Today, we’d like to introduce you to Chris Marston.
Hi Chris, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My name is Chris Marston, and I am the founder and organizer of the multi-media and music collective Car Pool based in San Luis Obispo, CA, with members in San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, the Bay Area, Sacramento, and other states as well.
Car Pool started as a band with a weekly residency at a local restaurant and bar called Benny’s Pizza Palace and Social Lounge in August 2022, with original members Chris Marston, Edmond McGinley, Jacob Cherdak, Miles Houser, David Aghajanyan, and MacKenzie Shorter.
After a year of performing regularly both at Benny’s and around SLO County, the band had developed a roster of stand-in musicians for every instrument, including singers. By July 2023, I realized I had an opportunity to make a meaningful change to the music scene in San Luis Obispo that would benefit more people than I originally intended. I transitioned Car Pool Band into Car Pool Music as a collective focused on connecting musicians and other media-based professionals.
I transformed Car Pool from a rehearsed and consistent band into a network of professional and aspiring musicians, singers, photographers, videographers, graphic designers, painters, illustrators, sound engineers, and producers that has reached over 100 members. I was told multiple times by friends and mentors that this was a hopeless idea and that I was overreaching with my influence and abilities to connect individuals, but I kept thinking that I would have truly benefitted from an organization like the one I was creating.
I left my degree without any true experience performing with a band or jamming with musicians and other singers, as I was trained purely classically to read sheet music and rehearse pieces for months or even years before performing them once. I formed the Car Pool Band with no real-world experience in communicating with or understanding what my friends were trying to get me to do. So I formed a collective to help fill the gaps in my training hoping others might appreciate it as well.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My personal story begins with my journey through my degree at Cal Poly SLO, where I struggled with debilitating learning disabilities and consistent personal tragedies. I lost over ten friends to suicide, 4 to drug overdoses, 2 to mass shooters, and 3 to cancer while in college, and that number has only grown since completing my senior recital and earning my degree in Music with an emphasis in Vocal Performance and Recording.
My mentors and professors were sympathetic to what I was going through, but even the counselors, therapists, and psychiatrists at my University were unable to figure out how to help me through all of this. The only aspects of my life that seemed to help me deal with my grief and pain were music and my friends who are still here, and when I was gifted an opportunity to try to help them in return, I took it. I focused my pain into an energy to adapt and connect people in new ways, whether or not I would still be involved long term.
Car Pool was started as a way to connect musicians who would have never worked together in the first place. From personal traumas, previous band dramas, and lack of opportunities to perform, there were a lot of reasons why the band should have failed from the start. Instead of letting all of our personal and collective problems keep us apart, we used it to connect and grow something from nothing. We began with no concept, no binding musical ideas, nothing but a weekly residency, and a willingness to just play. We ended up playing so much that it became almost impossible for us to play a show with all of the original members present, and that’s when we realized we needed to change our approach.
I remembered all the friends I had lost and how I felt when learning of their pastings as they happened. I wanted to find a way to give people the opportunities and community that they deserved and needed while they were alive. It wasn’t until I was driving Grady and Nathan from Honeyboys back from a gig we played in Santa Barbara, and we were able to talk about the meaningfulness of this project on our mental health and emotional well-being that I realized this was helping more people than just myself. Now, I just want to open this project to as many people as we can while I’m still able to do so.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe you can tell us more about your work next?
The performance concept was simple: give the musicians for each show a Spotify playlist of vastly different styles of music and tell them to play songs even if they had never attempted them before. The goal was to test their abilities to improvise parts, read chord charts and lead sheets, and read each other to communicate hits and changes. It went well enough when I had players who had already rehearsed with the original band and performed with us before the transition, but it wasn’t until I brought in some of the members of the Honeyboys that I realized the true potential of the concept.
We started to play Them Changes by Thundercat when both the guitarist, Reese Gardner, and the keyboardist, Grady Gallagher, looked at me and told me they didn’t know it and couldn’t play it. I told them to just listen to the bass and drums and feel it out so that they could create their own parts from scratch without needing to listen to the original. What came out of them in that song changed my life completely, and I have never gone back. Grady began playing gospel choir/church style changes over the already funky bass line before Reese hit a couple of his pedals and started playing a heavy metal style riff completely improvised that surprised not only the audience but also the rest of the band. We rolled with it, and the Car Pool Collective concept was solidified.
Now that we have been using this strategy to help teach and train musicians in San Luis Obispo, we have accidentally started a movement to change the culture of the music scene on the Central Coast. I have established a flexible structure to collaborate with and include as many different individuals, bands, organizations, collectives, networks, and venues as possible, which has opened doors not only for myself but also for the members of the collective.
We have helped to form and establish over ten bands now, as well as connect recording engineers and producers with artists and musicians, photographers and videographers with bands and brands, and venues with reliable and respectful contacts.
What matters most to you?
I am now finalizing the plan for the next couple of phases with the networking organization Car Pool has become.
First, we are establishing multiple monthly and bi-weekly residencies and events with venues and pop-up organizations such as Makeshift Muse Makers’ Markets, Liquid Gravity Brewing Company, Streets of Vintage, and Barrel House Brewing Company. Each residency/event series is headed by different member teams to give the opportunity to learn how to organize and structure shows, markets, and events to as many members who are invested as possible. These range from pop-up markets, jazz jams, collective jams, full concerts, and art fairs. Car Pool does not take a cut of the profits or payment of any sort as an organization, so only those who work, perform, or shoot at the events receive payment.
Second, we are establishing a teaching and mentorship network for those who are looking to gain experience teaching and those who are looking to grow upon new and old skills. I am a voice teacher and vocologist, and I have had the privilege of teaching over 40 students while growing Car Pool into what it has become today. We now have a group of professional musicians who are already teaching private lessons or are interested in starting. We are negotiating a lesson trade system to keep costs low and help make lessons more accessible to all members. I give voice lessons to a few members who perform with me for free, or I trade recording lessons from our engineers for voice lessons. The goal is not only to teach skills but also to help translate the philosophy of Car Pool into the everyday teachings of our mentors and members.
Third, I am moving to San Diego this summer, and I have only a handful of contacts and members there to work with. My goal is to take the Car Pool philosophy with me to an already-established music community and introduce the collective to a vibrant culture. I have members moving to Los Angeles and the Bay Area who are also taking Car Pool with them to help establish it throughout the coast. Our goal is to increase collaboration and musicality wherever we end up and find like-minded individuals, bands, and organizations in these new places.
Pricing:
- Single Voice Lessons: $60/hour
- Private Voice Lessons: $100 for 2 hours
- Masterclasses: $75/hour
- Performance: $150/hour
- Recording: $100/session
Contact Info:
- Website: marstonmusicofficial.com
- Instagram: @car.pool.music and @chrisjmarston
- Linkedin: Chris Marston
Image Credits
Addison Le Claire and Aidan Faul
