Adam Stark. “Around 1990 I was in a band with Mark Mikel’s brother, Matt, Matt Schad, Bob White and whoever else could stand it. We were below par but had a few good songs. Dave Murnen would play guitar sometimes. It was great fun though. Anyhow, that band kind of fell apart, but we had a song or two that were kind of catchy. One of those songs was Hey Now Look Here. Mark was being nice and asked if we wanted to record it. His guitarist at the time Glenn Blattner was there and did the guitar. Dave plays bass except at the end, which is Mark. I could be wrong. Mark even sings a line at the end which, I think, was a thank you. (he knew how much I loved his vocals and talent.) I played my ludwig vistalite that was carried over from next door. Scott snider co wrote and sang vocals (He loved Bowie). Matt Schad, Scott Snider and I co wrote but Matt didn't play on it. Anyhow, there were quite a few of these one night "make a dream come true" nights that Mark let us be the stars and it meant the world to us. Mr Sid was another one that I play keys on. Bob White plays drums on Mr Sid and Dave Murnen is on bass Dave wrote it on the spot with Mark. Dirty Holes was a very nice song written by Matt Mickel, Marks brother. The vocals were done by Mark instead of Matt. Matt was probably busy working on his camaro or mustang or T bird with suicide doors. LOL But Mark sings like I remember Matt singing it. (Matt’s voice is lower pitched) You can hear Scott Snyder screaming and making weird noises, as usual in the background. The song sounds good to me even now, in fact, they all bring back great memories.
Mark Mikel “I only played the outro of Hey Now Look Here on bass. I can't remember who did the rest of the song. Was it Bob White by any chance?...or Murnen possibly? I remember Tracy playing a little keyboard part in the middle. I was trying to keep my part minimal. I remember Adam's drums being perfect for the track. Glenn Blattner laid down some killer guitar too. I think that's probably his best recorded solo...and that's saying something because Glenn was a great guitarist.”
Dave Murnen “Yeah Dirty Holes is Bob White on bass. I don’t think I was there when that one got recorded. Didn’t Matt Schad play keys? I almost sure of it.I did fumble through the bass on Mr. Cid...sang lead vocal at the same time...which if you ask Mark Kelley isn’t as easy as it looks. Its easier for me to play drums and sing..playing the bass and trying to sing at the same time was like trying to have sex with an octopus. Mr Cid was a silly nickname that had been given to me in High School... Cause of my Love for Syd Barrett and Floyd..and the fact that I was the most hesitant of my friends to experiment with acid..so they made fun of me by calling me Cid or Cidney..burnout bastards. Since this was about a year or two after I left school and graduated...the name was still pretty fresh...and we threw some gobbledy gook together...this song was definitely an inspiration for Charlie Blue Car believe it or not. Adam didn’t you play keyboards on Mr.Cid?”
Adam Stark “Yes I played the keys. Mark took out my Jon Lord organ solo though. LOL Just kidding it was more like hold these keys and then switch to these keys. I was just happy to be involved and thrilled to play. It was Bobs turn on drums. I love that song! I really like the bass.”
Dave Murnen. Then there was Bertie the Vertical Hold..a classic production..Snyder may even have some song writing credits on that one...the melody and line was definitely mine though... That was recorded for the Martian Farm lineup...a band pre- Hallucination that Mark tried to put together from the recording sessions with his friends. Mark and Glenn Blattner on guitars, Mark on keys...I’m on lead vocal and drums. Scott Snyder on backing vocals..and we used a cavalcade of bass players... I believe Mark played bass on this recording.”
Mark Mikel. “Actually Bertie the V-Hold was the second Saturday night quickie we did. Hey Now Look Here was the first. Mr. Sid occurred prior but was a fluke and not a planned occasion like the Saturday quickies. We recorded 16 takes of Mr. Sid live straight to cassette with no overdubs. Saturday quickies were full blown 8-track reel recordings. Glenn wasn't part of the recording of Bertie. If he was, the guitar would have been a lot better. I played all the guitars, organ and bass. Dave drummed and sang lead. Scott Snyder did harmony vocals. That was it. Just the three of us.I remember exactly where we were when writing it. Scott and I were sitting up hovering over the notebook. Dave was lying on the floor. We couldn't come up with a song idea and then Dave without even opening his eyes spouted out slowly, "Bertie...the Vertie- cal Hold." It was a very "Lovely Rita Meter Maid" sort of line. Scott and I looked at each other, smiled and said "Great!" I then began putting it to a melody/chord progression on the guitar. We wrote the lyrics together but I think I wrote most of them. Dave threw in some lines like "I roll at random, our minds in tandem." Still, looking back the lyrics resemble my style more than Dave's which tends to be less storytelling and more abstract. (Is there one Murnen song where you can tell what he's singing about?) He would never say things like "One glimpse I'll have you sold you'll want to hold me too." That would be something he'd call "lovey-dovey." You can tell it's a Davey title but, I pulled it into a more personable realm. Any time I wrote with Snyder it was kind of 80/20. After any song we'd write, he'd say to me, "I didn't write anything." I could come up with lines quicker but he was great to bounce off of. At the time of recording Bertie, there was no Martian Farm yet. It was only a name that I'd thought of to use if I were going to put a new band together someday. Dave, Scott Snyder, Glenn and Glenn's brother (what's his name again?) started a band and rehearsed in Glenn's basement. Scott and Dave came to me to ask if I'd mind if they used the name Martian Farm for their new band. I said, "Okay," not revealing my reluctance. Not long afterward, I was invited over to jam with them. I had a lot of fun and the guys asked me to join permanently. I think things became less fun once I joined though. I tend to make things serious because I'm always questing for quality. Glenn's brother was a horrible bass player and couldn't keep up at all once I'd joined. He lasted about 2 weeks. We tried for months to find a bass player but we ended up giving it up completely. Snyder's drinking problem made it even more impossible. Dave was the first to leave and without him I had zero interest.We managed to record only one song during the existence of the MF and that was called "Welcome Back Home to Your Big Red Planet." We adopted the previously recorded Saturday quickies as part of our repertoire. We covered some odd songs too: Daddy Rolling Stone by The Who, Wide Boys by Ultravox and Holy Holy by David Bowie for example. These were all rehearsals and an actual live performance never occurred.”
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