Mark Mercier of Max Creek 3/19/96

By Russell Kahn

RK - How has your 25th year been?

MM - The 25th year has been very nice. Unfortunately, Jerry Garcia
died during it. He was a huge musical influence. People have been
searching for a place to go so the crowds have gotten a little larger. It's
kind of a little side benefit at somebody else's expense, unfortunately.
Other than that unfortunate incident, everything has been very good.

RK - Did you ever open for the Dead?

MM - No. We opened for Bob Weir. We opened for a lot of Dead
orientated situations, but we never opened for the Dead. There was a
time when we did a lot of Dead tunes. We never did 100% Dead tunes,
but it did garnish us a reputation of being a Grateful Dead clone band.
Unfortunately, we never did it, even when we did Dead tunes, tunes
verbatim, and I think, in this way, we were even a little closer associated
with the Dead because we did them our own way and it came out
sounding very natural. Unfortunately, it backfired and gave us a
reputation of being a Grateful Dead clone situation. It's something that
we still kind of carry around, even though we've been into original
music for some time. Always have been.

RK - But you do so much more than try to emulate their songs. You
really do them justice.

MM - Grateful Dead songs are a lot of fun. They really are. They
leave it open for interpretation and personalization, unlike a lot of other
songs when you come across with a tune that's done by another band
that's so closely associated with the other band that basically you run the
reputation of being a cover band. But when you're doing a Dead tune,
you can personalize it, and that's why I think there are a lot of bands out
there that do a lot of Dead tunes. Bands like Slipknot that do a very
very good job. It's fun music. It really is. But stylistically, there comes a
time when you have to express yourself. Basically get on stage and
show people what you consist of. That we feel like we have been doing
that, so it kind of hurts when people label us a Dead clone band.

RK - They still do that?

MM - Oh yeah. Quite a bit. Unfortunately, in the industry, it's
everyone's idea, particularly when you have a club that's trying to
advertise you to try and stylistically label you. If you can describe to
people what it is that you do, then they will come to see it. So you're
attracting a particular type of crowd. People like to say "Okay, they do
a lot of Grateful Dead" because they have no way of describing your
original music. If you were to take Phish, who are very good
friends of ours, and try to describe their music, there's no way you can.
They're Phish,. And when someone does come out with an original
project stylistically, it's often unintentional, and this is why a lot of time
club owners advertise us that way. This is why a lot of people think of
us that way. It kind of perpetuated a situation. It's very unfortunate.
Because I do feel, originally speaking, that we do have a certain amount
to offer. Maybe some of the tunes aren't the greatest
tunes, but we have fun playing them, and I think people have fun
listening to them.

RK - Definitely. The first thing I noticed about Max Creek was the
solid fan base. You have a hard-core following, and how do you feel
about that?

MM - We're really appreciative of that. The fact that we have a
strong fan base. And it's more than a fan/ performer relationship because
it's a very familial thing. A lot of our fans are my very good friends.
People start to get the feeling like they're part of the band. And in a
way, they are. The scene is a lot more than just a performer on stage
playing music. The scene includes the listener, an intrical part of the
whole situation. And as long as people who have to see us feel like
they're an intrical part, maybe that explains their rabidity, but it's a
wonderful thing. It really is. It gets you a lot closer to people than a lot
of performers are. And I can appreciate that. You're not necessarily
separated from the trenches. You're down in there with everybody else.
Basically, you're one part of the situation as a performer. It's a
wonderful symbiotic relationship, it really is.
I think it harps back to folk music really, because that is where a lot of
our roots are. You get the folk performer up there and he's doing songs
about people for people in front of people and everyone is just kind of is
there and part of the whole situation. It's a real interesting thing. I
suppose that there are a lot of performers out there who like being on
stage separated and above and in control of. Hell, I don't feel like I'm in
control of anything. If anything happens, you feel
like the music is using you, it's kind of playing through you as opposed
to your using music to accomplish something. I think that's really the
way, you have to have a really healthy respect for music and the
mysticism involved there. And all of those things combine for a really
interesting time for the fans as well as for the performers.

RK - And you are able to stay in touch because the places you play
are relatively small.

MM - This isn't to say that we wouldn't like to expand. It would be
wonderful to be able to play larger places and attract larger crowds. The
interesting thing that I noticed about bands like Phish or the Grateful
Dead or that even someone like Carlos Santana is that he can be in a
Civic center and you feel so intimate with him even if you're in the
nosebleed territory. You have this intimacy going on where you're
connected to the performer. I think that's something that has to be
carefully nourished. And, in a way, it's easier in a small place to have
that happen.

RK - It's a completely different experience being in a small club where
you personally feel you can impact on the performance as, say,
compared to seeing Phish in Madison Square Garden 10,000 feet away.

MM - It's a very special performing organization that can make you
feel intimate with them from 10,000 feet. I think that that is a remark on
Phish's ability as musicians and of human beings. They're all very warm
human beings. there's just tremendous people.

RK - Where do you know Phish from?

MM - Basically from way back when before they were as well known
as they are in those circles. They were in Vermont, and we used to
perform every Wednesday in the Living Room in Rhode Island.
Whenever we went out on the road, the Living Room would have them
come in and play there instead. And they built a crowd base down there
in that respect. But they used to come up here and, unfortunately, we
were on the road 4 nights a week, so we didn't get too much of a chance
to hear them but I received tapes from friends, and it's just kind of a
relationship that grew, particularly with Mike, he's just a very warm
hearted gentleman. A very musical guy. They have been very gracious in
their fame, so to speak, to at least look at us as musicians. We're
appreciative of that. I don't know how the rest of the band feels, but
from Mike's viewpoint, he's a very gracious human being, he really is.
It's a lot of insight from anyone musically, from someone doing a little
bluegrass banjo up to the best performers, and they have played with
them.

RK - Have you had the opportunity to go commercial? have you
released any albums?

MM - Yes we do. They've all been self-produced, basically. We have
one that is commercially still available through Relix records. That's not
necessarily our best effort, but it's not bad. And that one is still out
there. All the rest are out of print. It's funny. I was in the recording
studio today to look at reprinting some of the earlier material.

RK - Does Ed sell anything?

MM - No, Ed doesn't sell any material right now,. We ran out of the
last print of the last album and we haven't reordered as of yet. But as far
as commercialism is concerned, I mean what are you asking, why
haven't we made it huge?

RK - Basically

MM - I'll be damned if I know. But it's just one of those things. We're
pretty much control freaks. It's to our detriment. I like to know
business-wise what's going on in a lot of aspects. When someone who is
in business comes up against that with someone who has definite
opinions about the way things should be run, he's libel to throw up his
hands and run screaming. I can hardly blame him. I think really we've
gotten it our own damn way, it terms of doing stuff like that. But, to our
credit, we have gotten ourselves very far. It's like I was talking to John
the other day, and he's very critical of people who say we haven't made
it because, Jesus, we have been in business for 25 years, and have been
one of the regions largest drawing acts. And I like to call ourselves
maybe the longest lasting and best known local band in the region. And,
in that respect, we have been extremely successful. But we have not run
into any individuals that have been able to help us get past that. In terms
of us being control freaks, maybe that is the reason why. Maybe it's
because we just very simply haven't run into this individual. Maybe we
haven't pursued this individual. Maybe we never felt the need to. Maybe
this individual just never came along. It's one of those relationships like
maybe you pass the love of your life on the subway. You're supposed to
bump into her, but you make a decision that causes you not to. And I
really can't honestly say why this has happened. But we've enjoyed what
we've been doing. A great deal. We've been having a really good time
with it, and I think that's the most important thing.

RK - Were there times of frustration?

MM - Oh, absolutely. And there still are. There's still frustrating
times. Especially when you wished that you'd at least financially be able
to put the time into this thing without having to supplement anything. I
don't, I'm just working strictly for Max Creek right now. But, yeah,
there have been times where we've been very frustrated.

RK - When is Camp Creek slated for?

MM - Well, it's slated for the last weekend in July. I don't know any
Deadapalooza tour dates, do you?

RK - No. But tell me about Camp Creek.

MM - Camp Creek is an interesting thing. That was formed out of a
very intimate situation. We started doing parties in Narragasit, Rhode
Island years and years ago. They were called Narragasit blow-outs.
Families had parties for all their friends and pitched tents on their front
lawns which was right on the Ocean front in Narragasit. And up a little
hill we would play, and we'd play until maybe 10 or 11 o'clock at night.
And everyone would get totally screwed up,
and crawl in their tents. It was beautiful because the Ocean was right
there, by Narragasit Bay. It was a time when the neighbors didn't really
complain about too much, back in the late 70's. We started to like the
whole camping idea. because what you did was you built a community
for a short period of time. So those stopped and then for a long time we
didn't do anything and then we developed the idea of doing what we call
Camp Creek. We play and people would come and camp for a weekend.
We have 2 days where we would playand get to experiment. For a
lengthy period of time, we'd be able to actually play for about 5 hours or
something. It worked out real well. And we just kind of continued it.
The first one was in Connecticut. We held 5 in Maine. That got to the
point where there were articles in the local papers written about us. And
the merchants loved it and the local people hated it. It just turned into a
big deal. Then we stopped it for a year. Then we went to the Arrowhead
for a couple of years. Now we're up in Duanesburg, New York at the
Indian lookout Indian club, which is kind of a misnomer. What it is is a
great big facility and they want to expand the roster of events and we
were just one of them that kind of got in there.

RK - How big is this community that you create?

MM - Last year it was 1700. This year I suspect it's going to be
larger than that. It's kind of in the middle between Rochester and
Connecticut. It isn't a huge community. I would love to see 10,000. But
right at the moment, it's very controllable and very nice. And we get a
chance to just wander around afterwards and fall into people's campfires
and get offered beers. And just have generally a good time. People jam
around us with drum circles. I realize it kind of sounds like what Dead
tour used to be all the damn time, but this, to us, is very special because
we don't necessarily have that on a regular basis. So we're looking
forward to it this year. And it is going to happen. It's just a question of
whether we get interfered with as far as the Deadapalooza thing is
concerned.

RK - Will Rob be at the Lupo's show on Friday?

MM - He's looking into it. He's going to try. I talked to him today
and he's going to make a great attempt. he is going to be at the
anniversary show. Craig Pickalo is a very good friend of his and he
offered to go and help him out with his band and his tour. Craig is doing
very well. Rob still thinks about us a great deal and would like to
maintain ties and still be a part of the whole situation which he is.

RK - Any clues on the special guests for the anniversary shows?

MM - We're getting a lot of former players in. Our first drummer,
Bob Gosselin is going to be at the Hartford show, as well as our former
female singer Amy Fazzano. And Dave Reed, probably, who is the
original guitar player. We're going to start out in our original format and
just add and subtract people as they came and went. So it would be sort
of a historical synapsis. Greg DuGuglielmo will be sitting in. I'm not
exactly sure which show. We're going to be doing some
acoustic music, which is something that's kind of developed. This whole
kind of Mini Creek concept. It's very nice.

RK - What is Mini Creek?

MM - Mini Creek is Scott, John and I acoustically. Scott plays an
acoustic guitar. I still play the piano but with no synthesized instruments
or anything like that. John is getting an acoustic bass, a hand held bass.
It's a really cool thing because it lets you be just a little more colorful
without trying to bang people over the head with noise. It's really kind
of a relaxing thing to do. Maybe you don't have that drumbeat in back of
you that causes people to jump up and down, but at the same time,
you're on your own to furnish that, so it definitely stretches you a little
bit. Scott and I are doing an acoustic thing that you may want to know
about. It's a week from Friday at the Living Room down in Providence.

RK - The one thing about your fans is that they are generational.
Something the Dead probably started. I love looking around and seeing
such a wide spectrum of ages. What's is like to have fans like me who
are younger than your band?

MM - Well, first of all, it's a mystery to me as to why we keep
attracting people as young as they are. I think it's wonderful. Garcia
used to say he felt like he was getting away with something for all these
years. I feel the same way. I feel wonderful. Sometimes I don't know
exactly what people see in the situation. God knows none of us ever
tried to be mystical figures or anything like that. We can't be. We're just
guys on stage playing some music as far as that goes. To have people
actually come when they're 16 or 17 years old and continue to come
until they're 30 is a really really nice thing. It makes you feel like home.

RK - You do specifically go out of your way to play all ages shows,
right?

MM - Yup. The unfortunate thing is that the Paradise and Lupo's
shows will be 18 and up, but the Hartford show will be all ages. We're
going to start with a video with some old pictures and some old footage
of us when we were a young band, and had all our hair.

RK - You've experienced a lot of changes in the past, and it all
seemed to work out okay.

MM - Yup. Yeah, the principal keeps helping. It really does. Max
Creek is basically what it is. If any one of us is absent, it changes
definitely. But you kind of re-invent yourself a little to keep on going.
You have to adapt. There isn't anything that stays static, and that's one
thing we're finding out. It just keeps on going. You got to kind of roll
with the punches as it goes along. But as long as the creativity is there,
things are fresh and you still love playing music, and people still love
hearing it, then the magic remains.

MM - How'd you like the Globe Theater?

RK - I liked it a lot, actually.

MM - They just changed owners so things are a little looser than
things were before. It's a beautiful venue, it really is. I think it's going to
be very up and coming. Just a question of finding the right chemistry
between the owners and the crowd and the bands.

RK - How's Lupo's?

MM - Lupo's is good. Lupo's is not without it's problems.

RK - How's that?

MM - Well, it depends on who's there. I think times have changed.
We used to go into Providence. Providence used to be this very loose,
very creative thing. Now all of the sudden, Providence has become a
little more hard-core. And there's a little more at stake and it's not the
big party it used to be, which is not a bad thing nessesserily. But all of
the sudden you kind of miss the intimacy of the way things used to be. I
don't know. Lupo's is good. I like Lupo's okay. There's some people in
the crowd that don't care for any room that we go into, for whatever
reason. Maybe security is heavy handed here and there. Maybe things
are a little too dark. Maybe the drinks are watered down. Maybe the
drinks are too expensive.

RK - Maybe there's no heat.

MM - Maybe there's no damn heat.