I got a chance to speak with Mark Perro, one of the founding members of Brooklyn-based punk outfit The Men, in anticipation of their upcoming show at the Great Scott on 3/2 and their new LP Tomorrow’s Hits, which will be released two days later on Sacred Bones. We talked about their formation, trajectory, songwriting responsibilities, and their relationship with their label. In pre-interview banter he revealed he drinks his coffee black, so from the start I felt like it was pretty easy to trust his opinions.
Nick Canton: Your last album [New Moon] is pretty early-Wilco, folk-country inspired
Mark Perro: A lot of people have said that. They’re an amaziing band, but it wasn’t something that was really on our radar at the time. I recognize that it’s definitely a lot more acoustic with certain instruments and sounds like it was recorded in a cabin. I get the folk.
NC: Since Leave Home, you’ve definitely gotten more accessible. Listening to Leave Home not coming from a punk-background, it’s easy to not know what to do with it. But the newer stuff is easier to understand for someone with a more broad background. What made that change?
MP: It wasn’t a conscious decision. We’ve always put our focus on songwriting, whether they were nastier and noisier, or with an acoustic guitar, just try to write a song. I don’t know, you just get older, your worldview changes a little bit, you’re open to more things. Coming from a punk background, when you’re younger you’re trying to find your place in the world. There’s a finer line of what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable. I think at this point, as a band, we’re not as concerned with being accepted, so to speak, we’re more concerned with being honest with ourselves. What comes out of that sound is whatever that’s going to be.
NC: And the tracks you’ve released for [Tomorrow’s Hits] have a little bit of a bluesier bent, with more piano and saxophone. Do you think there’s a trajectory for the band and an evolution of the sound, or for every album are you thinking “let’s go in a different direction?”
MP: There’s always the “let’s try something new.” But it’s never “let’s try this.” Everybody collectively comes in with an energy, looking for something new, something that’s exciting. Once you do a record, and tour on the record, you get kind of burnt out and tired of those songs, you get tired of playing a certain way and you just want to do something a little different. I think there’s definitely an evolution, I don’t really know what direction it’s going, but we’re definitely an evolving band. We started as a two-piece, now we’re a five-piece, and we’ve been a three- and four-piece. We go with wherever it takes us.
NC: Who does the writing for the songs?
MP: We all write collectively. Nick [Chiericozzi] started the band as the two of us. One of us would write and we’d flesh it out together. [Since then] we’ve always been very open with songwriting. If anyone has an idea, we’ll work on it. Ben [Greenberg] has written a bunch since he’s joined. Chris [Hansell] wrote a bunch when he was in the band. We’re into this idea of everybody contributing something. We don’t have a lead singer, we don’t have a main songwriter. [Whoever it comes from] once it gets to the whole group it changes.
NC: Did you and Nick come into this band having written a lot of the songs on the first record?
MP: Nick and I have been playing in bands together for years beforehand. We were playing in this one band together called Everyone. For whatever reason the two of us were drawn to each other and we wanted to try something a little different than what was happening. I love that band, but we just wanted to try something a little more unique, more us, a little more personal. So we started The Men. We made a demo ourselves, then Chris joined, we wrote together, Rich [Samis] joined, we wrote together, Chris left, Ben joined, we wrote together, now Kevin’s in and we write together. It just changes depending on who’s involved.
NC: What do you bring to a live show? You’re coming to the Great Scott [on March 2nd], what would you advertise it as?
MP: We’re a pretty loud band. We like to play loud and jam and groove off stuff. This tour is pretty cool, because we’ll be playing stuff from every album since our first one [Immaculada] in 2010. A lot of the stuff we play, we haven’t played in a long time. We’ve got keys, a couple guitars going, it’ll just be a good rock ‘n roll show.
NC: So your first album was all self-produced?
MP: For our first proper LP, we were a three-piece at the time. We recorded it at our buddy Will’s house in Massachusetts, we put it out ourselves. 500 copies on vinyl. We made the LP jackets ourselves, screened both sides with artwork, so we had to cut them all to size and glue them all together by hand, it was a fuckin’ nightmare. To be honest, I’d never do it again. Then from there, Sacred Bones [record label] got involved on the next album.
NC: So how did that transpire that they picked you up?
MP: Caleb [Braaten, founder of Sacred Bones] is around in Brooklyn, he lives nearby, he was at the time working at Academy Records, which was a record store in Brooklyn. I’d go in there all the time with our records to ask if they would sell them or take a copy for the store or something. One of our buddies who worked there would always buy records, he’d buy five copies of Immaculada or demos from before, and we all kind of knew about each other. And then he’s just like “Hey man, I’ll put out your next record.” It just kind of went from there. It’s grown tremendously from that moment in time, but it’s based off that initial friendship.
Below, listen to “Pearly Gates” off their upcoming LP Tomorrow’s Hits.