Glitteratti: More to the Story
Taylor Harrington 5/17/2021 7:00am EST
Hailing from Duluth, Minnesota, Glitteratti is a musical collaboration unlike any other. Made up of songwriter Marc Gartman on guitar (Two Many Banjos, Fever Dream), Dave Carroll on electric guitar (Trampled by Turtles, Two Many Banjos), Tim Saxhaug on bass (Trampled by Turtles, Dead Man Winter), and Kyle Keegan on drums (Ben Howard, Mandolin Orange), Glitteratti’s sound is reminiscent of the likes of Simon and Garfunkel meets Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin.
We sat down with three out of four band members, Marc, Dave, and Tim, for an in-depth look at their journey so far.
Taylor Harrington
I just want to start by maybe going around and everybody just introducing themselves a little bit. Let’s start with you, Marc.
Marc Gartman
I’m Marc Gartman. I write the tunes for this band and we have been playing together, I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t have just jumped in with that. I’m not sure how long we’ve been playing together. Seven years? Just being musicians and just having the desire to play music and spend time together. I just started introducing the idea of playing some originals and the guys took to them so quickly. It’s a very easy and fun band for me to be in.
Taylor Harrington
That’s so cool. Let’s go to Tim next.
Tim Saxhaug
I’m Tim Saxhaug and I play bass and do some singing. I live up here in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Davey and I are in Trampled By Turtles together. I obviously know Davey through that and Marc, we met in Duluth when he came up there and was playing with like, half my band, and I was in a different band called The Dukes of Hubbard, which is long gone, but not forgotten. But yeah, that’s where I’m at.
Taylor Harrington
Cool, cool. What about you, Dave?
Dave Carroll
Yeah, I’m Dave. I play guitar in Glitteratti and do vocals and also background vocals, and I live in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. That’s where I’m at right now. I met Marc I think around the same time as Timmy, I’m not sure. To me, our first meeting with Marc was when he was the camera guy interviewing Trampled up in the “Blue House” that I used to live in, or maybe Tim had met him before that, but that was my first introduction to Marc and I just remember him at the end when the recording was off, and he was kind of just like, “So you know, what makes you guys so special?” It was pretty funny and I just remember he said that, and I kind of just never forgot that. Then later, he got ahold of me, too. He was interested in my banjo style, and more or less just kind of asked if I if I wanted to get together and play. Yeah, so anyways, I met Marc, and he asked if I wanted to play some banjo, so I came over with my banjo and I think we kind of had a practice and recorded some stuff and basically started playing music together. That was, I think, over ten years ago. I don’t know how long it’s been, but it’s been a long time. It’s been a fun journey to play a lot of Marc’s tunes in different bands and different instruments and yeah, a lot of fun and really like it. I like this band a lot.
Taylor Harrington
So Marc, I heard him say that he met you when you were filming?
Marc Gartman
Before I got fired from Channel Six, one of the one of the stories I did was a on Trampled By Turtles. They were playing the North Shore, or there was a party, I’m not sure, but Trampled were gaining steam, and I went and interviewed them at Dave’s house and everyone was there.
Taylor Harrington
That’s great. I mean, it’s not great that you were fired, but maybe it was a blessing in disguise. It’s just cool when people can organically get together and just vibe on each other’s music and sound. Sometimes when the right people cross paths magic is made and it sounds like that’s what happened here with Glitteratti.
Marc Gartman
Initially, I think with this band, we started through classic 70s singer/song-writer stuff, like we were playing with heart. We started as a trio just doing that Simon Garfunkel, Everly Brothers Trio, singing with acoustic guitars. It was fun to just sort of, it’s just nice to hear harmonies, you know, sometimes it’s nice to hear harmonies and we were doing that. Eventually Kyle the drummer got involved, I forget exactly how, and the next thing to do seemed to be writing our own songs. Just the the desire, I think for for me, the desire to hear harmonies, that was important. That’s an important one for me.
Taylor Harrington
How did the group come up with the name Glitteratti?
Dave Carroll
We were walking to this venue, I think with Jake Larson and his girlfriend, and she just said, “Why don’t you be Glitteratti?” Was that it?
Marc Gartman
That does ring a bell to me. Band names are tough, because you can get really bogged down in it, and as soon as something becomes available, my feeling is just like, Is that cool? Cool, we’re done. You don’t always end up with the greatest band name of all time, but you’re just kind of done with it at the same time.
Taylor Harrington
Where have you performed in the Duluth area and beyond?
Marc Gartman
That’s a great question. We’re actually going to be playing in the Duluth area in the next couple of weeks here. We’re playing at a bar in town here called The Ripple. We were gonna do a tour last year, but that got cancelled because of COVID, and then this past summer, we did one show at Earth Rider on Lake Superior. So you know, like most bands, it’s kind of hard to find exactly how we’re going to do it, but the desire is there.
Taylor Harrington
That’s got to be just so exciting to get back out there after a long time of not doing live music, because I know as the audience, I miss it so much, that I can only imagine what the performers are going through right now. Just that fire to be on stage. It’s right around the corner for you. What’s your dream for this band? Your goal? Where do you see Glitteratti in five years?
Dave Carroll
If the desire is out there, which for me, it never really wanes. I always love playing with this band. So you know, if the desire is always there for everybody, we always make efforts to meet up and play, and we don’t play a lot, but we try to every year, at least a couple times. I feel like that’d be great if we were still doing that in five years.
Marc Gartman
My God, five years. Yeah, that would be fantastic. We’ve recorded, I think one side of a record, and I’d like for us to record a second side. Then we can put a second full record out.
Taylor Harrington
Earlier today I was sitting outside in my backyard with my dogs just listening to music and I cannot say enough how much I love the song “Songs of Love and Devotion” from Among the Wild.
Marc Gartman
So I write a bunch of songs and we have this friend, Steve Garrington, who’s a talented musician, and I’ll sort of filter music through him to sort of pick at what he thinks about it, is it sort of worth checking out? That was one of them, which I didn’t necessarily think was was one that maybe would make the cut, and he’s like, yeah, it’s really cool. He said it reminded him of the last song on this Bob Marley record and that it has sort of a calming quality to it.
Taylor Harrington
I love it. That is what is so cool about Glitteratti, that each of the songs, they have this total 70s rock sound, but then they also have the softer side of things as well.You have a wide range of talent and ability in this, so how do you even keep all that together when you’re writing your music?
Marc Gartman
Well I think the answer to the question is it really has to do with the band because the band is, everyone’s so talented, that it’s like let’s, let’s reach out, let’s, let’s expand the types of songs that we’re playing. I like that we can go from, you know, “Songs of Love and Devotion” to “Joseah!”. That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy playing with this band. It’s because like, let’s go in this direction, now lets go in this direction. It’s fun to throw it at them. They can handle it, they enjoy it.
Dave Carroll
You know, I agree, Marc, it’s just kind of like what you said, you go from something that’s really mellow and easy to something that’s challenging and more rock and different. Just kind of the spectrum of it’s all over the place. So it keeps it super refreshing to play all these tunes.
Taylor Harrington
Yeah. So if you all could give any sort of advice to maybe a kid who’s 12 that just picked up their first guitar and they’re falling in love with music for the first time, what advice would you give a kid that is just starting their music journey?
Tim Saxhaug
Just listen and play as much as you want. We’re all of an age where we can’t really give advice to a young person trying to make it in the music industry now, because the way like even Trampled by Turtles did it isn’t really a thing anymore. So it’s kind of TikTok and YouTube and digital stuff now. So I would say just listen and play and do whatever you want. Like at this point if you want to make something make it and put it out there. You know everything is so subdivided. Now, big hits aren’t going to be a thing unless it’s coming from like a big label, or something like that, you know, that’s put out there by the media like pop-type of stuff. So just have fun, do whatever, and don’t worry.
Dave Carroll
I would say if they’re also just learning it and wanting to learn an instrument, it is just as simple as playing 20 to 30 minutes a day. If you’re just getting into it, and you don’t know what you’re doing yet, practice 20 to 30 minutes a day.
Marc Gartman
My advice would be to get familiar and get comfortable with the voice in your head that says that it’s not very good, or it’s been done before and I’m not getting any better, and just allow that voice to exist without taking up too much space in your brain. Continue moving forward, continue doing your thing. Hear that voice, but don’t let it overpower you like a little yapping dog. Sort of like, I hear you yapping, but I’m going to continue pursuing stuff because I believe that it’s fun and enjoyable, and I’m not going to let myself defeat myself.
Taylor Harrington
All three of you gave great advice for anybody just picking up an instrument for the first time, and I cannot thank you enough for joining me today for this quick little chat about Glitteratti. It’s just really cool to hear people enjoying music and spreading the word and positivity and just getting out there. So beyond that, I do want to ask how did you come up with the idea of using home movies for your music videos?
Marc Gartman
Well, yeah, that was very complicated. The reality is right now we’re just not together (location-wise) and I knew that I had this footage that my parents were digitizing. I knew the bar mitzvah footage was something that I wanted to do something with. So with doing the record and not being together and not having a music video budget, I was like, I think I’m gonna put together just like a little movie here of this stuff. I mean, is it as awesome as a Cardi B video? Yes.
Watch the full interview below, visit our YouTube channel, or listen everywhere podcasts are available!
*25% of all income made by Confessional Magazine via donations and elsewhere goes directly towards Felicia Merritt’s fight with Multiple Sclerosis.
