On this episode of In Conversation our guest is Carl Shane, lead singer and songwriter of the long-running Boston rock band Kal Marks.
Early on in the pandemic, Shane was uncertain that he would continue recording under the moniker Kal Marks. After numerous setbacks over the years, the core trio that he had recorded with for years had dissolved in 2020, leaving him questioning how to move forward.
But soon after, Shane was convinced by drummer Dylan Teggart of A Deer A Horse to start playing again. The two of them quickly assembled a new lineup of the band with Christina Puerto of Bethlehem Steel on second guitar and Jon Russell on bass. The new four-piece lineup went into the studio to create the brand new Kal Marks album My Name is Hell, out now on Exploding in Sound Records. The album is miles and away the biggest sounding and most fully realized record Shane has ever made under the Kal Marks moniker. The songs are complex and dynamic without steering away from Shane’s one-of-a-kind blasts of fury. As always, his unique lyrics and guttural vocals remain front and center with perhaps the strongest set of songs he has ever assembled.
In this conversation, we discuss the return of Kal Marks, the difficulties of keeping a band alive, and much more.