Mark Branscombe Releases A Warm Album
- R.A.G.
- Mar 15
- 7 min read
A new album release from Mark Branscombe brings out a wonderful blend of completely warm and welcoming tonality coming from the guitars and vocals. The album comes forth in the form of a blend of what I consider to be Americana, folk rock, and blues.
This is a very rootsy feeling record and a lot of the songs send messages, what others tell stories. Either way, you're getting a lot to chew on, and a lot of these tracks make you think.
The instrumentation is absolutely full-bodied and quite lush. It has layers of guitars, organs, my percussion, and plenty more, letting everything come through with a subtlety, but also with depth.
The Field Recordings album opens up with the track, "When The Blues Come To Town", which is a great way to introduce the entire album. This song opens the door for the record and gives you some of the great Staples that the entire thing is going to deliver.
Certain songs are a little more subtle, while others are energetic. This is a more energetic track and indeed comes right in with some great hooks coming from both the keys and the guitars following each other and really thickening up the melody.
The vocals on this one are quite robust and a bit more in your face than some of the rest of the record. I did enjoy that aspect, and I feel like again, it's a great song to introduce the record with because it's a bit of a blast of energy and grabs your attention quickly.
Even with all of that, the single does indeed still have this amazing warmth to it, which is also something that stays true throughout the record's course.
"Leave This World" delivers a similar energy and loads of these hooks. This Time, It's piano that accompanies some of the guitar riffs, and you can hear a lot more twang on those guitars in this one. Has more of that southern underbelly to it.
This is why I mentioned genres like Americana. You can tell that there is a flurry of influences coming into play, and if you listen to the entire record, you can hear them all.
Country and Americana is part of the Heartland style that Mark is bringing to the table and obviously had a great effect on his song writing.
Other songs like "Hard Way To Do Anything" come off for a bit more of a rock feel. Still, it's Heartland Rock and carries those rootsy undertones, but it is a rock song.
Outstanding energy on this track as well. There are a lot of vocal hooks that stick in your brain for hours after the song has ended.
This is one of those albums that you listen to all the way through, in one shot.
Again, a lot of the songs tell some great stories and just boast messaging that you end up holding on to.
This track has such an amazing energy, and I feel like a lot of the songs also deliver loads of personality.
This record is riddled with character, and that's one of its biggest assets.
This is because you end up getting attached to that character and that personality.
Listening to the entire album gives you a lot of pieces of the artist. He is definitely not afraid to give pieces of himself through his music, and that's why this album hits in such an authentic manner.
Throughout the record, you get songs that are more full-oriented, more delicate, ballads, rockers, and so much more. A lot of the songs have a strange way of putting you in the moment with them, which is completely wonderful.
To blend that roots aesthetic in with all the blues, rock, and folk is pretty impressive.
The songs also, at times, can give you the essence of a live performance. As I said before, it puts you in the moment with them, and some of the performances are part of why.
As you listen through this album, you get the sense that people were all in one room and everyone in that room or feeding off of each other, giving everything this big sort of live performance vibe.
This is a record that was recorded all over the place. Apparently, Mark recorded this entire thing traveling through different areas around the globe, and working with different artists who collaborate with him so that he can really make this album as robust and boisterous as possible in terms of its instrumentation.
Along with the guitars, live percussion, bass guitar, and vocals, you have loads of piano and organs, harmonica, some cello, and more, all layering this record with a lot to soak in.
One of my favorite tracks is actually the closing track, "Too Hard To Lose", which is a very clean acoustic guitar-based track, but it's got so much soul and so much Blues infused in it that you can't turn away.
Along with the guitars, you have that soulful vocal approach that Mark is almost always able to portray perfectly.
I'll say it again; this is a record you should listen to all the way through.
Listening to one or two songs will not give you the full spectrum of what the entire album has to offer.
Check out the interview we conducted with Mark just below.
You don't want to miss out on this one.
Hey Mark, and thanks so much for taking the time! Let's start with Field Recordings! This
record had storytelling and this rustic, roots rock feel that combined blues, and more!
Yes, it’s the A&R person’s worst nightmare, a few many genres to call any one thing;
Columbia Records has not exactly been beating down my door asking for the album.
That said, I hope the album is an interesting journey for the discerning listener.
Where did this album come from?
These are all songs I wrote, a collection of songs that I had compiled over the last 2
years. As time and money came available, I constructed and recorded the songs.
Being as they were not all done in one studio, the album took shape as a collection of
field recordings might.
I wrote lyrics and pieces of the music in many places and countries that I had been
travelling to.
Did you record this at a home studio setup, or a big studio?
Yes, yes… and sort of. There were 4 studios used for the recordings. The Warehouse
in Vancouver is owned by Bryan Adams, it’s a state-of-the-art facility. I recorded there
with Steve Dawson, a well-known Nashville artist and producer that comes up to
Vancouver occasionally to do his Henhouse pop-up sessions. Another studio that was
used was Emerson Street Studio in Burnaby owned and operated by Chris Woudstra.
Wohl of Sound, is a home-based studio run by Paul Wohlstetter in Vancouver that we
did a few songs in. The piano track for Combat Blues was recorded and played many
years ago by the late Paul Plimley at his home studio in Vancouver.
I am hearing a few different styles on this release. Who are some of your biggest musical
influences?
I listen to music from many different eras but I guess in this century I take some
inspiration from people like Jeff Tweedy, Kim Gordon, John Cale, David Byrne, Neko
Case, Jesse Welles, Billy Strings. They seem to be able to get on with what they’re
doing and not get too fussed with what’s selling or not at the moment.
Are you playing shows in support of the record?
Absolutely, that’s one of the big joys and challenges, playing the songs live to see if
they stick with an audience and if I can play and sing them fairly proficiently.
I gathered a small ensemble to celebrate the album release in February and have
booked a few solo shows in Vancouver and around British Columbia to get out on the
track as a solo emerging artist.
What are you performing on the album?
I sang, played guitar and harmonica.
How did this all start for you as an artist and songwriter?
Not a short story… As a youth I was always interested in how songs are constructed.
In the previous century, a lot of care was put into how a 3-minute AM radio pop
standard would sound. The production and different instruments featured on the
records hooked me first. The Monkees, Beatles and Rolling Stones 45 rpms got the
share of my paper route money that the first electric guitar and a few lessons didn’t.
There was ripe period for singer songwriters in the 1970s that I listened to and was
always intrigued with the poetry in the lyrics, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Jim Croce, Carole
King, Jerry Jeff Walker. After high school I joined a blues band and played a lot of the
old standards, enjoying the storytelling that was in the music. In my 20’s, I started
writing stray thoughts down and began throwing guitar chords at them to carve out a
few songs. A key thing happened in Italy in 2006 when I was playing in a small taverna.
Someone asked me to play some of my own songs, instead of covers. That was a first
hint that I might be able to keep people entertained with my own music. The last band I
was in, Mud Bay, was a great experience, we wrote all our own songs and recorded a
few albums. In 2016 I had a number of songs that didn’t suit the band so did my first
solo record “Grandview” Shortly after, I became one half of The Gravel-Aires, a roots
duet that wrote and recorded 3 albums.
What's next for you? Working on more new releases?
Oh my gosh, we just rolled this one out of the garage and I need to make another one,
already?! Field Recordings was self-induced and self-financed so I’ll be promoting this
release most of the year and getting on the map as a solo performer playing live as
much as I can.
What kind of advice would you give to other up and coming artists trying to get heard?
Really, just make the kind of music that you will still enjoy listening to in 5 years from
now.
If you are an artist, the greater percentage of your energy should be to creating,
performing and recording your work. There are people who are good at creative
direction, promotion, publicists and if you are in a position to enlist their help, do it.
If you need to do the DIY hustle on your own, that will demand thick skin and a lot of
tenacity; a good breakfast helps.
What would you say people can expect to hear on this release?
It has quite a range really, blues, spoken word, pop, rock, classical, jazz, folk; there’s a
touch of all of that on the record.
Before we go, what would you want to express to fans of the music?
“Fans of the music?” Ok that will have to include people coming out to shows, folks
that use the streaming services, watch the vids on social media, presenters who labor
over their radio shows, people that buy CDs and records at thrift stores, yard sales and
record stores, people who search out a song that they hear on a Netflix show.
Thank you for being there and caring about what you put in your ears!
Thanks so much!
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