Our October 10th, 1999 interview with Money Mark -- the Mo'Wax recording artist, keyboard player, etc. A mere handful of hours after his show in the deserts of Southern California at Coachella '99. We were all very tired.
Soundproof: "Is it Monie or Money? I’m hearing everything."
Money Mark: "Oh really? Monie?"
Soundproof: "People were yelling Monie."
Money Mark: "I heard the Dinero Marco and some other ones."
Soundproof: "And it’s Mark, not Marak."
Money Mark: "It’s…what? It’s not…no. It’s Money Mark."
Soundproof: "Do you have a middle name I can obscure somehow?"
Money Mark: "Ahh…Money…No it’s like a Money like exclamation point. So I don’t know how you..."
Soundproof: "And the symbol for boron, yeah."
Money Mark: "Oh yeah…is it?"
Soundproof: "No."
Money Mark: "Oh that’s great."
Soundproof: "No. I was thinking like periodic table there. It was a really good show man."
Money Mark: "Oh thanks."
Soundproof: "Your voice sounded even better than it sounds on the radio."
Money Mark: "Oh really?"
Soundproof: "Yeah."
Money Mark: "Yeah it probably does because I don’t hardly hear my songs on the radio, but…"
Soundproof: "I was thinking just the boombox."
Money Mark: "Yeah."
Soundproof: "Do you think of yourself as a singer?"
Money Mark: "No, but I’ve been kind of um, you know writing songs with the vocal thing in mind. It’s just the other instrument that I’m able to use."
Soundproof: "And you use it well."
Money Mark: "Oh okay. I appreciate that."
Soundproof: "What happened to your finger man? I saw blood on the keyboards."
Money Mark: "Just the fingernail got caught on the guitar string. It’s like an occupational hazard. It’s a much kinder kind of hazard than some other kind of jobs. I’m grateful to be in my situation. Playing music is very fun for me and I feel a lot of gratitude that I get a chance to do it."
Soundproof: "When you listen to your stuff, you’ve almost got like this Billy Preston keyboards going on sometimes or sometimes it’s almost like a great Squeeze song that they never did. Are there any leanings? What’s the future of Money Mark hold?"
Money Mark: "Well I don’t think I have any leanings because there’s too many things to lean on and I’m just trying to make my own thing to lean on. It’s a mixture of both of those ideas. I do draw from recordings; any musician has to. The state of the world is that live music isn’t just available, maybe another time. There are fewer venues. Everyone has to learn from recordings. I have a record collection. I’m probably influenced by Billy Preston."
Soundproof: "Do you like doing the festival thing? The crowd was all like raged up."
Money Mark: "I can see that it seem like a very good idea to have people enjoying themselves and all together…you know, masses of people. If the vibe is great then it’s beautiful, but when you’re one of the performers, you’re on the other side of this fence and sometimes you don’t get a very clear picture of what’s going on out there. I like going out in the crowd."
Soundproof: "You’re a man of the people?"
Money Mark: "Yeah, fuck it. I’ll go in the crowd."
Soundproof: "It’s a surprisingly well behaved festival. You know, after Woodstock, they secured it up."
Money Mark: "You know, some of my techs and band people are going to go streaking to liven things up a little bit."
Soundproof: "I look forward to it."
Money Mark: "I’m just kidding."
Soundproof: "I hope so. So what are you going to be doing next? What are your plans?"
Money Mark: "I am trying to decide when to leave now. I’m enjoying Pavement. I’m a big fan."
Soundproof: "It’s a good show, but they keep on complaining about the sound levels."
Money Mark: "Someone’s complaining about it?"
Soundproof: "Steven was just whining about it. He does that a lot on just about every show I’ve seen."
Money Mark: "May be he wants it louder. Oh well, they’re a man of the people too I guess. They have a very literate crowd too. I hope some of their crowd is in my crowd."
Soundproof: "I expect as much. It looks like it."
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