A Sea Change (and New Album) for Mar Caribe
Q&A with Tom McGettrick

Story and interview by Scarlett Stoppa

There wasn't a cloud in the sky the first time I spotted Tom McGettrick, barefoot on a park bench in Andersonville, intently plucking his banjo. Settled into a serendipitously placed antique rocking chair, eyes drifting closed, I let his music dance me up a mountain: picture sun-dappled Smokys, a lazy orange cat snoozing in a triangle of light, sweet birch creaking with the breeze.

Add mandolin, violin, guitar, trombone, saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, ukulele, drums, upright bass, pump organ, or any combination thereof and Mar Caribe will carry you anywhere. Though they do have their favorite spots: dusty tumbleweed ghost towns (50-paces gun duel imminent), the Pacific (or Atlantic) coastal waters of Argentina, fireside in a Rumanian gypsy camp, you get the picture. Literally. Mar Caribe being, by design, a fully instrumental band, the listening experience is a make-your-own adventure.

Among Mar Caribe's favorite places is The Hideout, which is why they are thrilled to both headline and offer their first full-length album (free download with $8 cover) there this Friday. Mark your calendar with the details below, and read on for Q&A with Tom on the seas Mar Caribe has navigated and where the wind is blowing them next.

More Details on Friday, March 26th Show at The Hideout 

Cost: $8 (gets you a Chicago-Independent download code for Mar Caribe's new album)
Where: The Hideout (1354 West Wabansia, 60622)
Bands & Show Times: Tre Orsi (plays at 10 p.m.); Andy Wagner (plays at 11 p.m.); Mar Caribe (plays at 12 a.m.)

It took some months to meet that mysterious, sunny-sidewalk banjo player, but when I did it was well worth the wait. As is his habit, and mine, Mr. McGettrick was enjoying Western Elstons'  every-other-Wednesday set at Simon's when he approached me with panache: "Want to dance, Suzie Cream Cheese?" We've been friends ever since, despite his strong opinions against some of my favorite things – Bob Dylan, for instance. It's those strong opinions, in fact, that made me eager to interview Tom about Mar Caribe's shifting line-up and new album, which was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Matt DeWine of Pieholden Suite Studios. 2-parts brilliant (and hard-working) musician, 1-part earnest appreciator, and 1-part young curmudgeon, Tom's insights did not disappoint. 

C6C: Mar Caribe's contributing musician line-up appears to be fairly fluid, but last October a founding member, Jason Eckerman, left for music school in Massachusetts. How has the band, the music, or the creative process changed since Jason left?

Tom McGettrick: A lot has changed. Jason, Tom [Santiago, another founding member], and I had grown very close, so the whole feel of the band changed. I also miss the mandolin [Jason's instrument].  It got even worse when Chris [Dammann, bass] decided to leave.  Those departures and that of Bob Frech, who was our first trumpeter, forced us to retool. But it's turned out okay since we've treated it as an opportunity to grow. Friday, we will have our second show with a three-piece horn section and a fiddler, and I really love it. I don't think we would ever have gone in this direction with our old line-up, and this has been a lot of fun.

C6C: Timeout Chicago calls Mar Caribe's style "soundtrack music...indicating the advent of a gunfight [etc]..." The reviewer concludes with the opinion that "this is an interesting idea that the group should take farther." Do you agree, and if so, where do you see taking it?

Tom McGettrick: I think the new horns have really taken the idea where it needs to be, but I like the album. It sounds like us in the front room of The Hideout where the banjo predominates and we only have horns here and there. "New F Minor" is the only one with a lot of instrumentation on it. That was really fun to make. DeWine [Matt/Pieholden Suite Studios] had us add pump organ and (digital) mellotone to thicken it up. Then he added tons of reverb to really make the horns high flying and dramatic. That song is the bridge to the next series of songs we've written, where we've got a much bigger sound, but more melodically driven than New F Minor. At the same time, the chordal complexity rivals that song, so i feel like we've made a big jump.

C6C: How'd you end up playing the banjo?

Tom McGettrick: I was working my second stint on a farm in Michigan. My friend Reid had one he wasn't playing so I started fooling around with it and liked it a lot. I started taking it to market, then playing it there and people liked it so I stuck with it. I like it because it's as loud as an electric instrument, but you don't plug it into an amp, so you can carry it around. Also, I'm kind of bored of electrically produced music.

C6C: Any instruments that you're learning or aspire to learn?

Tom McGettrick: I've been working on the pedal steel. The biggest impediment is that I don't have a car, so taking it to practice and gigs is next to impossible. I'm getting a lot better at it. I would love to play clarinet and get back to piano.

C6C: Influences that have been mentioned in relation to Mar Caribe include Spaghetti Western, Gypsy Jazz, Tropical, Surf Rock, Bluegrass, Americana, and Latin Flair. How does the band decide what's next?

Tom McGettrick: We try not to make any big plans other than to write more songs, keep them if they're better, and throw them away if they are worse. We don't spend any time trying to convince people of the importance of what we're doing, its artistic value, its place in history, or any of that. That is a bunch of crap. We're just trying to emulate our favorites and as long as we keep kicking out songs, we'll be fine.

Aside from that, I think the best way to grow is to set yourself new technical challenges, like scoring these horn parts. Having to solve that problem and still do songs you like forces you to do new things. Without a goal like that, I'll tend to run in circles.

C6C: Mar Caribe's music is lyricless, and by design. Why is that? Under what circumstances (if any) might Mar Caribe consider adding words to a song?

Tom McGettrick: 1) The founders of the band did not sing well. 2) The founders of the band knew no matter how much time we put into it, we would still not sing well. 3) Lyrics are overdone, they're ubiquitous, and people who write music often use them as a substitute for creativity.  As Lawrence [Peters], our drummer, has said, something changes when there's no words about the way the band members listen to each other, the way they write.  For me and tom, I think we've agreed that if you take away the lyrics, you have to be more creative, because you have to keep changing to keep people's attention. 4) My favorite musics are dance musics, which don't need lyrics. 5) Lyrics are hard to write, and we don't want to have crap lyrics. 6) I generally prefer instrumental music, and I write about half the songs. 7) Why not do something different? 8) I like playing bars where people are enjoying themselves, and can tune into the music if they want, or ignore it. Singing is harder to ignore.

We might consider adding words, but we'll see.  Really, we need the right singer before we even contemplate that.

C6C: Since Mar Caribe means Caribbean Sea, what 5 albums (or artists) would the band request if you all were shipwrecked?

Tom McGettrick: I can only speak for myself:

Osvaldo Pugliese, "From Argentina to the World"

"Best of Django Reinhardt" on Blue Note

Stones "Exile on Main Street"

The first of the Atlantic singles collection

and "Money Jungle," or something like that.

C6C: And the finer details: Who IS on the album? Who are the current members?

Tom McGettrick:  The Album Line-Up: Jason Eckerson (clarinet, mandolin, pump organ, keyboards, xylophone) - Bob Frech (trumpet) - Chris Dammann (bass) - Tom Santiago (acoustic guitar, tambourine, pump organ)  Lawrence Peters (drums) -  Tom McGettrick (banjo, ukulele) - Recorded by Matt DeWine at Pieholden Studios.

And the Current Line-Up:

Noah Lambert of Chicago Civic Orchestra on trumpet - Nick Anaya of 3-5-7 Ensemble on tenor sax - Elanor Leskiw of Mucca Pazza on trombone - Arielle Luckmann of Prozac Mountain Boys - Judson Claiborne on fiddle - Chris Dammann of 3-5-7 Ensemble on bass - Lawrence Peters of The Lawrence Peters Outfit, Velcro Lewis Group, Golden Horse Ranch Band on drums - Tom Santiago on guitar - Tom McGettrick on banjo