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Mark Joseph · The Scene Projects

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  The scene projects are brought to you by these fine sponsors.
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  siouxfallspodcast.com.
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  Welcome in to a very exciting episode The Scene.
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  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is American soul and blues man, Mark Joseph.
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  What's happening, brother?
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  Hey.
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  How are doing, Bubba?
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  Good, man.
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  Doing good.
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  How are doing?
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  I've spent the last twenty minutes grooving on Palisade Beach.
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  I'm doing good.
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  Yeah.
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  Right on.
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  Good.
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  Good.
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  Happy to hear it.
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  That's awesome.
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  Man, go just give us a little bit of the backstory.
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  Who is Mark Joseph?
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  And then we're gonna pick up, man.
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  You've had an incredible year, and we wanna get to that.
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  But I want everybody to have a chance to get to know you.
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  Right on.
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  Yeah.
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  Mark Joseph.
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  I'm American blues country soul artist.
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  I've been on the road for twenty one years.
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  You know, I've made, four full length LPs.
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  I play guitar in a band called the Big Woo from Minnesota and do various other things from
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  producing and consulting artists.
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  And, yeah, I'm a music man and, you know, blessed to do it for a living and, you know,
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  just out here independent, you know, not not signed by any major record label, not owned by
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  any sponsors, totally independent, you know, American artists out here trying to live a
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  dream.
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  You know?
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  So
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  Freaking beautiful, man.
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  That that's why you are, you're gonna be a big part of what we are as the scene project.
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  Because what we wanna do is pump up the best, pump up everybody, but to really showcase the
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  best of the best out here because we've been flyover country.
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  I mean, my whole life, I'm 38, man.
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  It's never you know, we've never been somewhere to stop.
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  I mean, you're in the city, so it's a little bit different, but I grew up in Deadwood, a a
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  town that you're familiar with.
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  Yeah.
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  Nobody was ever talking about us.
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  We don't even have barely have local media talking us.
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  Right?
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  So, that's kinda how this evolved.
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  Now we're doing, you know, kind of feature length, write ups.
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  Right?
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  I I've enjoyed getting to write, and I wanna read some of the things that other people have
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  written about you because I found it amusing.
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  Mark plays guitar and sings sings like a demon assassin.
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  It's from Greg Koch.
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  Yep.
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  Yep.
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  That's a good one.
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  Tons of soul, killer guitar playing, musical legend in the making.
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  That was Jessica Paxton, the current.
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  I got to witness it live, Mark.
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  Seeing what you did.
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  Oh, We lost them, but we'll get them back.
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  Alright.
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  Sorry about that.
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  You're all good.
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  Alright.
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  We're back.
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  No.
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  You're good, man.
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  So, yeah, I mean, I was just talking about, I got to witness it live.
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  Wild west songwriters festival, the regional competition, you know, you won a quote unquote.
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  You were recognized because you owned the weekend, man.
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  I wrote about it in my in my article that there's gravity.
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  That there it's a real right?
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  I I mean, it's a tangible thing, and nothing exemplified what Wild West songwriter weekend
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  should be and the gravity that Mark Joseph is holding right now than that set at the Saloon
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  Number 10, man.
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  It it was bonkers.
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  Respect.
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  I appreciate that very much.
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  You know, it was powerful.
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  That was that that writers round was I agree.
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  It was is really what it's all about.
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  When you have that much talent in one place in that environment, Everybody's listening,
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  connected.
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  You know, great songwriters, I feel like kind of and I'm I'm referring to the other two
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  people I'll explain in particular.
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  You know, they make each other better.
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  So when you're surrounded by that kind of talent, every every song that comes out, the
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  next one just the elevation just keeps going up.
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  It keeps going up.
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  And and I love the organic element of it too.
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  And I was honored to be a part of it, man.
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  I I felt it.
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  It was very powerful that day in that room.
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  It was one of my favorite rounds I've ever done as an artist.
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  Well and even beyond that, I was speaking about the show you played in front of the fireplace
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  more than anything.
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  Oh, yeah.
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  Right on.
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  That was a good time too, man.
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  That was we definitely got going there.
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  That's I kind of consider well, Slough Number 10 is, like, my home base in the Black Hills
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  for sure.
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  I consider them family.
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  You know?
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  And so to be Me too.
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  Yeah.
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  And to not only and and they are.
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  You know?
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  There's been so good to me over the years and really believe in me.
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  And to be in front of that fireplace, you know, during Wild West, you know, Sunriver Festival
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  is, like, it was extra, extra awesome.
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  You know?
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  It was a special moment.
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  I mean, no doubt.
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  For me, super special because I'm good friends with Molly.
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  And and, you know, Shalice, I had just met, but Bobby Joe, we had played our round earlier in
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  the day.
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  I'm good friends with these women, and the letting seeing you get them up there to let
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  them swim in that.
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  I got to play.
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  I was very fortunate to get to play with my band at the Saloon ten back in that room.
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  You've played there.
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  There there is a magical element to that building.
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  You know?
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  I saw Vince Converse play there twenty twenty five years ago.
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
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  In front
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  of that fireplace before the backstage was even a thing.
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  Right?
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  So that was my job, Mark.
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  I don't know if you know.
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  My roots go very deep.
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  Yeah.
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  The social club.
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  That's cute.
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  K?
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  Yeah.
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  I've always been family.
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  My my family has worked there.
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  Right?
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  So I feel that.
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  And I'm so blessed to hear someone who comes from, to us, a much bigger scene.
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  Right?
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  You're coming from the cities.
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  And for a lot of us, we're like, oh, wait.
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  This guy's in the big woo.
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  This guy is someone.
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  And to have you come and go, no.
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  You guys have something here.
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  Yeah.
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  It means a lot to us.
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
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  You and you really do.
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  I mean, I've I've sort of, speaking of gravity, I've been I've been kinda grab I've gravitated
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  towards the Black Hills and Deadwood in particular my whole life.
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  I came there when I was nine years old and I'm a student of history and I can't get enough.
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  I try to learn as much as I can.
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  And of course, there's so much amazing storied history throughout the Black Hills.
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  And, so Deadwood's always been a special place to me and, to continue to come back there year
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  after year.
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  You guys have been so good to me too.
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  Like, I mean, it's it's an absolute pleasure to, come and perform there.
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  Well and a big shout out to the whole Wild West songwriter crew.
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  You guys are incredible.
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  I don't have anything to do other than showing up and getting to hang out, but very blessed.
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  I know a lot of those people.
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  Jesse Allen obviously deserves a huge shout out.
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  Whoever's doing the matchmaking did an awesome job this year.
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  If there's a committee, kudos to you guys because it was incredible.
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  Just to be able to move around town and to get all that.
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  You talk about history.
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  Stuff you're working on right now is kind of a trip down and through history as well.
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  Right?
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  I mean, obviously, the blues music that you're making is definitely a throwback, at least, you
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  know, what I'm hearing.
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  But you had mentioned something at the songwriters' festival that some of even the new
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  stuff that you're doing is is going further in that direction and really becoming a a a music
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  historian in real life, if you would.
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  Yeah.
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  I'm definitely starting to, step into that, world.
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  I did a little bit of that in the Vegas Motel record, which some people consider, like, the
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  pandemic record for me.
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  But I definitely I kinda took some commissioned pieces I was writing during that time and
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  experimenting with that style of songwriting, like, for instance, putting yourself in another
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  person's perspective and literally writing from that place.
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  One of the songs is written from the the view, the standpoint of of a single mother, you know,
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  who's got a one year old baby with no support in the world.
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  Right?
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  One of the little Lucy, like, that's where that song is written from.
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  And so I've started to dabble with that over the last few years, writing from other people's
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  perspectives, putting myself into, like, the you know, those different kind of points in
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  history or, like, people's life experiences and then attempting to write from those places.
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  It's it's it's something that I consider a work in progress just like anything in music.
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  And my new record, will come out next year, a biographical record about a storied guy from
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  the Dixie Mafia, and it's very much written from that style and perspective.
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  Would
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  you say that's kind of an evolution of the songwriting process?
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  I think we all start out writing our emotions.
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  Right?
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  And we're coming from that place of inside and what have but then to be able to tell others
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  people stories.
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  Right?
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  And to not just, like, someone you know and can have a conversation with, but being able to
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  read a story and put yourself in those shoes, that's pretty far down the line of the
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  evolution of a songwriter.
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  Yeah.
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  It's, definitely, Willie Nelson says, you can't make a record if you don't have something to
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  say.
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  You know?
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  That's part of it.
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  And certainly, it has been an evolution.
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  Songwriting is a skill just like anything else.
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  And so when you start, you write about what you know about.
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  You write about the things that you've experienced from firsthand, and that's step
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  one.
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  And I think it's very natural and that's where you should start because what else are you
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  gonna write about?
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  You write about what you know about.
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  But as you if you choose to try to develop the craft and try to grow your skill set, I think
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  inevitably and I I kinda learned this from John Prine and Merle Haggard and other writers of
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  that ilk, storytellers.
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  I kinda learned that there's so many different layers and depths that you can bring to the
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  craft of songwriting.
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  Right?
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  And and with that comes a whole another world.
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  You kinda open a door into a whole another universe where, there's possibilities.
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  Possibilities are endless.
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  In fact, I say this a lot.
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  I do believe it that everywhere you looked, it's a song.
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  There's a song everywhere.
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  Everyone you've ever met, everywhere you ever go.
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  And that's why I'm, you know, my whole life I've been a student in history, but I draw a
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  lot of inspiration from history because there's much to be learned from that.
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  And I think the next, you know, kind of chapter of my writing will be a lot of that.
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  I've got a few concepts I've already developing.
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  You know, even, you know, things about Wild West and like, you know, I've I've, you know,
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  Little Bighorns kind of a kind of a subject matter that I've been attempting to tackle for
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  many years and might you know, in the soon soon future, I may end up writing a record around
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  that time period, civil war, things like that.
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  And Murder can moments.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Which are, you know, in the in they they seem like that long time ago, but really in the
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  stroke of history, it actually was not that long ago.
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  It's only several generations away from us.
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  Two people.
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  Not even.
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  A hundred and fifty years ago, some of it.
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  Right?
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  So yeah.
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  Not that long ago.
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  Yep.
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  And there's lessons to be learned there and stories to be told.
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  You know, and that's just where I gravitate towards.
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  Everybody's different.
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  Everybody's got different interests.
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  And if we're talking if we're trying to message out or speak to songwriting, craft in general,
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  like, that that goes for almost anything in life, anything that moves you, inspires you.
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  There's other people in the world who are gonna who would resonate with that.
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  And I think that at the end of the day, the most important thing is just like being genuine
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  and being yourself.
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  Nothing is gonna resonate stronger than you being you.
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  Nobody else is like you.
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  They might be similar to you, but they're not you.
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  And the more you're in touch with that messaging and that true message from your heart
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  and your soul, I think the more, the more audience member you know, more fans you're
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  gonna gain, the more attraction you're gonna have because peep that will resonate.
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  What's real resonates.
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  You know?
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  Yeah.
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  Well, and what's crazy is that I've been I there's been some crazy YouTube videos between
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  Joe Rogan and then the last couple of weeks and the the studies they're doing with plasmoids
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  and all this stuff out in space, and they're showing the, you know, the ether.
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  Right?
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  And they got, like, a dark energy and dark matter, and they got all these names because
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  they don't know what the hell it is, and they but they're now they're being able to see it
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  all of a sudden.
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  You're like, yeah.
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  We we know that.
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  Right?
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  Like Yeah.
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  We felt it.
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  Obviously, a lot of people are gonna know you from the jam band scene.
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  Right?
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  The Big Woo.
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  Do you think that, you know, obviously, you know, and you just your career has taken you
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  all over the country.
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  Do you feel like that gives you something as a songwriter per that different perspective
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  getting out of your Midwest, out of the comfort zone.
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  Obviously, the song Venice Grind, I could see you film down there.
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  I have some memories, from Venice Beach.
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  I was down there for a few months in my career busking right where you were right where you
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  were at, man.
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  Brought back some really cool memories.
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  Really cool.
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  But do you think that that, like, for young songwriters, like, you gotta get out.
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  You gotta you gotta travel a little bit.
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  Like, those things add to who you are, and then that affects your songwriting, and it kind of
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  is all a part of itself.
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  Right?
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  Oh, absolutely.
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  Absolutely.
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  100%.
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  I couldn't agree more.
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  Travel is everything.
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  Travel brings perspective.
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  It brings depth.
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  It brings experience.
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  And it's a craft.
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  I'd always try to say I'm we're we're about here trying to honor the craft as best we can,
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  you know, and and part of the way you do that is you bring you bring your music to people.
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  I happen to love traveling, so it works out good for me.
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  But regardless, yes, traveling, seeing the world, performing for different kinds of
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  people, absorbing different kinds of people's energies, and also their cultures and their
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  musical scenes too is huge because everywhere you go in the world is a different flavor.
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  It's like you're at the world buffet, and there's different things you can taste.
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  Even even just in blues in blues music, it's flavored differently from the Gulf Of Mexico
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  all the way through Chicago and into that.
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  And now
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  Most likely.
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  With a hundred years or, you know, two hundred years of evolution of that craft, what it
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  sounds like now is totally different.
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  Guy like Vince Converse, you yourself.
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  I mean, you guys are playing all those styles, and then it's kinda getting mixed in its own
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  blender as well.
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  So, yeah, it's it's really interesting to see where music is evolving to.
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  Now you're starting to add the electronic elements to things and, yeah, it's it's crazy
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  to be an independent musician because this wasn't possible really even twenty years ago to
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  the level that it is now.
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  Would you agree?
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  Oh, yeah, absolutely.
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  I mean, we're living in a connected age.
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  There's so much opportunity right now that I think, you know, in ways that have never really
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  been before.
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  So it's a great opportunity now in this day and age to reach an audience, connect with people,
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  to have your music and your videos heard by wide array of people.
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  It's different, of course, right?
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  Everything changes.
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  So you have to continue to adapt through time and, you know, you don't have to love every
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  element of it.
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  Lord knows I don't, but but that's okay.
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  That's what it is.
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  And you gotta go out there into the spaces where there's people who want to listen.
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  That's also part of why traveling matters because you have to go find an audience.
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  You know?
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  Just because you were born in Minnesota or or Deadwood, South Dakota or Los Angeles,
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  California doesn't mean that your fan base is gonna be in your backyard necessarily.
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  They they might be, and I think there'll be signs if you're on the right path.
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  Whatever it is you're doing, whether you're writing or performing or, you know, whatever it
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  is.
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  But but oftentimes, think that, you know, it's a vast world out there and your audience may be
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  who knows?
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  I mean, when Queen broke, their audiences were in Asia.
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  You know?
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  And, I mean, would we even know who that band is today if they had never gone to Japan or to
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  The Philippines?
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  You know?
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  Right?
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  Would their talent have been realizing any
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  Hendrix having to, you know, get out of the spotlight of of, you know, the the bands that
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  he was playing in and go to Europe.
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  I mean, there's no different.
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  They almost say you'll never get famous in your hometown.
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  Right?
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  I think there's a country song out there now, something about, to that effect.
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  And to some effect, I feel like that in Deadwood.
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  Everyone already knows me.
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  So how much more famous can I can I get?
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  Like
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  Well, and there's something to be said about the hometown support system, though, too.
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  It's like, use it.
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  Don't abuse it.
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  You know?
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  It's like, you know, I think I was a ice cube.
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  I remember an interview with him talking about where he's kinda was also commenting on how,
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  like, you're not gonna be big anywhere if you can't be big too in your backyard.
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  So it's it goes both ways.
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  It's good to have a support system.
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  I would encourage young artists to use your hometown and support network, which should
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  inevitably be there to kind of help launch you in other places.
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  And what I've found is that the more I travel, the more I go out in the world, the more I
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  represent, because I represent where I'm from, of course, proudly.
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  When you come home, everybody's rooting you on and they're stoked.
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  They can't wait to see you again.
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  You came back, you've been on tour.
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  People are like, Woah, dude, what happened?
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  Tell us about this.
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  Tell us about that.
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  And they're all that more apt to triple down on your support for you because they wanna see you
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  make it.
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  You're their brother, you're their sister, your family from your hometown, they wanna see you
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  make it.
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  And so they're rooting you on.
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  And so I think it's a good always stay connected to your hometown and and build from
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  there for sure, but you gotta go out and get far beyond that for sure.
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  Well and I think what you just hit on is why shows like the voice and America's got talent
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  and all these things that people can vote from home for.
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  That's why they're so popular.
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  Wanna see people make it.
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  Right?
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  They're willing to put their money behind it in some cases and their attention.
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  Sure.
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  That kinda leads me into the evolution of what will be the, the songwriter showcase.
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  We're doing December 15 at Midway Saloon up in St.
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  Paul.
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  Really my soiree into the cities.
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  I got up and played a few solo shows this summer.
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  Dayblock Brewing was one downtown, Lynn Lake Brewery another one.
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  Two cool spots man.
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  Yeah, really fortunate Midway Saloon, great spot, gonna let us come and hang out and and to
• 19:16
  just do this and play music on stage altogether.
• 19:20
  It's gonna be a beautiful thing.
• 19:22
  Yeah.
• 19:22
  And we're talking about, you know, the evolution of that is maybe having an element
• 19:26
  where we can elevate people from this.
• 19:28
  Maybe there's an opportunity for artists and these people.
• 19:31
  And can can you impress everyone enough that you win this thing?
• 19:34
  I don't care.
• 19:35
  Did see the success of it with the Wild West Songwriter Festival me there's something to it.
• 19:39
  Right?
• 19:40
  The success of those shows and everything, it gives everyone that you're waving their flag
• 19:44
  then.
• 19:45
  Just like you said, you're you're carrying them with you when you go out of town or when you
• 19:49
  make that next show or whatever it is.
• 19:51
  You know?
• 19:51
  Yeah.
• 19:52
  Yep.
• 19:52
  That's amazing.
• 19:53
  I think that's great what you're doing.
• 19:55
  I'm so up for that event as well.
• 19:56
  It's gonna be fun to kind of experience what you guys are up to in real time, and I'll bring
• 20:02
  my best to it.
• 20:03
  And, you know, I love that you're advocating for other artists.
• 20:06
  That's a big part of the puzzle out here.
• 20:08
  We can't wait for other people to give us a voice or wait for Sony Records or Universal to
• 20:14
  come along and try to represent true American independent artists.
• 20:18
  It's not gonna happen.
• 20:18
  We have to do it ourselves, and you're doing the real work.
• 20:21
  And that's and it came from that.
• 20:23
  And and I would just I was just listening to your song, the whole world's got the blues.
• 20:27
  Is that what it is?
• 20:28
  Yep.
• 20:28
  Yep.
• 20:29
  And you're talking about helping your brother, and it just hit me right in the heart because
• 20:32
  it's like, when I turned this around because I have my own music career.
• 20:35
  I've been doing the Bubba show, right, and trying to put it out there, it's like, man,
• 20:39
  that's a tough grind when as soon as I started talking about everybody else, it started
• 20:44
  getting a lot more traction.
• 20:46
  And it's like, well, yeah, because they're all taking that out in the world and showing it to
• 20:49
  their people, and it's like, this is all building.
• 20:51
  It's that's way better.
• 20:52
  I'll sit at home and write articles and nice words and talk to everyone I can if that's
• 20:57
  helping everyone else because I was paying for this.
• 21:00
  Right?
• 21:00
  Like, I was paying for press to a company in The UK, and I was happy to do it.
• 21:04
  And was like, well, I would do that for free for my friends.
• 21:08
  Know?
• 21:09
  And then I think from there, the success, the money, or the whatever comes from it.
• 21:13
  You can keep me on the road going to talk to songwriters and to continue to do exactly what
• 21:17
  I'm doing right now, I'll run this for the next five, six, seven decades until I I lose the
• 21:22
  capability to do it at all.
• 21:24
  Sure, man.
• 21:25
  And that's great.
• 21:26
  You know, if, I think if you find joy in it, it brings you joy, and it's in the you know,
• 21:32
  that's I have this line from one of my songs actually.
• 21:34
  It's a a say, the joy is in the giving.
• 21:37
  I mean, it is.
• 21:38
  You're giving a platform.
• 21:39
  You're creating and giving one and sharing it, and it multiplies.
• 21:44
  When you give love, when you show love, when you lead with light, it multiplies.
• 21:49
  And that's what it's really all about.
• 21:51
  I live by those words.
• 21:53
  I say you're bound to be blessed.
• 21:54
  I mean, I truly believe that.
• 21:56
  All people are bound to be blessed.
• 21:57
  You gotta just wake up and go after it and find the people who see it the same way, like
• 22:03
  yourself and who are willing to help the helpers that are out there.
• 22:07
  So many people who are willing to go out on a limb.
• 22:11
  I mean, creating a platform for artists is not easy thing to do.
• 22:14
  It takes time and energy and vision and dedication and commitment and all these things.
• 22:21
  And but you know what?
• 22:22
  Great rewards await you when you when you put your whole heart into it and you and you
• 22:27
  believe in others and you give your best to something you believe in.
• 22:31
  You know?
• 22:32
  Yeah.
• 22:32
  I mean, I had a blast yesterday just getting to sit back and recap what was one of the most
• 22:37
  beautiful weekends of my life and to put my words out there.
• 22:41
  Mark, we had 750 people hit our website yesterday.
• 22:44
  Damn it.
• 22:45
  And not just, like, cruising by a post or something.
• 22:47
  No.
• 22:47
  They went to the website, and they were reading the article.
• 22:50
  Right?
• 22:50
  And I'm starting to see that now.
• 22:52
  And we're talking this is only maybe two weeks of doing the written content where, okay.
• 22:57
  Yeah.
• 22:57
  This is working.
• 22:58
  I love doing it.
• 22:59
  I grew up with Rolling Stone.
• 23:00
  Right?
• 23:01
  Rolling Stone one isn't what it is and what it got to be.
• 23:04
  It was where I went.
• 23:05
  Growing up in Deadwood, I didn't have a connection to any music.
• 23:08
  There was no real music scene, you know, not like I wanted.
• 23:12
  So when I left when I left home, what I found, I went out to the you know, Venice had the
• 23:17
  Venice weekly or whatever, you know, and Bend, Oregon had something.
• 23:21
  Every little town had their own weekly magazine, and South Dakota has nothing.
• 23:26
  So that was the mission, setting out and going, we need to be talking about these people.
• 23:30
  If we don't do it, nobody's going to.
• 23:32
  I'm tired of not you know, selfishly, I was like, I want someone to talk to, but, everyone
• 23:37
  deserves it.
• 23:37
  Right?
• 23:38
  Mark Joseph deserves it, and the kid just starting out writing his song deserves that
• 23:42
  too.
• 23:43
  Let's get a conversation going, you know?
• 23:45
  So
• 23:45
  Absolutely.
• 23:46
  Yeah.
• 23:47
  I appreciate your time, man.
• 23:49
  I know you're a busy guy.
• 23:50
  This has been a blessing.
• 23:51
  One thing I've been focusing on is is being the blessing.
• 23:54
  Right?
• 23:54
  I am a blessing.
• 23:55
  You are Go and live that, and I I think you do it in spades, brother.
• 24:01
  I really appreciate you today.
• 24:02
  Thanks, Ben.
• 24:02
  Thank you.
• 24:03
  Thanks, Bubba.
• 24:04
  Appreciate y'all.
• 24:04
  See you December 15.
• 24:05
  Alright.
• 24:06
  Let's go.
• 24:07
  Yeah, man.
• 24:18
  Thanks for listening.
• 24:20
  Remember to follow the SCENE projects on all your social media channels and get even more
• 24:25
  content at thesceneprojects.com.