Greetings all, I hope you are well. I’m diggin’ in the crates this evening and bringing to you an interview I had the pleasure of doing with one of my favorite groups out of Prince’s Paisley Park world, Mazarati. I was able to contact one of the later members, keyboardist Brice Myles and he was nice enough to pull together two of the original members, Marr Starr (later known as One Gunn) and original vocalist and guitarist, Tony Christian. I first posted this interview to the Uptown Minneapolis Music Group (UMMG) on Facebook. I hope you enjoy it.
UMMG: Marv (One Gunn, OG), Tony (TC), and Brice Myles (BM), first of all, on behalf of UMMG, thanks for allowing us to conduct this interview AND thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with me. I know you’re in Phoenix working with Paula Abdul right now.
OG: Thanks for having us, yeah we’re here at my place in right now with a beautiful view from my balcony (laughs).
1. UMMG: Sounds good to me! That said, let’s jump right into it. The story behind Mint Conditon is that Jellybean Johnson found them in a club as he was looking for artists for Jam and Lewis’ Perspective Records. How did Brown Mark discover you and where did the name Mazarati come from?
TC: One Gunn and I are from Milwaukee originally. Sir Casey Terry, Screamer, and Romeo were already in a band in Minneapolis when we got to know them after visiting, During one visit that One Gunn and I, we snuck in to see a performance Casey Terry was in with his band.. It was at point, we decided it was time to move to Minneapolis and become part of the scene. Afterwards, we were already pretty in a band and were doing shows in the area for about three years prior to Mark discovering us. As for the name Mazarati, that was my doing. 🙂
2. UMMG: Word was out that Prince was looking for an artist to sign to the Paisley Park label. Were you intended to be a Prince produced group, or were you always gonna be with Mark?”
OG: As Tony said , we were a band long before Prince signed us. When he first heard and seen us perform, he was blown away. Later on, he was so impressed that, he used to come on stage and jam with prior to the Paisley Park deal. At the time, Mark was working with us but “in hiding” or we called it “Shadow Mode”, ‘cause we started calling him The Shadow, He was with Prince and The Revolution and there was a rule that he was not to be working with any other group. One time, when we were in N. Dakota, we received the call from Prince and got signed to Paisley Park.
3. UMMG: How did everyone in the group get their “nicknames”?”
OG – That was all Tony Christian’s doing (laughs).
TC: Screamer is pretty much clear, that guitar playing! As for Sir Casey Terry, he just had that way with women. He’d be the kind of guy that would kiss a woman’s hand, and we’d all have to turn our backs because you don’t know WHAT was gonna happen next! (laughs). Jerome…Romeo, was just a smooth lady’s man, so that was a given (more laughs).
UMMG: Well, Marv, I always remember you as “Marr Starr” – definitely a Minneapolis tag for sure!
4. UMMG: The debut recording as I understand it was actually done all by Prince and Mark. Who wrote the songs – we know Prince wrote 100 MPH at least.? Was it a group effort? Was it Mark?”
TC: Well (laughs), it went down like this. Stroke was written by Mazarati. Strawberry Lover is actually Brown Mark’s music, but Prince’s lyrics. 100 MPH, definitely all Prince. We really liked the demo he gave to us, and we took it from there. The other tracks were written by Sir Casey Terry, myself, Mark, and Screamer wrote the rest of the material. As for Prince and Mark doing the studio recording, yes, but Tony Christian was doing a lot of background vocals on the tracks as well. (See the video feature with Brice and TC)
5. UMMG: I remember first seeing the cassette for the debut release, the cover IMMEDIATELY caught my eye , then I saw the Paisley Park insignia bought without evening listening or doing any sorta research, ‘cause I KNEW it was gonna be hot!! Was there any promotion for the release when it dropped? How was touring at that time?
OG: Well, we became known as “The Bad Boys of Paisley Park” It was around that time the Prince was into the whole androgynous movement, but it wasn’t him that suggested we present like that…again, that was Tony Christian (laughs). Promotion-wise there really wasn’t any, we were doing shows way before signing to Paisley Park and after, things didn’t change,
6. UMMG: Brice…you, Dwayne, and Bryan were later members of the group known as Mazarati/The Secret. How did you guys become a part of the group and were did the name The Secret come from? I recall it being associated with Jam and Lewis. I remember seeing the soundcheck rehearsal version of Stroke that you guys put on YouTube back in 2011 time frame…I’m still crankin’ THAT version along with the studio version of it…..fire!!
MAZARATI/THE SECRET, 2011/12 Stroke
TC: Mazarati/The Secret was a combination of the original members and the new one’s that came on board – Brice, Bryan Rankin, and Dwayne Cotton. It was actually Dwayne that came up with The Secret, not even knowing that Jimmy and Terry had that name for a project of theirs that never happened.
BM: We were all musicians playing in the Minneapolis area at that point and knew everyone for a good while back then. When personnel changed from the original group, it just all came together, Bryan came on board easily, he’s actually Screamer’s brother, and husband to Sheila Rankin, from Andre Cymone’s group “The Girls”. Dwayne myself, and Jesse Johnson are from Rock Island/The Quad Cities, originally.
8. UMMG: Tony, you had a release in 2015. Tell us a little about it. I’d also like you to share with our list info audience how the track “It’s On” came bout I remember Screamer in the building on this on…the Vimeo footage is sick! Afterwards, Marv, go head and plug your new release.
TC: You mean, “We The People”. Yes, I wrote that song from my heart …it was a song of deep message that got released much later than I wrote it. It was written but sort of predestined all the stuff that was going on during the days Bush was in office, etc. It’s a deep track. I’m of the mind that there should be a one-party system, less problems that way.
UMMG: Yes, so many bi-partisan issues, in the least, not to mention multiple parties here in The States alone. It’s sad.
OG: I actually wrote “It’s On” as a track for Mazarati, kind of using the same approach we did back in the day but making it contemporary. It started with synth bass but I wanted to bring electric bass on top, kinda layering it, to give a certain sound to it. It was written at the same time I stared working on my new CD, Over & Under the Wire CD. The CD release went really well.
UMMG: Yes. I remember seeing post that you and a couple of other members shared in the UMMG group, Congrats on that. I really like the video footage you guys did for It’s On, the whole band effect thing to me is always great in a video.
9. UMMG: Tell us the stories about the two demos Prince gave you originally, that later became big hits – Kiss and Jerk Out.
OG: Well, on Jerk Out, Tony is singing all the background vocals. the rest of us on vocals. On Kiss, Prince handed us this very stripped down version and we had to figure out what we were going to do with it. Some of the members didn’t want to work on it because it sounded kinda country. We were in studio working with David Z (David Rivkin) at the time and were adding a lot of arpeggiated synth parts that were more difficult to do then than it is to do today, We changed the background vocals over time, I sang lead on it at at point. One day we got to Paisley Park early one morning to work on some tracks and we heard the song playing, but it wasn’t our recording. We stood around saying, “Man, can you believe someone jacked our song ALREADY??” Immediately in walks Prince behind us saying…”How do you like it” (everyone laughs). In the end it was really good to know that he liked what we did, even though it got released later.
TC: We really never looked at each other as stars even after being signed to Paisley Park. Prince used to hang out with us a lot…we used to play ball (yes all the basketball stories about him are true) and had some good times. It was a rollercoaster type of situation….the good and the bad, but we were very fortunate the respect and confidence Prince had in us.
10. UMMG: Tony and Marv, tell us about MC Skat Kat/The Wild Pair and your work with Paul Abdul
OG: After Mazarati was formed and signed, Prince gave us a good deal of latitude. After Mazarati, Tony and I were working in the same studio. We had a bunch of songs written and recorded already but all from a male vocal standpoint, We then got to work with this young LA cheerleader and dancer choreographer named Paula Abdul. Oliver Leiber was at the helm and was instrumental in causing us to turn those songs around to show her amazing talent. We ended up selling 9 million copies of her material that we produced.
11. UMMG: Back to the original members. What’s going on with Sir Casey Terry, Aaron Paul Keith, Romeo, and Kevin Patricks
TC: We’re all still in touch with each other, kind of like brothers. Life changes, responsibilities change, but everyone is cool with each other still, and doing well.
12. UMMG: Back to Mazarati now. Will there be a Mazarati III and is Brown Mark involved? Are there any last final words you’d like to leave with our readers?
OG: Let’s just say this…there’s a reason we’re doing all this rehearsing … (everyone laughs). We’d definitely like to give a big shout out to all the Minneapolis groups paying tribute Prince – The Revolution, NPG, Andre Cymone, everyone… we’ve done our share from our hearts. We’d also like to give a special shout out to Jerome Benton as well!.
UMMG: I’ll definitely make sure this gets into the interview when posted. Once again, Marv, Tony, and Brice. Thanks for taking time out for busy schedule. I know you guys are in Phoenix and have to get to rehearsal with Paula this afternoon….Brice, I saw the photo you posted in the UMMG of you guys with her.
Mazarati: We thank you, and UMMG for all you guys are doing to represent Mazarati, you asked some really good questions (laughs).
UMMG: And thank you for granting us this interview. Big thanks to you, Brice for making this happen!
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