Courtesy of Melody Den
Marc Chechik jokes that Melody Den’s recording process has the band in the mode of “six-year cicadas.” A self-titled release came out in 2007, followed by Storylines in 2013. The beginning of 2019 finds the group releasing Pull, then push a 10-song record that has the band mixing and matching new songs, old songs reimagined, and one song that pulls from an affiliated act. Altogether, they reflect a band two decades into a comfortable working/creative relationship.
“We never talk about sales,” Chechik admits, with the band meant “just to have a great time and to make good music. It’s nice knowing that we’ve actually had something to contribute to the musical landscape here. There’s just something about the music of this town and we’re a part of that fabric. I know not everyone’s going to dig this music; that’s just how it is. But I’m not doing this for everybody.”
Courtesy of Melody Den
Chechik’s collaborators on this one count his core band, including guitarist Jerry Baugher (who tackles some lead vocals this time out), drummer John Baldus, and bassist Dave Melson. They’ve been augmented by Tom Townsend on keys for years and, for this record include contributions by an all-star cast of players including: Geoff Seitz (fiddle), Andy Ploof (mandolin), John Higgins (pedal steel), Adam Hucke and Ben Reece (horns), a backup vocalist contingent including Nicole Hudson, Kip Loui, and Kellie Morlock, and a guitar army including John Horton, Joe McMahan, and Rusty Crewse. Jason McEntire of Sawhorse Studios handled co-production and recording.
With all those players, the disc wouldn’t, on the whole, be described as sparse or spare; there’s a lot happening instrumentally, with all those guest talents adding their two cents to the basic tunes.
“The idea starting with Storylines was really about keeping the aesthetics of the four-piece and augmenting it, building it into something bigger with the basic vibe but without it getting unwieldy,” Chechik says. “The goal of this recording was to create something gritty and representative of how I write and how we perform. A roots rock feel but with a little push in sonics.”
In piecing together the possible tracks for an album, Chechik and crew found themselves possessing some new cuts, but they also wanted to revisit some past work. The album’s starting cut, “Chestnut,” is one that highlights Chechik, though he had to completely relearn the song from scratch, after coming across a demo version and finding himself unable to remember the song’s basic structure. “Kerosene and Nicotine” is featured on that 2007 album, though on “Push…” it’s given a complete reworking. And “Top of the Dirty South” is a song that Baldus and Chechik performed in the trio Thee Dirty South, with the late Bob Reuter featured on vocals.
Chechik says that the group’s longtime familiarity in creating together is the bedrock. Once enough tracks were selected, the recording process was simple, even with all the extra contributors.
“The weird thing,” Chechik says, “is that we could take a four-month hiatus and then come back and the songs still work. After 20 years, we know each other so well that we can go through a song a couple of times in the studio and we don’t need more than that. There’s no need to go through it more, they already know what’s good.”
Similarly, getting gigs together is relaxed, as “we can go two months without a rehearsal. It’s a testament to the how good the guys are, or to the songs being so insanely simple.”
The album, officially, comes out this week, on Friday. That was, in fact, the date that was booked for an initial CD release party at Off Broadway. But the band’s longtime keyboardist, Townsend, was shot in a carjacking, with multiples surgeries and a lengthy hospital stay the result. Chechik postponed the event, in order to allow Townsend time to recover, so that he could take part in the group’s CD release events. At this point, the band’s settled on a Sunday, March 24, official release party at Off Broadway, with an afternoon matinee show. They’ll also play a bit of a warmup gig on Friday, February 2, at Naked Vine.
In both cases, Townsend will be facing surgeries just days after the gigs, so Chechik and company have “some leapfrogging shows” happening, in order to keep Townsend firmly in the mix.
The camaraderie, he feels, is the only thing they could have shot for. Not stressing out over sales, he says, allows the band to play, record, even just exist organically, with the members’ other projects and life needs at the fore.
“We’ll give people a record I hope they can enjoy,” Chechik says. “God willing, we’ll make another one someday. I’m doing some other projects during the first part of the year, focusing on a couple of other things. I hope we sell a few CDs, put on a couple of good shows, and if it does more than that, cool. If not, we’ve made a record that we’re happy with. You get to a point in your life when you’re too old to tour, frankly, and you just have to take a step back.
“You have this job of making music,” he figures, “and you have to enjoy the people you work with. We don’t hang out all the time as a band; in fact, we don’t hang out all that much. We have our own lives. But we also have this thing, and it’s special to us.”
You can stream Melody Den’s first two albums on Spotify. Their new album, Pull, then push, will be offered for digital purchase on platforms including CD Baby on Friday, January 11; physical CDs will also be found at the usual local record stores.
