Murfreesboro Recording Artist Terry McClain, ‘The Realside,’ Finishes a Very Prolific 2014

Photo by Razzleland

Singer/songwriter Terry McClain played his first show at The Boro Bar and Grill in Murfreesboro in 1992. After 12 years in New York living with and investing in his band, Guiltless Cult, McClain returned to Murfreesboro in 2012 with warm nostalgia for the Boro’s talent-rich music scene and, as he describes it, its “limitless creative outlet.” With MTSU having one of the country’s most highly-acclaimed recording industry programs and Nashville, “The Music City,” exploding next door, McClain claims that being around the region’s relentless singer/songwriters has inspired him to do the unexpected.

During 2014 McClain, known as “The Realside,” attempted something not many artists, if any, have done. He created a new album each month of the year, 10 songs per album, 120 songs for the year, incorporating a different genre each month ranging from reggae, electronica, pop/rock and more. Having enjoyed many nights at Ryan Coleman’s Writers Night and reconnecting with friends from his past, McClain gained the support and help from talented, local musicians as he single-handedly wrote each track and played every instrument. With his current label, Delvin Shade Music, McClain hopes to inspire and bring together the amazing artists in this area while encouraging musical diversity and bringing fresh, out-of-the-box concepts to singer/songwriters.

Murfreesboro Pulse: How did you come up with this?
McClain: January of last year came, and I was tinkering around in my recording setup like I am normally doing. I just happened to do everything on the computer, like a little electronic album, and I finished it in a month. Then Febuary has a challenge called the RPM Challenge, where you write and record an album in February. Basically I had to do another album and I thought, “Well, OK, I’ll change it up.” [I] did an acoustic album. Then I thought, “I wonder if I could just do one a month for a year.” It kind of evolved into where I played guitar, bass, drums, keys and sang.

Having moved back to Murfreesboro, how do you view the music scene now as compared to playing music here in the early ’90s?
Obviously, you can always improve on it, but I appreciate what’s here. That’s the reason I did this kind of spontaneous project where everything you record in a month can’t be something you came up with before. It should be a different genre to challenge yourself. I did it to push myself, because I like doing it. Everybody has their reasons, but the fact that I was inspired enough to do that, I think is a big part of me being back here in my roots where I first started playing.

I’m lucky to have enough talented friends. I had about 20 guest appearances all throughout the year from different people. I wrote everything and they came into my little shoebox studio and sang their parts. That, to me, is the most important thing to surround yourself with, people who inspire you and challenge you. That’s where the seed begins. It’s not outward-in, it’s how much you’re willing to share with people. That’s why I like the [Ryan Coleman] writers night because you get to go out there and see 8 to 15 artists, and they’re not doing cover songs, they’re doing their own songs. That’s the important thing. As long as people are writing and they’re enjoying doing that, then I’m happy.

Do you want to do anything else with these albums as far as distributing them or playing them live?
I mean, they’re out there. It would be interesting if I could pull it off live [laughs]. I call it “off the cuff” because I wanted it to be as close to instinct as possible. I didn’t want the people that came in to really even know the music as much as to just come and do their first visceral reaction to the music. There are certain songs that I played out at writers night that I recorded last year.

Would you say there was a good part of the music that you wrote before and a good part that just came to you while you were playing?
Well, it all has to start within the month. You can’t do anything before that month. So as soon as that month starts, you basically just kind of sit down, play guitar and work out [something] like a structure of verse, maybe a chorus, and not really polish it up that month. I mean it’s kind of not linear in that aspect; it’s still in a pop format. That’s the cool thing about pop music, you can kind of just do stuff like [David] Bowie, Peter Gabriel and a lot of old soul music. Basically, when you’re writing, you’re just using your influences.

Are there any other artists, other than those two [Bowie and Gabriel], that you’ve listened to your whole life that have influenced your style of music?
Yeah, I guess what it all comes down to is, you would really have to go back to Robert Johnson, because that’s what everything is. It’s all blues. I would say not any one artist [has influenced me]. You’ve got your Beatles, the masters of songwriters with beautiful harmonies, and The Police with their reggae influences, but you know, they all kind of derive from the same influence if you take it back. It’s like, “Thanks, Robert Johnson.”

You just mentioned blues music. Out of all these different genres, was there one or maybe a few of the albums that you were more into because maybe you identify with that genre more?
I’m a little more comfortable in the rock/pop category. I did a country album, and I never thought I would, but I enjoyed it [laughs]. I tried to do something with some older folk elements, kind of like Willie Nelson-style. As far as what I’m comfortable with though, I learned to sing by going to do karaoke and singing impossible songs like Queen and Marvin Gaye, and that’s the stuff that I think I’m most comfortable with. It all depends on who you’re working with. The November one was a reggae one, and the drummer from Guiltless Cult, Jonathan Able, one of the best drummers in the area, pretty much nailed everything without even hearing it.

That’s the cool part . . . you get to play off other people. That’s usually the stuff I enjoy more, when I have other people involved, even though I did a lot of stuff on my own. Just playing all the instruments, that to me is the stuff I enjoy most.

So your biggest goal, or what you enjoyed most, was bringing all those different people and types of music to the area?
Yeah. That’s the thing, and that’s what I love about this area; it’s very limitless. You feel like you can do anything, and when you see this talent around you, it inspired me to do something crazy like this. The original project, which I couldn’t do without a very large budget and a lot of time, was actually 52 albums in a year.

Would you say a lot of your music comes from things you’ve experienced, or is there any kind of message that you want people to hear when they listen to your music? Is it just whatever you’re feeling at the moment?
I try to have your fine use of metaphor and some philosophical undertones, but you know a lot of the time I actually like writing from other people’s perspective of what I think it is.

McClain goes into detail about Nikki Oliff, a contributor to the musical album in December, Snowman Vs The Machine, and how experiences with her, other friends and just hanging out at Gentlemen Jim’s (Dirty Jim’s) has helped inspire songs that have come to him in the moment.

Is there any main goal that you have with your music that you’re wanting to reach?
I want to get it as proficient as possible. I’m an eternal student. That’s the way I define success; if I can look back and I have improved myself in any way, that’s what I strive to be. The bar is set pretty high around here, and that’s why I did something this insane just to kind of say, “Yeah, I’m here, and I’m learning.”

What’s the biggest thing you learned from doing this?
I named the reggae album Gratitude because it was towards the end of the year and I was just thankful to the people that helped out. Whether it was Ryan Coleman tracking drums for my country album or me going over there for the Old Soul album using his studio, he helped me out in a pinch with the music.

Teamwork makes the dream work!
Sometimes all the speed bumps and stuff along the way is good inspiration. The blues weren’t born out of good times, you kind of need some adversity to make it interesting.

Do you plan on enjoying any music shows yourself this year?
I’m probably going to go see Tears for Fears at Bonnaroo. I haven’t been to one yet, so I probably need to go.

Somehow McClain and I got on the topic of Memphis, Tenn., where he lived three years before moving to New York.
That’s when I moved to the next level as a musician. I wasn’t doing much in the way of good-sounding recording. Memphis was huge, and I had a mentor, Ross Rice. He used to have this open jam with Isaac Hayes and guys from Stax Records (including legendary Memphis jazzman Herman Green), and all kinds of people would come out. He would move me around a lot to guitar, bass, keys and stuff. It was terrifying, but I realized he would pick me more often than not because I wouldn’t overplay. I think he taught me a valuable lesson about playing with other musicians and finding yourself in the music.

My whole style of playing changed when I moved out there. I just threw away the whammy bar and started listening to B.B. King, [Eric] Clapton and just all this blues stuff. You have those two schools; you have the rigidly trained and the more raw, passionate blues musicians, and I was always driven towards that. It’s fine to be a little technical, but that’s why I play music.

McClain tells me that a new Guiltless Cult album will be released in summer 2015. For more information on The Realside and to hear Delvin Shade Music, visit facebook.com/delvinshademusic or delvinshademusic.com.

McClainalbums_murfreesboro The Realside’s completed albums in 2014:
1) The Circle (January 2014) – Electronica
2) Rhetorical Personal Moratorium (February 2014) – Acoustic
3 )Ides (March 2014) – Goth Rock
4) Love Songs for Strangers (April 2014) – Soul
5) Third Party (May 2014) – Hip-Hop/Electronica
6) Into the Wild (June 2014) – Country
7) Live: The Pizdons (July 2014) – Iranian Punk Metal/Comedy
8) Soft and Loud (August 2014) – ’80s New Wave
9) B.A.M. – Impulse (Sept 2014) – Improvisational
10) Nightmares Burrowed – Various (Oct 2014) – Spoken Word
11) Gratitude (November 2014) – Reggae
12) Snowmen Vs the Machine (December 2014) – Musical