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Q & A: Meet Marc Platt of the Plattitudes

By K. A. Sternfeld

Marc Platt has had his hands in many different aspects in the Los Angeles music scene for more than three decades. He has fronted bands, taught other musicians how to write songs and perform, as well as produced up-and-coming artists who are now thriving in the music business. He is now venturing out with a CD with his band The Plattitudes. The band and Producer Lisa Nemzohave released âBitter & Sweetâ on Nemzoâs Dreamwild records co-op indie label. The theme of the CD is the journey from romantic break-up-thru-meeting-new-love.

I recently sat down with Platt in his 1930âs North Hollywood apartment to discuss his career and this new project.

Q: Tell us about when you thought you could first write songs and make albums.

A: When I was five-years-old I asked my parents for The Beatles âRubber Soulâ album. It had just come out and I loved that warped picture on the cover. I would stare at it for hours and listen over and over to songs like âDrive My Carâ & âMichelle.â By the time I was seven, I took guitar lessons at McCabes Guitar Shop in Santa Monica and within that year I could play most of the Beatles Complete Songbook. I could play guitar by ear. I wanted to be a Beatle. I started making little songs up with titles like âSister Sing, Itâs Alright.â (laughing)



5-yearsold

Q: Did you ever play Talent Shows when you were a kid?

A: When I was nine I played in a talent show in my neighborhood. I played âProud Maryâ and impressed my father. Thatâs what I remember most. My dad played guitar and would let me strum while he played the chords. That was when I was around six. By the age of nine, I had surpassed him as a player. He NEVER played in front of me again.

Q: When did you play in your first band?

A: I was a later bloomer. When I went to Beverly Hills High school, I was a jock and music was just a hobby. It wasnât until graduation day at the Senior Breakfast that I realized that I may have a future in music. I wrote this song that I performed with my friend David Fu. David sang and I played the guitar and it was a huge hit with everyone. The funny thing is that everyone assumed that David wrote the song. My high school buddies and I started jamming in the garage that whole summer before we went off to college. We even recorded 3-4 songs that we made up. I think the name of our make-shift band was the Propellers. I was hooked and determined to become the next Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty.

Q: What was music scene like at San Diego State?

A: (laughing) The stairwell at El Conquistador Dorm was my scene in 1978. All the folkies gathered and we played James Taylor, Neil Young and even Pink Floyd (âWish You Were Hereâ was a biggie.) We all wanted to get laid and the girls, the real cute ones hung out on that 8th-floor stairwell. I met my first girlfriend Jenny there. We were together for 12 years on and off. That is another story for later.










Marc & Kent Kuhlman at the Backdoor (SDSU) 1980

Q: There was a lot of divergent music happening in the late 1970âs. Were you only listening to folk?

A: Not at all. I loved the Sex Pistols and all the new wave stuff. Jenny turned me on to Elvis Costello who I became a huge fan of. I had no way of knowing that seven years later I would get to know Elvis and he would invite me to many of his recording sessions for his âKing of Americaâ album.

My stairwell buddies and I simply didnât play the harder-edge stuff on our acoustic guitars. We were into harmonies and I already knew all the Beatles stuff. The best musicians in that dorm gravitated to me and we started playing in the Rec Room at El Conq. I didnât give a crap about school because I just wanted to write songs and play music all the time. I did keep my grades up so I wouldnât have to answer to my dad.

Q: So how did it happen for you at college?

A: Not very well, at first. I decided to become a music promoter and hooked up with Guy Richards, who was the head booker at San Diego State University. He went on to become a big-time music agent at the William Morris Agency. I kept nagging Guy until he let me book my own show. It was a punk show at The Back Door at SDSU with 3 local high school bands. Guy was really helpful, but also relieved that we managed to break even. I think I did a few other things with him. It was a great learning experience, but promotion really wasnât my bag.

Q: What happened when you got out of college?

A: Jenny moved back to Los Angeles to finish school at UCLA. After a year of âour versionâ of a long distance relationship, I move back to L.A. and got a BA in journalism at Cal State Northridge. My grandfather was friends with William Morris Chairman Abe Lastfogel. He insisted I meet with Abe to find out if I really had a future in the music business. I went there and met with him and the president of the company. They offered me a position in the agent development program. I would have started in the mailroom working my way up to agent, like Guy Richards. I turned it down, because I told them about my dream of being one of the artists that William Morris represented.







Q: You worked at the Rhino Records label in its early days. That must have been quite a scene?

A: Oh yeah. You wonât believe this, but I got that job on my own even though Rhino Records owner Richard Foosâ family was involved with my family in business. His father was President of May Company. My grandfather Herman Platt was Chairman of Platt Music, which had the appliance and music concessions in all the May Company Department stores. That was a big deal in those days. I applied for the job at Rhino and got hired without Richard even knowing I had applied. When Richard met with me, he said he respected me for going through channels to get the job. I learned how to do everything at Rhino. There were less than 10 employees and we were putting out a lot of records. I answered phones, screened tapes, wrote liner notes, edited liner notes, took out the garbage, went to events. It was awesome. In 1983, my boss Gary Stewart (now at ITunes) taught me how to put out my own record which I called âGet The Big Picture.â

Q: What was making that first record like?

A: I begged several musicians I knew and other friends like Probyn Gregory (Brian Wilson Band) to help me put this five-song EP vinyl record together at Radio Tokyo with legendary indie-producer Ethan James. A lot of the Paisley Underground Pop bands like the Bangles, Three OâClock and Long Ryders recorded there. Jenny did the album cover. Gary and Richard were really great mentors and told me exactly who in the music world to send the record out to. A couple of weeks later on a Friday, I was coming into the office and a co-worker said âHey man. Great reviewâ as he threw a copy of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner at me. And there it wasâ¦my record reviewed by Mikal Gilmore, complete with a picture of the album cover. I had to call my ex Jenny. She cried. We got back together that weekend.

















Q: What did that review mean to you?


Real Impossibles 1984 1986 with Peter Case at Club Lingerie

A: It changed everything. The phone started ringing. I was getting calls at Rhino from publishers, bookers and labels. We played the Roxy, Club Lingerie, Music Machine, Madame Wongs and all the other clubs of that day. The closest we got to a record deal was with Island Records because their A&R chief Danny Holloway was interested.

Peter Case became my mentor and produced our second EP called âPlay Loud,â His band the Plimsouls was my favorite band. It was amazing to have him in my corner. I was tight with Peter and his then-wife Victoria Williams. Because of Peter I got to meet anyone in the 1980âs music world who meant anything to me. Legends like Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, John Hiatt, Steve Earle and T-Bone Burnett. We did have our single âTurn My Worldâ air on MTV from that EP. But then after the usual drama and several line-up changes my band imploded.

Q: When did you put the band Stringtown together?

A: After the Real Impossibles ended I went into the studio and recorded a single. My friends Lowen & Navarro sang on âSweetest Sound.â The B-Side was a song called âLast Trainride to Glory.â It featured violin and mandolin. I then decided I wanted to have an Americana sounding band. This was 1989 long time before the term âAmericanaâ was invented for rock genre. I got my bass player Steve Kobashigawa and singer Rhonda Jessee, as well as Don Teshner into it. We started playing shows and Virgin records became interested. We had a manager. My original drummer Kelly Fair had helped me get this band together. Once again things came up. Teshner left to join up with Rod Stewart and Stringtown had conflicts about the direction of the project. Boom. Over just like that in 1991.

Q: That must have been quite a blow. How did you carry on after that happened?

A: The next 20 years have been a blur artistically, but I have, by far become a much better writer, teacher and performer. I met my âSongwifeâ Lisa Nemzo in 1993. We have written many songs, a few which surfaced on her 1994 âRestless Soulâ album. Lisa has seen me go through a few bands and a few marriages. I have produced demos for a few artists in their formative years. Simon Lynge (Lomax records) and Meiko (Geffen records) are two young singer-songwriters I loved a lot and wanted to be a part of their development. They are both thriving right now. I also taught a Performance Workshop at Kulaks Woodshed every Sunday night for seven years.

I was surrounded by so many talented musicians that I met at Woodsheds during open mike night that I was able to form The Plattitudes. We have been performing for about five years. My ex- wife Deanna Pino sang with us for four of those years, as well as Lisa Turner.

Q: How did the Bitter & Sweet CD come to be?

A: Lisa Nemzo and I started writing songs when my marriage with Deanna blew up. We wrote and recorded a lot of material. While I was sleeping on the couch for the next six months, I started writing edgy material about the break-up and started telling my band that I finally wanted to do a band album. That made Thomas Horning, our drummer very happy. He had been bugging me for years to do it. Berington Van Campen, Paul McCarty and Dale LaDuke make up the rest of the band. We played some of these âbitterâ songs out at shows and got a good response. Lisa kept at me to keep writing and she and I kept refining the songs. And then I met Karen who is now my girlfriend. I fell hard for her and started writing all these âsweetâ songs about meeting her and the beginning of the relationship.

It seemed obvious to Lisa and I to put a CD together with both the edgy and love songs. I asked Lisa to produce the record, which is a big deal for me. I have always been controlling about my art since 1987, when The Real Impossibles recorded an album that was never released and we got screwed over. The company we were signed to sold the material off. Bottom line, we never got paid and the songs ended up on obscure TV programs like ESPNâs âBeach Volleyball.â

So when I asked Lisa to do this CD, I relinquished control of the production because I trust her. I wanted an objective champion who loves me and my music. Lisa has my back and has delivered in an unbelievable way.

Q: So what makes this project different than your other six releases?

A: I believe that the overall quality is just as good as any record out there and that is because of Lisaâs enormous talent and hard work. Lisa enlisted her good friend Keith Wechsler to mix and master the project. The band went into John Mollenhauerâs M-Pire Studios to record basic tracks with Richard Robinson. Once we got the band tracks done, Lisa and I went to work for three straight months finishing the tracks at her Dreamwild Studios. The process of creating this CD was the closest I have come to giving birth. Lisa was the song midwife. I am prouder of this CD than any work Iâve ever done. I have been fortunate to have songs in movies and TV shows over the years. That is all good and fine, but this CD is a âREALâ accomplishment.

Q: So, how will the world get to hear this CD?

A: Lisa has been telling me for years that she wanted to put together a Co-Op Indie Label and Production Company. It looks like that day is here. We will press CD copies and make everything available on ITunes and other digital entities. Check out www.marcandtheplattitudes.com for information.

Q: So are you going to become Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen?

A: No. They are they are too old. Iâm only 51.

Q: Good luck with the CD. I hope we can chat again soon when you are supporting the CD.

A: For sure.