Star Kitchen
Marc Brownstein is healthy, happy and more in tune with his instrument than he’s been in years.
Chatting from the shores of Lake Michigan, the bassist explains how the retro sounds of Star Kitchen – his new band consisting of guitarist Danny Mayer, keyboardist Rob Marscher and drummer Marlon Lewis – are not only informing his own playing, but the sonic infrastructure of the Disco Biscuits as well. In his words, learning to play funk and R&B standards for Star Kitchen has been “mind-altering.” Plus, it’s a fast track to what he describes as his main goal in life: “to make every Biscuits jam awesome.”
Brownstein points toward Sharon Jones, Bell Biv DeVoe and many others as the building blocks of his new quartet, and he’s buckling down on becoming the best bassist he can be. “One of my friends was talking about the zone of excellence versus the zone of genius,” he says. “Most people live in the zone of excellence, but then there’s that next-level and all it is is discipline: sitting down and repeatedly working on things over and over and over again.”
Hot off of Star Kitchen’s debut at Electric Forest, Brownstein describes his newfound instrumental skills, the importance of exercise, his enduring love for Camp Bisco and the potential for some new Biscuits studio work.
Star Kitchen made their debut this June at Electric Forest. In your words, how did you enjoy that set?
We’ve only played that one set. That was the debut of the thing. It’s been almost two years from the initial concept of starting a band like this, and it took me that long to actually conceive of the whole thing, find the band, put it all together, rehearse for four months, book a show, get everybody out there and, then, of course, there’s all of the elements of the experience of Electric Forest.
So there’s a lot to talk about, but if you wanted to boil it down to the set for right now, I couldn’t believe how well it went. We played all cover songs, a lot of funk songs that get played by a lot of different bands. And the idea there was to start with classics, the standard funk and R&B songs. And then as we move forward into the future, we’re going to take songs that haven’t been turned into funk and R&B songs yet. We’re playing around with Bell Biv DeVoe’s “Poison” in the studio recently, and other things like from that new Jack swing era. There’s a whole wealth of music there that hasn’t been flipped into instrumental funk.
But this show was mainly just playing the classic hits and it went off spectacularly. We played them tight, we had the help of Shira [Elias], Sammi [Garett], Greg [Sanderson] and Josh [Schwartz] from Turkuaz which was really, really exciting. The things that excited me the most and will end up exciting fans of the Biscuits the most, and hopefully fans of just jam and funk music in general are the improv sections of Star Kitchen. Because when you’re practicing in the studio you can improv and work on stuff together, but until you get out on the stage and you’re in front of people and you get into the jams, you don’t know what’s gonna happen.
When we got on stage, we started to get into some really deep, funky, exploratory, vivid jams without a solo going on on top of them, and we were stretching it out a little bit. For the first time, we processed this now two year process to put things together. Cathartically, I was able to finally see what the full potential of this thing is gonna be down the line. The full potential is gonna be mind-expanding improvisation.
I had read that part of this whole project for you was expanding your knowledge on the bass. Have you experienced that already?
Yes, I definitely started to feel a huge difference in how I play bass and more importantly just my level of confidence of going out and playing with people. I played with everybody in the jamtronica scene over the last 10 or 15 years and we’ve been playing with the OG jamband scene for years and years and years.
But there’s this interesting thing that happened in the jamband scene where New Orleans funk musicians and LA funk musicians and jazz musicians have coalesced into one big scene together. And so now George Porter’s in the jam band scene. And Adam Deitch, who I’ve always looked up to and was a well-known jazz and funk drummer, is a stalwart of the jamband scene. And over the last year or two I started to get invited to play with a lot of those musicians. Peers of mine that I look up to and have looked up to for many years. Not that I don’t look up to the people in the jam band scene, it’s just that’s our own little insulated world. I got invited to play with Alvin Ford from Dumpstaphunk down at JazzFest and we were playing with Khris Royal and Brandon Butler and Cliff Hines and these are all local New Orleans jazz musicians and I’m the one guy not from New Orleans in that session. It was a monumental moment for me, getting to play with these dudes that are serious, serious monster musicians.
And on the flipside, I know they feel similarly. They’re excited to play with me and we’re bridging the gap between these scenes right now. My thought-process there was I need to learn all the classic, standard funk songs to expand my knowledge for that one minute when somebody’s like, “Hey, do you know how to play this?”
When I was in rehearsals with Star Kitchen a couple of weeks ago, they were like, “Do you know ‘Teen Town’ by Jaco Pastorius?” and I was like “Ah, back in the day I tried to learn it and it was out of my level back then and I don’t really know it.” And then two of the guys played it in practice and they ripped through the first half of “Teen Town,” which is complex, and I went home, turned on “Teen Town,” found a 17-minute YouTube video called “Deconstructing Teen Town,” slowed it down and started just digging in phrase to phrase. Three weeks later, we were at practice and my drummer goes, ‘Yo, did you ever check out ‘Teen Town’?” I was like this is the greatest moment ever, because I did check it out. I spent three weeks working on it.
I started playing it and we all jumped in and we were playing this crazy Jaco melody that’s a standard practice piece for bass players. And just that moment, with that few weeks of work that I put in learning that one song, changed the way that I see the bass. I learned about 50 new phrases just from learning this one super complex, super fast melody.
It was a mind-altering experience, where I had entered into it thinking about music one way and came out of it with a whole, fresh sense of how things can be played. And every show I’ve played since then, I’m attacking all of the jams with slightly new phrases, which is interesting for the bands because nobody wants to keep hearing the same shit over and over. And I’m bringing that back into the Biscuits.
I’m sure you’re super comfortable with the guys in the Biscuits. Tell me about your chemistry with the guys in Star Kitchen?
Yesterday I was sitting here with my buddies and one of them goes, “Do you believe in the Law of Attraction?” And I was like, “Are you kidding me? Forget about believe in it, I’m living it right now.”
I believe that in a lot of ways so many of the things that have happened in my life and the successes that I’ve had, both with my family and with my career, are attributable to putting things out into the universe and then watching the universe deliver them to you.
One day and my son had a friend over and his friend looks at me and goes, “My dad’s in a band.” and I was like, “Yeah, right. Everybody’s dad’s in a band. What’s the name of his band?”
“Oh, he’s in a couple of bands. He plays guitar in one band called the Eric Krasno Band.”
And I was like “What!? Your dad’s in Eric Krasno’s band on guitar?! What’s your dad’s name?” and he was like, “His name is Danny Mayer.” I had never heard of Danny Mayer, so I was like, “Who else does he play with?”
“Well, he’s in Alan Evans’ trio.” So I’m thinking, there’s this guitarist that lives in my neighborhood, who plays with Alan Evans and Eric Krasno? How fucking funky must this guy be?
So I met him in a Little League game and the chemistry between Danny and I was really, really good. We hit it off right off the bat. We have very similar interests, our kids are friends, they go to middle school and camp together in the summer. So I was like, “Alright. Let’s get a band together.”
[Then we got Rob and Marlon] and we started working on that chemistry that you talked about. The thing is, as we left for Electric Forest, I asked one of the dudes who works in the studio, “How did it sound?” and he was like, “Dude, it sounds unbelievable, but there’s something else that it’s almost hard to put to words, but it’s a personal chemistry that’s going on with the band that’s really really exciting to watch.”
And that’s the honeymoon period of a new band. Every new band is like that. Obviously, the road can grind you down, so I’ve had that experience already of being ground-down on the road. Knowing about it now, when we start new stuff, we do it in a really strategic way to avoid suffering from that grind, so we can stay on a honeymoon forever.
And you’re starting to write original music? Is it going to be collaborative or will everyone write individually?
I think it’s going to be a combination of writing together and writing separately. I had a very specific idea of what I wanted this music to sound like, but I am also wise enough to know that you can’t tell musicians what to sound like; you have to let them sound like themselves. We very carefully chose who those people were, so that we knew where it was going to end up. But we all listen to different music, so when we go around in the car, driving together, I’ve been getting a clearer sense of where everyone’s heads are at musically. And I feel like when we start to write, it’s gonna end up being a little bit more contemporary funk and soul. But I’m glad that we started out playing classic funk and soul because that was the idea: to let the band evolve through the music that’s being inspired by.
Do you think there’s an album on the horizon?
There better be, right? I don’t know about it now, but definitely singles. We already went into the studio and we recorded one song from the new jack swing era that we thought would flip over really well into a funk tune. And we identified about four or five other songs that we think are super melodic with great changes and great beats that we want to try to record. So we might start with an EP of covers. We were inspired by boyband funk flip. But when we say “boyband,” we mean Bell Biv DeVoe. New Edition is a boyband also. I’m talking less about NSYNC and Backstreet Boys than I am about Jackson 5 and Bell Biv DeVoe.
You’ve got some Boyz II Men in there?
Hell yeah, definitely Boyz II Men and Tony! Toni! Toné! A lot of those dudes live in and around our area and hopefully will come in and put their rubber stamp on it. I’m hoping to get at some point, one of the people who originally made the songs to come into the studio and sing on it. That would be a dream. And that’s not to speak of our television show that we have. We want to do Star Kitchen as a cooking show where we would bring in a musical star and a guest chef, cook the musical star’s favorite dish, while Star Kitchen is the house band. We’re thinking about getting 12 minute webisodes where it’s six minutes of cooking with music, and then six minutes where it’s musical collaboration.
Through all of this new musical exploration, do you find yourself rediscovering parts of Philly or finding new musical avenues you didn’t explore previously?
Definitely just going down the rabbit hole of Philly soul music and getting into Jill Scott. There’s so much of it. So much of the stuff that The Roots were doing at the beginning of their career, we were doing the same thing in the jam world; the scenes were concurrently growing out of Philly, but in totally organic ways.
I’m circling back around and listening to all this incredible music that was being produced at the same time that we were producing. There is a deep, rich, cultural base of music out of Philly that goes all the way back to Gamble and Huff and the Philly soul scene.
Turning to Camp Bisco, you are returning once again to Montage Mountain. At this point, does that venue feel like home?
Well this is our fourth year in there and it definitely does feel like home. We’re starting to inch up on where we’ve been at Montage Mountain for almost as long as any other venue. Every venue has its pros and its cons so you have to look at the whole entire thing and try to figure out: do the pros outweigh the cons? We found that it’s really easy to run a festival there when you have the infrastructure of the stages, and the waterpark makes it so fun. It’s pretty hard to argue. It’s such an incredible experience.
And looking at the lineup this year, who are you excited about?
Super excited that Orchard Lounge is back, first and foremost. I feel like that was an essential move on our part. I’m really excited for Naughty Professor, that’s a good one. Kidswaste, I met them the other day at Electric Forest outside of the hotel. Bluetech is another one that I really like. I’m like I’m a big fan of Bluetech.
I love having Lespecial with us at any time, I really do like those guys and think they do a great job. Love TAUK, love Sunsquabi, we’ve had those guys before. I’m really excited that we got Ghostface Killah.
I don’t want to leave certain people out. We get Papadosio and Space Jesus all the time who are obviously friends, I’m psyched to see those guys. Same with Lettuce, but it’s not the first time that it’s happened. DJ Jazzy Jeff, huge Philadelphia legend. 12th Planet is an act that turned into a big part of Camp Bisco, he’s a big part of the family
Super psyched to have Tipper back, of course. Really excited to have Bonobo on the lineup with the live bands. And then, obviously, Lotus and Bassnectar; these are our people. These are our close friends. So it’s really great to be able to bring them back, and be in control this year.
I’m also psyched that the Desert Dwellers are here, they’re doing two sets with my wife’s yoga class.
You and your wife are very involved with all of the health and wellness activities at Camp Bisco like yoga and a 5K run. What inspired you to get involved in that?
We felt like it was something that was missing from Camp Bisco. We go to other festivals and these things exist. And people would say to us, “Oh, people at Camp Bisco don’t want to do yoga, people at Camp Bisco don’t want to run a 5K, they’re there to party.” But we felt like that’s not how it should be approached.
We felt like we should let the culture of Camp Bisco change by changing what’s available to people. If people know that they have to run a 5K at 11 in the morning, they’re not going to stay up until 8 in the morning mindlessly partying. And here’s the thing: The safety of our guests is the number one most important thing to us at Camp Bisco. That is what matters more than “Did the music go over well? Did the books all add up at the end?” Everything that we do at the festival is geared toward trying to make a place where people can feel safe and be safe.
What I learned is that if you put positivity, health and wellness out there as your main priority, and put it out there publicly, then it ends up having a ripple effect into the people who look up to you and the people who are friends with. There’s a chance to inspire people to be their best version of themselves.
Maybe when we were goofing off back when we were 23 or 24, I never thought that we were in the position to lead people by example, but the tide has turned and we started to realize that these little things that you put out to the public, they do have an effect, they do change the scene.
Musically are there any surprises in place for Camp Bisco?
I have the [Bisco] setlist in my hand, and there’s some really cool, unique covers in there. Some that we’ve never played before, some that we’ve played before. There’s definitely some newer Biscuits music, things that have been played once or maybe not yet at all that I’m hoping will be ready by at least Saturday at Camp Bisco.
I have so much music to record. So the second that I get that phone call I’ve got songs to record. I’m willing to do it, but getting us into the studio is a huge process. Jon lives out West, Allen lives in Denver and Aron and I live in Philly. And so planning for all of us to be in the same place together when we’re not at a Biscuits show proves difficult, especially considering Aron and I have six kids between us. We have seven with Allen’s kid. So it’s just a matter of ironing out the logistics.
I actually performed one of my new songs “Tantalize” with Electron at Disc Jam, and Shira, I don’t know if you got to hear it but Shira from Turkuaz sang it.
It was really awesome. And then three days later she called me and was like “I can’t get the song out of my head, it’s really catchy. Maybe we could record it?” And I was like, “I would love to record this song with you on vocals.”
I have a version of it that’s recorded for Electron that doesn’t have vocals, but my first thought was “How dope would this be?” I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone in the organization, but now I’m putting it out to the public.
Like you said before, put it out in the universe and it will happen.
I put it out into the universe. It was really really the best performance of that song that we’ve ever done, because Shira has a slightly better vocal performance talent than me. Slightly. [Laughs.] She crushed it, and I just struggled to get through the song when I play it live.
It’d be really cool if I was able to put together an EP with her doing all of the vocals. Oh my god, what a dream would that be to be able to work with a really, really classically trained vocalist and just be the songwriter. It’s one thing to get on stage and play your song live at the show, but playing the song with her opened my eyes to what the song of missing, which was a strong voice to deliver the message.
And is Holidaze on your radar yet?
Every day. That’s like the joke of it all. All this stuff is going on, and in the back of my brain I’m like Eddie Murphy at the end of Trading Places, laying on the beach saying, “Looking good!” I’m there already.
What about the rumor that the Biscuits will cover a whole album at Holidaze? Is that confirmed?
Well, one of the things that we like to do is just talk a lot of shit online and make people excited about the possibilities even though we might not necessarily be doing it. This is just rogue Brownstein. Me online running my mouth not talking to anyone with the Biscuits. And that’s sometimes how you get things happening. You just say it, and then all of a sudden the idea is out there, people start talking about it, and before you know it, it’s like “Hey, should we do this?”
HeadCount feels more important than ever in the current political climate. What’s next for the organization?
These midterms coming up are monument and now people are starting to finally see how much power you get when one party controls the Senate, how it ripples through into the Supreme Court and then down into everyday life. And I just think that it’s obvious that this is the most important election of our lifetime coming up, and I continue to put it out there and say it over and over again ‘cause I know for every person there is like me, there’s 500 people who are not paying attention. So, I just want to leave you with that. For everybody who’s reading: just go vote. I don’t care who you vote for, what you vote for, you gotta make that decision for yourself. If you’re not politically engaged right now then the rest of your life is going to affected by these decisions that are being made by the people who are in charge.
