Mark Ross - Wildwood Interview

Are you originally from Stockton, California? What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Was this something that was relevant growing up in your household?

Yes. Stockton was a pretty idyllic place to grow up. It’s an inland seaport 90 miles east of San Francisco. The Delta between SF, Sacramento and Stockton is a maze of rivers and islands, like a bayou. Lots of boating, fishing and water sports. In those days it was very safe. In our neighborhood us kids would cruise around on bicycles until dark. I started piano lessons at seven years old. I enjoyed it from the start and during those first several years I became really obsessed with Top 40 radio. In Stockton we had local stations KJOY and KSTN playing the hits. Neither of my parents were musically inclined, but my mother dabbled at the piano and thought it would be a good idea for me to take lessons. They were both very encouraging, and when I started in bands at age thirteen, they let us rehearse at our house. My mother really enjoyed it, which was a good thing, because we made a lot of noise.

What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert? When did you realize you wanted to spend your time pursuing music and art?

A lot the normal stuff, Little League baseball and other sports, but my attention increasingly went towards music. I had some friends in Junior High School that shared that interest and we started playing music together. Listening to the radio it started with Elvis, Buddy Holly, Ray Charles, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Everly Brothers, Dion, Richie Valens, Ricky Nelson, James Brown, Booker T & The MGs, Roy Orbison. Later, of course The Beatles and the whole British Invasion. At the same time I was learning classical music and listening to Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, etc. I’m a bit fuzzy on the very first one. It was probably Paul Revere and the Raiders at the Stockton Civic Auditorium. They were great! Once I started playing in bands, that and piano lessons were my main focus in my early teens. When I saw the Beatles debut on Ed Sullivan, that was when I seriously thought THAT’S what I want to do.

When and where did you play your very first gig and what was that experience like for you? Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to Wildwood? What initially led to the project forming and what initially inspired you to start the band with your friends?

My very first gig was a backyard party for someone’s birthday. There were probably 30 people there, but it felt really cool playing for an audience. Before that it was all just practice. The band was ‘The Chessmen’, myself and three of my friends from Junior High school. We played Green Onions, High Heeled Sneakers, Louie Louie, stuff like that. I played a Wurlitzer electric piano. After The Chessmen, I played with a soul group from South Stockton called Teddy and the Coachmen. We played some high school dances. I remember doing James Brown songs (Please, Please, Please and Try Me) and the instrumental Sleepwalk. After that I answered an ad at a local music store for a band that was looking for a keyboard player. That band was The Mal-T’s. Initially they played a lot of surf music, but then with the British Invasion, after I joined, we played Beatles, Yardbirds, Them, The Animals, etc. The Mal-T’s were together for a couple of years, 1966 and ’67. We recorded one single in Los Angeles (Here To Stay/Stand Up Today) which is well represented on YouTube, and was on the Pebbles Vol 9 CD years ago. The band eventually went through some personnel changes. The guitar player Danny Williams was drafted and was replaced by John Turner. The bass player Johnny Hensley quit and was replaced by Frank Colli, who was actually a guitar player, but the singer Bob Zachary talked Frank into joining on bass. The drummer Tim Mora and I stayed on. I didn’t know Frank Colli or John Turner prior to them coming into the band. After some time and a name change (Zephyr Blue), Bob Zachary announced he was disbanding the group. The rest of us decided to just carry on without Bob and that’s how we became Wildwood. Bob was the main songwriter for The Mal-T’s, but when we went on without him, we just started writing our own songs, with Frank as lead vocalist.

The band released two singles on Magnum. Can you tell me about writing and recording tracks such as “Free Ride/Wildwood Country” and “Plastic People/Swimming”?

We wrote songs by just jamming on a groove. Many times John Turner, or I would come up a riff, I would come up with a chord progression and Frank would just start singing and come up with vocal melodies. Plastic People and Swimming came about much the same way, although Frank came in with a finished lyrics for both. Free Ride started with a John Turner riff and I think Frank came up with the lyric on the spot. Wildwood County Man came about through my piano/organ figure, and was probably the first song we came up with using lyrics by William Chalker. Chalker was a crazy pill popping merchant seaman who Max introduced us to, thinking his lyrics might suit our somewhat dark and heavy sound. Chalker would send us folders of lyrics and we would sift through and find one we liked and proceed to write. We had a relationship with Max Weiss, the original owner of Fantasy Records in San Francisco. Max had sold his share of Fantasy out to Saul Zaentz, who built a new Fantasy studio in Berkeley. Originally Bob Zachary had made the connection with Max and Max liked what we were doing with Wildwood, so we continued to record at his original Fantasy Records studio on Treat Avenue. We would arrive on Friday, Max would would turn all the equipment on and leave us to it. Whoever was closest to the control room door would go out and push record, run back in and we would start the song. Max preferred to stay upstairs playing crossword puzzles. Sometimes we would stay there and return to Stockton on Sunday. The studio had a very raw sound which suited us.

What was the overall vision and approach to the band’s music?

After The Mal-T’s, we took a more aggressive approach to the music. We wanted to rock harder than the Mal-T’s had. John Turner had a heavier sound and approach on guitar, and the same can be said for Frank Colli on vocals. His background was really more in R&B music - he loved Ray Charles, so it was interesting to have an R&B singer fronting a hard rock group. Tim Mora was a really inventive hard rocking drummer as well. It was an exciting new creative direction for all of us. Plastic People and Swimming were some of the first songs we wrote, and Free Ride and Wildwood County Man came soon after that. I had been playing a Vox Continental organ on these early songs, but soon bought a Leslie Speaker to beef it up and make it sound more like a Hammond B3, then eventually I bought a B3. Chalker’s lyrics also inspired us into a darker and heavier vision.

When and where did recording begin and what was that experience like for you guys to record for this label? What were the band’s live shows like? What are some of your fondest memories of playing together?

Almost all of our recordings were done at the old Fantasy records studio on Treat Avenue in San Francisco. After Max Weiss sold his share of Fantasy Records to Saul Zaentz, Max started the Magnum/Onyx labels. The studio had quite a storied history. In the early 60’s Max recorded and managed Lenny Bruce, Bola Sete, Vince Guaraldi, Odetta, Cal Tjader and The Golliwogs, who later changed their name to Creedence Clearwater Revival. Max signed us to a management deal and we recorded at the studio for free. He was hands off for the most part - we recorded and produced ourselves. Max’s approach was to sign an act, let them record and if they have some success, great! He wrote a cover letter for our press kit, but all of the radio promotion fell to us. We had some great times at that studio. One day Vince Guaraldi showed up to see Max and he came in and jammed with us- he played piano and I played organ. Another time, Max called on us to record some tracks with Gene Vincent. Great memories! We started recording Plastic People there in 1968, and continued our relationship with Max and the studio up to sometime in 1972. Balls out! We really had a take no prisoners attitude on stage. So many great memories of playing in this band. We played Fillmore West and most of the Bay Area clubs at the time. We promoted our own shows around the Central Valley and in the Sierras. We would book a hall and hire bigger name Bay Area groups to headline, and we would open the shows. We opened for the Steve Miller Band, Grateful Dead, Tower Of Power, Cold Blood, The Youngbloods, Ike and Tina Turner, Elvin Bishop. We opened for The Doobie Brothers at The Chateau Liberte in the Santa Cruz mountains just a couple of months before their breakout album Toulouse Street. We also had a solid fan base in Stockton and in the Modesto and Turlock areas, so we would headline shows there. We would do everything down to the poster art.

What eventually happened to the band? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?

In 1972, I started to feel that we had hit a creative wall, so I left. I was graduating from The Conservatory Of Music at The University Of the Pacific in Stockton and was ready for new musical experiences and to expand my horizons. The band continued for a little while, but that was pretty much the end. Wildwood played a very valuable part of my musical upbringing. I’m still the best of friends with Frank Colli, Tim Mora and John Turner’s wife Mikie Turner. John sadly left us several years ago. Frank has remained active in music through the years and currently has a band in Oregon called The Mighty Steelheads. Tim still plays drums in various groups in Stockton. I have been fortunate to have a productive career in music through the years. I was in The Mark-Almond Band from 1977 to ’81 and recorded two albums with them. After I moved to Los Angeles in 1980, I played keyboards with many great artists through the years such as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Carole King, Linda Ronstadt, Delbert McClinton, Brenda Russell, Brian Wilson and Ronnie Laws. In the Nineties I shifted my focus into composing and have written music for production libraries, and for television shows such as Entertainment Tonight and Extra. I’ve had music in hundreds of shows worldwide. In 2003 I started composing for the daytime soap Guiding Light, for which I received two consecutive Emmys in 2006 and 2007.

These days I live in Oregon. My wife Ann Kelly is a singer/songwriter. She and I write and record songs together and perform live. The music is a blend of Blues, Jazz, Pop and retro R&B. We’ve had two CDs released and have gotten substantial radio airplay. For a taste of what we do, here’s a link: https://www.annkellymusic.com/. Thanks very much for having me for this interview! I’d also like to thank Alec Palao and Joey D for getting Wildwood a long overdue CD release on Frantic Records. Also, thanks to Guerssen Records in Spain for the Wildwood vinyl LP release, which is about to be re-issued.