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[EDITOR'S NOTE: Matt Marks and Corey Dargel are both New Amsterdam Records composers who have new albums coming out on May 25th. Matt Marks's album is The Little Death: Vol 1; and Corey Dargel's is Someone Will Take Care of Me. Matt Marks will interview Corey Dargel in a future installment]

Interview with Matt Marks

by Corey Dargel

Does Matt Marks’s music make a mockery of billions of believers and their beatific bliss? It’s easy to be dismissive of religious zealots and sexually repressed hypocrites, but The Little Death — a “post-Christian nihilist pop opera” composed and written by Marks — doesn’t take the easy route. Sure, there are plenty of funny and silly moments, but ultimately The Little Death is a complex, sympathetic portrait of two lovesick teenagers and the religious certainty that gradually renders them paralyzed and impotent.

Mellissa Hughes and Matt Marks, who sing the roles of Girl and Boy in Marks's The Little Death: Vol. 1 -- Photo by Luke Batten and Jonathan Sadler of New Catalogue.

I spoke with Marks about the first installment– The Little Death: Vol. 1– which will be released as an album on May 25th, and which Marks and Mellissa Hughes will perform on March 19th as part of New Amsterdam Records’s Archipelago series at Galapagos in Brooklyn.

Dargel: The first thing that struck me about your album, The Little Death: Vol. 1, is the instrumentation. I haven’t listened to Christian pop music in many years, but I get the feeling that you have. What can you tell us about the Christian pop music of today?

Marks: One of the main influences on The Little Death is contemporary Christian production technique. There is this über-clean, glossy, overproduced quality to most Christian pop. Many people find it banal, but I find it fascinating. The producers don’t feel the need to make their music edgy, so they edit and auto-tune their tracks into this otherworldly state. It reminds me of the desire to wash oneself free of sin.

Dargel: It’s like freeing the music of all references to anything but itself. Is that the opposite of transcendentalism?

Marks: Yeah, and it’s one of the purest expressions of post-culturalism. There is often no trace of cultural or ethnic identity, which I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing. There are a variety of folky styles appropriated in The Little Death — doo wop, hip hop, gospel, Weimar-style cabaret– but I only use them in the most self-serving ways. There are no real tributes. My culture– modern Western culture— is the devouring of cultures, and I love it.

Dargel: You’ve taken your instrumentation and production technique from Christian pop music, but what about the actual notes and rhythms? What was your starting place compositionally?

Marks: The compositional process was related to production as well. I view the two as one in the same. I’m a big fan of hip hop and sampling, so most of the melodies and chord progressions are based on samples from my record collection. The rhythm tracks are almost entirely made from chopped-up break-beats. The songs themselves are pretty simple for the most part; I’d say ninety-five percent of my work was spent on production– editing and mixing.

Dargel: You’re performing The Little Death: Vol 1 as part of the Archipelago chamber music series on March 19th. You say you made it primarily in the studio. How do go from a studio recording to a live performance?

Marks: I’ve performed different versions of The Little Death in the past, but the March 19th performance will be the closest to the album. It will consist of the instrumental tracks from the album with me and Mellissa Hughes and singing on top, backed by a doo-wop quartet of sorts called The Little Death Praise Choir! I’m incredibly pleased to be working with my stage director, Rafael Gallegos, who is finding very novel ways of portraying the unconventional narrative theatrically.

Dargel: Sometimes I can’t tell if a song is supposed to be funny or devastating. Do you want us to sympathize with the characters? Should we hate the sin but love the sinner?

Marks: That’s awesome. Hopefully it’s funny and devastating. I’m a big fan of combining disturbing material with humor and sentimentality, without letting it succumb too much to the forces of irony and camp. The characters are flawed. Boy is lascivious but weak-willed; Girl is pious but manipulative. They’re also charismatic, so hopefully the listener will root for them, despite the fact that we know there’s a tragic ending.

Dargel: The song “OMG I’m Shot” reveals the tragic ending, but it comes at the beginning of the album. Why did you choose to put this ending song at the beginning?

Marks: I couldn’t resist infusing the album, which is chock-full of bubble-gummy pop songs, with the flavor of grief. Aside from the dramatic effect, I believe the subsequent songs actually sound different with this knowledge. But knowing that Girl gets shot doesn’t necessarily rule out the possibility of it being a happy ending.

Dargel: I have to ask you about the title. Are you suggesting that the crucifixion was like an orgasm?

Marks: The references to Le Petite Mort take a lot of forms. There is the opening violent act of “OMG I’m Shot,” which is a little death in the semi-literal sense, but it’s also a play on musical climaxes, often so overblown in pop music. Most of the tunes on the album have an intense, inexorable drive toward a specific explosive point, usually followed by a swift drop in energy. It’s totally gratuitous, but still satisfying in the most carnal way. I hadn’t thought of the crucifixion as orgasm, but it’s definitely the narrative climax of the gospel.

Dargel: I don’t know why I immediately went to orgasm and crucifixion. Must be my religious background. Do you think religious people are particularly prone to perversion?

Marks: I think overly suppressing the sexual drive– which tends to be the norm in religious people—causes, let’s say, interesting manifestations in other walks of life. Sexual undercurrents in Christian music–be it pop, gospel, or polyphony– is ubiquitous. It’s kind of like whack-a-mole. You smack it down but it pops up elsewhere. The Little Death explores the many ways it pops up, from the humorous to the horrific.

Dargel: There’s an outrageous arrangement on the album of the hymn, “He Touched Me.” I was once a closeted gay Southern Baptist, so that hymn has a special place in my heart! The Little Death: Vol. 1 makes such a complex and strong statement about religion and suppression that I feel compelled to ask: Does it come from personal experience?

Marks: Indeed, I was also raised Southern Baptist. Like many others, I was left with residual issues based on much of what the church instilled in me. The most peculiar issue was a certain fetish for traditional Southern Baptist imagery. To this day I find gingham sexier than silk. My experience understanding where that came from was a major influence in writing The Little Death. Mellissa Hughes singing “He Touched Me” is one of the sexiest things ever.

Dargel: If a devout Christian listens to this album, what would you want him or her to take away from it?

Marks: I have a fantasy of it passing off as a legit Christian album, similar to how J.G. Ballard’s Why I Want to F*** Ronald Reagan was passed off as a real study at the 1980 Republican Convention. The Little Death: Vol 1 is much less hostile though. I just want it to mess with your head a little bit, whether you’re a devout Christian or not.

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Matt Marks and Mellissa Hughes will perform The Little Death: Vol 1 on March 19th as part of the Archipelago chamber music concert series at Galapagos in Brooklyn, NY. The album is out May 25th on New Amsterdam Records, distributed by Naxos of America. To download two free songs, visit New Amsterdam Records.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 4:04 am and is filed under Tidbits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.