Maktub :

Seattle's Heavy-Soul Entrepreneurs Self-Release Album Without the Debt Why 200 Executive Producers Are Better Than One

By Kjersti Egerdahl

Photos by Karen Moskowitz

A ten year old band from Seattle is putting out a new album this year with an unspoken message to other musicians - you don't have to bury yourself in debt to credit cards or label deals to self-release an album. There is another way, and it doesn't involve trust funds.

Maktub, the self-described "heavy soul" group fronted by the huge afro and effortless range of singer Reggie Watts, broke down assumptions about financing a record when the band recorded its fourth album, Start It Over.

The band formed in Seattle in 1996 among vestigial grunge bands and brought dark, foxy guitar lines and the long-lost art of the falsetto to the stage. They went on to self-release three albums; the second, Khronos, was re-released by Velour Recordings and racked up national attention for the band, including reviews in major papers and months of touring. After releasing their third album, the Maktub tradition of mixing it up kept going, as bassist Kevin Goldman moved home to Arizona, Watts moved to New York to pursue a budding career in comedy, and the Seattle-based band members continued their non-Maktub projects.

Knowing that they didn't want to rely on a label to make Start It Over, and not relishing the idea of borrowing money again (as they had for all of their previous releases), the band created MARC7: Maktub Album Recording Club 2007. As keyboardist Daniel Spils, who spearheaded the creation of the club, says, the group thought "it would feel good just once not to be beholden to one entity." They put 200 "memberships" up for sale on their website: for the low, low price of $50, members would get an autographed copy of the new album before it went on sale and be listed in the liner notes as an executive producer. The band sold out all 200 memberships to fans from Seattle to Maryland to Florida to Paris. Granted, they didn't sell out until August and the album was recorded in May, but Spils says that the proceeds from the club ended up covering the entire cost of recording.

The idea for the club grew out of a "fancy pre-sale" Maktub did for Khronos. The idea there was simply to pull together some extra cash before releasing the album to start pulling themselves out of the hole. The Khronos Investor Package (or KIP) included an autographed CD, a guaranteed spot on the guest list at the release show and a poster, for about $30. This all happened in 2001, and since then they've gotten even more web-savvy; the band has had an online presence since 1997, and Spils says, "Maktub has always been a bit tech-focused." For MARC7 he says, "the internet kind of caught up with us," and they were able to really involve the club members in the recording process.

The executive producer credit and autographed CD were the only benefits originally included with the membership, but Spils says that one thing they learned from KIP was "you should under promise and over deliver." An active community formed on Maktub's website, with photos and links for each member, a friendly message board with questions answered directly by the band, and a blog with tons of videos and messages from the band chronicling the progress of the album. To appeal to the members' philanthropic side, $1 from each MARC7 membership was donated to Rock School, where guitarist Thaddeus Turner teaches Band 101 and drummer Davis Martin teaches drums. The non-profit organization has expanded to three locations in Seattle with after-school classes throughout the school year and day camps in summer - along the lines of Portland's famous Rock Camp for Girls, but open to anyone all year long.

With hind sight, everything with MARC7 worked out great. But there was always an element of risk. "I had a little bit of nervousness about whether we could pull it off," says Martin, wondering what would have happened to the club members if only 30 people had bought memberships and they hadn't been able to afford to make the album at all.

Spils acknowledges that the album was an experiment, both in terms of music and business, so they wanted to distribute the risk rather than taking it all on themselves or trying to convince a label that it was worth it. Funding from actual music-business types is harder because there's the expectation of in-kind remuneration (a.k.a. they want to make money). MARC7 members on the other hand are more like "patrons of the arts but spread out in a more populist way," says Spils. "The message was always, 'you've kinda gotta be along for the ride with us.'" It's an emotional investment, seeing what's going to happen, which the band paid back with an album that brings back the soul and gives fan favorite Khronos a run for its money.

As Martin says, "The hardest thing to do is set aside the time and pay for the studio - the easy thing is playing together." Knowing they had the full support of their executive producers/fans, they could focus completely on the music and do it exactly the way they wanted to.

"Davis and Kevin Goldman usually deal with the money stuff, so it took the pressure off them," says Watts. "Everyone was on an equal footing, which is really important when you're recording."

The songs on Start It Over range from the hard psychedelic jam "Leave a Little" (Turner is a huge Jimi Hendrix fan) to the 1950s slow-dance rhythms of "So Hard to Let You Go." It's hard to believe that so much varied and complex music could happen with next to no rehearsal, but Maktub has a long history of making music quickly. "It's better when we do it on the fly, when we don't overanalyze it," says Spils. "I've never really experienced anyone like [Reggie]; I know that his strength is in the moment." The Seattle-based members, Martin, Spils and Turner, got together for several quick 40-minute rehearsals to come up with a few leads, but hardly any of those concepts turned into songs - most of the album was generated entirely during the recording sessions.

Producer Steve Fisk was a huge asset in this. With him, "we're allowed to play for a longer time and allow some of the more psychedelic stuff to happen," says Spils. "He likes a little bit of the chaos that comes from people literally sweating and making music in a room." A good chunk of the vocals even happened in real time, which is rare. On "Words Are Not Enough," Watts used a Line 6 Delay live to loop and layer his own vocals - you can hear him furiously clicking buttons at the end of the song. By the end, says Spils, "he's created just a multi-layered noise sample of his voice."

And as mentioned, none of this was planned. "I just kind of left it 'til I actually got into the studio to come up with ideas for the songs," says Watts. "We hadn't played in a while, [but] getting in there, it was very familiar."

This familiarity is one of Maktub's greatest strengths as a group. After playing together for 11 years in one form or another Spils says, "It is a musical brotherhood - we've been through a lot together, musically and personally." Start It Over is dedicated to Watts' father and Turner's girlfriend, both of whom died shortly before the band went into the studio. Their losses made the sessions rougher in some ways, but the band members paint it as a positive environment. "It was a life-reaffirming experience for all of us," says Spils.

"Reggie's such a charismatic person that when he's up, everyone within 20 feet of him is happy," says Martin - it was hard to see him down, but ultimately it was a therapeutic experience for them all.

So much so in fact, that they want to do it again - look out for MARC8 in 2008. "We're doing everything that you shouldn't do business-wise," laughs Spils. The current plan is to put out another album six months after Start It Over, with only a few tour dates in between. They did the extended tour thing with Khronos and didn't like it. They haven't hired a publicist, either.

"How are we promoting the album? Largely through love - people who love the band," says Spils. "Be it MARC7s or the three F's: fans, friends, family. We're purposefully doing this album with just the band. We needed to shake bad shit off and get back to making music for ourselves and the people who love the band. Specifically, we're relying on maktub.com and the goodwill of fans and press to spread the word." So no press conferences, no pay-to-play radio campaigns if it doesn't happen naturally.

Plus with plenty of other stuff going on in multiple cities, none of them are looking to pour their entire lives into Maktub. Watts has a promising comedy career started - he toured to Scotland, Ireland, Oregon, California, Burning Man and Boston this past summer. Spils (not surprisingly) has a couple of online businesses going, Turner and Martin have a full slate of classes at Rock School... "I always describe Maktub as the well we all come back to," says Spils. The solid foundation with each other and with their fans makes them confident that they can reach out and keep this productive streak going - with no outside help or influences. As Spils says, "The fewer barriers there are between you and your people, the better."

www.maktub.com