FM: In '97 is when I found the site, but it wasn't until like '98/'99 when they convinced me to finally release the album and do a few shows. So we started out doing it very slowly a little at a time and that's when we started recording our shows, and this Montreal show was the one we ended up using. I'm kind of surprised about the great response it's received, because this is the show I do all the time. Usually when you make an album you decide what to put on or cut out, it's kind of like a photo shoot, but this is what we do everyday.
BN: I totally get that vibe from this album. I'm sure a lot of fans would expect to hear the Mahogany Rush 'standards' that you usually play live in concert, like 'Strange Dreams,' 'Juggernaut' and your renditions of 'Purple Haze' and 'Johnny B. Goode,' but this is totally unexpected, which I actually think is quite cool.
FM: The strange thing about it is that this show, on that given night, had those songs and two nights before we played a bunch of other songs, and three nights before that a bunch of other songs...
BN: So you're always mixing it up...none of your live shows are the same.
FM: We intro the show the same way for the first five or so shows but after four or five shows we'll intro with a whole different set of songs...we're just kind of jamming all the time and we either like the jam or we don't like the jam, and that sort of dictates the direction of our next bunch of shows. There's never a meeting or a plan, or, God forbid, a set list.
BN: So the fans never know what to expect from a Mahogany Rush concert.
FM: Largely because we never know what to expect. It all comes from the philosophy that we are just playing our music and we're really not trying to sell anything to anybody. A lot of bands will have an album to promote so naturally they'll play certain songs, whether in concert or on a TV show. We really don't have that type of attitude of trying to sell something. But the RealLIVE! album is really, truly indicative of what you get from one of our shows.
BN: Do you plan to continue to tour? If so, will you be making it out to the US anytime soon?
FM: It's been a little tough. The club promoters today are like 23 years-old, so you have to put it in perspective if an agent goes to these guys and says, 'we got Mahogany Rush coming to your town,' and the promoter asks 'who?' Even if they say this band has sold a lot of records and were a huge group, the fact is, the promoter really doesn't care. So, consequently it gets really hard for a band like us to get constant work. On the other hand, you do get those certain older promoters that do know you or have booked you in the past, but unfortunately a rock band trying to tour with a crew and a truck can't just have two or three gigs a week...you'll go broke. So we end up not touring, and that's what happened last year and the year before. We're not one of those bands that have hit-radio records, we're a very underground group. The guys that are working with me tell us we will be touring this year, but so far the only ones knocking on our door is the Europeans.
A Conversation With FRANK MARINO Page 3