Interview: Mark Bryan on his career in music, the life and times of Hootie and the Blowfish, and his new solo album, POPPED

Among the conversation's wide-ranging topics: The King Biscuit Flower Hour, Friends, VH-1's Fairway to Heaven, and his frustration that Hootie's co-write with Ed Sheeran was never released as a single

Throughout the country, the power of the local press continues to decline, which is why I’m so proud to be a part of The Princess Anne Independent News, a Virginia Beach-based newspaper which is - to borrow directly from their “About Us” page - “a community news source that that gathers and delivers news of interest to the people of Virginia Beach, helping citizens engage in civic life, community and culture.”

Fortunately, John-Henry Doucette, the publisher and editor of this fine publication, is also a music fan, so when an artist of note comes to Virginia Beach, he’s generally up for having me try to procure an interview with that artist. Additionally, because we’re generally talking about a print publication (although the paper does have a web presence as well, as you can see from the link above), we have a gentleman’s agreement that the material from my interviews that won’t fit into the print piece can be utilized as part of my Substack newsletter.

In the instance of chatting with Mark Bryan, founding member and guitarist for Hootie and the Blowfish (not to mention a fine solo artist in his own right), I actually managed to pull together an article for the Princess Anne Indy that is wholly theirs, with no repetition of quotes in the piece that I put together. Our conversation earlier this week was such that I was actually able to organically pull together a tight, strong article from quotes from the first few minutes of our Zoom chat, after which I did a full transcription of the remainder of the chat, which you’ll find below.

First, though, I’d ask you to read the Princess Anne Indy article, which you can do by clicking right here.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Done? Great. Thanks for that.

One last thing before moving forward: if you’re of a mind to upgrade to a paid subscription and - more importantly - if you’re in a financial position to do so, I would certainly appreciate. Finding freelance work remain a bitch and a half to find, so any additional financial compensation that I can secure to continue doing pieces for this newsletter would be wonderful.

Okay, speech over. On with the conversation!

I know you're a founding member of Hootie and the Blowfish, but what I don't know is your personal secret origin story. How did you find your way into music in the first place? Was it a family thing or did you just discover it on your own?

No, not a family thing. I remember just always - like everybody - loving music and singing along to my favorite songs, and then something happened when I was about 14. I was listening to The King Biscuit Flower Hour, and I heard "My Generation," by The Who, for the first time, and there was an energy in that... It was life-changing. And I think from that moment on I was, like, "Whoa! I wanna do that!"

I started writing songs, I started listening to a lot of harder music, and I got into punk. I was never a punk rocker myself, so to speak, but I really liked the energy of punk rock. I find great songs in all genres, and there's a bunch of great songs in punk rock, too. So I really got into a lot of harder music as a teenager. I fell in love with bands like Iron Maiden and just kind of pushed myself a little bit and tried to learn as many different styles as I could and try to find great songs. That's really what it's all about.

You and I are only a couple of years apart in age, and that was an era when you could turn on MTV and find all kinds of music at any given moment. 

It's true. And then I got to college and became a college radio DJ, and when you do a show every week, part of the requirement of your show is to play 50% new music. So I was constantly turning myself onto new bands and new sounds and styles, and as the years have gone on, I've realized it's less about style and more about great songs. So as I wrote the songs on my last record, I wasn't thinking about style at all. I was just trying to write great songs. It comes out all over the place stylistically, but at the end of the day, it still sounds like me, and there's nothing you can do about it. [Laughs.]

You actually went to school for broadcast journalism. Did you ever foresee a time when you were going to pursue that as an actual career, or did the music get there first?

Actually, about 10 years ago, I made a TV show: Live at Charleston Music Hall. I did a whole 11-episode season, and I hosted it as well as produced it. So I feel like that was the extent of me using my broadcast journalism degree. [Laughs.] I don't know how much more I can do! I might do a season two at some point, but...that was a time where I stepped away from the music a little bit and I was teaching at the college in Charleston. I was teaching Music Industry, and then I did that season one of that show, which took several years and a lot of work. But it was me sort of using that degree a little bit and falling back on that a little bit, which is something I always also loved aside from music. My father was a broadcaster growing up, a sports broadcaster, and kind of got me into it.

So doing that TV show really felt right at the time. And I would probably do it again, but...if we're being honest, my great love is making music and playing live. Making Popped and playing live on this Hootie tour, I'm living the dream this year. It feels like it, and it feels great. And it's all I ever really want to do. It's not to say that I won't do other things again. I might. But this is where my heart is, for sure. Just being creative, making songs, and then going out and playing 'em live for everybody. I love to do it.

You and Darius actually met at college, right?

We did. Dean and I went to high school together, and we were in a high school band, and then we both decided to go to the University of South Carolina. And Darius lived on my hall in the dorm, and then Dean lived on the floor above us. So it was meant to be!

When you first got together, did you already have similar musical interests, or did you have to find a meeting point?

Very similar. It started off with Darius and I just doing these little acoustic sets. He didn't know how to play guitar yet, and I couldn't sing a lick at that point. I just knew how to play guitar...and he knew how to sing. So it was, like, "Which songs do you know?" And our first set included... Let's see... "Take It Easy," by the Eagles; "Sultans of Swing," by Dire Straits... I was telling somebody this the other day, so they're right off the top of my head. [Laughs.] "Sail On," by the Commodores; "Feelin' Groovy," by Simon and Garfunkel; and - no lie - we did "Family Tradition," by Hank Williams, Jr. at the first show we ever played. So if anyone ever questions Darius doing country music, he's being doing it since the beginning!

I still remember when Kootchypop came out independently, because I was working in a record store at the time, but I don't know the story of how you guys made the jump to Atlantic. Did they scout you out, or were you sending out tapes?

Our A&R guy, Tim Sommer... I think he writes about this in the book, but he was getting updates from the label like, "Hey, this band down south is selling as many copies of their little Kootchypop EP in the record stores as Red Hot Chili Peppers are, and U2 and R.E.M..." Just in South Carolina, but we were selling even with those bands in the little record stores around Columbia and Charleston and stuff like that. So obviously the label took notice. It was, like, "Who is this band nobody even knows about that's selling as many copies as these other bands?" [Laughs.]

So he came down to see us live, and we blew him away. It was two sold-out shows that he came to, and we were at the top of our game at the time, and the crowd was going apeshit. He saw it right away. And I think he saw that it was something that could be marketed to a bigger audience than just South Carolina. And we were pretty big in the southeast, I guess, at the time. Not just South Carolina. But that's it. Nobody knew who we were outside of the southeast. So I think he saw the potential, and...that's how it happened!

Yeah, I remember you guys playing around here, and then suddenly you were everywhere. From my perspective, it seemed like it happened overnight, but I don't know if it was the same from yours.

Yeah, well, if you think about how people were reacting to "Hold My Hand" and "Let Her Cry" and "Only Wanna Be With You" early on, it was sort of the same thing on a national level. We just took it outside of southeast and threw that same formula into the rest of the country. And it clicked. For whatever reason, it was the sound that people wanted to hear at that time. 

It seemed to me that "Only Wanna Be with You" was where you guys made the big jump. 

No, it... [Hesitates.] Well, people always ask that question, and I think those three singles that I just named each had their own way of digging into the industry. Like, "Hold My Hand" started us at radio. But, really, it was that video on MTV and [The Late Show with David] Letterman where "Hold My Hand" kind of pushed us through. And then "Only Wanna Be with You" was the big radio song later. Like, the biggest radio song of the year in 1995. And then "Let Her Cry" won a Grammy.

So they each made major pushes into the industry as singles on their own, and then we followed with "Time" and "Old Man and Me," and then the Friends soundtrack released our version of [54-40's] "I Go Blind," and that didn't hurt, either! [Laughs.] The next thing we knew, the market was flooded with Hootie singles! But like I said, each of them kind of made their own way, and in a cool way, and I think that helped spread the word about us a lot. 

How did you guys know about "I Go Blind"? Had you toured with 54-40 in Canada?

We found out about them in college. From college radio. You'd think it was me, since I was the DJ - and I did play 54-40! - but it was Dean who found the song. He was playing that first 54-40 album all the time. [Singing.] "Baby ran / She ran away..." And there was another song on there called "Take My Hand." Not "Hold My Hand," but "Take My Hand." [Laughs.] And Soni was not in the band at the time, and he's the one who wrote "Hold My Hand," so no confusion there! But anyway, we were playing that 54:40 album a lot in early college, and I always tell people that "I Go Blind" is the song that we still do today that's the longest-running Hootie cover. It's true. We've been doing it since '86 or something. 

I've loved quite a few of those covers. I'm so glad that the Scattered, Smothered and Covered compilation pulled them together.

Yeah, since we started off as a college party band, we've always had fun doing covers, and then we kept 'em in our set over the years, even once we started doing our own stuff. So, yeah, a lot of our fans love some of our versions. My favorite one that we're doing now is "Interstate Love Song," by Stone Temple Pilots. We've been doing that one on this tour, and it's really cool. I'd love to record that one someday. We're also doing a version of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's... [Stops abruptly.] No, Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth." We cut a version of that and released it earlier this year, before the tour. [Goes into radio voice.] So that one's available wherever you stream music! But we're also doing a live version of that this summer, and that's been pretty fun, too. 

Actually, even though you corrected yourself, when you said "Crosby," it reminded me that I wanted to ask how you guys ended up hooking up with David Crosby to sing on Cracked Rear View. Was it the Atlantic Records connection?

Yep! There was a girl at west coast Atlantic named Jenna Rankin who was helping out with our project, and she was the one that suggested it. And then Don Gehman, our producer, had worked with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young over the years doing live sound with them. He may even have produced a record at some point for them. So it was obvious that he knew him as well. So once she suggested it and our producer knew him, I guess that was part of what made him say "yes." And I think he might've been intrigued by our story, these guys out of South Carolina that were selling so big even though nobody knew about us yet.

So he came to the studio, and he was so cool, man. The first thing he did was sit us down and tell us about the trials of the music industry and what we need to look out for. And be ready to believe this: he goes, "Be careful of these record labels." And meanwhile, his friend who works for the label is sitting right there. [Laughs.] And he goes, "They will fuck you in the ass with a wood rasp!" I swear to God, he said that! And then he told us some things to be careful about, and then he sung on the track, and it was amazing. 

And then he goes, "Do you guys wanna hear my new song?" And we're, like, "Sure!" So he goes out to his car, and he comes back with a 12-string guitar that he has to tune to this ridiculous tuning. Some goth tuning. I don't know what it was. It took him 20 minutes to tune the guitar! But he was telling us stories the whole time. And then he just played this beautiful song, and...it was new at the time. I wish I could remember the title. I feel like it was a woman's name. And it was so Crosby. I mean, it was just out there. The guitar playing and the way he was singing, it was really inventive with melodies. It was not a pop song. It was this cool Crosby-in-1994 thing. [Laughs.] It was really cool, man! I mean, what an amazing experience. And then I got to see him two or three times after that over the years, and he always remembered me, and he always gave a hug, and he was genuinely excited to talk about his music all the way right up until when he died. 

I never interviewed him, but I followed him on Twitter, and he was a force to be reckoned with on there, for sure.

He was just an incredible personality. And as the years went on, he became just a sweeter and kinder person, and he just exuded love every time I met him. 

I was trying to figure out what the song was. Maybe "Yvette in English"?

[Long pause.] I'd have to hear it. It was an in-the-moment thing. I really don't know. At the time I remembered the title, but I don't remember it now. 

[Even if this isn’t the right song, it’s still a great underrated Crosby track, one that he co-wrote with Joni Mitchell, that’s worth a listen. - WH]

When you guys put out Fairweather Johnson, I'm sure you knew in your heart it was never gonna match the success of its predecessor. 

I mean, nobody knew that the predecessor was going to happen the way it did in the first place, so how could you ever hope to do it again? [Laughs.] It wasn't even on our minds while we were making the record. We just went and made the second Hootie record. We already had a shit-ton of songs. Because all of us write! So there was never a thought of, like, "How are we gonna recreate this thing?" It was just, "What are we gonna do with these 30 song ideas we have?" So we just got with our producer and went into the studio and worked 'em all out. Worked it down to 13 or 14 or whatever and then put it out.

And it still did quite well, y'know? Partly on the heels of Cracked Rear View, and partly on the strength of "Old Man and Me" as a single. And I think "I Go Blind" was happening during that time, even though it wasn't on that record. That didn't hurt. And then when we released Fairweather was also when the Friends thing happened, and the Saturday Night Live happened, those little things that you can't pay for, man! [Laughs.] So that kept us in the public eye during that time, and that helped Fairweather a little bit, too.

It was probably too obvious a title to release it as a single, but I always wished that "Silly Little Pop Song" had come out as a single. I love that track.

Yeah, I love it, too. I was just playing that lick the other day, because I hadn't played it in years and it popped up. But, y'know, personally, that doesn't sound like a single to me. It sounds like a deep track - even though it does have the obvious title - which is what it ended up being. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it should've been a single! [Laughs.] I don't know!

I have a history of liking obscure songs, so maybe that's why it wasn't released as one.

Me, too. I hear you, bro. [Laughs.] 

I was actually going to ask about the Friends thing. Did they forewarn you about the plotline? I'm sure they told you that you'd be spotlighted in the episode, but did they tell you about "the work of a Blowfish"?

No, that caught us off-guard. That was cool. I was always wishing it would be me in real life. [Laughs.] It didn't work out that way! But, yeah, that was a really pleasant surprise. They actually asked if we wanted to... [Hesitates.] I think we either would've been part of the show, or maybe they just asked if it was okay to do an episode about them coming to our show. And we said "no" at first, because everything had gotten so big at that time, we were, like, "Man, we don't need any more exposure!" So we said "no." But they didn't need our permission. They just did it. And, of course, we were thankful they did later. But it's interesting that we could've been involved with the episode, and we said, "No."

When you look back at the discography of the band at this point, is there a particular album that you'd consider to be the most underrated or the one that you wish had gotten more of a push?

All of 'em. [Laughs.] I love 'em. I love the last record we did, Imperfect Circle. I was bummed that "Miss California" never got to see the light of day. Or "Wild Fire Love," which is the cowrite with Ed Sheeran. Neither of those were ever released as a single, which bums me out. And then Looking for Lucky I feel like was a masterpiece that got lost in the shuffle.

And then our fourth album, which was the self-titled album, the fans love that record. I don't know that that would've been a great pop record...or maybe it would've been. Again, how do I know? Nobody ever knows! But I think it's a great record, and I know our fans always dig deep on that record, and people are, like, "Man, play some songs from that record on your tour!" For whatever reason, we never seem to. But we're doing "Go and Tell Him (Soup Song)" on this tour! So that's another great record. That was the Don Was-produced album, and it's different than all the rest, and it's really cool. 

Musical Chairs had a nice little run. I think we did a really good video for the single "I Will Wait," so that got a little bit of a look, and I still think that's a great, great record. I love 'em all, man. We didn't half-step. When we went to make a record, everybody brought in all their ideas, and we just worked and worked and sussed them out until we had the best things that the four of us could possibly do at that time. We put that time in. So I know that about each record, and when I look back at them, I'm proud of them. It's out of your control what happens to them, but I know that the band, we all put 100% into each of those albums. Again, I hope we get to do another one. I really do.

Well, I'm sure the industry is virtually unrecognizable from what it was when you guys started. 

It is! [Laughs.] It's completely different...other than the one constant: playing live works. Touring works. Dave Grohl did this interview the other day, and he goes, "Man, I don't have any idea what the fuck the music business means anymore. I don't even know. But I do know that if you just go out and play, people come and see you. That's the thing, man. It's real." And he's right. That's been the constant through this whole upheaval on the sales. I mean, who cares about all that when you can still just go out and play your music for people? There's something true to me about that. I think that'll always last. People will always want to see their favorite artist do that thing in the moment. I think that'll always be there, regardless of what happens with the recorded track and the sales of it and streaming... It's so far out of everyone's control. But what is in your control is to pick up that instrument and go out and play for people. There's something to be said for that, always.

And you guys clearly still enjoy doing that with each other.

Yeah, man. This tour is just as fun as any one we've ever done, I think! [Laughs.] I mean, I'm having just as much fun as I did in '96, 2002... You pick a time! We're having a blast.

Oh, I wanted to ask about the Ed Sheeran co-write. How did that come about?

Darius and Ed hooked up in... [Hesitates.] I think Darius flew over to London. And they co-wrote a track. I think they co-wrote a couple of tracks. And the one we chose for the Hootie album was called "Wild Fire Love." It's worth looking up. It's an incredible song, and we did a duet with it with a female singer from Nashville who's married to one of the Osbourne brothers. Lucie Silvas. It's just a great pop song. Go, Darius and Ed! And I can't believe that nobody even knows about it! It's, like, how are you a label... I won't name any names, but how are you a label and you have that track and you don't release it as a single? Tell me that! It's just sitting there online right now. You can go look it up. Hootie and the Blowfish with Ed Sheeran, with Darius and Lucie Silvas killing it. 

And then just because we're talking about Imperfect Circle, "Miss California" is one of the best songs we've ever made. It was a co-write with David Ryan Harris, who's John Mayer's sideman and who we've known since the early '90s from his band Follow for Now. So he brought us this cool idea, and Darius and Dean and he wrote it, and it's freakin' great, man. It's one of the best songs we've ever made! And we're playing it on the tour this summer, but...nobody ever decided to release it as a single. So nobody knows about it. It's unreal.

I'll start wrapping up with these two stock questions that I ask everybody. First of all, do you remember the first person you ever met that you had to keep from going full fanboy on?

I think the way to answer that question is with our first big celebrity moment, which was the VH-1 Fairway to Heaven in the fall of '94. And it's, like, Sheryl Crow and Bill Murray and Mike Mills and Bill Berry from R.E.M. and Vince Gill... It was just surreal. That's the best way to put it. I didn't know how to just be normal at that time and act like it was cool and just meet somebody. I was definitely like, "Oh, my God, it's so nice to meet you!" [Laughs.] I was a dork for that entire event. But, y'know, there's only one time when you can be green or wet behind the ears or whatever you want to call it, and that was us at that time, at the '94 VH-1 Fairway to Heaven. I think all of us were just green and giddy.

You could probably use that as the answer for the second question, too, but...what's the most proper pop star or rock star moment that you can recall from your career?

A big moment that I always reference is that we were doing some shows in South Africa, and we ended up on this beach. There was a stage on the beach at this place called Plettenberg Bay, and behind the stage were a hundred or two-hundred foot cliffs, and right in front of you is the Indian Ocean. I mean, what a setting. And then you put 15,000 Spring Break-ing South Africans who know every word of Cracked Rear View in front of you. Now, here I am, we're across the world, we couldn't be further away from home... It's, like, a 20-hour flight! And there's 15,000 people on the beach, singing every word to your songs. Still to this day, I don't know if I'm ever gonna feel something like that again. That just absolutely blew my mind. So I felt like a hell of a rock star in that moment...and when the set was over, I had to pee really bad, so I just dove into the Indian Ocean and peed. [Laughs.] Incredible.

That's rock and roll. So I'll just close by bringing it back to the new album. I think you've got three singles out so far, but when does the actual album come out?

October. October 25, I think, is the date. And I have a fourth single out right now. In fact, I'm dropping a video today. It's called "Don't Change a Thing." And then we'll also do a fifth track before the album - sometime this month - called "Big Bright." And I'll have a featured track coming out with the album release in October called "Keep the Light On." It's a reggae track. I...don't know why, but I wrote a reggae track. [Laughs.] That's how it came out! But it came out great. I love it. It's got horns on it and everything. 

I neglected to write down which one it was, but one of those new songs sounds so much like it could've been a college radio hit in the early '90s.

It's probably "To You My Friend." It's, like, ska-influenced. It's got the up-tempo ska thing. Maybe Squirrel Nut Zippers or Fishbone-influenced. That kind of thing. 

Or maybe Johnny Quest.

[Bursts out laughing.] Yeah! There you go. A little less funky, a little more ska, but... Yeah, we did a lot of shows with Johnny Quest over the years…

Well, I'm so glad we were able to do this. Hopefully I'll get a chance to meet up with you when you're here.

Yeah, man, me, too! Thanks for this...and I really appreciate you talking and asking about the new songs. It means a lot.