Steve Marino (of Bugg, Jacky Boy, the current Angel Du$t lineup, and more) has just released his new solo album Too Late To Start Again on Pop Wig Records. It heavily rooted in ’90s indie, jangle, and power pop, and to give you a deeper dive into the album, Steve has broken down the whole LP, track by track. Read on for what he had to say and stream the album below. Pick up a copy here.
Angel Du$t have a new album and tour on the way too.
1. “Satisfy You”
I’ve never been the kind of person who can crank songs out, so I felt really lucky when this one came in a matter of hours. I remember I was home from work with the house to myself. Most of these tracks have a song inspiration or two I could point to that had a mood I was channeling, or a feeling I was chasing. I think a big inspiration for this one musically was The La’s “There She Goes.” The lyrics are about an ex-bachelor in a tired relationship, pining for the days he was free to live the deadbeat lifestyle he used to revel in. If I’m getting personal, I’d say it’s based on my (mostly) irrational fear of being stuck in domestic purgatory and somehow losing autonomy.
2. “Comedown”
The demo for this one was originally an attempt at a Chapterhouse track. Ben and I had fun with some production choices on this one like tuning my friend Steve Donovan’s voice memo into a fucked up vocal run thing. Throughout making the record, Ben was really in tune with my vision, and extrapolated on it in ways I hadn’t intended but ended up loving. It’s impressive too because until a couple weeks before flying to LA to record with him, my man was listening to the wrong folder of demos haha. He still came fully equipped and ready to rock.
3. “Got You (In My World Now)”
Ahh, the smash single that got EVERYONE talking. A firm nod to Everclear and Oasis. I think my inspiration for this one was chasing the feeling that the song “Everything to Everyone,” and the whole …Afterglow record, gave me as a kid and still gives me now. The recording came out pretty faithful to the demo and Ben really killed it with his production choices again. Tracking guitars for this one was a lot of fun. I’m pretty sure we tracked all electric guitar on the record through one little Harmony combo. The song is about happening into a pleasant summer romance scenario that could have easily been missed and feeling bummed but grateful when it eventually ended.
4. “Kingdom”
I remember stressing over these lyrics for a while. The theme felt elusive but I knew the music required something a little sappy and flowery. I had the vocal melody and chorus written but had a hard time finding the right words and sounds to fit the rest. It took up until the moment we recorded vocals for this song, but I eventually came up with something I’m pretty happy with. We kept the programmed drums from the demo (shout out Hydrogen drum machine), and Ben surprised me with vocals he added after we tracked together that really elevated the choruses. This guy can really do it all!
5. “Leaning Off The Sun”
I think this is the oldest song on the record, and to me it had the strongest connection to my last record, Fluff. Bloomington rock legend Drake Ritter provided the atmosphere of guitar sounds this song sits in. The base of the track was two full takes, panned, and ran through a tape machine for some saturation – a little cheat to imitate Rob Schnapf producing Elliot Smith. Drake recorded his ideas for the song in Bloomington and sent them to Ben, who picked and chose parts to pop in and out, creating some interesting moments. A quieter track to close out side A, but juuuust when you think the record is about to go soft…
6. “Tune You Out”
Over the pandemic, my friend Kora and I were sharing a lot of demos and I initially wrote this one to be a Bugg track. Kind of my interpretation of a Smudge song. I was wondering what to do with it and eventually figured I could just record it with the others. Why not? At first I wasn’t sure if it fit the theme of sounds happening on the record but now I think it fits in pretty well, plus it makes a great B side opener. Since I wrote it with Bugg in mind, I left the third verse open for a guitar solo, so I asked Kora to write a solo for it. He came in to Ben’s studio and wrote it on the spot and, of course, it was exactly what the song needed.
7. “Love You More Than Before”
I was really trying to channel “Big Me” here. My desktop computer had crapped out on me around the time I demoed this one, so I was using Garageband and Funkbox on my phone. I remember really liking how the demo turned out and knew it was gonna be a single of some kind. Again, I left space for a couple guitar solos, and to get something that fit the mood I asked my friend Matt Berry to write some parts. He came in and wrote his parts on the spot as well (how do they do it!?). The lyrics came a little easier with this one, possibly a result of being in the moment when the song was written, as opposed to trying to write about it after the fact. It’s about the feeling of second-guessing a breakup, and determining to try harder the second time around.
8. “Blue”
Matt Berry makes another appearance on this track with some fuzzed out guitar at the end. Ben had a few weird pedals I hadn’t ever seen or used before and I just remember stacking a few until we got some crazy ass tones on Matt’s guitar. I think “Blue” feels and sounds different from the others. The theme is a little more somber than the other songs – feeling overwhelmed by all the small and big problems, and those moments of intense drudgery and banality that come with a depressive episode. I was trying to touch on a personal experience without projecting too much helplessness.
9. “Pins And Needles”
This is a song I brought to another Bloomington rocker, my friend Mike Adams. I was having a lot of trouble writing a vocal melody and, of course, lyrics. Mike has been a big influence on my music over the years and I felt like this was the kind of song he would write so who better to tag team it with? I sent him an instrumental of the demo with the phrase repeating at the end, with a vision of what part was the chorus and what was the verse. He sent back his vocals on it and to my bewilderment he had interpreted the song completely differently than what I had in mind. I was so pissed. Just kidding. His take on the track was way cooler than mine and we ended up both singing his parts on the recording. A new approach to writing for me and very fun. As for the lyrics, Mike also wrote those so who knows what they mean 😉
10. “I Don’t Want Control Of You”
This was a [Teenage Fanclub] cover I had recorded in 2020. Every once in a while I had the urge to record a cover and get some use out of my 4-track. This one came out a little extra special and I felt like giving it a proper spot on a record. A challenge with this one was there’s a key change in the original song and it didn’t sound right changing the chord progression when I played it on guitar. So I had to slow down my playing during the last verse and chorus when tracking and bump the speed up on the 4-track during bouncing. I also lost the original DAW file of this track (another desktop computer casualty) so the only version I could send to mastering was the wav file I exported that already had my ignorant mastering work on it. I think it still came out great though. I’ve never released a cover on a record before so I’m interested to see if I took all the proper precautions or if the band comes after me. You think Norman Blake could kick my ass?