people vibe with it. All my friends and people who have heard it know it's one of the favorites. But that was a little thing that me and my friend Michelle, who I write a lot of songs with - she wrote. She probably wrote with me on, to be honest, 60% of the album, over 50 for sure - but she had this idea of this chorus (sings: 'feels good when I'm with you') and it had this Latino vibe, and that Afro-Cuban vibe, and so we basically, me and my best friend, flipped it, and I was like, "Bro, we need that traditional sound with our flair, like our spin on it." And I think he killed it.

But that was definitely the vibe because Buena Vista Social Club, man, to be honest, that's my Saturday morning cooking breakfast and cleaning music - I love that stuff. Sun shining outside and it's like, life can't get any better than this.

The Unexpected Challenge Behind Love Vs. War

Oh my God. Splits. When you go into the studio, no matter what your relationship is with people, you should 100% have documents signed and ready to go - this is what percent you get, and this is what percent you get. Even if you played a fucking tambourine, you've got to discuss the fact that ... if you say, "I'm playing this tambourine for free, I just want to play on it," then you need to sign that and write that down. And I'm dead-ass serious. You know, in music you're like, "Dude, chill. Of course, we can figure this out later." No, no, that is the problem because you are smoking and drinking and hanging out, and then that person hears the song later and they're like, "No, I didn't remember ...," and then you're all friends, so you're like, "I'm not trying to disrespect you, but that's definitely not what happened." So the number one lesson is to keep everything copacetic. Just have those conversations early and have those documented and figured out even if it does feel petty - it's business. This is a business as well as it is an art.

I'm talking about this would have saved me hours of conversations and arguments and just crazy shit. And we're all good now, like, everybody's good, we're family, you know. But it's definitely something that I think young artists need to realize. Even if it's a makeshift document that you guys all sign or whatever, even if it's in an email, that counts as an agreement as well. But whatever it is, just get it done.

How Making The Album Helped Him Grow As An Artist

I think that it's opened my eyes to realize that there's so much more inside of you than you ever thought. And sometimes you need other people to tap into that. But sometimes when you're sitting there, and you're like, fuck, I can't come up with this hook, or I can't come up with this pre-chorus, or I can't come up with blah, blah, blah, like, sit to the side, but don't be discouraged. It's inside of you. Take a second, but find a way to get inspired in that. Take a step back for a second, but keep writing, because there's so much music inside of you that you're not aware of. And I think that's the beautiful part about what we do as artists. In our world, we can keep recreating and keep scoping. As a doctor, or any other profession, I think that - nothing on these people - but I think that their jobs become very broken down every day - it's pretty much this, this and that. For us, you can just keep spinning the wheel and keep recreating and throwing darts at the board and testing out different things.

October 5, 2021

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photos: Meagan Shuptar

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