Interview by Jennifer Oladipo Edited by Ginny Gillikin
When Kerry Marx was recently inducted into the South Carolina Entertainment and Music Hall of Fame, he was the only inductee who had a star-studded congratulations video. The industry veteran has played guitar with headliners including Johnny Cash, James Taylor, Keith Urban, John Legend, and Taylor Swift.
Now based in Nashville, Marx works as music director at the Grand Ole Opry. With new artists coming through there every night, he’s constantly learning new songs. He coordinates rehearsals and decides which band members play which parts. Beyond the Opry, Marx sets up shows at clubs on Broadway in downtown Nashville.
Just one thing: Marx created this dynamic career on his own terms. Even today, he’s a freelancer, an independent musician. He talked with StankRadio about his life as an accomplished musician. His words should encourage anyone looking to forge their own path in the business.
How do you prioritize your work and say “yes” to opportunities?
If the music is gonna be fun, that's the number-one priority. But, if it's gonna be really hard and time-consuming to learn, I might not want to do it. Also, the people that I'd be working with matter.
What do you like to hear and play?
I envisioned myself becoming a jazz musician. I've gotten to where it doesn't really matter what genre it is; I like a good country gig as well as a good rock gig.
How do you stay creative while managing other people at the Opry?
A lot of what I do is recreating other people's parts. I have to analyze what's in somebody's head and then translate that to my own sound. Even with duplicating music, there's still a creative process. On the other side of that, with recording sessions, that's never copying; I’m always creating my own parts.
What makes a good recording session?
The quality of the material matters. Next is the quality of the players. If everybody’s listening, everything gels. Also, in Nashville, there's a set time and everybody's ready to play. It's a huge benefit that other cities lose, and listeners feel a lot of spontaneity in the recording.
Do you like working efficiently like that?
Yes; I get a better product in the end. It's always been that way in Nashville. They've never taken a long time to record. Even Bob Dylan and Elvis – they would cut it and move on.
What are you listening to now?
I analyze everything. It's like I can't relax; I'm listening to the chord changes and melody and dissecting it all. I enjoy listening to classical music because I can lose that analytical mind.
Now, I'm listening to a 2003 Food Foo Fighters album that I wasn't familiar with. There's a newer band called Cigarettes After Sex. Their music is ethereal. I just listened to Kurt Rosenwinkel, a jazz guy who did an album of songs on a baritone guitar.
These days, melodies aren't as interesting, especially with country music. In the past, there would be a set of chords for the verse, the chorus, and the bridge. Now, they have one set of four chords that go across the whole song.
Remember the days when someone had an album coming out and people would talk about it for months?
There’s no longevity now. There are artists that people wait on to come out with new music, but for the most part, releases don't mean what they did years ago.
Do you think record labels are trying to make a financial gain from either the next album or the next artist?
When a young person comes to me about record deals, I always say, “There's no money in publishing.” The whole industry changed because of money. The labels figured out that they can take merch, publishing, and writing money, and now they have their hand in it all.
People ask me, “Why don't you put out your own record, put it on Spotify, and sell your CDs from the stage?” I would own my product. I know of many cases where an artist will have a number-one song on the radio and get dropped by the label. How can that happen? People can stream and listen to anything they want to, virtually for free. The days of saving up money to buy an album are over.
Melissa Etheridge mentioned during a previous interview that she didn’t become popular until her fourth album was released, and nobody gets that chance anymore due to sales.
I don’t know if she touched on this, but artists can make so little money from songwriting. An artist I know, who is very similar to Melissa Etheridge, wrote most of her own last record. Her first royalty check was $200 because she made, like, a dollar for a million streams. That’s disheartening to someone who writes their own material.
How have you seen music production evolve over the years?
There are so many home studios now; a lot of music is created piecemeal. I can play bass and guitar and my wife can play piano, organ, and synthesizers. We can program drums or have a drummer play because it sounds better. Between the three of us, we can record an album.
A lot of music is made like that, where one guy starts a song and sends it to someone else. That is completely the opposite of what I was talking about – the Nashville experience of guys getting in a room and playing.
Musical parts used to be more linear. An instrument would play from the beginning to the end of a track. It's frustrating for us when we have to recreate this stuff at the Opry. A part will occur in the intro or in a verse, then it won't happen again.
How do you handle that when you're recreating music? Do you have to hire more musicians?
Usually, I do the linear process, but then ultimately cut things. A production decision has to be made. Also, a lot of these things are mixed by engineers. They can copy and paste parts and move things around. So, they have almost as much input as the players do these days on recordings.
Photos Courtesy of Austin Wade