Giving a Hoot for the friendship of The Screaming Trojans before Oceans Calling rocks the beach

Mark Bryan and childhood friend Steve Lipton rock Nestor through the Hootie and The Blowfish story and their original Montgomery County high school band The Screaming Trojans, who are playing a fun reunion gig at The Starboard in Dewey Beach on September 24th before the big Oceans Calling show in Ocean City, Maryland the next night. Two kids had a band once…

Mark and Steve discussed their lifelong songwriting partnership, the Screaming Trojans project, and upcoming performances and releases.

Creative Partnership

• Mark and Steve have written songs together since adolescence and continue creating recordings as the Screaming Trojans.
• The project includes original songs such as “I Want to Feel All Right,” “Boom,” and a song honoring their late friend Kevin Heister.

Performances Releases

• The Screaming Trojans will play the Starboard in Dewey Beach on September 24 with original material, Hootie classics, solo songs, and covers.
• “Boom” was recently released, while the Kevin Heister song was scheduled for September 25.
• Mark described a limited Hootie schedule, including Ocean’s Calling, Stagecoach, Bourbon & Beyond, and the Windy City Smokeout.

Open Questions

• Will Mark and Steve record additional Screaming Trojans music or a tribute set built around Get the Knack?
• Will they arrange a future Baltimore performance at the reopened 8×10?

• Finalize and organize the April date for GBMC’s Walk a Mile in Their Shoes event. (@Nestor Aparicio)
• Publish the full details for the upcoming Maryland Lottery, State Fair, Koco’s, Pizza Johns, and Fishmonger’s Daughter appearances on Baltimore Positive. (@Nestor Aparicio)

Friendship Origins

• Mark and Steve met in Montgomery Village in 1979.
• They began playing guitar and writing songs together as teenagers.

Screaming Trojans

• The band name reflects the members’ connection to Gaithersburg and Seneca Valley.
• The project grew from a childhood friendship into an active recording and live band.
• Members include longtime friends and musicians connected to the original group.

New Music

• “I Want to Feel All Right” developed from Mark’s collaboration with Josh Kelley.
• Steve wrote “Boom” after seeing Mike Mills perform at the 9:30 Club.
• A forthcoming song commemorates Kevin Heister.

Live Schedule

• The Starboard show will combine Screaming Trojans originals, Hootie songs, solo material, and covers.
• Mark discussed Hootie’s festival appearances and his preference for selective touring rather than year-round travel.

Musical Influences

• Mark cited The Who and Pete Townshend as major influences.
• Steve highlighted Kiss, Foreigner, AC/DC, and Get the Knack.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. I think it’s a new rule that when my hair’s out, it’s time to talk music around here. When my hair’s back, we’re probably talking about the Orioles losing again, or the Ravens playing, or something like that. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake. Told me let my hair down. I’ll be back in Dundalk next week at Costas in Dundalk, not Timonium. So if you want crabs, meet me in Dundalk next week. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. I have my favorite Kiss face bird. I’ll be giving these tickets away next Friday at Costas. We’re also going to be at State Fair on the 24th, 25th. We’re going to be moving back over to Koco’s and Pizza Johns as well as Fishmonger’s daughter, later in the month, I have the full details up at Baltimore Positive. Also, our friends at GBMC walk a mile in their shoes. I got to get the 27th date here. We’ll get that together in April of next year, as well as Farnin and Dermer. I have been doing my 28 musical memories and influences. Strangely enough, this guy doesn’t know it, but his band is in my top 28 and coming very soon. His other band is coming very soon to the starboard and Dewey Beach. So if you’re, you know, if you’re just wandering down the the Delaware part of the Coastal Highway the week before Ocean’s Calling, it’s time to go see this guy’s band. Mark Bryan is back on. He has brought his childhood friend Steve Lip, Lipton, and you know we’re going to talk rock and roll here. We’re going to talk some hooty. We’re going to talk some beach memories. I’m not going to let you talk Commanders or any of that. We don’t need to do Orioles, Nationals, or any of that. But I tell you what, Mark. Even tell me about your childhood friends and this band you put together when you were a kid, and you know you’re in one of the biggest bands in the world, one of my 28 most influential bands in my 58 years, and um you you still keep these childhood friendships, and you’ve you put this band together more than once. I’ve had you on playing out in Frederick a few years ago, and this is not your pet project. This is your lifer project,

Mark Bryan 2:00
right? That’s that’s kind of right. Like we didn’t plan it that way, but these guys, I mean, Lippy and I have have been writing songs together since we were about 15 years old, 14 years old. I got grounded one night, and my mom was like, “You can’t go out, but you can have friends over. And Lippy came over, and we wrote like eight songs in three hours, and two of them were maybe good, and we got hooked, man. And both of us are writers naturally, and we’re able to channel it into these songs. And we’ve always kind of had fun doing this. And now we’re to a place where we’re probably better than ever at our craft, and we’re also better at our instruments. And I’m definitely better as a producer and everything. So we’re making some timeless recordings with these songs, and and it’s nice to be doing it with somebody who I trust and love, and I know we have a lot to say that we can say, and maybe make a difference with the song. Still,

Nestor Aparicio 2:48
where’d you meet this guy, Steve? Come on, tell me. When, when, and where? That moment that you looked at each other.

Steve Lipton 2:54
Well, actually, it was Duffer Way in in Montgomery Village, Maryland. So our town got built so fast that they just put you whatever elementary school had room. So it was the last day of school, and these girls that I’ve been trying to hang out with forever invited me to this party across the street, across the main avenue. What year are we

Nestor Aparicio 3:14
talking about now? What year are we talking about here?

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Steve Lipton 3:16
This is 1979.

Nestor Aparicio 3:18
So what are you listening to then? I mean, into the cars yet? You got Zeppelin. What do you got?

Steve Lipton 3:23
Cars strung through. Never changed. Never pick up the needle on that album. Like the cars, the cars was great. I think Candio might have already been out, but I was still into that one. We know what I have in this neighborhood that he was

Mark Bryan 3:36
talking about, and we would listen to the Beatles’ 62 to 66 greatest hits, the red one. The red

Nestor Aparicio 3:42
one, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right, so okay, so you guys meet on this lane, and you’re going to a party. Let him, Mark. Let me tell. Let me give me the story, Lippy. Go ahead. You give me the story. Okay,

Steve Lipton 3:52
sorry. Just I don’t. I don’t want to take up too much time, but these girls always. All I do is

Nestor Aparicio 3:56
talk here about music. They take all the time you want.

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Steve Lipton 3:59
Well, all I could do is talk about Mark this Mark Bryan guy who I’d never heard of, never met, and I and and I was like, this sucks. Like I just finally got to hang out with these chicks, and then his dad shows up. He he’s driving a ’73 Caprice Classic convertible, baby blue. I’m like, uh oh, this guy is gonna be like, that’s it, no chance with Melissa Julian or any of these girls, right? And the and then he comes out, and right away we are like five minutes. We’re like hanging out. We were we were like on the same page right away. It’s like that’s super cool. And then and he was big tall guy, and I was a little short guy. And turned out that that we were going to be in junior high together the next year. I was like, this is great. I got a new friend, you know. And we hung out right away all night, you know, playing “Ghost in the Graveyard” and kick the can and spin the bottle the whole bit.

Nestor Aparicio 4:45
What music did you play when you first played music? Like, what was the first song you guys learned together?

Mark Bryan 4:52
We we okay. Lips’ brother played a little guitar, and so I would go hang out at the house, and his brother Eric knew how to play. Guitar, but he was also a bodybuilder and still is to this day. And clean, by the way, should be noted. No drugs, and and so he taught me how to play Stairway to Heaven, which was above my pay grade at the time. But somehow I was able to find the right places to put my fingers after he showed me. And then he proceeded to do crunches for the next hour straight, like 1000. He was at that point where he was doing 1000 crunches at a time, and and so I was sitting in Eric Lipton’s room, just going like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, trying to figure out stairway to heaven. And once, could you play anything at

Nestor Aparicio 5:36
that point? Did you not mean? Did you play Campdown? Did you have a guitar teacher? I mean, I had a guitar teacher that tried to teach me.

Mark Bryan 5:43
I mean, I had the Mel Bay beginning kind of thing, you know. I actually picked the thing up left-handed, and the guy who was showing me made me flip the guitar over. So God knows, maybe I would have been a virtuoso guitar player, like Hendrix

Nestor Aparicio 5:53
or something, right? Yeah,

Mark Bryan 5:54
yeah. But anyway, so so Eric Lipton taught me Stairway to Heaven, and and then I, you know, the rest is history. I just kept learning songs, my favorite songs that I knew at the time, and then before I know it, Lippy and I are writing songs, man.

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Nestor Aparicio 6:07
You know, just when I think I know everything about Mark Bryan of Hootie and the Blowfish, I find out about this screaming Trojans thing. I hear Trojans of that era. I giggle a little bit, whatever. But this is like a high school thing from down where you were. It is. I don’t think I ever knew anybody. I went to Seneca Valley, but I guess yeah. Seneca

Mark Bryan 6:25
Valley is the Screaming Eagles. Gaithersburg is the Trojans, and so since the band was just a mixture of of you know the two schools, we I just that was the obvious name. Mark Bryan, Screaming Trojans. Here we go.

Nestor Aparicio 6:35
All right, so you guys are playing now. What what can someone expect to see or hear? Not only that, but you got music out online. You’ve you’ve like released this. There’s been this was a little bit of a garage side project for you, Mark. I think at various points, but this is you guys want people to hear all of this, even if they don’t make it to the show, right?

Mark Bryan 6:55
Yeah, there’s some real songs here. Libby, go go ahead and write it down.

Steve Lipton 6:58
Okay, so our first single that came out is a song called “I Want to Feel All Right, which Mark started writing with Josh Kelly. What maybe 20 years ago? He had a voicemail that he sent to us, and they had the whole structure kind of figured out, but not all the words. And so we just got together, and I was kind of when we were in the studio, I was like, “Well, I’m not sure if this one’s going to work out or not, or how it’s going to work out, and 45 minutes later, Michael Heister, who we’ll talk about later, is singing and playing with Mark. They got all the words, they got the music, and I’m like, this is going to be maybe maybe the best song we do this weekend. So that was super cool. The next song is called “Boom. It’s one that I I wrote. I was actually at the 9:30 Club watching How Al Hal, which is one of Darius’s side projects. I was standing right in front of Mike Mills all night, and

Nestor Aparicio 7:47
I was there that night too. By the way,

Steve Lipton 7:49
oh yeah, normally some Hootie fans recognized me in line. I’m fifth in line, and so I got to pick where I wanted to be. So of course, I stand in front of Mike Mills, and I’m

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Nestor Aparicio 8:00
friends with Gorman, and I’m such a fan. And forget Darius; he’s in your band. He’s cool too. But Mike Mills, I get weird about the REM cats. You know what I mean? It’s like being around Mickey Mantle for me. You, Mark, you agree with that, right? You’re a little weird around legendaries, right? Legendary percent. And when they did, I believe that night, I about lost my mind. I lost my mind that night.

Steve Lipton 8:22
So between like the second or third song, I got this idea. I maybe when if you hear it, it’s called Boom. We had just been with a friend of ours, a girl that was roommates with Mark’s sister and everything, and her nickname was Boom, and I have no idea why, but she’s a lot. She’s a whole episode in and of herself. And then so while I’m watching these guys go. I’d like to hear them play this. Like, I got an idea for a song, and I’m like, “All right, I can’t forget it. So I wrote it down, and or I I get send myself a voice memo. Go, all right, hey, don’t forget. Boom, she’s got a lot of boom. Okay, and that was it. Went home, wrote it, downloaded it, sent it to Mark. He liked it, and we recorded it, and that just came out. What the 14th? So that just came out like two Fridays ago. Yeah. So you say you write something

Nestor Aparicio 9:06
and send it. You’re a band like Mark. You’re still down in South Carolina, right?

Steve Lipton 9:10
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So

Nestor Aparicio 9:11
like bands are different these days, right? Like he sends you an idea in the morning, and you can collaborate from anywhere. No,

Mark Bryan 9:17
but but the they the guys came down to record it, and it’s it’s a banging recording, and I and a good story about that song is it’s the first song where I used the this amp that I bought from the one of the guitar players from Kicks Bob Pear and who also plays in a Rush tribute band with Rick Slezak, our Ricky Slezak, our drummer from Screaming Trojans, and so Bob sold me this Marshall amp that used to belong to Lippy.

Steve Lipton 9:46
It was the Jay Giles. Jay

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Mark Bryan 9:48
Giles band, and so it’s so cool. So we got to use this kick-ass Marshall amp, and it sounds amazing, dude. It rocks. And then the third track we did was another song that Lip had started about. Our buddy Kevin Heister, who was one of the original Screaming Trojans members, who passed away about three years ago, and Lippy had this great idea for a tune, and I helped him finish it. And so that one comes out on the 25th of September here, which is the Friday where Hootie plays Ocean’s Conic. So the day after our Starboard Dewey Beach show. Well, you know, I had

Nestor Aparicio 10:21
Tom Prolazo. I was down at the beach about three weeks ago for Mako, and I talked about that ocean’s calling thing. Mark, let’s talk about that for one minute because it’s a you know it’s a big show, and you’ve already told me the song you wrote was inspired looking at Darius, literally, right, Steve? I mean, like so, Darius has his own like country thing that he does, and then he has the how owl. And I’m friends with Gorman, so I’ve had him on last year talking about that. You all you settled nicely into this 50 something role for all of you to put the band back together and put the tour bus together, and my son and his daughter all want to come. We do a family thing with Udi, and then you guys go off and do these things you love doing, and you’re not on the hooty grind that you did for you know half your life, Mark. Right? That’s

Mark Bryan 11:07
about right. And by the way, it’s 60 now, just a 50 something. Darius finally hit the big 60 in May, and then I’m coming. Mine’s coming this May. But yeah, we have settled into it nicely, man. Everybody’s just kind of the way we’ve always approached things where you just keep it as as genuine as possible. Try to respect each other. When we get back together, it’s as fun as it can be. You know, my my intention is that we would make another Hootie album at some point because I think we have a great one still ahead of us. But if it’s just getting together with my best friends to play shows, I’m okay with that too. And and so I’m I’m at peace with where we’re at, and I know that you know with with the setup I’ve created down here, I can scratch my creative itch any time and have been, and so it’s been wonderful.

Nestor Aparicio 11:50
Yeah, you put things together. I see in Charleston all the time, and and all the guys in your band are active in that way, and even in finding other bands that hey, go out and see Darius sing some REM songs, you know, for a couple nights on. And I don’t think anybody wants to live on a tour bus and live that life, other than maybe Brian Adams, who seems to enjoy. I mean, certain people tour year round at this point. I would do it. I

Mark Bryan 12:12
would go. I would still tour, but I wouldn’t love to do it year round. You know, I like the idea of doing those like three month summer tours, that kind of thing, or maybe you getting to go to Europe every now and then for six weeks. You know, I’d still be interested. I still have it in me to do those kind of things, but I wouldn’t want to do it all year long.

Nestor Aparicio 12:29
I’ll tell you this, dude. It’s joyful every time I see your band. You know, I love your band. You’re not number one on the list, but you’re on the top 28. I’m gonna honor you guys in a couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to Nestor. No, dude, man. I mean, you’re one of those bands that I have seen you in New Orleans. I’ve seen you in San Diego. I’ve seen you in San Francisco. I mean, I’ve seen you at Super Bowls. I’ve seen you on sidelines. The day I saw David Beckham kick the ball, Sony was standing next to me. Yeah, you know the front. So like, I just have all these memories in your sports and your golf and all that. But this project with Steve and the childhood project you put together, and Steve, you can speak to this because one of your best friends in life went off in this legendary band, and you’ve watched it. I mean, that’s that’s an amazing thing. I have friends in bands, friends that became athletes. There’s just something about people that do things in their life that are extraordinary by any measurement, and one of your best friends has done that and still gets together and jams with you in a couple weeks down at the starboard, man.

Steve Lipton 13:23
We we we’ve been super lucky. First of all, if if you got a best friend who you want to be famous, it’s that guy right there because he’s always been like, hey, you want to meet John Hyatt? Of course, I want to meet John Hyatt. Or hey, we’re playing for the first time at you know Nissan Pavilion and there’s 35,000 people. You need to come out and see what it’s like from backstage, like you know, he’s taken me a lot of places that there’s no chance I’d ever been if I was just in my cover band. But you know, so that’s been great. First of all, I mean, the other thing too is, I mean, you know, Dean was also in our high school band. I mean, Mark’s that’s someone like Mark’s dad and Dean’s dad grew up, went to high school together. Like they graduated BCC in 1957, so it was almost preordained that the two of them would get together. But it’s crazy how our friend group from high school, you know, like someone like Ricky, the the guy. I mean, he’s in a rush cover band. He was that good in seventh grade. He sure was. Would we ever catch up to him? You know, he

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Nestor Aparicio 14:23
was the best musician in the band when you were kids.

Mark Bryan 14:25
Yeah, still is. I mean, he’s he’s he can play like his sort of favorite go-to genre is jazz fusion, and he can play all that stuff. And and did

Nestor Aparicio 14:35
you been in a band with Holsapple? You sure?

Mark Bryan 14:38
Oh yeah, like and Holsapple is one of the most amazing musicians I’ve ever played with. No question. That’s good to say,

Nestor Aparicio 14:43
right?

Mark Bryan 14:43
But but Holzapple never delved into jazz or jazz fusion, and I mean it’s neither have I much, and it’s like sort of this expertise level of music that you have to be able to just sort of adapt to and understand. And Ricky, our drummer, can do that, and it’s pretty impressive stuff.

Nestor Aparicio 14:57
Seen Rush yet, you guys? No? Yeah.

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Mark Bryan 14:59
I’ve seen him. I saw him long, long time ago. Yep. Oh, but I’m

Nestor Aparicio 15:02
on this tour with Annika. No,

Steve Lipton 15:03
I have not seen. I’ve heard good stuff. I’ve just seen highlights.

Nestor Aparicio 15:06
Oh, fellas, come on now. October 25th coming. We’ll go to D.C. We’ll make a night. I mean, it is. I mean, but I’m okay. You are my age. I’m October 14th, 1968. Okay, so I’ll be 58 next month. We are the same people, high school, same age. I mean, we were even both Orioles, right, Mark? I mean, we at least shared that, not football. Yeah, I’d see that, man. I mean, that’s a, that’s outstanding. That’s outstanding. It really is out. But the part where me and all of I’m doing this 28 musical influences, number 28’s Kiss going into this, they’re they’re they start the party. I was in my cousin’s attic in 1975, 76. He pulled Kiss Alive out, put it down on the, and my life was probably never the same from that moment.

Mark Bryan 15:54
I’m right. You’re right. We are the same, and that.

Nestor Aparicio 15:57
So I remember the first time I heard Smoke on the Water. I’m five or six. I remember the first record I bought was “Got to Get You Into My Life, Beatles, Flipside, Helter Skelter, Afternoon Delight, another Maryland band, Starland Oak, Book, and Neil Diamond, if you know what I mean. So I remember every musical thing, and I bought them at the Kmart in 1974. But that moment forward with music, everything about it. I mean, I remember Permanent waves rush. I had the the cassette, and I heard Spirit of Radio and Free Will, and and Jacob’s Ladder, and I like blew my mind. What were the blow your mind parts for you? Because you grew up together, and AC/DC, Tom Petty, all that stuff was sitting there. Zeppelin, all of that, right?

Mark Bryan 16:33
One for one of them for me was hearing my generation for the first time, and it was like this. It was like hearing punk rock for the first time, and hearing that level. I really, truly believe that my generation was the first punk rock song. I mean, you know, I hope I die before I get old, and then they break all their shit at the end of the song. You know, and so when I heard that at like age 13 or 14, there were you know the Beatles weren’t doing that. Like the Beatles, what the Beatles were doing was amazing. I loved Elton John and everything. I loved great songcraft already when I was like 13 or 14. But man, nobody blew my mind with energy like the Who, and so they brought this energy to the music that was not only were they great songs, but they elevated it to where like I was jumping out of my skin, you know, and and so Townsend was became a giant influence. And then as I grew older, I listened deeper into Townsend, and I realized what a great composer he was. And he was also the first guy to really kind of take advantage of looping, because if you think about the the synth work at the beginning of like we don’t fold again in Bab O’Reilly Teenage Wasteland, like that’s all loops. These are like synth arpeggiated loops back in the 70s before people were doing you know digital looping, and so I feel like he sort of paved the way for that on top of writing rock operas and and changing the world with my generation. So it’s like that was a big one for me, Townsend and the Who.

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Nestor Aparicio 17:56
They’re they’re not my top 28. Lip, what about you? What do you got? I love the Who. I love the Who, but like I. No, that’s

Mark Bryan 18:03
fine that they’re not in your top 28.

Speaker 1 18:05
I just went to see the

Nestor Aparicio 18:06
Who last summer at the Hollywood Bowl. It was legendary, but like no, I. But keep going.

Steve Lipton 18:10
Well, my my first four albums were Kiss albums. Kiss Alive Two was my first one, and Destroyer. My parents were relieved. Love Destroyer, dude. I was

Mark Bryan 18:18
air guitar and I loved Kiss.

Steve Lipton 18:19
Yeah, Foreigner Double Vision was my first non-Kiss album, and I think my mom was relieved that because you know it’s the makeup and the blood and the fire extinguisher. I mean, the flamethrower. Like she was kind of like, “What is happening to my kid? You know.

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Nestor Aparicio 18:31
What’s the other album? Give me the other one. Go

Steve Lipton 18:33
ahead. But but then I’d say Back in Black, 1980. Like all of a sudden, you know, AC/DC comes out, and man, like that’s hard rock, but you can kind of dance to it. You kind of move to it. And Angus in the I mean, come on, that’s perfect for. I’m in. I’m in junior high. I’m like, this is awesome.

Mark Bryan 18:50
Yeah, back in black was just insane.

Nestor Aparicio 18:52
Yeah, Robert DeBillius was my best friend. He had a basketball court in his backyard, and he got back in black. We boomboxes, right? Remember cassette? Oh my god! Went over the mall. Went over to Harmony Hunt, over to Soundwaves at the Mall, East Point Mall. They just shut it down four days ago, and we put the cassette in and just back in black. I mean, every word giving a dog a bone, rock and rolling noise, like all the way through. So like that, you that inspired me to go to shows, and I did sports and did. But like it inspired you guys to play music, you know. Without a

Mark Bryan 19:22
doubt, another big album for Lip and I, believe it or not, was Get the Knack.

Steve Lipton 19:26
Yes.

Nestor Aparicio 19:27
Oh my Sharona, we freaking

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Mark Bryan 19:29
love Get the Knack, man. Good

Nestor Aparicio 19:31
girls don’t.

Mark Bryan 19:32
Yeah, but song one to song 13 or whatever it is, it’s a tremendous record. If you if you never need want to revisit a classic, Get the Nack, bang it. One

Steve Lipton 19:42
year we were playing a Thanksgiving reunion show. It’s and it was the Screaming Trojans, and one of the other guys just said, “Learn the first eight songs on the Knack, the Knack album, and we did. Like we didn’t practice or anything, and we we rocked them out. I mean, we got a little showed up and did solo for Mike Shirley because that’s long. That’s

Nestor Aparicio 20:01
your next project. Is you’ll do a tribute to get the knack. Mark Bryan is my guest. He is the legendary guitarist of Hootie and the Blowfish. His side project and childhood project are the streaming trojans. Streaming Trojans, excuse me, not streaming. They’re streaming on the internet if you want, but they are the screaming trojans, and they will be coming streaming to the starboard and Dewey Beach on the 24th of this month. Steve Lipton is our is our co host here and coach. And I’m so much more fascinated by the buddy of the rock star. You know, so your your music and and blending this thing. You said you wrote like two good songs when you were 14 years old. Do you play those songs still, or no? Is that is that Barry? No,

Steve Lipton 20:39
not on purpose. No, I

Nestor Aparicio 20:42
would think they probably sound like the knack, right? They’re probably three chord, you know, hooey kind of songs, right?

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Steve Lipton 20:48
The one that I remember was kind of a ripoff of the Stones when the whip comes out, called “What the Cat Dragged In. I think Poison did

Nestor Aparicio 20:57
that one. I think Poison. He

Mark Bryan 20:58
actually wrote a song that Lip wrote the lyrics for, and I wrote this music for. That turned out pretty good. It was called “A Pass That Might Have Been, and and that was kind of started in the moment. And you know, like that’s one I would probably still play today. And then there was this other one that was really bad called Summer Girl. That I don’t know that I’d be excited to play for you now, but hey, man, it was you know it’s what you do when you’re 1516, for sure.

Nestor Aparicio 21:26
Oh, and you have the tapes? Do you have the Kmart tapes that you made little memoiraxes? There’s got to be

Mark Bryan 21:30
a summer girl somewhere in my collection. Yeah, I don’t like. I’m not flashing

Speaker 1 21:35
it. Yeah, why

Nestor Aparicio 21:35
not?

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Mark Bryan 21:37
We’ll see how it goes. Listen, listen.

Nestor Aparicio 21:40
If anyone

Mark Bryan 21:41
cares about the Mark Bryan box set that eventually comes out, maybe you’ll hear it there.

Steve Lipton 21:45
You know, there’s some good norm stuff. I mean, you know, you guys had some good stuff.

Nestor Aparicio 21:48
Like part of this 35th anniversary for me getting older, not shaving here this weekend because I’m not doing a lot of work. I’m only having friends like you on the show. Is that I? It my clone, my AI clone, has said to me, “You really should delve through those concert reviews that you wrote back in the 1980s when you panned David Bowie and then had him on the phone the next year, and he knew that you panned his concert and talked to you for a half an hour anyway. So, so you’re scratching your head. You’re like, dude, you didn’t pan David. Yes, I did. So I’m going to share all of the embarrassing moments because, like, I mean, when you got together with Darius and the band, no, I’m not. Did you write stuff that that never made the light of day ever? There’s a bad

Mark Bryan 22:27
song with Darius too early on called “Calendar Girl” that you know some people still love. I just can’t even listen to it. But like “Summer Girl, the one I wrote with Lip, like I would play that. It’s just that like there’s really not a desire, a demand. There’s not a big demand

Steve Lipton 22:41
other than Hutch. All right,

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Nestor Aparicio 22:42
so Mark, tell everybody what they’re going to find when they come at Starboard. And I apologize, I didn’t see you up at the Weinberg and Frederick a couple years ago. I hope you go out and do this a little bit more often. I’m not sure that I can get down to see you on. It’s all

Mark Bryan 22:54
good. We only play about once a year, and or twice a year, maybe, and sometimes down here in South Carolina if we get lucky. But what you what you’re going to get at the starboard is going to be massive because we’re going to do the the combination of our set that we just did opening for Toad the Wet Sprocket. We just did two dates opening for Toad in July, so we’re doing that set plus we’re going to add like a bunch of the timeless Hootie classics that we are able to do, and then some of my solo stuff, and then we got a really fun collection of covers to take it deep into the night. So it’ll be like a seven to 10 p.m. kind of thing. It’s a non-ticketed show, so it’s first come, first serve. So just show up, and it’s gonna rock. It’s gonna be so fun, man.

Steve Lipton 23:36
Very Dewey Beach, you know. It’s like

Nestor Aparicio 23:39
you can’t go wrong. Dewey Beach weekend, late September. You know the kids are back.

Mark Bryan 23:43
So like, who knows who’s going to be there? You know what I’m saying?

Nestor Aparicio 23:46
Well, let’s talk about that a little bit. Go ahead, Lip. You’re saying

Steve Lipton 23:49
if you grew up when we did, where we did, it’s almost better than playing Madison Square Garden. I mean, it’s like playing Dewey Beach at one one of the three great bars down there. You’re like, oh my God, this is this is going to make my life. Listen,

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Nestor Aparicio 24:02
you guys are getting a little pace yourselves, okay? I mean, I just I just need you to make it to the encore set because Dewey Dewey can get a little wet, you know, on on a summer night. I love it. I had the Ocean City folks on. I did the show down there. Had politicians and different people. The mayor. When I go to Ocean City, Maryland, whether I come in on 60th or I come in in the inlet, my whole life has been down there. Every girl, every band, every Batman, every scandals where the bands would play and like all of that. Ocean’s Calling is an amazing thing that OAR and Mark Roberts and a local thing. Another guy that’s one of your people down in that area. You’ve played a lot of these beach things, Mark. Right? You shaking your ass on the stage with the beach with Udi in various places and done. Tell me about Ocean’s Calling because it’s the most amazing thing to me that it’s been built in these last the last decade. Less than that, really, got rained on one year. But the quality of the bands and bands like yours that get together, you’re not playing a lot of gigs this year. You want to come see Udi? You got to come to Ocean City. Maryland is a hoodie, right? So I would just say that it’s it’s a grown up thing, and I think it’s a thing when you get down there and see the Ferris wheel. There’s got to be a little PCU because you spent some time at the beach when you. Yeah, I mean when

Mark Bryan 25:11
when I first started seeing those rosters appear for Ocean’s Calling, I’m like, God, what is this? And I just kind of thought it was in Comoco’s County somewhere, like out at like a big field or you know like like a like a Bonnaroo kind of thing, and then I heard it was down on the beach. I’m like, you kidding me? It’s right at the inlet. Like, holy shit, I’m beautiful. Like, I always in my head, I’m like, man, they always needed to do something with that big ass parking lot down there, you know. And so that’s, I think, where it is, right? And so that kind of blew my mind. What a setting for one of these, you know? Like a lot of these are just out in the middle of a cornfield, you know. So anyway, that blew my mind because it’s where I grew up going to the beach and going to the amusement park as a kid, you know. Like I’m so excited about. So then when our name appeared on it this year, I was like, “You got to be kidding me! We’re actually playing it! Like here I go! You know, and so we got to play that one this year: Stagecoach and Bourbon and Beyond in Kentucky are the three festivals that we’re doing this year, so it’s it’s kind of a fun hootie year where we’re we don’t have to work too hard, but we’re still getting to play in front of a whole hell of a lot of people. We also played a Fourth of July show around, or it wasn’t Fourth of July. It was a it was a the Windy City Smokeout in Chicago on july 9, which was really fun too. Which is a festival they have there, barbecue thing, and so those were the four shows we did this year. Those are the four shows we’re doing this year, and it’s to me that’s as good as it gets. I’m having a blast with it, and it allows me to do these side projects with the Screaming Trojans. I played played the Windjammer the other night down here in Charleston, and we got to play the new singles, and you know, with a band that I have with Sony down here that we just started on the side that we’re having fun with. You know,

Nestor Aparicio 26:46
you in, dude. I mean, how many you want to be in?

Mark Bryan 26:49
Whatever comes along, Nestor. Hey, you and I write a song. We’re starting. We’ll start a new project. You know, that’s how it goes.

Nestor Aparicio 26:55
Don’t get me started on my comedy here. I got to ask you this while we’re in this lane because I’m doing these music. Do you have a? I had Rick Emmett from Triumph on last week, as well as Gilmore, and they’re coming back to the arena down here on november 21, and they’re like known for that Us Festival. Like that was their seminal moment. They played in front of hundreds of 1000s of people with Van Halen back in the day, and the band broke up. Yeah, they didn’t play for 40 years together, right? Yeah, I kind of

Mark Bryan 27:18
remember that.

Nestor Aparicio 27:19
Yeah, you know, so they had that seminal moment? Do you have a moment that if there was a Hootie and the Blowfish movie that you you played it? Where I don’t know where you. I mean, I’ve seen you in lots of occasions that I’ve always been proud to know you guys and be there. But even when you play Hershey Park and there’s 35,000 people there 30 years later, I’m there that night and the Ferris wheels going there and the Super duper looper, and I’m thinking, man, you’ve really built something that has had staying power far beyond the first time I saw you at I think the Warner Theater. You know, with with hold my hand was a hit. You know what I mean? Yeah,

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Mark Bryan 27:51
there’s a few there are a few legendary things that I would point to over the years. You know, one obviously being our Letterman performance, but that’s a TV show thing. But no, there was this. There’s a. There have been several shit. Now I just lost my train of thought on the one I was going to tell you about. Oh, there was one here in Charleston, and it was back in ’96, and it was significant because ’96 Wave was the radio station, and it was the year ’96, and they did this thing called Wave Fest every year, and it was huge. It was this huge outdoor festival, and they got it was right when we had just hit, and so they got us to headline it with like Cracker, and God, the list goes on. You could look it up. It was the 96 Way of Fest, and it was like loaded with the with the bigger bands of the time, and and so we got to headline that sucker dude, and there were 60,000 people on this little point in Charleston. And there’s there are like you know overhead shots, pictures of it and stuff. Ballroom surfers, Joe Osborne, semisonic. There you go. Kozie’s

Nestor Aparicio 28:57
Tonic. There you go.

Mark Bryan 28:58
Yeah, yeah. Tonic was on it, and so people still to this day, we talk about that wave fest. Were you there, whatever? And and that still ties like the biggest crowd we’ve ever played, including like this German, you know, festival we did with Bon Jovi and Van Halen. It was the same amount of people at the fucking Wave Fest.

Nestor Aparicio 29:15
Mark Bryan is here for Hootie and the Blowfish now, representing the Screaming Trojas. They’re playing down at the starboard. Steve Lipton is his bandmate, childhood friend. He’s been sitting in with us. So, Steve, give me the like the moment that you realized, oh my God, this crazy name, Hooty and the Blowfish. Was it like David Letterman? And and I didn’t really remember until recently that Letterman heard your song, made fun of the name of your band, and somehow you wound up on the show like the next day or something. It’s something like that, right?

Mark Bryan 29:46
He, it’s a true story that he he heard that heard it on the radio on the way home from work, and he called his agent. He’s like, “I want that band. Hear it, hold my hand. He’s like, “He’s like, whatever that is, I want that band on the show. And then, and then he kept saying after he had a song, he put held the CD up and. He was like, “If you don’t own this, something’s wrong with you. And then for like the next month, every night he would be like, “So Paul is Hooty here tonight, or you know, where’s Hooty? Paul. He was just always making fun of our name, of like Paul, or do you have a blowfish like that kind of shit? And and so it didn’t hurt.

Nestor Aparicio 30:17
So Steve, you get wind of this, right? And you’re like, oh my God, Mark someone who Mark some Letterman. What, right? Literally, right? I mean,

Steve Lipton 30:25
yes, that that was unbelievable. That was the moment that it changed. There’s two other two other things which I would say. We’ve been going back when Mark, freshman in college, he’s like, I met this guy, Darius Rucker, and he’s unbelievable. This is 1985, 86. I probably met him first time I came down a road trip from I was at JMU and he was at University of South Carolina and I was like that guy is unbelievable like so just know having known Darius for that long but I would I would also say after they hit I think you were in Winston Salem on New Year’s Eve okay and and it’s a big gig, and Toad’s the Wet Sprocket was also there, and we stopped at like whatever it was that the band was playing late. They stopped and go, “We’re on, we’re on a you know the the New Year’s Eve Dick Clark show right now, and we they stopped and watched themselves on the big screen because it was pre-taped, you know, on on New Year’s Eve, and it was like that’s really cool, man.

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Nestor Aparicio 31:24
Well, you know what’s even cooler is the next year I was with you, Mark. You played the hard rock on New Year’s Eve in 1996. That night into 97, I I found my ticket stub the other day, dude, because you’re one of my 28 most influential bands of my life, and you’re on my show today, and it’s amazing. But Tiger

Mark Bryan 31:45
Woods was also at that show. Tiger

Nestor Aparicio 31:46
Woods sat next to me, and I-he was a dick the whole night, and it affected how I felt about him forever and ever.

Mark Bryan 31:57
He was very cool that night, man. He was in a really good place.

Nestor Aparicio 32:00
He he he was he he watched the show next to me, Mark. I loved your band, and he was just trying not to get recognized. Right, totally. He was so young, and

Mark Bryan 32:14
he he was backstage, and I remember him. I had just played the VH1 Fairway to Heaven, and so I was on TV playing golf, which you know probably should not have been, you know. And he was like, “Hey, man, why do why do you bend over so far when you putt? I’m like, “Tiger Woods is looking at my stroke. He’s Tiger Woods is watching my stroke. Should listen to

Nestor Aparicio 32:34
him. That’s what. I don’t know. That’s why. That’s what feels right. Keep doing it, man. All right. Last thing I want to say because I don’t want to indict Tiger, but he’s got enough money that he can afford whatever. You gave me one of the ultimate. You got me over. Do you remember in Jacksonville, it playing the Super Bowl media party on the PGA on on Pontevedra, right? I remember

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Steve Lipton 33:00
it.

Nestor Aparicio 33:01
Okay, do you remember anything about me that night in any way? Because like you got me over for years, for years just 2005, I guess was a Super Bowl. Do you remember this or you don’t remember this?

Mark Bryan 33:13
No.

Nestor Aparicio 33:14
All right, so you’re playing the media party. It’s in a tent, and it’s in Jacksonville, and it’s all it’ll probably 2000 media people there. We got-I got to hit a tee shot on 17 up over the water, and it landed like eight feet from the cup. Greatest shot of my life I made that night, literally. And I went in, and everybody knew that I knew you because this is-I’ve known you a decade at that point, and I’m a rock and roll guy or whatever. You shouted me out on stage. You’re like it’s great to see my boy Nestor Aparicio from WNSG Baltimore. What’s up, dude? You know, you gave me one of those, and all the media heard it, dude. Nice. Hey, for years, people come over like, oh, you’re the Hootie and the Blowfish guy. You know, like whatever. So, so I am the Hootie and the Blowfish guy. Just it’s so funny. You

Mark Bryan 33:59
never know how one little thing like that could have such an impact. That’s crazy.

Nestor Aparicio 34:03
Guys that remember it, you know, they’re like, “Hey, man, you must have like man shouted you out. Must have. And I’m thinking, man, that’s pretty. That’s almost like a sponsor. Mark Bryan is here for Moody and the Blowfish. I still love your band. You know that. I, you’re going to talk me into coming down that crazy ocean thing, aren’t you? You really are, aren’t you? Oh,

Mark Bryan 34:20
I figured it was a done deal. You’re there. Come on. All

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Nestor Aparicio 34:22
right. All right. And Starboard,

Mark Bryan 34:24
September 24. Well, Starboard, I

Nestor Aparicio 34:25
better get in line now because apparently I can’t get in if they run out, right? That’s right. I’ll shout you out. All right. Give me the nerd. Give me the backstage pass. I’ll be like Wayne’s World. I’m not worthy. I’m not worthy. Mark Bryan and Steve Lipton are here. They are the Hootie and the Blowfish remnants, and along with their childhood friends, as well as a son of one of their childhood friends, going to get together and do the Screaming Trojans for you at Starboard one time, one night only, as they would say. It’s like a wrestling match, it’s like a cage match or something. And then you can all go celebrate and celebrate your hangover at the Ocean’s Calling the next day. We’re gonna.

Mark Bryan 35:00
It’s actually more like the Blues Brothers than wrestling match. It’s one night only, and we’re on a mission from God.

Nestor Aparicio 35:06
From God, hey dude, they’re reopening the eight by 10 down across street in Baltimore. Y’all might will come in do a show and we get some proper crabs. We’ll do it the right way.

Mark Bryan 35:14
Killer, that would be really fun, dude.

Nestor Aparicio 35:16
Let’s work that out. All right, Mark Bryan here from Moody the Blowfish. I am working backward through my 28 favorite bands-not really favorite, more most influential. The bands I’ve seen the most, the bands I’ve traveled the most, the bands that like Mark Bryan. Even when I text him directly, he comes on the show. But I am appreciative of Patty and the whole crew for putting this thing together, as always. And if you’re heading down to Ocean’s Calling, have a good time. Lots of bands down there as well. I am Nestor. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and Ocean City in Charleston, but never anywhere where they root for the Washington Commanders. It’s football season. Stay with us. We’re Baltimore positive.

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