Bigger Music, Smaller Name

M Coast Gets Down With The New Sound

originally published December 13, 2006

It’s a rare thing for a band to successfully radically rework both its vision and sound. A few have done it, sure, but generally speaking, those bands had the graciousness of a generous audience that grew with the band. Usually, by the time a band has released several records, it either possesses a sense of entitlement that prevents it from branching out or has worked itself into a creative rut that excludes new possibilities.

The band that can find itself speaking to an entirely new audience after such a change is the rarest type. Long-running Athens pop band M Coast - formerly known as Marshmallow Coast - is an example of this breed.

Since 1996, when Andy Gonzales began releasing records under the name Marshmallow Coast, the sound of his music could generally be classified as personal stories, real or imagined, accompanied by relatively gentle music. At its best, it was intimately comforting and at its worst, it was a tad too precious. But now Gonzales and songwriting partner and bandmate Derek Almstead have finally achieved a sound that was merely hinted at over the past few records released under the name Marshmallow Coast. Rechristening the band M Coast, the two joined forces and produced the new album Say it in Slang, which serves as wonderful evidence of new shades of life.

“I feel that with Andy's tunes it's just a continuation of the direction he's (been writing for the past several records, at the root of it," says Almstead. "I guess that his songs in combination with mine shift the focus of the sound a bit. It's just bigger and more fleshed out. More diverse. And that's a conscious effort to expand the whole thing into something more democratic and universal. I wanted to do something stronger than just my stuff, something with friends that I could count on to make it better than I could do on my own. That shift into a shared responsibility made me a lot more confident and excited to put the effort into to it, like a feedback loop of momentum.”

Gonzales responds in his typical, sweetly aloof fashion, saying, “The new sound comes from me writing my typically mellow  songs  in [recording program] Reason, then having the luxury to see what it sounds like sped up!”

As far as the collaborative writing effort between the two goes, it’s more peer review than woodshedding. “It was Derek's idea originally," says Gonzales.  "It was strange at first, cause his [solo] album was practically done, and I had to contribute largely in post production.  Derek writes like more of a modern rocker, and we really had to tweak certain editing things and the song order to make it work well.  I think the songs complement each other, but they definitely have a different vibe.”

Almstead concurs: “It was my idea. Sara [Kirkpatrick], Andy and I were working on Andy's record at my house and I was working on my stuff by myself. I wanted Andy to be in my band and vice-versa. We had a few practices doing my stuff with Andy, Carlton [Owens] and me, and I didn't really have a lot of confidence in myself as a lead singer. My father had just passed away, and he'd always been really supportive of the bands I was in, but also honestly critical. He'd always say after seeing one of my bands play, 'It's too much of one person's voice, it gets boring no matter how good the music is.' I always took it to heart. You can see the benefit for bands that really do that well, like the Dead or Fleetwood Mac or the Minutemen. Plus, it's counter-intuitive to the very niche-driven, one-dimensional bands that I'm not really interested by. “

The sound contained on Say it in Slang, recently released by local label Happy Happy Birthday To Me, is as informed of dreamy Stereolab/ Free Design-style guitar pop as it is dance rhythms and studio magic. This last detail is pure Almstead. When asked how the band, comprised of the aforementioned Kirkpatrick and Owens along with Gonzales, Almstead and Emily Growden, could possibly reproduce this nuanced sound in a live setting, Almstead replies, “It's somewhat difficult. When I was working on the record, I also started doing monitors at the 40 Watt and I learned and thought a lot about how different bands deal with a solution to that issue. Most of these tunes are in the 45–60 track range, which is just the casual gluttony of the studio these days. So, live we do use backing tracks to a small degree, and samples. I try not to worry about it too much. I really like a certain amount of fluidity in bands live, and that's something I think that we'll grow into as we play more. But yeah, it is a ‘producer's album.’”

Significant for the group is the change from Marshmallow Coast to simply M Coast. Almstead says the name change still raises questions. “I don't know if it was the right thing to do or not," he says. "It just seemed like we needed to mark that a change had occurred, but not completely lose the history. We thought of some completely different names and didn't like any of them.”

Gonzales, however, is much more pragmatic in his explanation. “I want to reach, say, the dishwasher at The Grit, someone  who might be too embarrassed to bring a CD to work with ‘Marshmallow’ in the name."

Although the band is quite busy with jobs and life in general, the loose plan is to do some touring in the spring and summer of 2007, including a trip to South By Southwest in Austin, TX. Then it’s back to the studio.

Gordon Lamb

WHO: M Coast, Folklore, Fabulous Bird
WHERE: Caledonia Lounge
WHEN: Thursday, December 14
HOW MUCH: $6