Prior to their headlining gig at The Bowery Ballroom, I got to sit down with Marty E., at one of his favorite Indian restaurants over on East 6th Street. Over a steady soundtrack of India-pop, Bangra, and Bollywood delights, and a couple of plates of curry I got the story in all it’s uncensored glory.

MARTY E.: The samosas are excellent.

CN: Are they?

ME: Oh, yeah.

CN: I haven’t gotten into mine yet.

ME: You gotta get into that.

CN: Alright. So Marty…

ME: Yeah.

CN: I want to talk about your band.

ME: That’s my favorite subject.

CN: You don’t say? You’re such a marketing whore with your band.

ME: Well, ya know.

CN: It’s amazing.

ME: If you’re not gonna do it, who the hell is? You know what I mean?

ME: That, and I woke up on a girlfriend’s floor after New Year’s Eve ‘99/2000, and I said, “Alright, I’m alive. Time to move to New York.”

CN: You might as well.

ME: Mmmm-hhmmmm.

CN: What was the first job you had when you moved here?

ME: Let me think. First job I had… Well, I think I was working as a temp for a lot of different places. I worked for everything from a Japanese pharmaceutical companies to an organization that’s from the Methodist church, I think, that sent missionaries (not the position), like all over the world to feed the hungry and the save the whales…. (No, I’m kidding about the whales part.) But, yeah, I called it The God Squad, and I don’t think they liked me too much. But, I showed up for work, which is more than most people can say. So, it was alright. It was in Harlem there, by Columbia and all that shit. I remember when used to always take the train up there, I’d be delirious because I’d be hung over, right? And I was listening to that album that was, that At The Drive In that came out then that had a lot of weird sound effects on it that used to harmonize with the sound of the subway train when it would pull up. Whenever I listen to that it takes me back to being deliriously tired and in this big new place and not knowing what the hell’s going on. So yeah…jobs, jobs, jobs.

CN: It’s always interesting to find out what musicians do to get by in New York when they are trying to be a musician.

ME: Yeah. You know, I had my hair pulled back in a ponytail and I had the, you know, button-up shirt tucked into these fucking crappy pants.

CN: I could never imagine that look on you.

ME: [exhales heavily] Oh, god. It was a nightmare.

CN: [laughs]

ME: But you know, the only nightmare worse than that would have been going back home.

CN: True. When you leave home to come here…

ME: There is no going back.

CN: …cuz you know it’s going back with your tail between your legs and they’ll never let you live it down.

ME: Nope. Not that that’s reasonable, because nobody that wouldn’t let you live it down would have had the balls to make a move like that in the first place.

CN: Of course. But they never will shut up about it.

ME: Right.

CN: [laughs]

ME: That said, I don’t know. That was never an option, you know. Never concede to defeat, you know?

CN: When did you start playing drums?

ME: I started playing drums…

CN: No. When did you start banging on stuff. Let’s start with that.

ME: Why? Why, did somebody say something?

[both laugh hysterically]

CN: I didn’t say banging on people, I said, stuff…

ME: Well, we’d have to go way back to the mid-‘80s when I was a little kid I had a brother who—I come from a huge family. I have seven older brothers and one of my brothers played the drums. And I used to watch him and kind of be in awe. And somebody got me a little tin drum that I used to bang the hell out of. And I think my first memory as a kid was my mom was on the phone and I apparently wanted more of whatever I was eating, so I started banging on the table part of my highchair, which was made of steel or something like this, you know. BAM! BAM! BAM! Great noise it made. I’m still trying to replicate that noise with all the rock and roll I play, but I’ve never quite gotten there.

CN: [laughs] We’ll have to get you a big highchair to put on stage with your drum kit.

ME: Remember that band Cop Shoot Cop?

CN: Yeah.

ME: Their drummer was able to replicate that in some of his percussion gadgets there a little bit. Me, I’ll take the cowbell.

CN: [laughs]

ME: But anyway, I remember my mom being on the phone and she’s like, “Stop that!” And I said, “But why, Mom?” BAM! BAM! BAM! I knew from that moment on that I was destined towards astronomical success. [laughs]

CN: Destined to keep banging on stuff and annoying the shit out of people, huh?

ME: Oh, sure. Well, you want to decrease the annoyance factor with age, I think, you know?

ME: No, I just annoyed every teacher I had because I was obnoxious.

CN: Was?

[both laugh]

ME: Actually, I was a pretty good kid, believe it or not. I wasn’t nearly as obnoxious then as I am now.

CN: Really? So this is something you have cultivated with age…

ME: The older I get, the more obnoxious I’m gonna get, and it’s not gonna get any better.

[both laugh hysterically]

CN: Point taken.

ME: But the better I get at it, you know… It’s not how obnoxious you are, it’s how smart you are about being obnoxious. It’s about how eloquent you are about being obnoxious.

ME: It’s how you can make the people you’re annoying laugh their asses off.

CN: This is true.

ME: That’s comedy for you.

CN: This is true.

ME: [laughs] So yeah, but I mean, at the same time, my older brothers were bringing me home Black Sabbath records and Deep Purple records and KISS records and Rolling Stones and all that kind of shit, so, rock and roll kind of seeped into my brain at a very young age. And they would bring their girlfriends home…

CN: They didn’t seep into your brain…but…

ME: Oh yeah they did. My brothers would go out and I’d be six years old and my brothers would go out drinkin’ beer and leave these girls at the house, so I’d put KISS Alive II on and drum along with it and I’d have an audience.

CN: Oh. I thought you were older. I didn’t figure you were six.

ME: Well, I was a very cool looking six.

CN: I can imagine.

ME: I’m kidding.

CN: [laughs]

ME: I was a little dweeb.

CN: I need photos. [both laugh]

ME: There’s one on my MySpace.

CN: I’m gonna steal it and put it with the article. You watch. Marty’s gonna go home and take it down now.

[both laugh]

ME: That’ll actually raise my stock prices if you do that. I wasn’t always a big jerk, you know.

CN: So when did you actually start playing the drums? Was it in band at school?

ME: Well, yeah. I started in 5th grade. I was playing the snare drum, you know. And then they’d have me playing the timpani, the kettle drums, as some people like to call them.

CN: I was a band geek as well.

ME: I actually went to band camp.

CN: I did, too. We’re geeks. We are band geeks.

ME: Let me tell ya what, there were some babes at band camp.

CN: Makin’ out mad at band camp...

ME: Oh, hell yeah.

CN: [laughs]

ME: There was a flag girl from Michigan, [speaks very close and directly into microphone], "if you’re out there, baby, god bless your heart." We actually, it was a, the band camp was some place in Wisconsin. Her dorm was at one end and mine was at the other. My friends and I would gather in our room with our binoculars and go, “Yeah, that’s my girl right up there.” “That’s mine over there.” Except, I wasn’t lying.

CN: Ohhhh….

ME: Yep. Yep.

CN: You hear that, guys? You were called out.

ME: You fuckin’ bullshitters.

[both laugh]

ME: Anyway. This girl was really tall, and I remember one night after all the festivities of the day, we were, you know, happened to have a parting of ways, and from one of the dorms somebody was blasting Color Me Badd “I Want to Sex You Up”.

CN: Oh, no.

ME: Oh, it was awesome…[both laugh] One of those Wonder Years moments, you know? [both laugh] You can never go back into that again, you know?

CN: No, no.

ME: I don’t want to, either.

CN: Hopefully you didn’t have the hairdos they had.

ME: Oh, no. I had the, uh, you know how some people had mullets? Well I had that for a while, too, but then I had the shaved underneath, the skater look. I had that. I never skated, though, because I was afraid of breaking my arms and not being able to play drums. Although, maybe Def Leppard might have been looking for a drummer or something.

CN: [whispering] Marty...

ME: What? Hey. Rick Allen from Def Leppard is a damn good drummer. God bless him.

CN: This is true. So, you did the band thing.

ME: And then I got a kit. I finally got my own kit. And right away, I mean, my brother had shown me the basics, and he realized it came naturally to me. I was playing along with Guns’N’Roses and Motley Crue and a little Led Zeppelin here and there and Cinderella and you know, some AC/DC and god knows what. You know? Probably a lot of bands that were in the scene that you had here—I played along to Throbs albums.

CN: Really?

ME: Oh, sure. Absolutely. I played along to Kill for Thrills albums. Well, they were L.A., but, anything I liked that I could play along with, I would. You know, because I figured it was the best way to learn and the best way to spend an afternoon.

CN: So you like that sleazy kind of rock and roll?

ME: Oh, who woulda thunk it? [laughs]

CN: And I think you told me you like the Hanoi Rocks a little bit…

ME: I love Hanoi Rocks. I mean, bands were formed because of Hanoi Rocks, you know? Many friendships are forged because of Hanoi Rocks. I remember reading in an interview, I was actually talking with my buddy Acey Slade the other day about this, because he loves Hanoi Rocks, and apparently, when Skid Row were kind of about to make it, like Sebastian Bach was at a show somewhere in L.A. at the Forum or something, behind the soundboard, and Axl showed up. And he was too nervous to talk to Axl. But Axl came up to him and he said, “Hey Sebastian, I hear you’re into Hanoi Rocks.”

CN: Yeah. Axl re-issued all the Hanoi Rocks records.

ME: Yeah, the first four on Uzi/Suicide. That’s awesome. I bought them all. And I still have them. I mean, Sami’s (Yaffa, Hanoi Rocks’ bassist) a good buddy of mine. He’s great.

CN: Yeah. Talk about that. How did you meet Sami?

ME: How did I meet Sami? When I moved here, I wanted to go out and do stuff and I found out that none other than Sami Yaffa has got a band called MadJuana. And I’m like, “I gotta go check this out.” And I did and I thought they were awesome, he and his wife, Carmen. And uh, they were a little more of a, MadJuana were a little more of a sort of an electronica band almost back then. Not electronica, but more trip-hop-y, I guess I’d say, you know, a little bit. They had this guy named Wiley playing drums and he had some pads back there, and uh, anyway, I starting going to their shows and kind of became friends. And then, uh, I always wanted to share a bill with the guy, ya know? And well, I got to. He’s in the New York Dolls now and we opened up for the Dolls at Irving Plaza in December, there. (But I’m getting ahead of myself…) But uh, yeah. He’s a class dude.

ME: Well, I guess I’ve been able to meet a lot of my idols and I usually stay pretty at ease with myself, you know. Cuz you don’t want to appear uncool.

CN: Obviously.

ME: I mean, I met Joe Strummer at Three of Cups one time, you know? And uh, he was really gracious. I don’t know. I find usually that people that you’ve, when you meet the people that you’ve looked up to your whole life, more often than not, they’re really cool. They live up to, they live up to the way the idea in your head, at least my idea in my head. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, though. But yeah, I suppose it was kind of weird being new in town and, you know, getting to be kind of friends with the dude who kind of used to be a poster on my wall. You know?

ME: It’s awesome.

CN: They’re more approachable here, I think, and in a different fashion, than they are in L.A.

ME: I think life, in general, is more approachable here than it is in L.A. One of the reasons is because we’re, everything is so compact. We’re packed like sardines, and we don’t have cars, most of us, and uh… I mean, I live L.A., don’t get me wrong, but New York’s got its, like, coolness was invented here. They just do their own interpretation of it there. There ‘s two kinds of cool in L.A.: there’s the cool where you think you’re too cool to talk to people, and there’s the kind where you think you’re too cool not to. And I’m of the latter ilk. [laughs]

CN: That’s a good way to be.

ME: I hope so.

CN: Who are you biggest drum influences?

ME: Well, geez. How many hours do we have here? Um, I like, obviously, John Bonham. I like Ian Paice from Deep Purple. I like Charlie Watts a lot. I like Jerry Nolan from New York Dolls. He’s a huge influence on my style. A little bit of Chad Smith from The Chili Peps, I think he’s world-class and awesome.

CN: And he hits really hard, too.

ME: Well… And I’ll take Keith Moon, too. Another one, who said, [imitating Keith Moon voice] “To get the maximum sound off the drums, hit the drums harder.” [laughs] Tommy Lee, of course. Um, you can say what you want about his sort of high-falutin’ ways, but he’s a great drummer, great style, great feel, and that’s what it’s all about, ya know? Geez. I mean, I could go on. Jimmy Chamberlain from the (Smashing) Pumpkins is world class, you know? I mean, I used to play along with Appetite for Destruction all the time, and people can talk all they want about Steven Adler, whatever…but the way he made that album feel and sort of swing and groove, ya know, was something that was innate, probably in his style and his character. And they were never able to replicate that, you know, not after he left the band. It’s just something in there. Some sort of dirty bump and grind in there that really makes that music so different. I think that was an ingredient of that music that made it special as much as anything else. So that’s a definite influence. I could go on for hours.

CN: So when you got your first kit, what was your first attempt at getting together with other people to do a band?

ME: Well, a buddy of mine named Mark, who is a really funny guy, and I put together a band called The Dead Goatheads.

CN: The Dead Goatheads…

ME: Yes.

CN: Is there any other kind of goat head?

ME: Well, if the goat head is attached to the goat, maybe it’s a live goat head.

CN: I was thinking more along the lines of Goat Head Soup.

ME: Oh. You know, I never thought of that. That’s really… That’s good. I like that. Um… We used to do really bad covers of Agent Orange. Remember that band Agent Orange? We used to do a song called “Bite The Hand That Feeds” over and over again. And we did “Pipeline”. And we would attempt originals that were sort of thrash/punk. We sucked. I mean, it was terrible. But, you know, the idea of what being any good was about was there, we just weren’t good at replicating it.

CN: You didn’t have the chops yet.

ME: Uh-mmm. So, yeah, they kind of moved on from there.

CN: And when did you finally get the chops and start getting people together that you could finally play with?

ME: Oh, that was when I was in college. Right when I started college I uh, started playing in bands. I had a punk band called Voodoo Love Mint. Terrible name, I know.

CN: [laughs hysterically]

ME: But it wasn’t my idea. I always hated it. Um, for three years I was in that band.

CN: That’s a serious name, Voodoo Love Mint?

ME: I don’t want you to print that. But anyway…

CN: It’s going in. I’m sorry. [still laughing]

ME: Oh, yeah. That’s fine. Believe me. There’s a lot of friends back home that are laughing right along with you. That being said though, we were a good band. We were sort of a Husker Du kind of a band, you know?

CN: Of course. That band is a big influence back in that area where you’re from. Of course.

ME: And um, we did alright. I was the big man on campus for it. You know, one of ‘em…and I, you know, had a bunch of shit going on, playing sort of regionally in the upper Midwest and stuff like that.

CN: Right.

ME: And it kind of went on from there.

CN: To New York?

ME: Mmm-hmmmm.

CN: Did you play with anybody before you had The Dirty Pearls?

ME: Mmm-hmmm. Sure. I played in other bands around there, too, but we don’t need to get into that. But uh, yeah, I came to New York and uh, my friend Brandon hooked me up with a guy named Danny and I played in a band called The Slags for about a year and a half.

CN: I remember them.

ME: That was where I met Brian. And then Brian and I—Brian joined Queen V with Eric and then Eric and Brian and I formed the Sex Slaves, which are still together now, with a radically different line-up, but, you know. So, uh, I did that and that kind of splintered after a while, you know. And then I was kind of dormant for a while. I played in a band called The Union Dead, that are actually based in Philly.

CN: The Union Dead?

ME: Yeah. Look it up on MySpace. (myspace.com/theuniondead) It’s pretty awesome shit. Kind of imagine The Misfits meets the Dolls.

CN: Sounds like fun.

ME: It’s a vile good time, let me tell you.

CN: [laughs]

ME: And that kind of blew up. I mean, blew out—it didn’t happen. And while I was doing that, Tommy (London, The Dirty Pearls vocalist) had kind of been talking for a while, and Johnny (B., guitarist), too. After I left The Sex Slaves, our friend Dawn, who you might know, gave him my number and she gave me his number. And we had been kind of talking back and forth, and Johnny, too, was talking with Tommy and it took years, but finally, as The Union Dead, it’s great to be tooling back and forth from Philly all the time, but why don’t I just go down the street and play here too instead of just playing once a week? Why don’t I do as much as I can?

CN: Right.

ME: And so I looked on Craigslist in the Musicians Wanted ads and I saw an ad that said, “Aerosmith meets Wolfmother,” right? “Looking for Rock’N’Roll Drummer”. And I went, “DY-NO-MITE!!!” I’m like, “I’m gettin’ this gig.” So I send an email, “I’m Marty E., I was in The Sex Slaves,” yadda, dada, dada… “I rule. I twirl my sticks. I hit hard. When do you want to jam?” You know? And he writes me back, “You fucking nerd. I’ve asked you to jam 12 times. You never did. Are you coming, or what?” Or something to that effect.

CN: [laughs]

ME: And I said, “Yeah.” So I did, and it was me and Johnny and Tommy and another bass player and another guitar player. So, it was the start of something really good, but right after we got through two or three rehearsals the bass player quit, which was too bad because I really liked his 8-track collection. He had an awesome 8-track collection… And so, we were missing a bass player and looking for a bass player, and the other guitar player said, “I know a bass player and a drummer package, so let’s nix E. and get these guys.” And Tommy said, “No. Not only are we not gonna nix E., but we are gonna nix you.”

CN: Oh…

ME: So, I went to see Tommy at his bar that night and he said, “I have some good news and I have some bad news.” And I said, “Well, alright, let’s give up the bad news.” And he said, “Well, our guitar player is gone.” And I said, “I thought you were gonna give me the bad news first.” [grins] So the three of us, basically were on our own for a while just jamming stuff out and writing songs and things like that. We had another bass player for a while, he quit. And then we got Richie (White, guitarist). So we had Johnny and Richie on guitar. I found out Richie was available and he and I had talked for years—Richie used to play in Drag Citizen with Nick Vivid, which was a good band—and slowly kind of cajoled him into joining the band. And then about a month later Johnny found out about this genius bass player moving into town from Salt Lake City and got his number from a friend, and uh, about half an hour after his plane touched down on the runway at LaGuardia Tommy was on the horn with him saying, “Come jam with us.” [laughs] And he did, you know. And he played two of our songs right along with us and we didn’t have to stop the songs—two of ‘em—cuz he just has that, you know, innate, natural ability to just play. He’s such a brilliant bass player. So finally, we were complete. All five pieces of the puzzle. All five corners of the Pentagon.

CN: The Pentagon or the Pentagram?

ME: Hhhmmmm. Hey, we’re not religious.

CN: Let me see…are we taking over the world or are we destroying it one piece at a time? Both?

ME: Yeah, absolutely.

CN: So what was the first gig you played as The Dirty Pearls?

ME: We played at, let me see here… We played at Arlene’s Grocery.

CN: You have it on a dog tag around your neck?

ME: Uh-hhmmm. Oh, yeah.

CN: No way. [Checking the many tags on the chain around his neck.] Are each one of these dog tags a gig you’ve played?

ME: Yeah. Tommy started that tradition. It was May 13th, 2007, I think. Arlene’s Grocery. We sold the fucker out.

CN: Really.

ME: Some of my friends are sending me text messages while I’m getting ready to play going, “Dude, I can’t get in.” And I’m like, “Well, there is the window.”

CN: [laughs] That little tiny window in the bar, right?

ME: Yeah. Uh-huh. So, I knew we were onto something. And not too long after that we played at Snitch. And I’ll never forget this as long as I live... We pulled up to Snitch in a cab. I mean, they had house kit there so I just had my cymbals and my snare and whatnot, and there was a line outside to get in. And I’m like, “Wow. There’s something going on here.” You know? I mean, largely, at the beginning, I think it was due to Tommy’s following. You know, that kind of gave us our jumpstart. But the fact that we’ve been doing so well kind of got people that I know from down here going, “What the hell is going on here?” So we wound up getting those two factions in there. And it just built and built and built. You know?

CN: Now you’ve got quite a few dog tags around your neck there, already.

ME: I do. And I have a very illustrious collection and colorful collection of dog tags.

CN: And are the colorful ones special ones?

ME: Yeah. Um…

CN: Which one is the gold one?

ME: This one is our first headlining show at the Bowery Ballroom, which was on October 4th of ’08. Let’s see, I know the green one here is very Christmas-y. It was when we played with Twisted Sister at the Nokia Theatre. We did two shows with them last December. And this one is my favorite. What is this, purple?

CN: The purple one…

ME: The purple one is my favorite one because this is, uh, with the New York Dolls at Irving Plaza. [laughs]

CN: [laughs] I kind of figured that’s what it was.

ME: Now if you would have told me when I moved here that there would even have been a New York Dolls to open for, I would have told you you were nuts.

CN: Right.

ME: But there was, and it’s probably the best party I’ve ever been to, ya know?

CN: And how was that experience?

ME: I’ll be honest with you, it wasn’t just the fact that we did that and that it was a sold out crowd at Irving Plaza, and it wasn’t only because it was with the Dolls, but it was that we won that crowd over. And I mean, if there is any rock and roll institution from New York that I find the most respectful, it’s the New York Dolls and their fans, you know? And I don’t think it was necessarily an easy crowd. Like, I said, we played with Bret Michaels the other weekend, those were easy crowds. And god bless them, I love them, but the thing is, it’s not one versus the other, you have to kick ass either way. You know, if it’s an easy crowd, you have to make yourself worthy of their love, and if it’s a tough crowd, you have to win them over. And there’s nothing like winning over a tough crowd like that. And that night we did. I mean, we got through playing our favorite song, usually the last song of our set, it’s called “New York City Is A Drug”, and the response that we got was really overwhelming for me. I was freaking out backstage—you can ask my band—for about half an hour afterward. It was an emotional high that I had never really felt before, you know?

CN: So tell me about some of The Dirty Pearls songs.

ME: Well, “New York City Is A Drug” is sort of our anthem. Our show that we’re playing at the Bowery Ballroom on April 25th is partially based on that song. We’re gonna have special t-shirts for it and all that kind of thing, which you’ll see, that have a unique little design on it that Tommy and I sort of came up with on a napkin one night. And it’s a really special song because we love New York City a lot and we find it very addictive, and it’s sort of, you know, juxtaposing New York with drugs. I don’t mean to sound sophisticated or anything, and I’m sure that I don’t, but, it’s symbolism at its finest. What can I say? And it’s a catchy tune, ya know? I play a nice little drum beat on there… Oh, Bun E. Carlos from Cheap Trick, favorite living drummer, you know, I rip him off like, profusely, in this song.

CN: Do you, now?

ME: Oh, yeah. Our band’s lawyer said that I’m Bun E. Carlos meets Rikki Rocket. [laughs hysterically]

CN: That’s interesting.

ME: Yeah. And I take it as a compliment. Thank you, sir. But anyway… Um, so there’s that song, and I like that song a lot. What other songs do we have? Oh, we have a kick-ass song called “Bruises”.

CN: I was listening to that one earlier.

ME: Yeah. That song makes you want to beat the hell out of a mule. I don’t know what that means, but I wanted to say it. [both laugh hysterically] And that’s really good, ya know? We’ve got some weird songs like, Johnny wrote a song called “Ventilator Avenue”, which is about, as we say in the song, the hottest day of the summer and not caring about anything and missing your girl, or whatever. I don’t know why it’s “Ventilator Avenue” though. I always kind of thought that it could mean one of two things, either you’re in front of an air conditioner that doesn’t work. Or what I always kind of thought was this Tom Waits kind of imagery where you’re walking down the street and there’s a piece of a car, you know, on the sidewalk and you’re wondering where the hell that came from… I don’t know. All these images kind of come to mind. I sort of, it’s kind of how I look at life, I guess, is whatever pictures come into my mind I just blurt it out. Um, we have a really catchy tune that Tommy wrote before I was even in the band called “Happy New Year” that is always a crowd-pleaser with our fans and stuff. Geez, I could go on and on about tunes. I love ‘em all. We have a song that we haven’t recorded yet called “You’re Not My Lady” that I like a lot.

CN: Really.

ME: “You’re not my lady, but you can stay if you want to…”

CN: You were telling me about that at Three of Cups the other night.

ME: Yeah, that’s a good song.

CN: Now what inspired that one, Marty?

ME: Well, I think Tommy brought that one in, but it’s kind of about some of our lives.

CN: Uh-huh. No. You think?

ME: [laughs] I have sung that to girls and had them get mad at me, literally…

CN: [rolls eyes] I wonder why…

ME: …and not talk to me for a whole week.

CN: [laughs hysterically]

ME: You think I’m kidding?

CN: [still laughing] No. I don’t think you’re kidding at all.

ME: I’m telling you the truth.

CN: [still laughing] Why, what are the lyrics?

ME: “You’re not my lady, but you can stay if you want to.” What the hell else more do you need to say than that? You know?

CN: True.

ME: I mean, I could sing it for you right now, if I can remember the fucking words. My favorite lyric in it is “you’re the wrong girl/ right time/ coal miner’s gold mine”. [laughs hysterically]

CN: Oh, man! [giggles]

ME: Yeah. Those are Tommy’s. It’s brilliant. [laughs hysterically]

CN: Oh, man, that is kind of harsh.

ME: Well, not necessarily. It’s not that it’s harsh, he’s not singing from someone who’s necessarily thinking very highly of himself or anything. He’s not saying he’s the coolest thing in the world.

CN: But then again, there are women who feel the same way about guys, so…

ME: Oh, I’m sure there are. I’m sure I’m friends with most of them! [both laugh hysterically] Matter of fact, you might have seen me with one last night!

CN: Oh my goodness. Shhhh….

ME: Hey, my favorite David Lee Roth quote, well I have a lot of them, but this is my favorite one right now. He was getting the key to the city of Boston or something, right? And he says, “You know, getting the key to the city is a lot like being a member of the family. And I’m very oriented towards family. As a matter of fact, I think I might have started one last night.” [laughs]

CN: Ohhhh. Leave it to Dave.

ME: Right, man.

CN: He’s a character.

ME: Absolutely.

CN: He’s always got like, the vaudeville line for anything.

ME: Oh, the way my whole delivery and like, this kind of shit, is very, very influenced by Dave. I’m not just a drummer, you know.

CN: I’m not just the drummer, I actually look like one on TV.

ME: [chuckles] People don’t think I look like a drummer, usually.

CN: No, I didn’t think you were the drummer when I first met you, actually.

ME: I call myself the rhythm singer. [chuckles]

CN: The rhythm singer? [giggles] That’s…pretty much, you do act like you have the lead singer disease, man.

ME: If anybody in the band has it, I do.

CN: It’s because it’s about you all the time. Yeah. It’s the Marty E. show.

ME: Well…

CN: I thought you were the lead singer for the longest time, until I looked it up on the CD.

ME: Well that’s cool. We all have really strong personalities in our band, I just happen to—well, Tommy and I are the big-mouths, you know? And we play that role and we enjoy it. I love it, you know?

CN: Now if Tommy could play drums and you guys could switch back and forth, that would be awesome.

ME: Yeah. That ain’t gonna happen.

CN: Nah. You like your drum stool, huh?

ME: Well, you know, it’s not that. I have a side thing that I sing for, you know, with Brian (Burke, guitarist from The Slags, myspace.com/lonesomefools). It’s not a real big deal. It’s just sort of an acoustic Simon and Garfunkel on crack kind of thing, [I start laughing] called The Lonesome Fools. And you can check it out online. We write songs about important things: girls.

CN: Girls? And beer and girls?

ME: No, we don’t sing about beer.

CN: No?

ME: No. I mean, I drink a lot of fucking beer, but, no.

CN: Just girls.

ME: Mostly girls, and specific girls. Each song that we wrote is about somebody.

CN: Ohhh… Okay.

ME: And ah, when we first got together, it was like, we were both fresh out of break-ups and were kind of re-acquainting ourselves with this beautiful population that we have here. [leans closely into the mic] "And I love each and every one of you…" [makes a very coy face] But anyway… [both laugh hysterically] You think I’m kidding? I’m not. But we would go back to his house and, you know, with whatever, you know, alcohol and girl we had in mind and just, you know, write a song. And sometimes, if I was comfortable enough with the girl, I’d record it on my voice-recorder on my phone and I’d send it to her and go, “This is for you.” So there are some really crude, 5am fucked-up recordings of Brian and I playing early, early versions of these songs out there, somewhere.

CN: It would be actually nice to take them off your voice-recorder and play you drunkenly singing it at the beginning of the song, so it sounds like an old blues player, and then actually go into the song.

ME: Right. Right. Actually, I do have them on my external hard drive. I was able to email them all to myself. So yeah, we do that. We don’t get together real often, you know, or anything, but it’s kind of an outlet for me to sing a little bit, you know, and sing about stuff that means a lot to me and everything.

CN: Girls.

ME: Girls. Yeah. I mean, most of the Pearls songs are about girls, too, I guess, or a lot of them are, you know?

CN: That name, The Dirty Pearls. Tell me about it.

ME: Well, Tommy came up with that one, again, and he just thought it would be a good name for a team.

CN: For a team?

ME: You know, the five guys in our band. We could have easily called ourselves The Rusty Nuts. [I laugh] But you don’t want to go see them.

CN: No, probably not.

ME: But you do want to see the Pearls, though, don’t you?

CN: I guess I’m gonna have to, yeah.

ME: Yep. But you know, we get a lot of people asking us questions about the name, but if they didn’t ask, then we must be doing something wrong. Correct? There’s definitely something cool about that. What else ya got for me?

CN: Let me get out the mindbenders.

ME: [looking at page with writing on it] Are those all for me?

CN: No. [laughs] Let’s see. What disciplines other than music inspire you?

ME: I like English poetry a lot.

CN: Yes?

ME: Mm-hmm. When I was in school, I used to study the 19th century English Romance writers, Shelley, Lord Byron, Wordsworth, Keats, all that shit. Ode On A Grecian Urn, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”, all that bullshit? I love it.

CN: I love Lord Byron.

ME: Yeah. He was the first rock star, wasn’t he.

CN: He absolutely was.

ME: So I like that a lot. I like Bukowski a lot. I like Henry Miller a lot. I like the Beat era, obviously, you know?

CN: Kerouac, Ginsberg…

ME: Oh, yeah, all that shit, you know. Sort of very, I don’t know, their approach to language and everything was really very musical. I enjoy that. But of course, well, it’s like Keith Richard said though. He said, “I don’t think about art when I write a song because to me art is just short for Arthur. But call it what you like.” [laughs] I like art, too, you know, but, every time I go to an art gallery opening I drink the drinks and I look at the stuff and people say, “How do you like it?” And I say, “Well, I know that I like this and I know that I like this, but I don’t know anything about art.” But I do know what I like. As cliché as it is, sometimes it’s great to admire something that you don’t know anything about. You know what I mean? And just be, just kind of stupidly admire it. So, yeah, variety is the spice of life.

CN: You are actually the first musician who has known what I have meant by that question.

ME: Oh, well I try to carry a distinction, you know.

CN: You’d be surprised the answers I get to that.

ME: Why, what do they usually say?

CN: Never mind. I actually had to add the word “artistic” into the question…

ME: Well, I like to hang out with pretty girls and catch a good movie. I think that Seinfeld is an artistic discipline all its own.

CN: A-hem…

ME: [laughs] Sorry.

CN: [I give him a stern look of consternation]

ME: I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley... Leslie Nielsen, there, yes.

CN: Surely, you jest.

ME: “Shirley, you can’t be serious!”

CN: Right.

ME: Well, hey. We don’t all have to like all the same things all the time, you know?

CN: The only thing I loved about that show was Kramer, obviously.

ME: I have—my band thinks I’m Kramer.

CN: [laughs] Wow. That says a lot.

ME: At least they don’t think I’m fucking George.

CN: Or Elaine.

ME: Well, no…

CN: No, that would be scary.

ME: Yeah. Or Newman. I think he’s hilarious. He’s my favorite. [in overdone radio announcer voice] You heard it here first, folks. Marty E.’s favorite Seinfeld character is Newman.

[both laugh]

CN: Alright. Now here we go… Which of your musical influences would you most like to meet, or have met, if they are deceased, and why?

ME: It meant a lot to me to meet the ole Strummer. Um, that was really, really cool. He was very gracious to me, you know? Of course, I was an idiot. I told him that The Clash song “Gates of the West” meant a lot to me, but I think that’s a Mick Jones song.

CN: I’m not talking about who you have met. Who would you like to meet.

ME: Who would I like to meet?

CN: Yes.

ME: Oh, I’d like to have some—I’d like to go out drinking with John Bonham some time. That would be great. I would like to go out drinking with me, Jerry Nolan, Keith Moon—you know, have a drummers’ night out. I think I could learn a lot of shit. How would that be? Ah, who else? Um, god, there’s so many, you know? But I’d say that would be my—oh yeah, and Razzle from Hanoi Rocks. Throw him in there, too. I think we would have a ball.

CN: You probably would.

ME: The five drumstateers.

CN: That would be a rager.

ME: Oh, that would be good, yeah. I’d probably be the first to go home.

CN: That would be a rager.

ME: You could ask me about the movie I did last summer, if you want.

CN: I will. [super exuberant voice] Marty! Tell me about that movie you did last summer!

ME: Well, it just so happens I wound up in a film last summer that’s coming out the same night as my Bowery show, April 25th at the Newport Beach Film Festival out in California. So it’s like, I get to be in two places at once, except I don’t get to go to that. (Newport Beach Film Fest)

CN: So, all you people in L.A., you have to go to Newport Beach to see Marty since you can’t be in New York at the show.

ME: That’s right. And I mean, I’m kind of sorry that I’m missing it, but hey, I’ve been praying my whole life for these problems, what can I tell you?

CN: It could be worse.

ME: But yeah, I play a drummer in a band who’s a wise-ass, and um…

CN: Typecasting?

ME: Pretty much. Yeah. Tailor-made role for me. And uh, I get to smoke a spliff on camera with Peter Fonda.

CN: Awesome.

ME: He’s a good buddy of mine.

CN: He is now.

ME: He and I are good friends. He’s a really cool guy. He is 100% cool. He pretty much invented coolness. He’s everything that you’d expect him to be. He’s sincere and cool and, you know, confident, and so good with a story he makes me shut up.

CN: Really?

ME: Mmm-hmmm.

CN: That I’d like to see. [laughs] He makes you stutter?

ME: No. Nobody makes me stutter. Well,.. I’ve met a couple girls that have made me stutter.

CN: I was wondering. I was just waiting for that. Every once in a while there will be a girl that will make me stutter. But it was really cool. Basically, it was like going to rock’n’roll summer camp, you know, and making good friends with everyone on the set. You know, the director was a drummer too, so we bonded over that. And the guy who co-wrote the movie, my friend Jason, who sings for a band called Handful of Dust, he played the bass player in the film. He co-wrote it and got me involved in it. And a young actor named Kevin Zegers has the lead role, and uh, Jason Ritter, who happens to be John Ritter’s son is in it. Taryn Manning is in it, and Peter Fonda, of course, and my buddy Jason and myself. It’s about a rock’n’roll band, and I really loved it a lot.

CN: So, Marty wants to do more film, huh?

ME: I do. If I have time, yeah. That’s another artistic discipline I have that sort of inspires the rock’n’roll, and is also about the rock’n’roll, and is fueled by rock’n’roll.

CN: It’s true.

ME: It’s called The Perfect Age Of Rock’N’Roll, and I want you to see it. I don’t know when it’s gonna come to New York, but I will let you know.

CN: Okay. Let’s see… What gear do you use in the studio and what gear do you use live?

ME: In the studio, I use whatever they throw at me. Usually the engineer knows best in the studio and I say, “Allllllllright.” I give them some specifics, I guess, about what kind of sound I’m looking for and we go from there. But, I’ve played in all different kinds of studios and I’ll bring my own cymbals and I’ll bring my own snare drum or whatever, but they usually have a kit set up in there that’s right for that particular environment. And I usually don’t fuss too much over it. Although, you know, we’re hopefully looking at making a full-length album this year, and I might be a little fussier about that. Live, right now, I’m kind of playing a Bonzo kit. I have a D drum kit. Not a real expensive kit, but it’s a maple wood kit, and I have a HUGE 18” x 26” kick drum, and I have one 14” rack and I have one 16” and 18” floors, and it sounds HUGE. It’s big like my band’s got a big personality. It’s gotta have a back, the foundation of which is laid upon the fucking drums.

CN: You’ve just got to hit them harder.

ME: Yep. You have to hit them really hard. They take a lot out of you. Big drums and a big audience can take a lot out of you. You’ve got to take your vitamins. [laughs]

CN: And then with all that hanging out with the girls, Marty needs his vitamins.

ME: What are you talking about?

[both laugh]

CN: What would you say influenced the songwriting most on your CD?

ME: On our CDs? Well, I would say, probably, just the chemistry that we have between the five of us probably does. That, and um, somebody’s sparkle of an idea, you know, bouncing off the rest of us, and usually very quickly turning into something that we think is pretty monumental, I guess. You know, it’s like Bruce (Springsteen) once saying, “You can’t start a fire without a spark.” [laughs hysterically] So, I guess it’s fueled by, somebody has an idea and the rest of us make it go into fruition. I think it has to do with ambition. And I think we’re also all naturals, you know. We’ve been doing this a long time, so making good songs is something that we’ve, not to say, gotten accustomed to, but gotten good at, just from being here for so long. I mean, doing what we do, I’d say the environment surrounding us here in New York, the whole frantic, furious sort of pace, it kind of developed into our lifestyle, though.

CN: [laughs]

ME: It’s sort of, um, plays into it very largely, you know? I mean, it would be a lot different if you were in Lincoln, Nebraska or something, you know?

CN: Yeah.

ME: I usually think that everything that I do, sort of, has a key in the music I make and how I play it and how I approach it, you know? Everything. And everything is for that, you know? At least I hope so. [laughs]

CN: You hope. You hope.

ME: Hey, you’ve gotta have that.

CN: I asked you, who of your influences you wanted to meet, and this is a variation, but a different question.

ME: Okay.

CN: If you had the chance to sit down and interview anyone, living or dead, who would you choose, and why? It doesn’t have to be musical. It can be anyone.

ME: I’d like to hang out and have drinks with Charles Bukowski and Tom Waits at the same time.

CN: And interview them?

ME: Yeah.

CN: At the same time?

ME: Yeah. I think that would be a great conversation.

CN: It probably would. It would be pretty twisted.

ME: Not necessarity twisted. Not in a sordid sort of way, necessarily—I mean, I’m sure there would be the twisted parts, but I’m sure there would also be a real lesson in purity and conviction and inspiration and all that cool shit, you know?

CN: I’m just saying, knowing how their minds work…

ME: Oh, that would be fucking awesome!

CN: That’s what I mean, yeah.

ME: Well, both of them are sort of very influential on me—well, musically, I guess, too, because everything is, musically. I mean, the sound of your turn signal in a car, [imitates the beat of the sound], you know, you hear a rhythm there. I remember reading a book, Iggy Pop’s autobiography, I think it’s called I Need More, where he’s talking about the same thing. I think it might be kind of a—I don’t know, he’s from the Midwest, too, so maybe there’s something to that. But Tom Waits, I know, thinks the same way, too. You can hear rhythm in anything. Or you can hear a song in anything. I mean, I hear songs all over the place in my head, you know? But, um, I think Bukowski was the same way, in his approach to writing and everything like that. He just wrote whatever he felt, you know? And I think that’s beautiful.

CN: I think he was a great observer of life and people in their purest essence. Waits is that way with his lyrics, a lot of times.

ME: And Waits is definitely influenced by Bukowski, you know? Separately. I don’t know. I think it would be great to polish a case of wine with Henry Miller in his van in Paris or something. That would be great. You know? I mean, I talked about my five drummers’ night out. That would be great. I’ve got to think. There’s something I’m missing, but I can’t think of what it is right now. I don’t know. I’d like to go on a date with a young Brigitte Bardot.

CN: There you go.

ME: Oh, yeah! That was what I was missing!

CN: That was what you were missing?

ME: Yeah.

CN: What is your greatest fear, Marty?

ME: My greatest fear is not being able to do everything I could. And sort of, I guess, I fear failure. But more than failure, it’s just I like to do—I mean, one of the reasons why, I mean, like you said before, I’m always out there peddling my wares, as it is, you know, or pimping my band, or whatever. But the thing is, the reason why I do that, not only because I like to enable myself, but also is because when you look in that mirror every day, (and I am a mirror-watcher, what can I tell you), I don’t like what I see if I haven’t done everything that I can do to get myself where I want to be, or my band, or whatever. All the things that I do, that I love, that, you know I spend my time doing comes from here [points to heart], and I believe in it. And if I haven’t done everything I possibly could to get it out there, then that’s a disappointment. So I guess, that’s my biggest fear, is that, somehow, I wasn’t able to do everything I could possibly do to make it happen.

CN: I understand. Let’s see. Who inspires you most right now?

ME: The cool midnight air.

CN: I said, “Who.”

ME: Oh, how could I personify that? I don’t know. Everybody I meet? It’s a tough question. I would say everybody who crosses my path who I have a good conversation with inspires me the most, you know? So, the last person I talked to… So I guess that’s you. [laughs]

CN: Thank you, Marty. [laughs]

ME: How’s that for an answer?

CN: Yay!

ME: Wow, you’re making me pull all this crap out of my head!

CN: I know. I told you I was going for the mindbenders.

ME: No, it’s great. I love it. I love being challenged, as long as it’s not vertically-challenged.

CN: No. We don’t like being vertically-challenged… What are you most grateful for at this point?

ME: I’m grateful for being able to do what I do. I mean, geez, ya know? The last year of my life has been awesome. I’m grateful to be able to be in a position where I can do it and to be able to make it as substantial and monumental a thing as I can, you know? I’m grateful that I can play in a band with four really great guys, you know? I’m grateful that I have a lot of friends that I love, you know? And I’m grateful that I live around the corner.

CN: Yeah, you lucked out and got that apartment.

ME: I did. I don’t know. I just feel very fortunate, you know? And I don’t take it for granted for one fucking minute, no matter how I seem in the bar. [laughs]