CROSS CURRENTS
A CONVERSATION WITH MARK EGAN
βI like Toronto, it is a nice city,β said Mark Egan as we began our chat about his new album, a collaboration with drummer Shawn Pelton (Saturday Night Live drummer) and guitarist Shane Theriot (musical director of Daryl Hall and John Oates), titled Cross Currents. Mark Egan is an extremely well-known bassist, who not only has a stellar solo career, but is also well known for being a member of Pat Methenyβs band. This album represents a departure for Egan that brings together all of Eganβs musical influences and history. To complete the musical journey, he worked with people with whom he knew and had played with in the past. The trio coming together is not such a shock.
βI have played with Shawn since the late 1980s in New York, doing a lot of session work, and I have played with Shane since 2013. Shane appeared on my album Dreaming Spirits (released in 2018 with Arjun Bruggeman). Late 2019, I played a show in New York with Shane and Shawn, and other musicians. At one point in the night, it was just a trio and I made a note, βwow, I want to do something with this trio.β I just remembered that, when I was getting ready to do this record, I thought of them and started writing with this ensemble in mind.β
βThis was specifically written for these musicians. I knew they could both do it, and I asked them if they were both available during different time periods. It is a little tricky scheduling because Shawn Pelton is the drummer for Saturday Night Live, and Shane Theriot is the musician director for Daryl Hall and Todd Rundgren. They are out touring, and everybodyβs busy, Iβm busy. But I knew we had a commitment to do something, so I wrote with those people in mind. I also asked Shane and Shawn to contribute songs, if they had anything they might want to do. So, we were exchanging ideas. Shane and I wrote a song together, called βBig Skyβ.
Recording of the album was very well planned and the end result was a short time in the studio, but an amazing album.
βWhen we finally figured out that the material was ready and the arrangements were ready, I did a lot of pre-production myself in terms of arrangements and getting the charts ready. We came up with 11 songs, but we only had three days to record it. So, in doing something like that and especially because we wanted to orchestrate it with not just raw trio playing but we added some secondary guitar and rhythm parts. I added some bass melodies where you hear me playing a bass groove and you hear a bass melody on top. That was obviously overdubbed. So all of that had to be planned out earlier. I like to do that,β said Egan.
βIt allows you to be creative in the studio,β continued Egan. βSo, youβre not guessing what we are going to do with this, and what we should do on top of that. You pretty much know ahead of time the basic things. Then it frees you up to be creative because it gives you more time when you are actually doing it because you have done everything in pre-production.β
The trio worked together very effectively and extremely well. They managed to play off each other and create an incredible album.
βItβs very ambitious, we had one rehearsal the day before, and we met near my house which is not far from The Power Station, New England, which is a replica of The Power Station in New York City. We had a great studio, to do that many songs in three days is a lot of work, but that is why we did so much in pre-production. We were very planned and rehearsed with what we were going in with. But those three days were 13, 14-hour days. But we got it all done.β
CROSS CURRENTS ALBUM REVIEW
And the fact that the three musicians are all also producers and arrangers in their day jobs, assisted in making the album and recording seamless.
βI have to say that Shane and Shawn are extremely proficient on their instruments, but they are also producers in their own right, so they came ready to do it. They had practiced all the parts I sent them and had suggestions as to ways of doing it. Shawn had specific kick and snare drum things during the bridges. I would say, βShawn, what are you going to play?β He makes it so much easier as a bass player like me when everyone takes their parts so seriously and does their homework and has the conceptual idea, rather than me saying, βwhy donβt you think about doing that?β
When listening to the album, one cannot help but get the idea it would sound great being performed live. Because they had prepared and rehearsed, the songs would sound brilliant live.
Egan agrees, βIt would be a great album to tour with, and we could do it as a trio and it would still have the energy and the basic essence of the songs.
But although there was a lot of work put into this album, it gave Egan the chance to explore a lot of different styles of music.
βI come from a multi directional background. Being a baby boomer, I grew up listening to everything from Hendrix to Ravi Shankar, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles [Davis]. What really opened me up to music was the depth of jazz. I have always wanted more of an R&B as the shell of it, although this record is not R&B at all. It is hard for me to describe what it is, maybe jazz rock? I am not great with titles.β
The title, Cross Currents, is a perfect title for the album. There is a lot going on in the songs, with many different genres mixing and molding into new and innovative sounds.
βI was also aware of keeping a balance of the other past music I have done and the styles I like to write in, so thatβs why it is a very varied record. To me it holds up as a wholly sounding record, it doesnβt sound like it is all over the place, there is a thread that goes through it all. A lot of that is in the orchestration, with the utilization of fretless bass, playing melodies, but I think this record will reach more people because it has a good feel. It opens with βPontchartrainβ written by Shane, it has a great feel.β
Eganβs goals and hopes for the album are very simple.
βMy goal is that people will want to play it over and over again because they just like it and want to listen to it. Thatβs my goal, and I hope it reaches people who wouldnβt have heard my music. Maybe the initial groove will bring them in, and they are pulled into something they didnβt know they were being pulled into. I hope it crosses some other barriers.
I really put a lot of energy into this record, nine months of composing and arranging and writing and thinking about different ways. This was a fun record, I wanted to have fun doing a record.β
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