NADJIA

Alex Zander: Mark, first of all, thanks for inviting me down for your big Halloween show. As you know by my review I was impressed especially since most bands don’t pull off music so perfectly live as your band did. Now, be honest with me, was any of that on tape? It seemed pretty live to me. But, I’ve been fooled before.

Mark Williams: None of that was on tape. We went in and we got in the zone and we played. We don’t do tape, DAT, Sequencer, CD or any of that. In the past I used sequencers and I manipulated the sound and MIDI data live. It was fun, cutting edge and unstable. However, when I restarted NADJIA, I decided to scrap all of that. I had the work space (ALAB) for a live band with a drummer so we erased everything and started over from scratch. I decided that I wanted something alive and organic. There were so many musical styles that I want to try and I couldn’t do it the way I was working before. So, I made the conscious decision to kill the computer. I see so many guys that get up on stage and hit play on iTunes and it’s not fun or entertaining. Fuck all of that. We tune the guitars, the bass, the drums and set the keyboard patches by hand. There are no sequencers, no autotuner, no quantizer, no fucking iTunes. We get up there with instruments and microphones and play. We hit off notes; I sing out of key, we fuck it up. It’s great because it’s live. That’s us, warts and all. We practice our asses off to sound as good and as tight as we can on real instruments. We try to sound like we’re playing a live show at rehearsal and we try to get in the practice zone at a live show.

AZ: The band members also impressed me with their professionalism and being able to keep pretty true to the music on your CD’s. How long did it take you to be able to put together the right team, one that just worked this well together?

MW: It took 3 years to build the current line up. Chris (keyboards) and I have worked together for some time. We started 10 years ago when I was working on Damage Control Red. I was rebuilding NADJIA again. He and another couple of guys got on board and we played a lot of shows and did some recording. I hit some snags so we had a few years of downtime.

During our downtime, I built ALAB. Chris and I got together with Jeff and started writing. Later we added Nik. We decided to restart NADJIA. To get started, we were working 3 (or more) days a week for 8 to 12 hours at a time. We played songs over and over. We wrote new material and we just got to know each other. A lot has happened in that time. We’ve learned alot and grown as a band. I started NADJIA on my own in ‘96, but we’ve done more in this time span than I did the entire time before.

One example was at Insomkneestock. We were primed and ready to play the headlining spot at that festival. I think it was 24 bands in 24 hours. I was running sound for all of the bands and providing the PA, lighting, etc. We ran sound the night before at the L BAR as a kind of warm up and then we moved the truck where the festival was. I not only had to run sound, but Chris and I had to contend with all these kids smashing cars with hammers, clubs, mace and firebreathers. So we’re busting ass to make these people sound good while dodging chunks of flying car parts and flaming gutterpunks. Needless to say it was a nightmare. I realized that night that no matter what, I had to let go and find a way to rely on other people. The guys keyed into that really quickly and we went from 6 to 12 overnight. We know that when we go in to perform the bullshit stops and it’s time to get to business. All else ends and we get into the zone.

AZ: Unlike many of the bands of your genre, you seem not to focus at all on image. How intentional is this? I mean I know what I saw was Halloween but I’ve seen photos of some of your other shows and NADJIA seems to be a band to me that tends to focus on atmosphere and music as opposed to being, well a fashion show.

MW: If you check out our myspace page you’ll see what we call the “assassin” photo shoot where we went for the “evil corporate look”. That’s just the way I basically always dress. It’s what I’m comfortable in whether at work or at home. We’re interested in fashion and how it correlates to art. However, right now our focus is purely on the music. Eventually we’ll work in more fashion, lighting, etc. Our thought at the moment is to get on stage and present the best show possible without letting anything or anyone get in the way of that. I am fortunate that we have an amazing creative director. She designed and maintains our myspace page, website as well as creates all of our promotional material. We actively exchange ideas and are working on some changes in our image and additions to our live set for the future. I’m excited about the vision we are creating.

AZ: A new recording is in the works for 2010. How soon will there be a finished product, pressed and packaged for those who prefer to own the music as opposed to downloading it?

MW: I could put out a version of the album now. It looks like I’m going to have 3 or 4 albums completed at the same time. The main album, “Angels of Rust”, is being mixed by Martin Atkins, another engineer and me. Martin has mixed 3 songs, the other engineer is mixing 4 to 6 songs and I’ll mix 4 to 6. We did a live version of the album 6 months ago that we’re just sitting on. Also, we have an alternate recording/mix of almost everything on the album and some remixes. Lastly, I have a collection of alternate versions of other songs from old albums that I have redone recently and some songs that didn’t make the cut on the album. I’ll be the first to admit that we are not promoters and that is our biggest weakness. We’d like to work with someone who has experience and is good at promoting. We write nonstop and can deliver material continuously. We just need the vehicle to help us get our art out. Our focus is more on capturing the moment, documenting it and moving on to the next one.

AZ: What about the recording process would you like to share with the readers?

MW: This album was written in every corner of the globe at every hour of the day. I think ALAB defined the sounds and what the album became. It tied all of those experiences together. I knew we were on to something when we were on our 10th or 11th practice in about 14 days (about 2 years back) and a friend walked in with a bottle of absynthe. We’d been grinding through the set for days on end tweaking every last detail. We’d probably had quite a few by this point in time as well. Needless to say, absynthe had just been reintroduced in the states so none of us had ever really drank it extensively or paid much attention to it. Between the six of us, we finished the bottle in about 10 minutes. It was either a really good bottle or a combination of everything else that was happening that made the recording experience all the better. Everything turned green and fell out of whack. When we went back in the studio to do the set the experience felt like something between the bar scene from the original Star Wars and the Vegas lizard lounge scene from Fear and Loathing. The fact that we not only played the set, but put yet another perspective on it created a fun album with a wide variety of artistic direction musically.

Of course, every session and visit to the studio is not always like that, but it is certainly fun. ALAB has a vibe to it. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s there. From the sheriff kicking in the door in one session (you can hear it on the recording) to random acts of animalistic debauchery on other sessions, a lot has happened.

AZ: Ultimately, what is it you want to deliver to the listener as far as product?

MW: We want to share our moment in time and hopefully help to be a part of the soundtrack of our listeners’ lives.

AZ: Your website, it does offer samples of songs. Do you or will you be making music available for downloading and sharing?

MW: Yes, in some form or other. Everyone gives away their music now to some extent. I’m comfortable with that. I would prefer to find a more entertaining and productive way to do it though. If you walk up and give somebody a CD, most of the time they won’t even listen to it. If someone asks you for your music, they probably will listen to it. I want someone who can help us find that balance.

AZ: What serves as inspiration for you as a songwriter lyrically, and then as a musician as far as composing? Also, please go into detail about the album title and inspiration behind “Angels of Rust”?

MW: I write about my life and about the way I see the world. On this album, I’m coming down from the last 2 years of my life. I’ve been through my worst on an emotional, physical, spiritual and financial level. All I had was my career and my music, I didn’t know what else to do so….

My only option was to grab my passport, pack my bags and leave. I got on a plane, worked and traveled for 2 years. I went to Mexico City, Quito, Ambato, Santiago, Edmonton, Calgary, Rio, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, Paris, Monterrey, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Paris, London, Birmingham, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, New Orleans, Manchester, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, San Jose, the Yucatan Peninsula, etc. I got on the plane and I flew and I flew. Every time I came home we wrote, rehearsed, recorded and played shows.

“Angels of Rust” is the physical, mental and mechanical process of escape. You can get on a plane and be anywhere on the planet in 72 hours or less, but it doesn’t change anything. However, sometimes you really have to push yourself to the edge of existence to rediscover your soul. That, is this album.

AZ: Are you the sole lyricist and composer or is this a group effort?

MW: Yes, I write all the lyrics and always have. I constantly write. I usually carry a small notebook in my pocket or bag and I also write with whatever phone or computer I have on hand. I tend to write more when I travel. I’ve written a lot of the music in the past as well. On this album Chris and I wrote and arranged the songs. I’m off in god knows where and he's home in front of his keyboard. We put what we have together and then bring it to the band. It’s not always that easy of a process though. There’s some pain, bloodshed and broken glass along the way. The good thing is we can pick ourselves up, dust off and carry on.

AZ: And what exactly is your job description? Is this something that came before recording music, or was the recording of music something you’ve been at for awhile?

MW: I’m the director of international sales at an audio electronics manufacturing company. I’ve always loved music, technology and recording. They’re all tied together in my career in some weird sort of synchronicity.

AZ: What exactly is ALAB Media? How long have you been offering services to the public?

MW: ALAB Media is a concept that I have been developing for many years. It has 3 key areas: production, reinforcement and acquisition. Production is the recording side. Reinforcement is the live sound side. Acquisition is focused on buying and selling equipment. We are really just getting started now. You can check out more details at www.alabmedia.com.

AZ: The studio is actually more overly impressive than some of what I’ve seen so called “legends” work out of. Was this primarily built with the intent of making it an entity of its own, or was it originally a vehicle for NADJIA to record?

MW: I made a conscious decision to be at home as much as possible when I wasn’t traveling. I wanted to be available at home and to be able to continue to enjoy my passion. I searched for years until I found a place that could be my home and have a studio on the premises. I bought the house and fixed it up. The house had a garage and a second workshop that’s over 1000 square feet. I then got help to build it into a studio primarily for NADJIA and secondarily for a private studio.

My help was one of the builders on Hendrix place, Electric Ladyland, so he was familiar with studio construction. I designed what I wanted and together we actualized it. I wound up with a square building with no windows, a sound lock at the entrance, control room, live room and 4 isolation booths.

It’s not perfectly sound proofed, acoustically balanced, hermetically sealed with anechoic chamber isolation booths or anything. However, it is a cool building with a great vibe that’s fun to record in. I also have a ton of equipment. We have 5+ digital consoles (some with flying faders), a 2” tape machine, 100+ channels of preamps, 50+ microphones, a mountain of synths, effects, etc. There are also some generally bizarre shit stacked here, there and everywhere. As I mentioned before, the band rig is almost always set up and ready to go. I can walk in at 2:37 am and play a full acoustic drum kit or keyboards through a 2000 watt PA, plug a guitar or bass into a variety of amps, etc. You can be as loud as you want. It makes it easy to write.

AZ: And… I have to know, what is the meaning behind the word ALAB?

MW: ALAB is short for A Laboratory. The studio is “the lab”. The A Lab is the first Lab or the best Lab (for me).

AZ: Who have you opened for in your region other than doing shows with Martin Atkins?

MW: We’ve opened for a variety of national, regional and local bands. All of them have been nice and fun to work with. We’ve had more interesting shows than important ones. We’ve played everything from cafes to large music halls. We’ll take whatever we can get. We just enjoy performing.

AZ: If it were up to you, realistically, who would you like to see NADJIA play a show with?

MW: I could name a hundred bands we’d love to share the stage with. I’d just be happy to pick up a few regional mid level shows at The House of Blues or similar size venues. We recently did a show at The Howlin’ Wolf in New Orleans with Kommunity FK and had a blast. I listen to such a diverse range of music, I’d accept a variety of invitations to go out supporting another band, regardless of genre. Surf, reggae, hip hop, industrial, rockabilly, garage, you name it, we’d love to go out and have a great time and put on a good show.

AZ: Is there anyone you want to get into your studio and work from scratch on their product with?

MW: There’s a laundry list of people I’d love to work with. One person I’d love to do an album with is Dr. John. I hear his albums through the years and they’re all really interesting and diverse. It would be incredible to get him in my studio and produce and engineer an album of covers. I think there are so many Louisiana related songs that he could take to a whole new level and get away with that no other artist could. Also, if someone could get a version of his songs and take it a step further it could create a new style of music. I used to run a studio for one of his friends and fellow musicians. Who knows, maybe one day it could happen.

On the other hand if I could choose someone to work with us, Depeche Mode would probably be at the top of the list. I don’t know how, but they (to me) consistently make good albums. After that it’d be a toss up between Tom Waits, Ogre, Mark Walk, Flood, Mike Patton etc.

AZ: And that brings me to the chapter you wrote in Martin Atkins’ “Tour:Smart” book. How did that come about and for those that do not know, explain the book, and what your involvement was in it?

MW: I met Martin in ‘92. I was just starting to write music and working at a radio station while I was in college. He hired me on as a field rep for the state of Alabama. We stayed in touch through the years. We just happened to cross paths again about 10 years ago. He needed help with some gear and eventually asked me to write a couple of topics for that book. We’ve done quite a few of the Tour:Smart events now supporting him with the band as well. We always have a good time and we’re good friends. Plus it’s fun to work with him in the studio. We’ve done a lot with him on this album and we hope to do more in the future as well.

MK Magazine Interview with NADJIA
by Alex Zander