One & Nines Self-Titled EP Release Today: Mint400 Records Interviews Guitarist/Vocalist Jeff Marino

March 1, 2011 - PRLog -- As the One & Nines sees the debut date of their self-titled EP, we at Mint 400 Records were recently able to get together with guitarist/vocalist from the band Jeff Marino to talk about that as well as the group's origins, influences and current plans.


Mint 400: So to start, when did you all form your band? What inspired you to make music together?

JM: The One & Nines came about when some friends were having a warehouse/loft party in Jersey City and had the idea it would be ‘soul music’ themed. We had dj’s (myself included) spinning old 45’s all night. And we put the band together and learned some tunes for fun (Irma Thomas, The Meters, J.B., Etta James, Aretha…), and it turned out to be better than we ever anticipated, the crowd went wild, and we just never stopped playing since.  We were all friends and had played together before in various settings, and we all have similar tastes in music. Vera and I had been together for a while, and we share the same tastes and love of music, and we had talked about putting something together for while before that. So once it happened, that was that.

Mint 400: How many people make up the group? How long have you all known each other?

JM: The band can consist of anywhere from 7-10 players on any given night, depending on who is playing horns with us. Usually we play with a 3 piece horn section, Barami Waspe on tenor sax, Matt Maley on baritone sax, and RJ Avallone on trumpet. Barami was our sax player for a while and he brought in the other horns. The rhythm section has pretty much been there since we started a little over 3 years ago. Will Hansen on organ/piano, Alex Tyshkov on bass, myself, Jeff Marino, on guitar, and Vera Sousa singing. Travis Ferrara is not the original drummer but he’s been playing with us a while. Travis and I grew up together and had a garage/blues/rock&roll band in high school. Vera and I live together and are happily in love. Vera and Alex have been singing together for about 10 years in their group Kiwi.  

Mint 400: Who are/have been your main influences in regards to your music (musical or even non-musical)?

JM: Our influences come from many different places. But to be honest, most of the music we listen to was made between 35-75 years ago. Vera grew up in a Portuguese household and was exposed to Portuguese folk music and Fado on a daily basis since birth. Her grandparents and parents were always singing these songs around the house. As a singer the influences of this music and her love of Billie Holiday frequently find their way into her phrasing and the natural melodies that she comes up with.

JM: For whatever reason, I’ve always been extremely interested in music from before my time. I’ve always been going back and learning what influenced the artists I love. Starting from the Stones, Dylan, Beatles, The Band, Springsteen, The Clash, I then found Fats Domino, Smokey Robinson, Howlin’ Wolf, Eddie Bo, Phil Spector, Hank Williams, Arthur Alexander, Irma Thomas, The 5 Royales, Duke Ellington……. and then our high school band was trying to figure out what it was that made The Meters so funky while our peers were playing Nirvana and Pink Floyd. That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot of current music that we love as well. It’s just that this classic American music, and the feeling behind the classic rhythm & blues and rock & roll will always be at the heart of what we play.

Mint 400: How would you describe your own music?

JM: That’s kind of difficult to answer directly.  Again, the exhilarating and raw emotion that drives the great early r&b and rock is what we strive for to drive our music. But we definitely aren’t trying to recreate anything, and we definitely don’t want to be any kind of retro- or neo- act. We don’t’ want to be neo-anything. We just want to make good music, and make music we like.  Just because many of our influences aren’t “current” doesn’t mean the music we play isn’t current. We are just trying to draw from the things that make this music so great, and somehow form that into our own context.

Mint 400: Where have you performed? What are your favorite and least favorite venues? Do you have any upcoming shows?

JM: Our next show at the moment is at Maxwell’s in Hoboken on March 24th. Obviously Maxwell’s is sort of a legendary venue in this area and it’s always great to play there. Our least favorite venues are anywhere that the crowd isn’t interested, which tends to happen mostly in NYC when you’re playing on a bill with 6 other bands you never met before and have nothing in common with except that you’re playing on the same stage that night. So we try and stay away from that kind of situation. Although, no to boast, but when a crowd is not interested it’s always our goal to make them interested, and we usually succeed in getting someone’s attention and getting someone’s head nodding.

Our most favorite places to play would have to be the local bars where we’ve been coming up and honing our craft and building our audience. We used to play at little Lucky 7’s in Jersey City quite frequently, and only haven’t played there recently because the personnel of the band has kind of outgrown the space and we can’t really fit. But we still hold that place in our hearts and have had some wonderful marathon performances there, with the idea of each one was gonna be better than the last.

Those type of shows for us have sort of transferred over to Tierney’s in Montclair NJ. Again another local spot that has the rumblings of what some people would call a growing underground ‘music scene.’ There are many great bands we play with at Tierney’s on a regular basis.  But where other ‘scenes’ are linked by the style of music and aesthetic they present, all the bands that come through Tierney’s are very different and very eclectic. And the thing that links them is that they’re all trying to make interesting, honest, and soulful music. So currently Tierney’s is our favorite venue for these reasons. And the fact that we can stretch out and play until we drop, or the audience drops, and play to a crowd filled with old friends and new friends.

Mint 400: Could you describe your group’s writing process in any way?

JM: It differs depending on the song. Sometimes Vera will have some kind of melody, or someone will have a riff or chord change that we’ll play around with during rehearsal, then I’ll take it home and try and put more of a form to it. A lot of the time I’ll bring the band a half written tune, or a riff or chorus and we’ll play around with ideas until it sounds something like a finished song. Sometimes we just need to add a bridge or an outro or something, sometimes we change the whole thing. And then sometimes when lightning strikes the song just happens and we don’t have to do anything at all but play it.

Mint 400: How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?

JM: I thing we’ve become more and more aware of what we’re trying to do, more aware of our arrangements and what works for us and what doesn’t. And we are still learning and evolving, again if we’re gonna keep playing we have to constantly be evolving. As I mentioned before when we started we were playing all covers, and we are still learning from that. We slowly introduced our original songs into the set without the audience really noticing, which was our intnetion. As we learn more about what makes the songs we love so great as we’re playing them, we’re learning how to put across our own songs and be an original band.

Mint 400: Any final thoughts you’d like to throw in?

JM:Just thanks for digging the band, and that we’re gonna continue to lay down that rock & roll for your soul.
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Check in at the Mint 400 Records website for info on the self-titled release of The One & Nines. As always you can find out more on a number of other releases the label has planned coming out in the very new future at mint400records.com.