Marc Platt's Insightful "That Midlife Thing"

Marc Platt is a California based singer, songwriter and producer. He’s been making memorable music since his days as a member of the power pop group The Real Impossibles. His latest release, That Midlife Thing, is an insightful and reflective collection of songs which views life and relationships from the perspective of middle age. Like his previous discs Beat on the Street, Colors of the Universe and Dis Time It’s Poisonal, the record is filled with excellent songs whose sound is imbued with a 1960s vibe. That Midlife Thing is a terrific album that will touch your heart, inspire your mind, and move your soul. It's an outstanding record whose songs will continue to resonate with you long after you've listened to them. Marc recently took some time out to talk with me about That Midlife Thing, and the experiences that inspired him to create this superb record. 

Q: That Midlife Thing is an emotionally driven collection of songs. Your music has always had a heartfelt aspect to it, which is evident on previous releases like Colors of the Universe and Dis Time It’s Poisonal, and going all the way back to your work with The Real Impossibles. It feels like you’ve taken things to the next level on That Midlife Thing. These songs come from a very personal place. Did you have a sense of that while you were working on the album?

A: I have so many friends and family members who have been through issues like divorces, family breakdowns, and have dealt with the loss of their parents and other members of their family. My own mother died when I was 12. I just decided to get it all out in one record.

Q: Tracks like "Daisy's Lies' and "Lie To Each Other' examine the darker side of relationships, but there are also songs with a hopeful and positive tone, such as “Love of My Life” and “More Than I Can Say.”  I think the songs on That Midlife Thing will really resonate with listeners. For example, most of us have been in relationships with someone which didn't end well, then later found a partner we were more compatible with. Do you find that writing about the positive aspects of romantic relationships is easier? Is it more difficult to reflect on negative experiences when you're writing songs?

A: It is necessary to examine all facets of my emotional IQ as I get older. 'Daisy's Lies' is a song about an old girlfriend who virtually became unrecognizable to me and I to her all these years later. The way we feel about lovers evolves with the passage of time. A song like "We Lie To Each Other" resonates to me, so I imagine other people have similar feelings about truth, on a level where it can be hard to wake up in the morning and look in the mirror. "Love of My Life" and "More Than I Can Say" are a more romanticized view of reality. It took me decades to find the right partner after a lot of heartache resulting from decisions I had made previously, because I was emotionally asleep at the wheel.

Q: Your music has a strong 1960s vibe, and features elements of rock, pop, folk, and even a bit of jazz. I hear echoes of the 1970s and 80s as well. Your work brilliantly combines your influences into songs that have a classic aesthetic, but also sound fresh and up to date. You clearly have a strong affinity for the music of the 1960s, which is really evident in the your production on the album. Is that your favorite era of rock and roll?

A: I was literally raised on The Beatles. For Christmas in 1965, I received Rubber Soul as a present, and I fell in love with all of the music of that era. My mom would quiz me when a song came on the radio. She would say “Who is that?” I’d answer “Dionne Warwick,” etc. I was like a savant at age 8. I loved it all, but The Beatles were and still are the North Star for me.

Q: Other than The Beatles, what bands and artists influenced you as a performer and songwriter?

A:  Neil Young, Miles Davis, Kenny Rankin, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Peter Case, Billy Joel, Karla Bonoff, Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Dan Fogelberg and Crosby, Stills, and Nash.

Q: In addition to releasing your own your music, you host a Beatles radio show called We Love You Beatles, and work on promoting new artists and bands, as part of a project called Radio Candy. Can tell us a little about that?

A: My http://www.RadioCandy.Media company specializes in getting Indie Artists airplay all over the world. We also own the http://www.radioradio.com network of 4 stations that airs presenters from all over the world (United Kingdom, Japan, Dublin, USA). One other future project is called Click Rock Go, which is a phone app that will help connect artists to new fans and expose music fans to a growing community of artists. 

Q: You’re always writing songs and working on new music. Any other releases coming up in the future?

A: I have 30 more new songs written and recorded. I will decide what the next record will be like in the fall of this year. I am really digging my Bossa Nova vibe on several of these new songs. Maybe it will be a Bossa Nova record.

Many thanks to Marc for taking the time to talk with me about his latest release. That Midlife Thing is currently available at bandcamp. You can get more information about Marc, listen to the tracks, and order the album, by following this link: https://marcplatt.bandcamp.com.

A Cosmology of Monsters: A Haunted Family

Cover blurbs on novels are often a form of hyperbole. They're sourced from best-selling authors like Janet Evanovich or Stephen King, as a shortcut to getting readers to plunk down their hard earned dollars for a book by a new writer. In the case of Shaun Hamill's A Cosmology of Monsters, King is quoted on the cover as saying "If John Irving ever wrote a horror novel, it would be something like this. I loved it." That description turns out to be perfectly accurate. Hamill's novel is a masterful blend of Irving's quirky stories with the unsettling horror fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. It's a terrific novel that is an atmospheric, haunting and emotional tale which both embraces and subverts the genres of family drama and horror.

A Cosmology of Monsters is narrated by Noah Turner, the youngest of three siblings. He and his sisters Eunice and Sydney, along with their parents Harry and Margaret, run a Halloween haunted house attraction that is one of the central metaphors of the novel. Part of Harry's courtship with Margaret involved the work of H.P. Lovecraft, and she cast aside another suitor to marry the somewhat ramshackle Harry. Much to Margaret's chagrin, his compulsion to continually expand their haunted house experience, eventually christened The Wandering Dark, becomes an obsession, and a source of conflict in their marriage. The portrayal and characterization of Harry and Margaret and their three children is very John Irving-esque. The Turner family could easily fit right into Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire, except for the fact that these quirky characters are dealing with emotions and experiences that will eventually become entwined with the supernatural.

Eunice is a budding writer, struggling with personal issues, whose "suicide notes" Noah relates to us throughout the novel. The other Turner sibling, Sydney, mysteriously disappears, and that event puts permanent cracks in the already shaky foundations of the family. Like his father Harry, who died when he was a toddler, Noah obsesses over making The Wandering Dark bigger and better, which brings him into conflict with his mother. He then quite literally meets a monster, who he discovers scratching at his window one night. The creature continues to visit, and the pair begin to take night-time jaunts around the neighborhood. The monster seems to be harmless, but there are sinister forces at work in the area. Other children are disappearing, just like Sydney. Noah begins to wonder if his shaggy friend may know more about the missing children, just as their relationship takes a surprising turn. 

A Cosmology of Monsters is a compelling, powerful story of the things that haunt the Turner family, literally and figuratively. The characters struggle with problems that are quite relatable to us as readers, including the loss of a parent or sibling, making the wrong choice in a romantic partner, and dealing with depression and mental health issues. In a way, we're all haunted, but the Turners are literally tormented by their personal demons, which become intertwined with a powerful supernatural threat inspired by the otherworldly horror of H.P. Lovecraft. The dark and eerie forces in the novel are able to manipulate the Turners for their own ends, essentially turning their own troubled psyches against them. Were the Turners chosen at random by these evil forces, or was it their family's fate to be cursed? Someone will need to break the cycle of darkness that has long haunted the family. Will it be Noah?

Horror fiction has flourished in recent years, with writers like Paul Tremblay, Stephen Graham Jones and Sara Gran, among others, doing excellent work in the genre, and you can add Hamill's name to the list of talented new voices in the genre. A Cosmology of Monsters is brilliant combination of styles, melding the offbeat characters of a John Irving drama with moments of unsettling Lovecraftian horror, along a dash of Stephen King-esque eerieness. This thoughtful, emotionally driven book which features evocative moments of family drama entwined with harrowing moments of terror, will remain with you long after you close the pages. I highly recommend A Cosmology of Monsters to fans of the horror genre, and to those looking to add something a bit different for their reading list.