Line 'em Up and Keep 'em Coming

Labor Day, and the Sacramento River is writhing with thousands of scantly-clad college students riding inner tubes and drinking cheap beer from aluminum cans. Parked cars and trucks fill every available inch of Highway 32 from Hamilton City to the train tracks of Nord Avenue, and Parks and Recs vehicles intermingle with the boys in blue (and gray as the case may be), busting underage drinkers and illegal parkers. Myself, I've never witnessed the puke and sunburn festivities of a Chico Labor Day raft expedition firsthand, and neither has my interview subject, Chico native Marty James.
The Synthesis office is empty, save for Marty and myself. He sits in the plush Managing Editor's chair, elbows behind his head as I sit opposite him, yellow notepad in hand, Red Bull coursing through my system and my ears ringing from the office alarm system that I somehow managed to screw up. Marty is nursing a headache of his own; Chico is a town where 30 bucks in your pocket will finance a night of alcoholic debauchery and festivities and still leave you with enough for cab fare home.
Marty James, the lead singer / songwriter / beat-smith of Scapegoat Wax has had his fair share of career-based headaches as well. Coming from a small Northern California town with few musical resources is less than an ideal situation for a fledgling pop star.
"I've definitely taken the long way to get to certain points," Marty analyzes. "I'm from Chico. I've had to come from basically no musical background. There's no music in my family, I didn't have anybody to help me out, I didn't know what I was doing when I started. I didn't know how to make music, I just knew I wanted to. It's taken a long time to get to where I'm at, and I've had to learn some hard lessons along the way, but I'm extremely fortunate in the same right because I am from Chico and I have come this far and I have made a nice career for myself over the last couple of years, and it's from music. That's some crazy shit to me."
Marty's musical career might be running at full steam presently, but it began at a slow pace. After kicking around in the hip-hop underground for some time as a late-teen, Marty felt he was going nowhere and that his MC skills had pretty much leveled off. In order to rediscover his love and gift for music, he took a step back and put music on pause for a while.
"I took a little time away from it. I felt like music was just going to go away like everything else in my life, like sports and shit - just kinda fade away. I kinda just took a break for like a year and a half maybe, and then I realized I don't have anything else."
After working some dead-end jobs, including selling T-shirts in a mall kiosk, patrolling a Jr. High school as a yard narc and working in a video store, Marty decided that day jobs were not his thing. That epiphany put him in a make it or break it situation.
"I decided right then, that if I'm gonna do this music shit, I'm gonna really have to go after it and try and get some gear however I can get it, and use whatever connections I had just to go make music," Marty says as he leans forward in the leather reclining chair. "I had met [producer] Johnny Z when I was 15 or 16. He was always into my shit - he believed in me. I called him, and I was just like, 'Dude, let me borrow some of your equipment.' He had all this gear and shit he doesn't use, so he let me bring it up here. That's right around when I was 20 or so, when I started writing Scapegoat Wax songs."
At that point, Marty moved in with his producer and friend Johnny Z in the North Bay Area town of Benicia and focused all of his efforts on making beats and writing lyrics. In those belt-tightening times, Marty rediscovered his voice, and singing and writing began to flow naturally again. This outpouring of creativity was fueled not only through his dedication, but through the pangs of hunger and the everyday difficulties that he faced.
"A lot of problems in my life, like relationships, just issues I had started to come out, and I started to feel like music was a really nice release for me, and I just started to write. I didn't work a day job for two years - all I did was write music and I was broke as fuck and I was hungry a lot, and luckily I had some good friends, and a good family."
With the help of Johnny Z, Scapegoat Wax began the spaghetti method of trying to get signed - throw what you got at the wall until something sticks. The abridged story of how Scapegoat Wax attained success in the public's eye goes as follows:
Marty began sending demos to every contact he had, even sending demos blindly to record and production companies he had no dealings with. He eventually signed a deal with independent label GoodVibe, and released the album Luxurious to college radio stations. Through this effort, Marty soon got a manager who then slipped a tape to Gary Gersh, one half of GAS management, the company that manages The Beastie Boys.
Gersh forwarded the demo to Mike D who liked what he heard. Mike D then signed Scapegoat Wax to his label, Grand Royal, and soon after, Scapegoat Wax recorded its debut full-length album Okeeblow.
At this point, Grand Royal was rebuilding their artist roster (which also included At the Drive-In and Bran Van 3000) and had signed a distribution deal with Virgin records. Marty informs me that he felt fortunate at the time to have been signed to a reputable record label without having to live in L.A. and undergo the rat race of performing showcases for knucklehead A&R guys. He says by focusing on making his songs and beats as tight as possible, he let his talent open the doors for him. Soon, with his single "Aisle 10 (Hello Allison)" getting radio and music television play, Scapegoat Wax was poised for pop music domination. Then a minor disaster struck.
Grand Royal Records folded, owing Marty money and leaving him in limbo. Hollywood Records snatched the label-less Scapegoat Wax, but by the time the ink was dry, the momentum behind "Aisle 10 (Hello Allison)" was spent. Hollywood decided not to run with Okeeblow, instead saving their efforts for a new release.
"There's no real blueprint for how to pick up after you lose your label, so we were just winging it. I was just like, I'm gonna go record some new songs."
Those songs, plus some older material that wasn't included on Okeeblow were eventually to become SWAX, Scapegoat Wax's forthcoming Hollywood debut.
"I feel that Okeeblow didn't really get a fair shot," explains Marty. "It was only out for like two and a half months. We had a nice single on it, but there were a lot of songs that people didn't get to hear. SWAX sounds really good - it's definitely more of a complete work. It sounds sonically what I want my music to sound like. SWAX is a more complete work than Okeeblow, but at the same time it's some of those old songs, so it's tough to say it's a complete progression."
One definite progression for Scapegoat Wax on SWAX is the band vibe. What was first one-man project and then a songwriter / producer group is now a full six-piece band. After touring with a group of musicians and gelling as a band, Marty made them into a static ensemble, recording many of the tracks on the new album along with them.
"It's more of a band now than it ever has been. When we started, it was just me and another guy, Johnny Z. It was always like a band idea 'cause when it started it was more than just me. So now, I've just basically incorporated the guys that play live into being a whole band."
Marty says that the band situation works for Scapegoat Wax much better than his prior circumstance of being a solo artist working with studio musicians. "For me it just feels better, it's easier for people to understand. As a band, it's easier for people to swallow."
With the band vibe giving the Scapegoat Wax songs a new dimension and their first single, "Lost Cause," poised to make MTV their bitch once again, Marty James should be comfortable with his position. However, satisfaction still eludes the lanky Chicoan.
"I'm never content. I can't even imagine the feeling of being content. Even now. I really want to push everything, I really want to make sure I'm getting the most out of each situation."
For the forward-thinking Marty, SWAX is still just the next step toward his next album, which he's already eager to start recording. "The new songs on SWAX are super cool, I feel really proud of those, but I know at the same time that my fans are ready for some other songs. That's why I'm starting the new record now, 'cause I want to have something out next spring; brand new shit. And those new songs are awesome."

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