Photo by Brittany Bogan
Our Five Minutes interview series is back. This month we hear from Mark Noseworthy on his new band, Terri Terri. Mark currently plays music with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Albert Hammond Jr.
By Stephanie Nicole Smith
Where did you grow up? Do you think that had an influence on your inclination to play music?
I was born in London, Ontario in Canada. My dad would play the guitar, but it wasn’t until moving to the States that I really started getting into playing music. He bought a Fender Super Champ from his friend and gave it to me when I was 10. A lot of the guitar sounds on the Terri Terri recordings have been tracked with that same amp. I never really thought about that until answering this question, ha! My older brother got into the guitar before I did and I typically tried to do anything he was doing at that age.
Where did you spend your "coming of age years?" How did that influence you as an artist?
I moved to LA in my early twenties and played with a lot of friend's bands and collaborated on lots of projects. This is bound to influence you when you are open to collaboration as long as you don’t hate what you are working on. Although Terri Terri is a solo project, this experience of working on lots of other projects has influenced these recordings more than anything.
What instrument did you first pick up?
The first instrument I tried to learn was the piano. My parents always had a piano in the house growing up, until I actually became a musician. Then they sold it. Still trying to figure that one out.
What is your favorite recording setup?
My recording setup changes a lot, but for the Terri Terri recordings I decided to keep it as analog as possible. I tracked to an 8-track 1/2” tape machine and mixed through my Studer 169 10-channel console. The reverb on the record is solely an AKG BX-10 spring reverb, and the delay is from two Roland Space Echoes. The first thing I recorded for almost every song was bass and drums. I played bass and Loren Humphrey played drums. We tracked this part of the songs at his studio before I took the tapes back to my studio. We summed all the drum mics to a mono track, and blended a bass amp and DI signal to a single track as well. I then overdubbed the rest of the instruments and vocals and mixed it with gear I already mentioned along with some compression. Mixing this way can be limiting but it's fast and exciting.
Do you have an opinion regarding analog vs. digital recording?
I enjoy recording to tape more than to a computer for a lot of reasons. The main reason is how I feel after working all day on a computer compared to working with a tape machine. There is no comparison. Computers can really suck life out of me. I think we can all relate to that.
Photo by Brittany Bogan
What are you currently working on?
I am writing new music for Terri Terri now, but will be releasing the recordings I made in Brooklyn this past summer over the next couple months.
What was a memorable tour for you and why?
I was on a van tour when I was twenty-two, we were driving about 35 in the right lane of a two lane off-ramp when a minivan passed us, the sliding door opened and a kid about my age flew out of the van and bounced a few times before ending up under our van just as we came to a stop. I always refer to this story as the guy we barely ran over, which doesn’t really make sense. Can you barely run over someone? Anyway, we couldn’t see him in front of the van until his hands pulled him up over the hood of the car. He looked at us and then ran away in the direction we were driving. We didn’t really know what to do but we pulled over and got out. We then saw him run back towards us, which was even more confusing. He told us not to call the cops, and then asked us if the tattoo on his back was ok. His back was really bloody, but the small tattoo on his lower back was fine. He was really happy about that.
What is in your record player today?
Thanks Mark for your words and music. Follow Terri Terri on Facebook and Instagram for updates on new tunes and other releases. Listen to Terri Terri's new track "Attention" out now on Spotify.
The Five Minutes With series is by Stephanie Nicole Smith, a visual and make up artist in Los Angeles, CA. You can find her work at stephanienicolesmith.com and follow her @stephanienicolesmith.
This interview is brought to you by Original Fuzz Magazine. Find more articles from this month's issue, here.