Recipe for success: Ghetto Cowgirl debuts 'Excuses For Losers'
By Dan Marek
State Press Magazine
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'Excuses for Losers'-- debut album for local band Ghetto Cowgirl comprised of (center) Marc Norman, (clockwise from top left; Mike Hill, Phil Beach, Chris Serafini, Thomas Laufenberg.) |
The name Marc Norman may not ring a bell, but chances are you've seen the local songwriter on stage singing as if he's in his own little world while he captivates the audience with energy and soul.
He's played with just about every big Tempe name you can think of including with the Hatfields, the Eventuals (with local legend Doug Hopkins), and eventually Sledville.
After Sledville broke up a little more than a year ago, Norman headed off to Los Angeles to mold his songwriting abilities and find new inspiration
"I went to L.A. because Sledville had just broken up and I wrote about 30 tunes," Norman said. "I came back and just started grabbing people. First I got my old roommate Steve Larson, who is the Peacemaker guitar guy (and a founding member of Dead Hot Workshop). He did the first couple tracks. Then Mike (Hill, of Yoko Love) played drums."
Thomas Laufenberg, who played in Sledville, soon jumped aboard and things began to take off.
"I was playing around town with the Pistoleros and Norman came back from L.A.," Thomas said. "He wanted to play with his friends in town for these recordings. So he called me up and said, 'Do you want to help me out?' and I said, 'Yeah, I'll help Norman out with his songs. It's just another opportunity to record.' Next thing you know, we're getting flown off to New York."
Apparently, some big-wig record scout caught wind of Norman's first three tracks.
"It was Jason Flom from Lava records," Norman said. "He's responsible for Matchbox 20, Jewel, Sugar Ray, Edwin McCain, Kid Rock, I mean he put all these people on the map. He's a big guy. He flew us out and had us play acoustic in this big office. We called up Phil (Beach, ex-Sledville guitarist, who lived in New York at the time), and phenegaled him to come over."
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Ghetto Cowgirl cd release party at Nita's Hideaway with Muddy Violets and Gloritone at 9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11. Call (480) 966-7715 for more information. |
Although the opportunity was a great experience, Norman said at the time he was caught in a whirlwind of confusion.
"I didn't even have a band," he said. "It was just like, 'What?' It was too early. We absolutely did not have a band. It was pretty obvious that the momentum was there--like it could turn into something. So we had to get Phil."
When he noticed that his little solo project may go somewhere outside the studio, Norman found himself with another dillemna-- finding the perfect band name.
"I was at the dog track, it was just when I started recording this and I was like, 'I need a name for this,' and I saw this dog.... Ghetto Cowgirl," he said. "I bet on it and it won. Five dollars and forty cents later, well, I had a name."
The experience in New York was a highlight, but they still had to record the rest of the album.
"We had just popped back from L.A. and said, 'Dude can you record,' and these guys are so damn good they didn't have to track more than once," Norman said. "They tracked us like one time. Thomas would come in with absolutely nothing done. I'd say, 'Thomas, did you finish that fucking part yet?' he was like, 'Oh yeah, it's taken care of.' He'd have nothing and we'd get there and start noodling and it would turn in to whatever hook. Everybody that I played with on this whole thing was so fucking good that there was no practice time needed."
Giving the musicians full range in the studio helped give Ghetto Cowgirl the edge they needed.
"The spontaneity of it was really cool," Thomas said. "The songs that were recorded towards the end weren't even written. We'd write a song and within a couple weeks we were recording it."
For songs like the raw, unbridled sound of "Rock Pig," that spontaneity paid off.
"One of the fun things about recording 'Rock Pig,' just because it's such a simple riff and it's very much a 'rock-song,' we didn't rehearse it," Thomas said. "We tried to just touch on it and not over think it. We wanted a lot of spontaneity and energy to just explode in the studio. We didn't even really rehearse it. We figured, 'It's a simple song, we'll just go in and tear it up in the studio and have that energy just kind of happen.'"
Norman added: "Sometimes if you get too prepared for the studio it can get kinda sterile and boring. It can get too methodic and planned out. A lot of this stuff....because it's so spontaneous, creates this energy. You have this very fresh energy because it's all happening and you get it on tape."
But when it came time to record "Without Warning," which Norman wrote four years ago, the sound had to be just right.
"In 'Without Warning' we had gone in the studio and I laid the basic tracks down, but for some reason 'Without Warning' just wasn't happening," Thomas said. "The guitar tones that went to tape weren't the right vibe. I started off with this big rock electric guitar and Norman wasn't happy with it.
"So we kind of like shelved it," he added. "Then we went back to the studio specifically to fix 'Without Warning' and I remember walking up to the studio doors going, 'I have no idea what is going to happen.' I didn't have anything prepared, I was totally bullshitting them like, 'Oh yeah, I got it figured out.' I remember looking at Chris, the engineer, and going, 'Well, I don't know what to do, so why don't you just give me an acoustic guitar instead of an electric guitar this time.' Well, that was the magic ingredient and suddenly the song started to reveal itself. That's the cool thing about spontaneity -- sometimes it helps."
In "To the Point" the band reveals a softer side with simple psychedelic guitar riffs blended over mandolin stylings by Brad Brown (of Sledville and Bloom).
On "Brand New" haunting piano played by Tim Rovnak (Gloritone, Ashbrook) outlines a melancholy melody, climaxes at a flying guitar solo by Thomas while overlapping lyrics paint the picture of a broken man. "'Brand New' is an old one that was written in the depths of the whole Hopkins tragedy, so I'm like whining my ass off in that one," Norman said.
On a lighter side, the edgy pop sound of "Same Sad Story" pokes at little past aggressions.
"That's about Phil, my guitar player," Norman said. "He and my bass player (from) Sledville were leaving and I was totally pissed off and hurt so I wrote this kinda like 'Fuck you guys,'" he said laughing.
So now that the record is finished where did that big-wig record company guy go?
"We are still in the midst of that all. We go to L.A. and play every now and then and record companies show up, but they kind of just sit there and wait," Norman said. "The weird thing about the whole music industry is that a lot of people just sit and watch. So once people saw him (Jason Flom) interested in us, a lot of other record people started coming to see us play."
For the guys in the band, Excuses For Losers is already a success. They had the opportunity to write with some great musicians and now they have no place to go but up.
For Thomas, that means continuing to find new things in their music.
"The cool thing about these songs, a lot of time it takes a long time to latch on to a lyric. When people hear a song they first kinda hear it in its entirety. With this, lyrically it's so strong.
"For years I've played with this guy and I never know what the fuck he's saying because I'm busy playing my guitar and I can't hear what he's saying," he added. "When I've gone back to read the lyrics, I remember being blown away all over again. That makes me appreciate the music that much more. Musically I think it's very strong (of course I played on it and of course I'm gonna say that), but I think that when people really look into it and read the lyrics they will be brought that much more into it."