One late October night, I put on a light jacket and walked down the pumpkin and auburn-colored Astoria streets patterned with leaves. It had been a warm day, but the cool evening breeze was indication enough that Fall was in full swing. I was about to visit Waltz-Astoria for the first time, to perform at their open mic. I was still looking for days to perform as a solo artist, and the quaint cafe in Ditmars seemed like the perfect place to do it, with their interesting selection of warm drinks and grand Steinway aching to be played.
That night, I had the pleasure and honor of meeting Marc Montfleury. He sauntered into the cafe, guitar case slung over his shoulder, with the swagger of someone familiar with the room and locals, and I instantly knew that he was going to be one of my favorite artists of the evening. What I didn't know was that he was going to become of my favorite songwriters and closest compatriot.
His performance will forever be burned into my memory. Unlike his coy and even shy demeanor in our small talk before the open mic, a very different man took the stage that night. Playing only two songs, I witnessed Marc take form as what can best be described as a dragon deity, spitting and growling and rendering the whole room silent. His delivery - sometimes quiet, sometimes raucous, and effervescently primal - had the intensity and dynamic of a great artist.
I, myself, as an artist, felt that I had met my musical match, and that match was lit.
It's a strange thing to explain to someone to feel a sense of awe and camaraderie with a fellow performer and songwriter. Sometimes it's easy to fall into romantic rhetoric. And I guess it's not too far off. When I fall in love with an artist, they become the gospel and me, their faithful servant. It was much this way with Mr. Montfleury - I instantly wanted to devour his discography and get lost in the world of his poetry and soulful guitar playing. What made me even more excited was the prospect of collaborating with him. When I learned that he was interested in recording an EP, I jumped at the chance to produce it, not just because I was overwhelmingly ecstatic at the idea of taking part in the music of someone of whom I was so big a fan, but because I instinctively understood that he wanted a chance to strip away the illegitimate devices of modern technology and just perform. So, iPad resting on my palms, I spent a couple of months last summer capturing what was to be Marc's first NYC release, Locksmiths and Lawyers.
There are songs for me that are a joy to listen to, and then there are those which touch a place so familiar in your heart that you feel you are already a part of them. This is a testament to the brilliance of a songwriter's talent, and something I can say without a doubt that Marc Montfleury can capture in something as bare-boned as a DIY-inspired EP. Locksmiths and Lawyers is something to be taken as it is, without the bells and whistles that many other artists surround themselves with in packaging. Simply put, Locksmiths is a masterpiece, not just in composition, but in execution. The beast I'd witnessed in full-fledged attack that October night was not tamed within the walls of a stuffy, contraband-filled recording studio, but instead, allowed to frolic within the acoustics of a city bedroom; window open, and life let in. It's a breathtakingly beautiful portrait of an artist, with clicks, finger-slides, and outside chatter all part of the aesthetic of his work. You can feel that the space Marc is working in is a collaborator, breathing the moment into life with his strums and singing.
All the more poignant is the care with which he'd chosen his 6-song set, a mixture of old and recently written tunes that bring together a perfect mixture of his sentimental nature and his sharp wit. Songs like "Tried to Told You", "Roses" and "Sin" are the perfect, candlelit palette to color the more aggressively sensual works like "Blankets" and "Grab Somebody". To round out the set, he adds a Faulkner-esque spoken-word track "Logan's Nickel" and ends with "Not Dedicated", a masterpiece in and of itself, characteristic of the album as whole; one part stellar folk-guitar playing, the other part minimalist acoustic pop. Marc's prowess as both a songwriter and a performer is plain for the ear to witness, and the perhaps amateurish and lo-fi quality of the recordings oddly act as conspirator, and work with Marc to present a sound so raw and honest that it couldn't be misconstrued as anything but.
Those summer evenings spent recording Marc are magically captured in Lawyers and Locksmiths, and like a sonic memoir, instantly transport me to that room again, to be alone with the artist.
To say that Montfleury has the potential to leave a mark on the pages of history is a misnomer. To those who have witnessed him live, or who are discovering him in his recordings, they can agree that he already has.
Lawyers and Locksmiths is available for live streaming and purchase at: http://marcamontfleury.bandcamp.com/album/locksmiths-and-lawyers
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