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Mark Robinson: Just Plugging Away Stylish songwriter, graphic art impresario and record label (Teenbeat) entrepreneur are titles that merely describe singular facets of Mark Robinson’s oeuvre. Drawing upon any one of the categories leaves the viewer, the listener and the consumer hungry for a deeper understanding. Asking the question “Who is Mark Robinson anyway?” I should know, I’ve been a fan of Mr. Mark Robinson going on thirteen years. His records and CDs (be they Teenbeat releases, by bands who’ve asked him to do their packaging, or artifacts of his own songwriting) crop up readily as you index finger your way through my music collection. Spanning the years since his first cohesive music packages (mostly cassettes) in 1985 to upcoming releases (the Teenbeat catalog now numbers over 300 “releases”), Mark’s aural and visual persona has grown both in depth and breadth and is deserving of a formal gallery presentation. Mark’s self-effacing tone works to his advantage shirking fan admiration, and label-owner brethren kudos and respect. In sum, Mark says he “just keeps plugging away.” Hard to believe that this much-respected veteran of the indie world, is just doing what comes next, he’s certainly doing what comes naturally. Concurrent to running his Arlington, Virginia based label, Teenbeat, Mark has demonstrated an inimitable songwriting and percussive guitar style in Unrest, Air Miami, Grenadine, and Flin Flon as well as formally embarking on his own solo career (solo songwriting has always fueled his creative process, bringing finalized ideas into the band setting). While known far and wide for his work with Unrest, his label and graphic projects have long outlasted the punk fueled, pop stylings of the long deceased trio. Teenbeat will be celebrating a 17th anniversary with shows in Washington, DC during February 2002. Life according to Mr. Robinson flows elegantly from one project to the next with the optimism and wry wit that has supported his diverse talents for years. For starters, Mark recently relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts for no other reason than “I had lived in the DC area since 79, and always wondered what it would be like to live in another place. I felt ‘if I don’t do it now I may never do it.’” So with little more than his music equipment and the Teenbeat catalog under an arm, he left Arlington. Since that day, Teenbeat’s day to day operations have been run from the new address. In talking with Mark the words “we” and “us” were more prevalent than “I” and this misattribution came to wear on me. So who is this “we” I asked. “There’s 4 or 5 of us now running Teenbeat, and all of the bands over the course the 16 years, they are all still connected to us…” So amidst all of the music projects (in addition to his bands and solo recordings, Mark has produced and remixed work by True Love Always, Cold Cold Hearts, Tuscadero, Magnetic Fields, Superchunk), when did you learn of your talent for graphic art work? “Most of what I do is graphic design. I do freelance design for bands that want their CDs done… recently I did the California Oranges and Holiday Flyer releases but it doesn’t make much money.” Now I work regularly with one publisher doing book covers. Books are like record covers, but more connected to the book content.” I read the entire book, show them 3 or 4 things, and they decide if they like it or not. It’s the same with bands, I show them 3 or 4 things and we go in one direction.” Technically,
Mark Robinson started his graphic design work in the mid-80s as Teenbeat
cassette and 7” covers were needed. Be it the Xerox print work,
hand-drawn lettering and the Teenbeat label logo itself (reportedly drawn
using the font from a photograph of a ‘60s beatnik band’s
bass drum… after which he waxes Homer Simpson-like “Beatniks
are cool”), or the deluxe packaging of the Teenbeat catalog, Mark
professes that most his energy in the graphic design sense has been and
continues to be put into Teenbeat. “I don’t think I thought I had a talent for design. I needed money and figured someone would pay me for it. I didn’t really have a job before I did graphic design. Aside from working at record stores, I didn’t have a job between ‘91 and ’98 and now design work is my job.” However you’ve been drawn into the domains of indie aesthetics (be they recorded music, web design, distribution, literature, or graphics), you will end up owing a debt of gratitude to some facet of Robinsons catalog. “People always ask what pointers I could give them on how to start a record label… I wonder why they want to start a label if they have to ask questions like that… Aside from my mom and I going to the library at age 10, where I researched how to start a business, I never thought about starting Teenbeat. Someday I would love to own a record store, I guess I wanted to run a record store before I had a record label.” As the indie kids mature and life activities begin to overwhelm, one has to wonder how he does it all. How does one juggle a day-job, songwriting for Flin Flon and your own recordings with running Teenbeat? “If Teenbeat were selling millions of records I would spend more time each day doing label stuff. Over the years, nothing has ever changed, the music has been the most important thing. With design stuff, making something that represented the music well and looked cool and different has always been almost as important as the music. Even way back when, I was trying to do “good design” with the Teenbeat logo and the first Unrest single.” Yeah, but my copy of that single contains a bunch of scraps of disconnected paper with Magic Marker slogans on them? What does that have to do with what you are doing now? “The stuff we did for Unrest was most certainly representative of what we were doing. The energy of the band was there in the packaging. Packaging music made by people I know is different. They are in there. Designing for someone you know is a lot different than designing for someone you don’t know. But more often than not it reflects my personality.” How did the Manchester, UK label Factory Records motivate you and guide you through the early Teenbeat years? “Teenbeat
and Factory is about a fan giving props to his influences. In terms of
running a record label, Factory was our biggest influence. Factory was
our model. As far as music New Order is one of our biggest influences. So you gave Teenbeat catalog numbers to more than just releases. Your discography includes posters, post cards, a car, a wedding… “Factory did that too. Their nightclub and headquarters had catalog #s… Teenbeat’s discography as biography was definitely influenced by that: Somebody’s wedding had a number, someone had an accident at the label office once so the hospital bill got a Teenbeat number.” Why do you constantly, consistently refer to the label as “we” and “our”? “The
music is made by all the people involved. If it was called Mark Robinson
records it may be different. “All the bands are distinct. Unrest was a name that went on for years and years and years (since meeting drummer Phil Krauth in high school). The spirit of Unrest was to do whatever we wanted and play songs that didn’t sound alike. Air Miami was a new wave pop kinda thing and all the other bands were more and more focused. Unrest having lasted so long, changed its sound. Toward the end, we sounded different sound because we were playing so often and touring so much toward the end. It got to the point that at the beginning of each practice we would improv stuff we remembered from the previous practice. We didn’t remember much and didn’t practice the songs much since we had gotten to the point where we new “it” well. At the end we (Unrest) would just jam improv, like we were jazz musicians.” What about the solo career of Mark Robinson? Was the “Sammy Supreme” 7” on K the beginning of your focus on a solo direction? “Sammy Supreme wasn’t really a solo record. Two songs are outtakes from Kustom Karnal that weren’t on the album, one was off a Teenbeat compilation, and there’s the Village People on there as well. It was “my single” but I don’t play on those songs. I did do a few solo cassettes – I did a Christmas cassette, and a Mark E. cassette with demos from Imperial on it… It has always been a place to work on stuff for the band I was playing with at the time. The stuff I am doing now somehow parallels Flin Flon since we live in 3 different cities.” How, or more accurately, what is Flin Flon? “For starters, we don’t practice much because of the traveling involved. If we’re gonna play a show or record, we get together days before the actual event. What usually happens with the songwriting: Nattles (bass) and I will make some demos and edit them to find what we like the most. We have a practice with Matt (drums). We come up with some drumbeats. Since they are so important to the band, we will write the drumbeats and paste them to a song as soon as we find a song that that drumbeat goes with. When we recorded the Boo Boo album (1999) Matt recorded the drums by himself, he hadn’t heard the songs on that record until the final mixdown. We have a system that works well. Flin Flon is like a Mr. Potato Head – a Flin Flon song is like the head, all the parts will fit on the head no matter if the drumbeat is an ear, or the guitar part is a nose. Flin Flon is all the different combinations all the same parts (rearranged) can make. Flin Flon is very inorganic: There’s no fading up or down, a song is either on or off. You know, when a band is playing a song, there’s a quiet part or a chorus part… Flin Flon is best when the parts fit together.” In light of everything happening since the collapse of the World Trade Center, have recent events made you think or approach anything differently? “I suppose if I am on a plane and it crashes. No big deal. I think I should get life insurance. It freaked me out for a couple of weeks and then I went whatever. I was in New York recently, and when I actually saw it I wondered ‘where did it used to be?’ I remember that day and the day after, getting emails from the west coast people who weren’t freaking out as much as emails I got from the east coast. I feel now I have to complete a couple of important projects before too long – a Teenbeat boxset and a Teenbeat book.” Have you since looked at yourself as one of the stalwart, long-standing figures in independent rock? Aside from Ian Mackaye, are there other compatriots in your well-worn shoes? “I guess Superchunk and Calvin Johnson (K Records owner, Beat Happening, Dub Narcotic etc.) have the longevity of Teenbeat. You constantly think ‘how long will this last’. I mean, if I was in Superchunk I would be wondering ‘how long’s this gonna last’. If Unrest was still together, that’s what I would be thinking. Kudos to Superchunk for reinventing themselves.” With your keen insight into the music world from both the business, packaging and creative artistry perspectives, what’s next in a post-electronica world? “In terms of the music biz, music trends come and go. Who knows what the world is gonna look like in ten years. There’s gonna be a new music revolution in ten years that’s going to change everything. I don’t know what it is, but I am excited to see it happen. Since Teenbeat started, everyone has got a 4-track, a computer and everyone makes their own music. There’s a lot more stuff to listen to. Out of that I hope people will make something new and interesting. I am fully expecting to see something that is a good trend, not like the next wave of commercial country music.” What’s on the horizon? “New Flin Flon record, 3rd Mark Robinson guitar-based record, my experimental electronic thing..I have put out one and have three more to come. Also, I am doing a two piano band. Funny that I am not a pianist at all, so that should create some originality in itself. I am definitely not a piano player, I’ve played bass before but I’m not a bass player, I’m not really a guitar player either.” Currently on Mark’s sound system: Lois, Sarah Dougher, Mascott, new KISS box-set What
about the explicit nature of Flin Flon's "Odessa" (go see you
all undressed an ascot My 'sexually explicit songs aren't really much different than WASP's "Fuck Like a Beast' or KISS' "Let's Put the X in Sex' or Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Relax' or even the Velvet Underground's 'Sister Ray'. My songs just make more sense to me than these songs. |