Interview with The Mad Conductor

The Mad Conductor has dabbled in shameless Zevon cops as well as the rude space rock before settling on a unique brand of hip hop, characterized by uncommon time signatures, obscure storytelling, and crisp production. Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to get in touch with the MC of MC, MC Devlin- touching base about the past, present, and future of the band.

MC Devlin- The Mad Conductor started in 2005 when I had gone to Dan’s house to record a hip hop record. I had planned on doing  a solo record and calling myself “The Ill One” and releasing some raunchy hip hop. But then the head engineer, Dan McKinney began collaborating like 50/50 on the  project so we decided to incorporate ourselves into one group. I dropped the solo album and he kind of directed me down a more mature path, lyrically. My rhymes became more structured, the ideas kept getting better, and we kept feeding off each other lyrically- so we decided to call ourselves the Mad Conductor. I forget how that happened really. I think I changed my name from The Ill One to MC Devlin because Devlin’s my middle name and I wanted MC to stand for something so I was like “Mad Conductor Devlin” and then we just called the group The Mad Conductor. Then we cut our first little demo the spring of 2005 and it hit the streets that summer and it started to spread quickly. People started to like the sound, it was something they hadn’t heard before- a psychedelic blend of reggae, hip hop, punk, and jazz. Anything we wanted to throw together. It was a studio project with just the two of us working on it, so it was really easy to put in any sound that we wanted. We dropped our first EP, self released around Christmas that year- 2005.

Tweaking- I’ve really been digging the EP you released earlier this year- Central America. What are your thoughts on it?

MC Devlin- Central America is an EP that I wrote in New Orleans- I just moved there and gave up on playing music for a while. I had been touring for years straight without a job or anything. I had to get my personal life back together so I kind of dropped out of the East Coast scene and went down into the Central Time Zone- that’s why I called the EP “Central America”. Over the course of a year I recorded about 10 demo tracks and I scrapped 6 of them, only keeping 4. The 4 that I kept were hip hop songs written in odd time signatures. Usually hip hop, 99% of the time, is done in the 4/4 time signature. I actually had never heard  a hip hop song that wasn’t in 4/4, so  it was something that I had been wanting to experiment with. So I cut some  demos, went back up to Pennsylvania and recorded the 4 songs with Brandy Sharlani on drums. It was a real treat to have him in the studio. And it was the first time that we did a record with all live drums. Usually we’d have live drummers and cut a little snippet to loop there. But this time he pretty much played the drums all the way through the track, but musically- it was all Dan McKinny doing all the production, the piano, and the synths while I did all the bass and guitars. So basically, just the 3 of us. It was nice to get together because Dan McKinny and I hadn’t recorded something together in a long time.

I don’t know how well the EP was received by our fans. It’s kind of funny because usually we have a lot of ska influence on our records-ska and reggae. But this time there was virtually no ska whatsoever, so I think that it was received better by our fans who are more hip hop-oriented. So it was more of a cult following MC record, more of an experimental album. I’ll say I like the odd time signature thing, I’ll probably be experimenting more with that in the future.

Tweaking- So if you could name only one thing, what is the biggest influence on your music?

MC Devlin- On Central America?

Tweaking- Sure, yeah.

MC Devlin- I would say the biggest influence for me on Central America was an anti-influence. Just hearing everything that was going on- you know all this corny hip hop. I can’t even call it hip hop. Just this corny rap music. Corny dance and R&B, you know everybody putting effects on their vocals, trying to make themselves sound flashy. Hearing that made me want to make something new. Something raw. Something different. So I pretty much pulled myself out of traditional thought when it comes to songwriting and did what I felt. So I guess you could say my influence was that which was detestable to me. I wanted do something completely different from that. So in other words, I made a record without the idea of selling copies, but rather with the idea of charting new territory musically.

Tweaking- So getting off the Central America topic for a minute, is there a particular hook or riff that’s been stuck in your head for the past week or so? Something that’s been resonating a lot with you lately?

MC Devlin- Well just now on my ride home, I’ve kinda been trying to write a new a rhyme to the beat of this Nice & Smooth album. Nice & Smooth is an old school hop hop group. A lot of the time, I’ll  get a record that I haven’t heard yet- a hip hop record or an LP and sit down with it for a little bit. You know, start to write lyrics for that and then you know take it over with my own music.

Tweaking- So what’s your favorite show that you’ve ever played?

MC Devlin- You know, I would like to say that I’ve always been partial to the scene in New Orleans. Back in the old days when I used play in punk bands, up until touring there with Mad Conductor. That’s why I moved here from Pennsylvania. When I’d go there, I’d see how much energy there was and how it felt physically. You know, all the kids down there was always cool, along with the other bands, and the whole scene.

The ironic thing is that when I moved there (New Orleans) I kinda stopped playing music. I think it was just because everyone around me was playing music and I was just like, you know “I gotta do my own thing”. I’ve always kinda been like that, you know? Whatever everyone else is doing, I’ll do the opposite of it.  I came from a small town in Pennsylvania where there weren’t many bands coming out of there or any bands to speak of. You know there’s a few that I dug- No Service Project. But other than that, it was weird kinda pioneering that scene. Then when I got outta there and moved to New Orleans, everybody and his brother was playing in a band, trying to get big. The whole thing, with all the demos and whatnot made me think, “you know what? I’m not really down with this rat race and I just don’t care. I’ll just do my own thing and take care of my own head.” You know, look out for number one for a little bit.

Tweaking- So back in the day you used to sing for a crack rock steady punk band, No-Cash. Do you have any resonant retrospective thoughts about that time in your life?

MC Devlin- Well, the thing about No-Cash was that I was a kid, you know? It started when I was 15- angry little punk rock kid who hated going to school and hated living at home with my family. I thought I was too good for that. I was a mean little kid and that shows in my music, I was really angry. So looking back on it, I was kind of embarrassed of it until a few years ago. When I was in the process of maturing, I’d look at No-Cash and myself back then, and I didn’t know anything. I used to preach about the government. My lyrics were real bland, you know, I didn’t really know what I was talking about. And that kind of embarrassed me. Everybody was all like “oh yeah, that’s cool” (in a goofy ass voice) but those people were all like 15 year old kids and I was just like “well, what the hell do you know? Who are you to say that band is good? I’m saying that band sucks and I was the one who was in it. But now, as I get old, I can look at that band and be like “awww little knuckleheads” (affectionately). And then I kind of look at the fans of that band the same way, you know, little kids with an upside-down flag on their shirt. I think “awwww little rascals, you’ll understand one day. You won’t be blasting No-Cash you know when you’re like 30 years old while you’re picking up a nice girl on a date. You won’t want to be listening to some song about killing your parents. You’ll want to listen to like Bob Marley and just chilling out. So that’s how I sort of look at No-Cash and the whole punk rock scene in general. I see a lot of people who are like 30 or 40 still rocking the mowhawk, tight black jeans, and all this and that, and I’m like “whatever works for them”. But I’m glad that I grew out of it and that I’m evolving constantly. I would say to each his own, but that’s not really what I want to do with the rest of my life- running around, screaming about how I hate cops. I still don’t love cops, but you know, I don’t feel the need to write 12 songs out of 14 on an LP explaining why I hate them, you know what I’m sayin?”

Tweaking- So that being said, it’s safe to say that you’re not going to play Gasoline (an old No-Cash jam) again anytime soon?

MC Devlin- (laughs) Nope. I’d feel a bit uncomfortable performing that song. It’s not who I am anymore, you know what I’m saying? It’s like the Rolling Stones being like 60 years old, 70 years old still rocking songs that they wrote when they were 20. Granted they’re probably paid a ton of money for that, but when I see them doing those songs it seems so forced. I don’t wanna get up and sing a song I wrote when I was 16 years old. It wouldn’t make sense. Same reason Operation Ivy hasn’t done a show. You don’t want to live in the past. Progress. Live in the moment- work towards the future.

Tweaking- Where do you think the Mad Conductor’s headed?

MC Devlin- Well, I’m going through some different things in my own life. To me, the Mad Conductor was always super-abstract. I would just rhyme stream of consciousness and usually it would seem like I was talking nonsense, but I always meant something by what I was saying. But I think that I would like to write a few songs that are more to the point. I’d like to write some songs that people can relate to on a personal level. I’d like to get into more topics that get into real life- in the past I would just talk about werewolves and fighting monsters. Shit like that (laughs). I would like to write songs that better explain the real thoughts that I have in my head as a man, not a pot-smoking lunatic who was running around the country.

Tweaking- Do you think you’re gonna get the Mad Conductor back together? Are there any upcoming tour plans?

MC Devlin- I really would. Music is really important to me. When I look at my life, all of my friends and all of the places that I’ve been able to go and the people that I’ve gotten to chill with have been through music. Music brought me to New Orleans. All my friends in New Orleans, I met through music. My friends out in Texas, California, England, Ireland- all these people that I’ve met have been through music. I feel like I need some time to develop myself as a person. I took so much time out on the road, non-stop playing shows on tour. Shows every night. No job. No money in the bank. I realized I needed to slow down. So I moved to New Orleans to grow as a person, but I was doing it the wrong way- drinking and getting into the party scene. I needed to slow down for a minute. So that’s when I started taking kung-fu. I went up to a kung-fu master and was like “teach me”, you know? Pretty much every day for the past year and a half I’ve been training kung-fu. I picked it up quickly. When I get into something, I devote myself 100% to it. So I wanted to spend a couple years learning kung-fu and learning how to fight. I’m trying to take care of myself and become a better person. I really feel more like a man than when I started. More confident. 

I would like to write a batch of songs more confidently and not have to be so abstract about what I’m saying. I want to come right out and say what I want to say. I would like to get a band together and do some more touring. There’s a lot of the earth that I haven’t seen. I can’t tell you when. I can’t predict the future and I won’t try because I used to try to do that and would always end up foolish when I said that I would tour in May. May came and went and I didn’t do the tour. I’m not going to do that to people anymore. I’ll just leave it up to time. Time will put me on the road in some van at some point. I can’t say when, but I know that I have to. Dan McKinny and I plan on recording some songs at the end of this summer, so hopefully we’ll get to put together a new record and do a show.

|||

Until we're graced with the yet-to-be announced next Mad Conductor record,  be sure to check out some jams off of Central America. Some righteous jams off of Central America. 

The Mad Conductor - Yo Kid

The Mad Conductor - The Parthenon