Formed back in 1985, the Mr. T Experience are one of the finest pop punk rock bands that have ever graced the planet. They were one of the bands that opened my eyes to more punk back in the 90’s and led me to check out more bands on the Lookout Records label. I’ve always been a huge fan and to get the news that they had a new record out, their first for 12 years, and it ties in with Dr. Frank’s novels was very welcome to my ears. Their latest record is called “King Dork Approximately” and is released in conjunction with the book, a new way of selling music. I was lucky enough to be able to through some questions over to the legend that is Frank Portman, aka Dr. Frank.
Hi Dr. Frank, first up have to say how much I love the new album and it’s great to have MTX back releasing music. I know you’ve been busy with your novel writing, but what have the band been upto in that last 12 years since “Yesterday Rules” came out?
Thanks very much. The band was basically in, well not hibernation exactly, but more like… storage. If it were a vehicle it’d have been registered “inoperable.” It’s no coincidence that during this time the entire music business, top to bottom, was basically inoperable as well. People stopped buying records, there was no easy way to pay for recording them, and all the usual ways people used to juggle and shuffle the debts to keep the rock and roll going for just a little bit longer had either disappeared or were a lot more challenging. In such situations, people go where the gigs are better and for me that was my writing career. I always wanted to get the band going again — and to do what I’m basically doing at present — but I never managed to make it happen till now.
The new LP “King Dork Approximately” is released in conjunction with your latest novel, what gave you the idea to release the album in this manner?
As I said before joining the rock and roll with the books has always been something I’d wanted to do. The novel writing and the songwriting are, especially in the case of the King Dork books, very closely connected to each other. So when the opportunity presented itself, and I had a band that was finally firing on all cylinders and raring to go, I finally got a chance to give it a try. Plus, the old ways of doing albums having disappeared, no one has quite figured out a good, new way. There’s no rule book anymore, so you might as well experiment.
There seems to have been a huge decline in music sales, is it now a case of trying to find new ways to release music and have you heard of any other artists trying this book tie in before?
Yes that’s a large part of it as I said above. I do know of musicians who have published books and written songs to go with them, yes; I don’t know of any bands who have done an album integrated with a novel to this degree. From what I can tell, when people do that kind of thing (songs with books) the music is very peripheral and comes off as an afterthought or a non-essential embellishment. In the past when I’ve done it myself it’s been that way. The idea here is that each “side” is as important as the other and they each support and develop the other, like if you leave out one element you’re not getting the whole picture. I don’t know if this approach absolutely new or unique, but it kind of feels that way.
Am I right in thinking there will be a vinyl release of the new album as well, is this planned for next year?
Yes, there are several phases of the release. Through January, outside of the two digital singles, the album will only be available through the book. Then in January there will be a general digital release. And the vinyl edition is scheduled for April 2017, with extra songs and such.
Is there a label involved in this release?
It started out as a totally self-organized thing, but as time went on I joined forces with Sounds Radical, the new project of Chris Thacker who used to run Insubordination Records.
With King Dork, is the story autobiographical at all?
Not directly, but the overall atmosphere of it does reflect an exaggerated take on a certain angle of my own experience.
Have you already got more novels in the pipeline?
I am working on a couple right now and I have many more planned. They take so long to write though, so I”m not sure how many of them I’ll get to in the end.
How was it getting back in the studio with MTX?
It was great. I and we are a lot more focused these days, and there’s something liberating about not having to a producer or a label second guessing you and arguing with you all the time. The band has never been better, and that helps.
What’s changed in the way you work as a band since the last record?
In many ways very little has changed. I’m still doing most of the same things I did fifteen or even thirty years ago. But I do have a bit of a different perspective I suppose. I feel less pressure to “make it big” than in past, for one thing. It sounds ridiculous to say it, but part of being in a rock band in age where rock music “mattered” culturally and commercially tended to give the little bands great big inferiority complexes. Like, if you’re not Green Day or whatever, you’ve got some explaining to do. What are you doing wrong, what’s the matter with ya, etc. Now that we’re all wading through the music business’s devastated, post-apocalyptic landscape, and rock and roll has lost its commercial and cultural place of primacy, the pressure’s off. It’s kind of liberating, and one thing you learn is once you’re broke, you can’t get much broker beyond a certain limit. It sucks that you have to scrounge around to do stuff for free, but once you get used to that, and choose your activities as carefully as you can, you get used to it.
The new record ties in with your new novel as well, are there any plans in place for more book/music tie-ins?
We’ll see. I’d like every album to have a novel (and more) every time, but it’s challenging to make it happen.
MTX have been around over 30 years now, when the band originally formed did you expect it to become such a long standing part of your life?
Absolutely not. It was really just fooling around in the beginning and that fooling around quality lasted for years and years and many albums.
Is there one album that you’re most proud of at all?
Not really. They all have their good points and flaws. I’m proud of the high points and embarrassed by the low points. The songwriting has gotten better and better (I think): that’s the thing I’m most proud of / relieved about.
What was the original inspiration for the band to form? Was it to get girls?
Basically, yes. Also just for something to do. And to play out the fantasy of pretending to be rock stars in the garage. I used to do this in my bedroom before I had a band and that was an easy transition.
What about influences, which artists have been a personal influence on both the band and your song writing?
For the writing per se, country music and the American pop songwriting of the 30s have probably been the most influential. For the band I guess I began as a big fan of the UK first wave punk pop and pub rock type bands (Stiff Records, Chiswick, Buzzcocks, Undertones, Boys, TVPs etc.) and that never quite went away. But I’ve also always been a Kinks/Who guy. Plus I’m a very devoted acolyte of the Soft Boys and everything Robyn Hitchcock does.
The band are doing a few shows across America, any chance of you heading to our shores in the UK at all?
This is a definite possibility though it will take lots of doing. We’re trying to choose what we do carefully rather than just charging into things without thinking as we’ve done in the past. I want to do it if it’s financially and logistically possible.
In the mid 90’s there was a large explosion of the punk scene which seemed to be spearheaded by bands from Berkeley, how was it from your perspective being involved in this?
To be honest, I didn’t see it as anything special, just a bunch of bands doing what bands always do. When Green Day hit the big time our fortunes all rose somewhat. I understand people’s nostalgia, especially the vicarious nostalgia of people who weren’t there because I had a version of my own concerning, say, Manchester or London ’77 or NYC ’74. Or Ladbroke Grove ’71. These things happen. But from within, at least for me, it just another thing like any other.
You were very famously part of the Lookout Records family, was it sad for you to see the demise of the label?
Yes very much. For many years there, we could put out any old record any time we felt like it. Then, suddenly, we couldn’t. We were the last band, I believe, left on board when the iceberg finally hit, and we basically went down with the ship.
Do you feel that there is still the need for record labels these days?
I think it would be nice if there were. The main reason to be on a label in the past was to get an advance for the recording budget and for promotion and distribution. These days there are still entities that call themselves labels but hardly anyone has any money to pay for recording, and the distro and promotion is a shadow of its former self to the degree it exists at all. Those days of records paying for themselves aren’t coming back, sad to say. Nowadays it’s almost as though the main function of a label is simply to provide a logo that confers legitimacy on the music, i.e., this is proof that someone besides the band members thinks this is releasable. It’s kind of the same with publishing too. And it’s actually quite valid, because there’s so much out there you that it helps to have someone tell you what’s “real” and what’s not, silly as it is to entrust that judgement to organizations that don’t quite know what they’re there for anymore. But such is life. The way I look at it now is, these projects are hard to get off the ground, and you need all the help you can get, so those willing to help are welcome to do what they can, whatever they call themselves, and if they want to call themselves a label while doing it, they can knock themselves out.
How do you see the whole issue of downloading music and file sharing?
I think it has devalued music and songs, and it’s a shame. But there’s nothing to be done. Music is now valueless and we have to live with it and work with it.
So what’s next for Dr. Frank after the MTX shows, more writing, more music, more touring or how about another solo album?
I don’t see another solo album in the near future, because the band is so active at the moment and I want to focus on that and try to make it last. As I mentioned I’m writing some books. There will be some MTX songs released in various forms over the next year for sure. I also have the next MTX album kind of mapped out in my head (been planning it for twelve years) so at some point I want to do that, if we can figure out a way to make it happen. And I’m also coming to grips with figuring out a plan to re-issue the back catalog. We’ll play shows when we can, i.e. in situations that won’t cost us or risk a lot of money.
What words of advice would you give to both musicians and writers out there?
If you really believe in what you’re doing, do it and make it as good as you can manage. If you don’t, don’t: it’s really not worth it. Get used to the idea that the song or novel, or any kind of art you do, has to be its own reward, because it’s quite likely that no further reward will be forthcoming. Take the long view and realize that the stuff you do now, ignored though it is, may be listened to and scrutinized years later, so let as few things slide as you can manage. Keep moving and try never to repeat yourself.
Huge thanks for chatting with us, best of luck with the the book, the album and the tour. Have you got any final words that you’d like to leave us with?
Thanks very much. And I think I’ve been quite verbose enough, so no final words!
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