Interview by Ian C Stewart
KAW Tapes has put out a long string of lo-fi masterpieces for as long as I can remember. Five years at least, probably more. KAW is Mark Ritchie, who is also the artist known as Frank Peck. Who is also the same dude who sings and writes songs for the band Shy Rights Movement! And Richie Cunningham! Busy guy! I interviewed him (and Stephen from Shy Rights Movement for one question) via email in spring 2000. Like wow.
IAN-What do the ladies call you, Mark? And what should the world know about you?
MARK-Well, my name is Mark James Ritchie and I was born April 29th 1972. At school, I loved the Beatles, The Who, Adam & The Ants, Frankie Goes To Hollywood. I used to make tapes of my own songs from an early age, recorded at home on a tape recorder. In mid 1988 the Librarians were formed with Stephen Boyd on guitar and Dave Tough playing bass. We gigged a fair bit once we got a drummer. Changed our name to Librarian in 1990. Put out a tape in 1991. Nearly had a couple of seven inch singles out, but everything fell through at the last minute. We played a few gigs in London in 1992 supporting John Cooper Clarke & Screaming Lord Sutch, but the band fell apart later that same year. In 1993, me and my friend Andrew did a couple of tapes under the name Richie Cunningham. He sang, I played guitar. I did my first proper solo tape in summer 1993. Put it out under the name Frank Peck. I liked the freedom of writing songs and recording them right away. I also liked the intimacy of just acoustic guitar, voice and little or no overdubs. To be honest, I was going through a period of depression, partly due to the break up of Librarian and other things, and I was listening to lots of really downbeat music. Which has always been my favourite stuff in the world! In 1994, I moved to Glasgow and got drunk for a year. In January 1995, Stephen and I started Shy Rights Movement. We played a fair bit & recorded stuff and put out a tape. Despite building up a bit of a local following, the rhythm section quit in July 1999 cos we never had any fucking records out, but actually, it worked out fine cos now we’re a duo and I love it that way. We don’t play live anymore, we just record. And that suits me fine cos I love writing songs more than anything.
IAN-Inevitable question about influences: who’s your favorite teenybopper right now?
MARK-The Smiths were a big influence when I was a teenager. Also, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Nick Drake, Velvets, Big Star, Husker Du, The Replacements and, yes I’ll admit it, American Music Club! Basically, cos the people mentioned write REAL songs. I don’t like irony in music, I want real, emotional shit. But, hey, I can still appreciate pop music, so I’m not a total sadcase, okay? Britney Spears fucking rules.
IAN-What new stuff are you releasing?
MARK-Shy Rights Movement Vanity Recordings. Nine songs, two of which were rescued from the lo-fi hell of the Live & Dead cassette, all done on four-track. I love it, whether anyone else does remains to be seen. But we have a compilation CD, a sort of Best Of thing coming out soon on Kylie Productions from London and we have another Best Of thing on cassette, released by Best Kept Secret in Italy. Texas Twister Radio Records has also put one of our songs on their CD compilation and put us onto MP3 too. So it’s all going good.
IAN-What’s better, selling music or simultaneously foisting tapes with another music-dude?
MARK-I love to trade. Money only cheapens music, which is why I’m glad I’ve never made a living from working in the business. Music should be very cheap or free, which is why the internet is exciting and beautiful. I just wish I could afford a fucking computer! But yeah, I trade with tons of people and if anyone sends me a trade out of the blue, I LOVE it and always send them stuff back cos I despise rip-off merchants and horrible money-grabbing capitalist pricks.. and there ARE a lot of people like that around, sadly.
IAN-Who else do you listen to apart from Britney?
MARK-Right now, Paul Westerberg’s Eventually. I mean, right this second, that’s what’s on. But also, Chappaquidick Skyline, which is Joe Pernice’s new band, Townes Van Zandt, Sandy Denny, Dar Williams, Frank Sinatra, John Coltrane..just got really good, really cheap albums by Swans, Souled American, Gang Green, Michelle Shocked, Glen Campbell, etc. “Wichita Lineman” has always been my number one song!
IAN-Dude, you just lost me completely. Never mind. Mark Ritchie and the internet. What’s the deal?
MARK-Like I said, it’s exciting and we’re doing a website and will be putting songs on it. But we’ve been placed on MP3.com and it’s great that folk can just click a mouse and hear it. It’s wild. However, the quality of the 6 songs we have on it has suffered somewhere along the line, so they’re not worth a shit. If someone gave me a computer, I’d be more excited, cos at the moment I’m.. well, not quite an internet virgin.. but y’know, I need a computer of my own to really get into it. But it will happen. Just you wait! A guy in Belgium has done some pages on his label’s site about Richie Cunningham. And our SRM site will be up and running soon. Address to follow! So, our presence is expanding!
IAN-So, what do you think of the new XTC album, Wasp Star? You liked Apple Venus Vol 1 better, didn’t you...
MARK-Never really been into them. Sorry, Ian! I always used to get them confused with Blancmange, if you remember them? You hate my guts now, don’t you?!
IAN-Blancmange? What?! I guess I’ll just talk to myself for the rest of this interview. Do you play out very often?
MARK-Not any more. Arranging gigs is a pain and, when you’ve done gigs where there’s 3 people in the audience, and one is the barman, the other the soundman, you kind of think “What’s the point?” No, I think concentrating on recording is where it’s at. One day, I will play solo gigs. I’ve only done it a couple of times and it’s scary, but also great, and the good thing is you don’t need to rehearse for fucking weeks beforehand. More memorable gig? The one where three people were there was memorable for me drinking loads of whiskey and falling over and shouting abuse at the support band as they were leaving during our FIRST song. Also, when we did a cover of “Hey Hey My My” and Brendan the ex-Teenage Fanclub drummer did backing vocals on it. He’s a sweetheart.
IAN-Stephen! Talk some sense into Mark for me, okay? And tell me about how he goes about how you guys record.
STEPHEN-Mark doesn’t know about this technical stuff though by Christ I’ve tried to tell him! In the past Mark has - and sometimes still does - record onto a standard portable stereo which has TWO condenser mics. Technical, huh! He overdubs with it in order to multitrack and gets surprisingly good results. With a full band production in a practice studio we use a mic on the drums and one on the bass amp. The songs are played live with the two rhythm tracks coming across strong on tape. Later me and Mark will add guitar and keyboard etc at home where we can get a nice clean sound. The resulting live/room mix works very well though sometimes the bass hasn’t recorded well and the bass on the drum track is boosted to compensate thus leading to accusations of a drum and bass overkill on some tracks. We use a Tascam Porta Two Ministudio which I got some time ago. We haven’t got any effects so everything is piped in raw. That’s about it - very simple stuff which we try to make as listenable quality wise as possible. Next step is a computer sequencer package, probably Emagix’s Music Studio G5 which is cheap yet highly regarded.
IAN-Mark: here’s your chance to redeem yourself with a really great endorsement of the best drink in the world, Dr Pepper!!!
MARK-Horrible. Cherry Coke’s nice, though. Those Dr Pepper ads with people on death row are really awful.
IAN-How are your new recordings different from those which preceeded them? What are you guys playing?
MARK-Acoustic guitar, violin, posh keyboard, drum machine. It’s different cos there’s no bass or real drums. Well, actually, there are on 2 songs, which were half-recorded before the bassist and drummer left the band. Teaching people my songs drives me mad cos I’m not technically minded and I hate playing stuff over and over again. I like it to be fresh and natural. But, if people find the lack of bass and real drums on this tape a problem, that’s fine with me. If people have a problem with it being done on 4 track, that’s fine too. They don’t have to listen to it. I’m not going back to the days of paying out money to sit in an expensive recording studio and twiddle my thumbs while they take 3 hours to get a good drum sound and then, we’ve got half an hour right at the end to do the vocals. Fuck that shit.
IAN-Hmm. Well put. You like Cathy Dennis, though, right Mark?
MARK-I just got a tape of the June & the Exit Wounds LP and they have a song on it called “Cathy Dennis.” No shit! I like her. My friend Paul used to be in love with her.
IAN-Which episode of The Young Ones is your favorite?
MARK-Oh, the Motorhead one. They fucking rock. The one where Rik keeps saying “I am NOT a virgin.” I was too young for punk, so The Young Ones was basically my first punk experience.
IAN-Hey wait, that’s two episodes. “Bambi” is the one with Motorhead. A very good starting point! That was my first one. Wouldn’t it have been totally kick-ass if they had KISS on The Young Ones? Drinking Dr Pepper with Cathy Dennis?
MARK-I’m sorry, but yet again, I don’t like KISS. The makeup scares me. I prefer Iron Maiden and Marillion if we’re talking heavy metal. The first two LPs by both Maiden and Marillion are hard to beat.
IAN-Marillion, metal? Are you sure, dude? Speaking of hard to beat, what’s your address again? I obviously have to beat you to death now that you’ve bollocked everything I hold dear. What are your goals for your music?
MARK-Just to get it out there for people to hear. Simple as that. My teenage dreams of being a rock star were evaporated pretty quickly by the reality of the world and the stinking shit of the music industry. I like keeping it pretty small-scale. Maybe I’d be scared of losing my passion for music if I made any money out of it. Although, to be honest, I’d love to have a high enough profile to be able to gig and actually draw a crowd, so I could make a bit of cash and buy that damn computer! But I can’t see it happening. The way I look at it, even if only one other person likes one of my songs, it’s not been wasted. I think hidden, secret things are better than big, obvious in-your-face things. It’s like the quietest people are usually more interesting than the loudmouths. That’s why I love the Replacements so much, and writers like Bukowski and Raymond Carver. So, my goals for my music are just to keep making it and hoping it finds its own place in the world.
IAN-Right on. And how do Peckheads get their fix?
MARK-The tapes can be ordered direct from KAW, which is my own tape label: kawtapes@hotmail.com.
Texas Twister stuff: http://www.texasworldwidecds.com/.
The Kylie CD: http://www.kylieproductions.com/
Best Kept Secret tape: email acrestani@telemar.it.
For Richie Cunningham info:
http://www.oocities.org/morctapes.
Also, of course, I have a solo song on a CD called Because It’s Cheaper Than Therapy, which some guy called Ian C Stewart has out!