Jason Isbell, Charlie Starr, Grace Bowers, Jared James Nichols, and more feature on a star-studded, 10-song Southern rock set
Friday, April 11th sees Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton drop Without The Pain, a new solo album featuring guest appearances from a cast of Southern rock and Americana’s brightest stars, including Jason Isbell, Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke, Grace Bowers, Jaren Johnston of The Cadillac Three, Neil Fallon of Clutch, and more.
Featuring no shortage of Gibson instruments, guitar highlights include Jason Isbell’s soaring slide solo on “Come December” and Morton trading blazing lead lines with Grace Bowers on “Dust.” On the eve of the release of Without The Pain, we caught up with Mark at the Gibson Garage London to get the skinny on a solo album that some fans of Lamb of God’s moshpit-pulverizing riffs might find surprising.
Do you think the Southern rock sound of Without The Pain will be a shock to people who are used to hearing your playing in Lamb of God?
“I think it’ll be a surprise to some people, but I think for anyone that has followed me on socials or seen interviews with me before, or for whatever reason has taken interest in me as a player, it probably won’t be much of a surprise. To someone who is a casual fan of Lamb of God or purely a fan of metal, it might come out of left field a bit!”
Presumably, it’s a thread that has always run through your musical tastes and a genre that you’ve listened to from the beginning.
“Yeah, for sure. I think this record is really indicative of what I listen to as a fan. It’s representative of how I play on my own time or really any time I pick up a guitar, unless I’m specifically focused on Lamb of God. None of that is to take away from what we do with Lamb; I love that stuff so much, and career-wise, it’s been most of my life’s work.
“I still have a great love and passion for that; those guys are my best friends, and I love what we get to do. But on my own, when I come home, when I’m in my jam room or playing with friends that come over, it sounds more like this.”
On the subject of playing with friends, there’s an amazing guest list on the record. How did that come together?
“I’m so lucky, man—a lot of these folks are just my friends! In a few cases, we had mutual acquaintances, and when it was coming to fruition that this was going to be a project, it was suggested that I go work with Jaren [Johnston] or that I work with Cody [Jinks]. We had mutual acquaintances that hooked those situations up, and those guys have become friends now, too! The relationships built are awesome.
“Charlie Starr, I’ve known for a very long time. I met him in the UK—we met at Download Festival some years back and kept in touch. He’s been to my house, and we send each other goofy texts and stuff. These kinds of friendships are built around touring and around the industry, and I’ve been doing it a long time. So I had some great friends jump on and some people that I was linked up with that I was really fortunate to work with.”
Was there anyone whose contribution really surprised you, or someone who brought something to the table you weren’t expecting?
“I don’t know that I was surprised by anyone’s playing or performance—they are all so great! I was thrilled just at the roster of people. I didn’t know if Jason would jump on the record. Jason is in outer space right now with all the incredible stuff he’s got going on. For him to jump on the record and play that incredible slide solo on that song with Charlie was a real thrill.
“I wasn’t in the room when he cut it—he sent that file, and the first time I laid it over the track and listened to it with the track going, I was like, ‘Man, that’s a really special performance right there. I don’t even know what guitar he was playing—I hope it was Red Eye! It sounds like it could be! I actually saw him since then and forgot to ask.”
Could you ever see yourself making a solo acoustic record like Jason Isbell’s latest album?
“Well, at least thus far, I’m not a lead singer. I sing backups—on my first album [2019’s Anesthetic] I lead-sang a song, it sounds cool, but I’ve never quite seen myself as the frontman or lead singer. I’m a songwriter—I write lyrics, write melody—but so far I’ve found myself most comfortable with having great singers sing the songs I get to work on with them.”
Image: Mark’s sunburst 1963 ES-335 is a current favorite
Presumably, Without The Pain required a different approach to your usual Lamb of God setup. What gear were you using to track it?
“I have a pretty cool guitar collection, but we recorded the basic tracks in LA. It’s a solo project, so I’m not going to ship a whole rack of guitars out! I flew to LA with a 2018 Gibson Custom Les Paul™ R9, it’s the one in the ‘Brother’ video. Then Gibson loaned me a Custom Shop ES-335™ they had out there in the showroom—thank you, Gibson!—and that’s what we cut the basic tracks with out there.
“We recorded at Studio 606, which is the Foo Fighters’ warehouse, and tracked the record on that old Sound City board, which was fun, and that room sounds great. So I used those two guitars for the basic tracks—I ran through stuff they had there. I think it’s a 70s-era Marshall JMP™ with the Friedman mod, and then they had like a 60s Fender Bassman® that we used with an EarthQuaker Devices Acapulco Gold® fuzz pedal. Those were the two basic setups.
“Then, when we went to Nashville and did overdubs, I used some other stuff. I have a really cool sunburst ’63 ES-335, I cut some stuff with that in my studio at home, it’s kind of my favorite guitar right now. Then I used a Gibson Custom SJ-200™ for the acoustic stuff. The song that Grace Bowers and I trade licks on, I’m playing the slide on that song and that’s a ’57 Junior.”
Grace is such an amazing guitar player.
“She’s such a good player. When she popped up on my radar on Instagram a couple of years ago, she was really good, but the learning curve she’s been on—she’s a monster! So that was fun, to jam with her.”
Image: The cover art for Without The Pain
Because the guitars and the amps were different on this record, did that put you in a different headspace musically, compared to Lamb of God?
“I don’t think so. Tone does, but to me, I dictate the tone based on what I’m trying to accomplish. I think it’s the other way around—clearly Lamb is such a different thing, so when I go to Lamb I know there’s a certain kind of response I want; I’m looking for this really quick, tight response. But I still want there to be a dynamic to it, on the rhythm side. And then when I switch to lead stuff in Lamb, I need it to open up and get a lot of sustain.
“I’m pretty specific about what I expect. It’s Boogie stuff—most recently it’s been a combination between an old Mark IV—I have like seven of them!—and the Badlander™, which is great. It’s a really phenomenal amp. I’ve been messing around with the Mark VII™ and I like that, too. I haven’t incorporated that into the live rig, but I play that a lot at home.
“It’s really, really versatile, and it’s my favorite Mark Series amp since the IV. Everything sounds good, it’s one of those amps where you don’t have to go searching around. They did a great job with that one. I was really stoked to get it. I feel like I can do a damn good version of almost anything I want to do on that amp. And what I’m asking it to do is often very different, whether that’s Lamb of God, playing along to At Filmore East, learning the ‘Kid Charlemagne’ solo, or whatever else!”
That level of versatility and control is almost the antithesis of what was required when tracking Without The Pain.
“For the solo record, I wanted it to be less controlled. A little more wide open. I don’t mind it rolling over into feedback. Those are cool things. In the music on the solo record, the songs have so much more space in them, there’s less gain and more traditional rock sounds. In its own way, more color. It just growls and breathes in its own way, and especially on the old stuff with unpotted pickups, it’s so wild and alive. It would be a soundman’s nightmare for Lamb of God!”
Listen to Without The Pain by Mark Morton now via all major streaming services.
