Mad Margritt

A Rocking Encounter with MAD MARGRITT

Interview by Ken Morton

Mad Margritt is an explosive, high energy band based out of Atlanta, Georgia who has been rocking the world since the dawning of the new millennium. To celebrate their vast and epic collection of work, Mad Margritt has teamed with their longtime label Perris Records to present Best Of 1999-2021 - available worldwide on November 19th! Featuring fan favorites as well as three unreleased tracks, Best Of 1999-2021 by Mad Margritt is required listening for hard rock fanatics everywhere!

Highwire Daze recently interviewed Mad Margritt founder Eddie Smith to find out more about the songs featured on Best Of 1999-2021, their association with Perris Records, working with Derek St. Holmes from Ted Nugent infamy and more!

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Mad Margritt and how long the band has been together.

I am Eddie Smith, lead singer and founding member of Mad Margritt. We started in Miami, Florida way back in 1990.

Where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there?

We are currently based out of Atlanta, Georgia. We moved here in the mid 90’s because we were touring all over the United States and Atlanta is more centrally located than Miami. It takes almost a day to drive through the state of Florida so moving here definitely made things easier on us. The music scene is real strong in Atlanta. We haven’t been touring since Covid hit but fortunately we are staying busy because there are so many places to play in this area. Between Mad Margritt and a few other side projects, I have been averaging between five to six shows a week.

How did you wind up signing with Perris Records?

When our first CD came out in 1999 we were touring all over the US, opening up shows for bands like Skid Row, Warrant, Ratt and Cinderella to name a few. One night during that tour we were doing a show in Las Vegas and Tom Mathers who runs Perris Records was in the audience. Tom had helped me a few years earlier distribute a 5 song ep that we put out called Cold Sweat. I had spoken to him several times on the phone but this was the first time we had ever met in person. I really liked the direction he was taking with Perris. He was working with bands like Warrant, LA Guns, Enuff Z Nuff, and Helix who were all very similar musically to what we were doing. I told him I was very unhappy with the record label we were working with at the time and by the end of the conversation we had worked out a deal to release the next Mad Margritt CD on Perris Records. That was back in 1999 and we have been with Perris ever since.

How did the idea of doing a Best Of album come about and what was it like revisiting some of the older songs?

It was actually Tom’s idea. He had mentioned to me that since Mad Margritt have been around for such a long time it might be a cool idea at this point in our career to do a retrospective ‘best of” CD that celebrates our long history and musical journey. The timing was perfect because we had just finished recording a new song and we also have a few other things in the vault that have not been released to the public. Not only could we release some of our favorite songs from each of our previous CD’s but we could also put a few new things on there as well. As far as revisiting the older songs, it was a lot of fun hearing them again. I haven’t listened to some of those songs in years so it was really cool to hear where we were as a band back when those songs were recorded and also to see how much we have grown and evolved. my approach to singing, and songwriting changed dramatically after that recording session. If you listen to music from our later CD’s like Animal and Love, Hate And Deception you can hear a big difference compared to how I sang and wrote on the earlier albums. One of the things I love about being a musician is to push myself and constantly grow and get better at my craft. I haven’t always succeeded at that but the times where I have like on the song Lonely, it’s been very rewarding.

Thief In The Night is the first single and one of three unreleased tracks on the album. Give me a little background and inspiration behind that song.

Our guitar player Mark Cook came up with the music and he played me a demo of it earlier this year. I really liked it a lot and it took me less than an hour to write the lyrics. Nothing too deep lyrically, it’s just a fun, hard driving song with a lot of energy. We shot a video for it that will premiere on October 29th.

Lonely is another unreleased track on Best Of. What it the background and inspiration for that song?

That song was recorded back in 2005. It appeared on a CD that we only sold at shows. It’s never been available to purchase in stores or download so I thought it would be really cool to include it on the best of CD. I really like the song a lot and I’m glad people will finally be able to hear it. We recorded it around the time when my voice and vocal range really started to get stronger. The real high stuff I sing at the end of the song is the first time I had ever used that part of my voice in the recording studio. There is actually a note that I hit right at the end as the song is fading out that may be the highest note I have ever recorded. I had worked so hard at improving my vocals and my range and it felt really good to be able to hit notes that I was previously unable to hit. My vocal style,

And let’s talk about the third unreleased track Rock The Block and the story behind that one.

Earlier this year we were asked to appear on a tv show called Rock The Block. The show is on the HGTV network. The producers really liked the song Liar from our Love, Hate And Deception CD but they wanted me to rewrite the lyrics and change the arrangement so it would fit into the specific “Heavy Metal” episode that we would be appearing in. We had such a good time being on set and it was super cool seeing ourselves perform on national TV. A week after we shot the episode they called us back to perform again on the season finale. It was great experience; hopefully we will get the opportunity to do something like that again.

Of the older tracks on the album, Nothing Can Keep Me Away features Derek St. Holmes from Ted Nugent. How did Derek become involved with the track and what was it like working with him?

Derek was actually one of my favorite singers when I was growing up. His vocals on songs like Stranglehold and Just What The Doctor Ordered are absolutely amazing. I met him back in 2001 and we ended up becoming friends. I asked him if he wanted to sing some backing vocals on a new song we were recording and he went down to the studio and knocked it out in one take. It was so cool seeing a legend like Derek singing a song that I wrote, it was very surreal. I grew up

listening to those early Nugent albums and I have seen Derek and Ted in concert more times than I can remember, being able to work with him in the studio was definitely something I will never forget. with Mad Margritt. I do acoustic shows, I do fill in gigs for bands where I play either guitar or bass, I run sound, and I also host two Open Jam Nights every week where musicians from all over Atlanta can come out and jam together.

How close is Mad Margritt to recording for an all-new album?

It’s something that we would like to do at some point. We are all full-time musicians and the pandemic basically destroyed live entertainment so right now we are focused on performing and trying to recover from the nightmare we all just went through. I have been fortunate enough the past several months to get back to performing almost every night of the week but it’s been a tough year and a half for everyone.

What has it been like to hit the stages once more after being away for months due to the pandemic?

It feels great to be back on stage. When everything shut down, I sat around watching Netflix for a few weeks but that got old quick. I ended up turning my garage into a jam room. I hooked up my PA system and spent hours singing every day in the garage and playing guitar so I wouldn’t be rusty when it came time to start playing again. I even held a live stream event to have some fun.

Are you currently involved with any other projects outside of Mad Margritt?

I do all sorts of things to keep busy when I’m not performing

What do you hope 2022 brings for you and Mad Margritt?

I just want to continue doing what I love: singing, performing, writing, and recording. I feel very blessed to be able to live out my dreams and play music for a living. I hope it continues through 2022 and beyond.

Any final words of wisdom?

We are super excited for everyone to hear the new CD. It’s almost like a musical photo album of all the different stages of our career, from the early days, all the way up to present day with the new song Thief In The Night. There have been a lot of great musicians who have played in this band through the years, many are still my close friends. In the booklet, we include a “Band Members Timeline” and it lists all the different line ups over the years and who played on each song. This CD is a tribute to all of the musicians I’ve had the pleasure of working with in this band and it’s also a tribute to all the fans who have been with us at every stage of our career.

www.perrisrecords.com www.madmargritt.com