Lobsterfest 2014: Kal Marks
By Abbie Doyle, Copy Editor
Kal Marks is a three-piece band from Boston, Massachusetts. The group combines elements of heavy rock, pop and the more heartfelt elements of folk; when the curious timbre of vocalist/guitarist Carl Shane adds to the mix, the result is intriguing and unique. Shane spent some time with ACRN and disclosed the meaning behind the band's name, the band's history and recent release, Life is Murder.
Could you explain Kal Marks’ relationship with the late Karl Marx?
Carl Shane: There really is no relationship at all. It was kind of just a joke. The band started, oh, probably eight or so years ago, when I was still in high school. During the recording process with a friend, we were just screwing around and we had to come up with a name, and my name is Carl and his name was Mark, so we combined them to make “Karl Marx” and then it just slowly, you know, just kind of changed from that to Kal Marks, which kind of just came from the fact that people in New England--not all people--pronounce Carl like “Kal.” So there really is no relationship, other than that.
I was wondering if your music had secretly Marxist lyrics.
No, no I wouldn’t say our music is that political. I feel like we do have our opinions on the world at large and everything, but it’s a little bit of everything.
You said that Kal Marks formed about eight years ago; have you guys had a consistent lineup or has it changed?
Oh no, no we haven’t at all. We first recorded with a friend of mine, who... I don’t even know where he is now. So I just started doing it solo, and then I moved from New Hampshire to Boston when I was about 19, and was doing solo house shows and stuff like that, and then I just really started getting bored of it. You couldn’t really compete with the volume of the crowd at house shows. At house shows people tend to drink and get rowdy, and that’s okay, that’s totally fine, but uh... I dunno, when you’re trying to perform something that--not to sound too heavy--but something that comes from your heart, it’s hard to get everybody’s attention when everybody’s talking.
So I would say Kal Marks became a band like four or five years ago. There was first, you know, just screwing around with some friends, and then we landed on the first lineup, which was a trio. Then our bass player left, and he was pretty important to the band; he’d recorded our first record. He left, and then my friend Mike joined the band. He’s been in the band since, and then our drummer left a little bit over a year ago, and then our friend Nick joined the band. It’s been this for a little bit over a year, and it’s the best lineup we have. I don’t want to change it at all.
So you put out some new vinyl within the last year, how was that process?
Well, it was pretty fast. We had planned to record a record when we got back from our tour with Big Mess last spring, and our drummer quit the day we got back. Nick from Big Mess immediately joined right in. He was pretty familiar with most of the songs that we had; he’d toured with us and played shows with us all the time, so it was about two or three months of practicing and playing shows with Nick, trying to get him ready. Then it was literally two and a half days in the studio, and that was it. So it went really, really fast. There had been plenty of songs written before Nick joined the band, and then we wrote a couple with Nick, so yeah. It was a really fast thing.
How’s the promotional tour been going?
Oh, I wouldn’t call it promotional. I mean, both things feed each other, really. We try not to view it as, ‘This is promoting a release," or, "The release is promoting the tour." Because, you know, this is what we want to do. We would try to tour even if we didn’t have a new record. We would try to put out a record even if we weren’t doing a tour. It’s been getting better since putting out a record; a lot of people have heard us since putting it out.
Are your shows bigger than before?
Yeah, give or take. It depends on where we’re playing. If it’s a place we’ve been to, it slowly and steadily gets better. But we’re still a really small band, in my eyes, and I would say everyone else would agree with me.
How would you describe Kal Marks to someone who’d never heard the music before?
Uhh... I guess... I guess it’s... it’s heavy, loud music. We try to balance that. We don’t want to be just volume with no substance. We try to have quality in our writing, as best as we can. I’m not saying we’re geniuses at what we’re doing . We try our best to come up with good ideas and we all work on them together, and try to put together something worthwhile. That’s all that we can shoot for--something that’s worth our time, and therefore other people’s time.
What musicians influence you and the band?
I think it’s different for each one of us. I don’t want to speak too much for the other guys, but we all like similar things, we all like different things. Mike really likes jazz and soul music and R&B; he’s our bass player. Nick really likes really heavy music but he also really likes folk-based music; he’s a big John Fahey fan. He’s also a big fan of the bands Flint and Karp. I’ve grown up listening to a lot of pop music... and I don’t listen to pop music so much anymore but I still like pop. Lately I’ve been trying to listen to more... sophisticated things, I guess. Classical music, composers like John Cage and Steven Rice. I still also really love punk rock and hardcore and indie rock. I’d say my number one favorite band is Harvey Milk. I would say they’re one of the biggest influences on me. Folk songwriters like Neil Young--he’s a huge influence. That kind of heartfelt songwriting. It’s a big array of stuff, you know. We try to just blend it all. We’re all into all sorts of things.
Have any of you ever been to Athens, individually or as the band?
Yeah! The old version of the band played in Athens, maybe almost two years ago. We played at The Union, I believe that’s what it was called. I also believe that Big Mess played in Athens, around the same time. Other than that we’ve been back to Ohio, but we haven’t been back to Athens since. It’s a neat town.
