Photo Credit: Danny Work
The first time Toby Marshall walked into a room with Greg Koch they recorded two songs. Koch called for a shuffle in the key of G and that song became the title track for the group’s 2018 album Toby Arrives.
Dylan Koch, drummer and Greg’s son, had been playing gigs in Minnesota with Marshall and kept telling Greg that he had to hear this guy who plays Hammond B3 organ.
Marshall was coming to Milwaukee to buy a Leslie speaker. Dylan had set up a musical meeting. As Greg tells it, Dylan was getting agitated—that this was not going to be just a living room jam. So, Greg arranged to have the proceedings recorded at Steve Hamilton’s studio, Makin Sausage Music.
Recording the Follow Up Album
During the pandemic the trio figured out a way to record the follow up, From the Up'Nuh. The title comes from Dylan’s shorthand slang for the Koch family’s retreat in Crivitz, Wisconsin, aka Up North.
Working again with Steve Hamilton, Greg says this album had more production whereas the previous trio album was recorded almost all live.
What were the logistics of making an album during a pandemic? “We had a chunk of the album already well begun,” Koch says. “We were on a label (Mascot) in The Netherlands.” He felt it would be good to have the infrastructure of a label in Europe to help with logistics in terms of making sure a B3 would be available and the label had a cache of backline gear.
In hindsight Koch laughs, “Everything I thought they were going to do, they didn’t do. I should have known better. I ended having to make the deals, figure out how to get organs and get agents in other places.” That record, (Toby Arrives in 2017) was self-by the Koch Marshall Trio and re-released internationally in 2018.
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Koch says the group wanted to release an album in 2019 and the label wasn’t ready. Time went by, the pandemic happened, the trio began playing livestreams, recorded the album and the label declined again. The trio finished the mix and released it themselves.
Sales have been “robust,” no doubt in part due to Koch’s work ethic and ability to get his presence in the public eye thanks to various avenues. He has worked online with twice-weekly segments with Fishman Transducers and Wildwood Guitars that combine gearhead information with Koch’s humor. All told he has filmed thousands of these segments garnering tens of millions of views. And that is in addition to up to five livestreams each week, where Ryan Fitzsimmons produces the shows live remotely from Boston.
“As a result, when we do those trio live shows, it sounds pretty good and looks pretty good!” Koch says.
As a bonus, a representative from Tascam saw the livestreams and offered Koch some of the company’s state of the art gear to further upgrade the streaming rig.
Continuing to Connect With Fans
Make no mistake, this is not luck. Koch has long been the kind of musician who works hard enough and is open to new experiences, so that when a situation presents itself, he is ready.
If not the same experience as an in-person show, Koch’s livestreams were presented well-enough that he turned a profit. “The amount of money we get paid, in terms of the generosity of the people is commensurate with a good night at Shank Hall or whatever club we might be playing on the road.” Factor in sales of merch—hats, effect pedals, Skype lessons, instruction books—Koch has no complaints.
He livestreams Monday and Friday at 4 p.m. CST and Tuesday and Thursday at 3 p.m. CST. The Koch Marshall Trio livestreams every other Saturday at 5 p.m. CST on Koch’s website.
“When you are not on the road you are not incurring expenses. I was talking to Willie Porter recently and he said, ‘My credit card has a zero balance!’ Usually you are piling up expenses. When you are not travelling that is not happening,” Koch says.
There is a lot to be said about waking up in your own bed, then playing in a familiar setting with your son on drums, after flipping a few switches. To do a show still like this sounds like something from the future. But folks like Koch have shown it can be a reality.
“I look forward to doing stuff when things open up but I enjoy the hell out of what we are doing now. I’ve got no complaints other than the fact that I gained a bunch of weight. But now I am losing it,” he laughs.
Koch employs his trademark humor in the lyrics for “QuaranTonne,” a songs about weight loss that might be a sentiment some of us share. But his humor is not limited to lyrics. Like much of Koch’s work, the Trio’s “Funky Klaus” is playful; you can almost hear the musicians chuckling as they riff back and forth. It has been suggested that improvised comedy is a lot like improvised music and here we have another example.
The Trio also shines on a cover of Johnny Guitar Watson’s “A Real Mother For Ya.” Watson was one of the original guitar slingers who reinvented himself in the ‘70s as a funk artist. The Trio’s take on the tune merely hints at how far they could stretch it out in a live setting. Here’s hoping they do just that soon.
