Born and raised in The Bronx, NYC, Marc Teamaker is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He was inspired to follow a career as a musician, firstly by The Beatles’ groundbreaking 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan show and, slightly more recently, by a jaw-dropping 1972 Humble Pie gig in Gaelic Park, The Bronx. A Berklee scholar,
Over the years, songwriting influences have come and gone but writers of the calibre of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, Joni Mitchell and Burt Bacharach have all left lasting impressions upon Marc’s work. It’s also safe to suggest that fans of The Jayhawks, Fleetwood Mac, Wilco, REM and The Beatles will all find familiar ground in Marc Teamaker’s music.
The recent release of Teas n Seas impressed us with its “eleven blissful songs” and now Marc joins us for a Why I Love on one of those influences, Wilco.
BACK TO THE NINETIES
I guess I first heard Wilco in the mid 90’s. I want to say 1995. My first wife and I had just moved from Greenwich Village, where we had been living since 1987, to Yonkers, NY; a suburb 20 minutes north of New York City. I think it was when I was painting houses. I would always have a radio and be listening to WFUV, which was a great station for discovering great new music. I think it was either their album A.M. or Being There …one of those two.
I recall thinking, these guys are right up my alley. They were quirky and lyrically quite interesting. They sort of fused the Beatles with that sort of Laurel Canyon early 70’s country rock thing, which is pretty much what I do. Then add to that the jazz/ soul excursions I take from time to time, which I hear in something like their Sky Blue Sky record.
UNEXPECTED PLACES
The music was one thing. It took the twists and turns that turned me on. I’ve always tried to do that in my writing. You have a familiar chord sequence, but then you go to some unexpected place with it. I think that engages the listener and makes them want to listen further. But it was Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics that really pushed my buttons…in a good way. “The ashtray said you were up all night.” What a great first line that appears in the song Shot In The Arm from their Summerteeth album, which was the album that really woke me up to them.
It was definitely an inspiration for some of my early solo albums. But if you listen to the title track to my latest record, Teas n Seas, the first verse starts with “Candle wicker, paper picker, pack of cigarettes. Empty jigger, we all get bigger, when we cash in our regrets.” That was definitely Tweedy’s influence.
REFERENCE TRACKS
When I started to mix Teas n Seas, I was looking for reference tracks to use. Of course Steely Dan’s Aja is the gold standard, but I needed something else. I always thought of Impossible Germany, from Sky Blue Sky, as Wilco’s Aja track. I soon discovered that a good amount of my guitar work had a Nels Cline quality to it. It wasn’t by design necessarily, but it was there nonetheless. You can definitely hear it in the tracks, Sunday Song and Pocket Of Blue from Teas n Seas. Like all great music, it is imbedded in my psyche I guess. Also the song Jesus, Etc from Yankee Foxtrot Hotel, seems to have wiggled its way into my sound. Or at least it runs parallel. You can hear it in my In And Out Of This World. In retrospect, I can hear it.
I never tried to sound like Wilco, but like I said, great music will always burrow into your soul in a subconscious kind of way. This is the main reason why I love Wilco. They are under my skin. And unbeknownst to me, all over, and under, Teas n Seas.
Here’s the title track from the latest album:
Our thanks to Marc for his insights into a band who have clearly made their mark on him and his music.
You can read more from our extensive archive of Why I Love pieces from a wide array of artists on an even wider array of subjects, here.
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