Intro:
Adam Marsland has been active in the Los Angeles – and national – music scene for well over a decade now, bringing his own brand of passionate, punky, soulful rock and roll to the masses. From the critically acclaimed years with his band Cockeyed Ghost, to the heady sophistication of the current Adam Marsland’s Chaos Band, to the dozens of DIY tours across North America , Marsland has continued to evolve as a musician, vocalist and songwriter, all the while maintaining his unique musical persona. A gifted multi-instrumentalist, Marsland also lends his musical talents to such acts as The Negro Problem/Stew and Jeff Merchant, as well as remaining a tireless, enthusiastic supporter of the LA music scene.

Marsland’s most recent project has been an ambitious undertaking: recreating the oft-overlooked music of the Beach Boys’ Carl and Dennis Wilson. Overshadowed by older brother – and acknowledged genius – Brian, brothers Carl and Dennis set out to regain control of the Beach Boys after Brian began suffering severe bouts of depression and mental instability in the late 1960's and early 1970’s. Although the results were often mixed, the lesser-known Wilson brothers created an amazingly deep body of work, displaying an astonishing stylistic breadth that proves musical talent in the Wilson family wasn’t limited to Brian.

With the Chaos Band at his side – Evie Sands (lead guitar/vocals); Teresa Cowles (bass/vocals), John Perry (keyboards/vocals), and Kurt Medlin (drums) and guest, Beach Boys archivist Alan Boyd (keyboards/vocals)-- Marsland set out on yet another self-promoted, self-organized tour in support of this heartfelt tribute to the “forgotten” Wilson brothers, recording a fine document of the event on his new album “Long Promised Road (the Songs of Carl and Dennis Wilson Live)”; the band also played the recent dedication of the Beach Boys Historical Landmark (the childhood home of the Wilson brothers in Hawthorne, California), as well as performing with original Beach Boy Al Jardine.

I recently caught up with Adam and asked him a few questions:

E.C.: What is the major difference between the Beach Boys’ music and Carl and Dennis Wilson’s solo material (“Brian Wilson” isn’t an acceptable answer LOL)?

Adam Marsland: I think Carl and Dennis were more earthy people -- Dennis for sure -- and were much more connected with what was going on around them. They were rock 'n' roll guys at heart. Even Carl, who had one of the most angelic voices in rock 'n' roll, turned to hard rock and soul music when he cut his solo albums. The era that they dominated the band, they were trying to make the Beach Boys relevant to the counterculture; in 1972 Carl Wilson was really trying to reinvent the band by bringing in South African members and making them almost like a Grateful Dead-style live band. Sometimes the results were embarassing, but at their best they came up with a totally unique hybrid of sound, and you can hear its influence in some of the trip hop guys that came up in the '90s, who have sampled some of those productions.

E.C.: How’d you go about selecting and learning the material that ultimately ended up comprising “Long Promised Road”?

Adam Marsland: It was personal preference mixed with what the band could pull off live and what suited mine, Alan's and Evie's voices...for two of my favorite Dennis songs, "Love Surrounds Me," and "Be With Me," I could not think of an arrangement that would work because of elements of the original record that just didn't lend themselves to live performance. "Love Surrounds Me" has this sky-high Christine McVie vocal and I knew none of us could do it, and "Be With Me" keys around a glissendo string thing and that would be very difficult on a keyboard. Two others, "Baby Blue," and "Little Bird" we did perform but unfortunately, the performance wasn't where we wanted it to be so rather than fake a live performance in the studio we left them off.

E.C.: You did a tour last year billed as “The Songs of Dennis and Carl Wilson”; are you planning on giving “Long Promised Road” a similar treatment? If so, will you be using the same band? Where are you planning on playing?

Adam Marsland: The band is starting to turn back to original material so we will be doing some touring behind the live album, but we're also going to be reintroducing the audiences to the earlier original albums and previewing the new stuff. Evie and Teresa will probably be along on all the shows, and the others depending on their availability.

E.C.: Tell me about your role as a touring sideman (ie. with Stew, Jeff Merchant, Spooky Pie, etc.) – will you continue to pursue these types of endeavors in the future?

Adam Marsland: I'd love to. It all depends on who asks me.

E.C.: How’d you meet Evie Sands (lead guitar, vocals, songwriter) and, more importantly, how’d you get her in your band? Have you and Evie ever collaborated on songs?

Adam Marsland: It just happened; we met through Steve Stanley of the Now People. One night the three of us went out for pizza after a show and we just hit it off. I had no idea who she was. We asked her to come in and do one song with us, and our guitar player had just left, so we were like, "hey, as long as you're here, would you mind playing on this other song too?" And it just went from there. We all just got along really well. Evie and I had a real affinity and respect for one another. On the surface we're very dissimilar, but we both have a certain ethic and devotion to music and we also like to upset peoples' expectations. My favorite story about Evie is when we did a John Cale tribute and I had carefully avoided most of Cale's darker stuff because I was afraid of alienating Evie -- I didn't know her very well at that point -- she comes into rehearsal with the absolute most psychotic song on the tape and says, "I want to do this one." And she'd mapped out the entire thing and basically forced us to do it and in the end there was a guitar solo and she went completely apeshit on it. And I was just standing there with my jaw open.

We haven't written together yet, but I have arranged a few of her songs for the Chaos Band to do -- added string arrangements and vocals and things like that -- and she's returned the favor on some of my stuff. We're going to rerecord "At The Bookstore" with a much more soulful feel and that has a lot to do with Evie's participation. I think we will write together at some point. My problem with collaborating is I feel like I shouldn't do it until I've gotten off my ass and written enough new material on my own, and I've only finished four new songs so far. I don't want to use a collaboration as a crutch because I'm too lazy to get it done myself.

E.C.: Describe Teresa Cowles (bass, vocals) in one sentence, and please refrain from using the word “incredible”. You have sixty seconds.....go.

Adam Marsland: Incredibly talented, dedicated, nurturing, fiercely loyal, occasionally petulant and extremely hard on herself. Darn it, I used incredibly. You can't not when describing Teresa.

E.C.: Will there ever be another Cockeyed Ghost album?

Adam Marsland: I doubt it, but I think the next album will be very Cockeyed Ghost-like.

E.C.: Cockeyed Ghost’s album “ Ludlow 6:18” is one of my all-time favorite records – it’s near-perfect (and any perceived imperfections only add to the unique vibe of the album). When you were writing those songs, did you have a cohesive vision in mind, or did the songs come together naturally, on their own?

Adam Marsland: I did have a vision in mind. The title was almost the first thing that we had when doing the album, and before we even started we had discussions in the band about how it should sound and what we were trying to convey. It came out almost exactly as we hoped, which almost never happens. We're planning the new album in the same way.

E.C.: Of all of the songs you’ve written, what is your personal favorite? And why?

Adam Marsland: Karma Frog on the Ludlow 6:18 album. I had a very specific, abstract thing I wanted to write about, and a particular musical way I wanted it presented, and I felt like I just nailed it, musically and lyrically. Then I accidentally left the lyrics off the album. Doh!

E.C.: What is it about the desert that fascinates you? Aren’t you originally from the Northeast?

Adam Marsland: When I first moved to L.A. I was extremely homesick and I missed the mountains and swamps of New York . The desert scared the shit out of me. After about a year, I thought about why those places in New York meant so much to me and I realized it was because I knew them and they were home to me. So I decided to acquaint myself with the desert in much the same way. I read up on the history of the region and then took a road trip out to Death Valley . After awhile, it became home to me as well.

I love the solitude and the endless space. It's very inspiring. I also love the smell of it -- the sand and the sagebrush. It gets inside you.

E.C.: Bonus question: You’ve long been an energetic supporter of – as well as substantial contributor to -- the “LA pop scene”; is there still such a “scene” and, if so, where do you see your role in it, if any?

Adam Marsland: To me the closest thing to what the pre-IPO Poptopia scene in the mid '90s was is Kiss or Kill -- bands like Underwater City People, New Maximum Donkey, Bang Sugar Bang, etc., have this tight-knit, high quality community that's very vibrant and interesting. And there is virtually nobody that's a part of that who was in the original Poptopia movement -- most of those people have moved on in their lives as they've grown older. So I would say there is a very vibrant L.A. pop scene now, but it's comprised of a completely different set of people.