NEED TO KNOW
Hootie & the Blowfish aren’t on tour this summer — and that’s just fine with the band’s lead guitarist Mark Bryan.
“There’s never been a time where I thought I wouldn’t be making music,” says Bryan, 58, in an interview with PEOPLE. “Whenever Hootie & the Blowfish aren’t active, I’m still going to find a way to make and release my stuff. I mean, I don’t want it sitting on the floor or in my computer. It drives me nuts.”
Indeed, the drive that drove Bryan to overwhelming success with the legendary band Hootie & the Blowfish is also the same drive that continues to ignite his solo career.
“It’s not about going out and becoming this Mark Bryan icon kind of thing,” laughs the multi-platinum-certified songwriter who had a hand in writing some of Hootie & the Blowfish’s most iconic songs such as “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry” and the No. 1 hit “Only Wanna Be with You.” “It’s more about trying to give songs life. And I’ve spent my adult life doing just that.”
In fact, through the years and especially since Hootie & the Blowfish’s hiatus’ time became more frequent, Bryan has contributed his talents to a long list of projects — from playing on soundtracks for movies such as High Times’ Potluck and A Fork in the Road to producing albums for artists such as Cowboy Mouth and Patrick Davis.
“I help people make timeless art,” explains Bryan, who plays his own homecoming show on Friday, June 20 at The Atlantis in Washington, DC. “I’m fascinated with that process, and I love it. It’s what I’m always going to be doing. I’m truly living the dream that I had when I was a teenager.”
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It was that teenager from Maryland that used to dream big alongside friends that now serve as his current bandmates in the band Mark Bryan and the Screaming Trojans, who will also be playing a much-anticipated set.
“It’s almost like you have been a little gift from the universe — a way of putting something in words where it could affect people or a musical hook that just won’t let go for whatever reason,” says Bryan about his creative roots. “And those things stay with you for a reason. And then as an artist, you want to build on them. It’s a puzzle that I’ve been trying to solve for my whole life.”
It’s also a puzzle that most certainly now include the pieces of his solo album Popped, which Bryan released last year.
“I realized as I was making the songs that I’ve gotten to a place musically where I can do whatever I want, and if I can hear it in my head, I can make it happen,” says Bryan of the album that was partly inspired by his love for innovative artists such as Beck and the late Brian Wilson. “I can now take it as far as I want to.”
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It’s something he hasn’t always been able to do as a part of Hootie & the Blowfish, the ultra-successful band he co-founded in 1986 alongside Darius Rucker while they both were attending the University of South Carolina. “When I was younger — and especially being in a democratic band where we were always trying to make something together — I would probably write thinking with the band more in mind, whereas I’m not thinking that now,” says Bryan, who currently resides in Charleston, SC. “I’m going to find a way to do it if it’s something I believe in.”
The quest to make new music also helps Bryan pass the time as he awaits the next Hootie & the Blowfish run. “I don’t know if [last year was] our last tour or not,” Bryan says of the band’s ultra-successful Summer Camp with Trucks Tour. “I don’t think so, but you never know.”
