Years ago, I reviewed Mark Geary’s album Ghosts for the sadly departed Boston Phoenix. I would pop that CD in my player on occasion, but fell out of touch with his music for a while. Then a couple of months before this interview, I got an instant message from Geary on Facebook that he’d be playing a few miles away. It was around two in the morning, but I got my tickets a few minutes later, and saw a fantastic show at a little place called The Carriage House in Newburyport, Massachusetts. It was wonderful to catch up with Geary and hear his new music.

At the beginning of the conversation, we talk a bit about his recent gigs in Portugal, a place Geary had not played previously. That piqued my curiosity, since Geary is such a talented lyricist and a great storyteller live. I wondered how that would translate in a place where there might be a language barrier. That’s where we start, talking about playing for international audiences.

The circumstances of the Carriage House show led to a conversation about Facebook and Instagram as tools for getting the word out about shows and new music. In the middle of his career, the parameters of promoting yourself as a one-man-traveling-band changed, and while it’s still very hands on, it can feel kind of insincere. We talked about not letting social media get in the way of actually creating art, a difficult proposition when you need to fill a room to keep gigging to even have a place to play your songs for people.

We got into details about his new album The Fool in the latter half of the podcast, how people don’t always catch the humor in his lyrics, and about watching Colin Quinn during his time in New York. For horror fans, there is a bit at the end about the movie A Quiet Place, which Geary had said he was looking forward to seeing when I saw him live. Very slight spoilers in that conversation, if you’re sensitive to that type of thing. If you don’t know Geary, I hope hearing him prods you to check out his music, and if you do know him, this wide-ranging conversation should be a treat.

Here’s the video for “Don’t Break” featuring Gainne Hunt:

You can listen to and download the podcast from the player below, or subscribe/review on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Enjoy!