I’ve released a surprise new Doctor Noize album, Mood Food, and we’re about to unleash The World’s Worst Grammy® Campaign.* And it’s all because I got to know one amazing man and we bonded and created some joy together. Here’s his story and our collaboration.
Danny Darko Marciano grew up a career criminal in San Diego. He’s been incarcerated 27 times. That 27th time, he worked, thought, read books and poetry, wrote songs for other inmates, and decided to break the cycle. He’s been doing wonderful things with his life ever since, including children’s music and books, tattoos and all, an unlikely and hilarious man for the moment. There were 200 people in his rehab program; he’s one of two who isn’t either back in jail or dead.
Because my dad was a wonderful and strong man who couldn’t quite break a downward cycle after my brother died, I too had an unusual childhood, and I recognize the work it took for Danny to redefine and redirect his life. I think he and his life story are an amazing inspiration for all ages, and I wanted to be a small part of getting it out there. So producing the next Microphone Doctors album here at Reach Studios was an easy yes. As it became clear we shared a life philosophy that was both deep and light,
Mood Food became more of a collaboration than a production job. It was a joint album.
Our first single and video, Lemonade, depicts our life philosophy being trampled on by some kids brutally out-Zuckerberging** us in the cutthroat lemonade stand industry:
Sure, we bonded as two guys who, as a podcaster who just interviewed us said, “have childhood stories like nobody I’ve ever met in children’s music.” But one thing we decided quickly is this: This album is not about that. It’s about being free from the pain of all that, experiencing lightness, laughter and joy, and sharing that feeling. Working with Danny opened me up to a joyously freestyle, less self-serious approach to working. We wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered a song a day. The album sounds like what it is: Two crazy guys just having fun with you and your kids.
Certainly a psychologist would have a field day analyzing us as two incomplete men trying to finish a childhood they never quite got to finish as children’s musicians. But we ain’t no psychologists.*** We’re just two morons with positive energy trying to make a tiny dent in the world. For kids and for ourselves. Makin’ lemonade out of lemons.
This week, for laughs, Danny and I launch The World’s Worst Grammy® Campaign. It, uh, really paints us in our best light. A supa pro job.**** Check it out. We promise you won’t be disappointed if you do. Actually you probably will be.
Our album illustrations are also by Danny, but don’t give him a big head or anything.
Thanks for your time. Share positive energy. Go make the world you live in.
— Cory Cullinan / Doctor Noize
*Please give us a gold trophy. Even if you have to order it for us online for $9.99. It would really mean a lot to us.
**Shut up that’s totally a verb.
***A confessional: We’re not even real Doctors!
Update: Dr. Noize Introduces Lemonade Man
