Marc With a C

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I’m Marc With a C. I make lo-fi pop records coated in hiss and harmony while I push the tonality of instruments past how the recording equipment was designed to receive them. Even though the equipment used to make Marc With a C records has seen a pretty big upgrade in the last little while, I’m still about five to ten years behind the times. I don’t expect that to ever change. I can’t help but to look at new gadgets with a wrinkled up nose.

I used to swear that Marc With a C was an act portrayed by Marc Sirdoreus, and it still is onstage to an extent. But when I’m writing and recording? No way, that’s pretty much me. I recently watched bits of a live DVD shot in 2007 that we recently released and realized that even the banter comes across much as I’d talk to you on the phone or face to face. It didn’t used to be that way, though. I was scouring through tapes of old shows recently and found them unwatchable because . . . well, I didn’t like the stage act of Marc With a C until about 2004. Around that time, my bandmate Chris Zabriskie helped me to drop a lot of sonic baggage and strip the records/shows down to the things we liked. The result was an album that I’m still very proud of, Bubblegum Romance. Simple, honest recordings and performances that were just a pair of buddies playing songs in front of people. If the stage banter between songs was funny, that was likely just our natural camraderie as friends coming to the forefront. The audience just didn’t know that it was the same show we’d do when we’re playing songs for fun in my garage. Those shows are still fun to do, and I like when the crowd gets involved. I’m a control freak about spontaneity.

I’ve released quite a few records. Some I like, some I don’t like as much. All of them are fairly accurate depictions of where I was as a human being at the time, and that’s why I cringe at some of the earliest recordings. I wasn’t a very nice guy then, and the songs often reflected that. Now I’ve settled down as a husband and father, I like myself much more, and I write songs because I like to write songs . . . but they are a pretty good way of getting things off of my chest that I probably wouldn’t talk about otherwise. There’s little inborn need for adulation in me, but I like applause and cheering as much as the next musician. I’ve made contradictory albums (2005’s This World Is Scary As Fuck), bitter ruminations on “those damn kids” (Life’s So Hard), and my personal favorite, Normal Bias. I think they’re all pretty neat, and I hope you enjoy them when you hear them.

I released a new album recently. It’s called Linda Lovelace For President, and it was written over a five-year span, recorded in five sleepless days, and stands as a record I’m really proud of. For the first time, Chris Zabriskie has contributed new songs to a Marc With a C album and our songs complement each other nicely, if I do say so myself. It’s a different sort of Marc With a C album for sure, but one that I’d like everyone in the world to hear. I haven’t always been able to say that.

Other than the above, I’d like to tell you that I’m a fanatical record collector, I love playing board games, and I don’t get excited to tour because I’d have to leave my friends and family behind. I’ve been threatening to book another short round of dates soon, but that idea started off slowly and . . . tapered. We’ll see. For now? Enjoy the records and let me get off on that. I’m much more hands on with this whole internet thing than I used to be, and I’m consistently amazed at how many people in far off countries are discovering my albums for the first time every single day. That’s what keeps me making Marc With a C records. Thank you for the opportunity.

Love on ya,
Marc