People’s favourite

Former Bullfrog frontman Mark
Robertson gives his soul away for free

TOO MUCH FREEDOM: Mark Robertson

by SCOTT C

Montreal’s Mark Robertson is definitely no stranger to the stage, after years of touring and performing with both Public Enema and Bullfrog, as well as playing with Kid Koala and Money Mark in Canada, Africa and Europe. With a new LP hatched and generously available to the general public for free download, Robertson’s mix of funk, blues, jazz and soul is perhaps the most disarming plate of sweet music that you’ll hear for a while. This year, he takes the stage at the Montreal Jazz Festival for a solo show to support Favorite People, his 11-track creation just dying for an audience to lap it up.

Mirror: You know how to do it right man, let me first say that.

Mark Robertson: Well, I know you were a fan of the EP, so I hope it’s a continuation of that feeling, a better one anyways, based on my methods of recording and writing.

M: What are your methods of recording and writing?

MR: I really don’t have one, and kind of taught myself through trial and error. Bullfrog always recorded their own stuff too, even though we tried going in the studio with other people. It was a bad experience. You know what you want to do, usually. We always rented gear and did it in my basement, and over the years, the gear and the technique got better. 2004 was my first solo-produced thing, and my first time working with a computer and going digital, and the freedom that gives you. Maybe too much freedom.

M: It sounds pretty rich, man. It feels good to know that that sound is coming out of Montreal. It’s a feel that I can associate with.

MR: I know a lot of people in Montreal who like and play the same kind of soul and R&B that I do, but they don’t write original music. In my experience, musicians get very good at knowing that language, and some of them can sound like all those famous players, but at a certain point, I had to stop lifting styles and try to find my own way in there. I came up learning the language of American music, but you have to put some of yourself into those notes.

M: Lo-fi production at its best retains the honesty and authenticity contained in the music, and you’ve definitely achieved that.

MR: I tried not to overproduce it. You always hear great songs where the production clouds the songwriting, and it all gets lost in ambient sounds and shit like that. I wanted it to sound good, and I even kept some of my mono creaks and noises in the background, which I picked up along the way from working with guys like Kid Koala.

M: You still tight with the Kid?

MR: Well, I’ve been travelling a lot, and he’s all over the place like the Road Warrior, but he helped me mix this record, man, and it’s thanks to him that this record is seeing the light of day. I really owe him big thanks, because it was him and Vid Cousin that helped get this done, mixing it right there in his house.

With Yael Naim at Place des Arts’s Théâtre
Maisonneuve on Friday, June 27, 9:30 p.m.,
$27.50–$32.50