The Mars McClanes are a rock band born in Dallas, TX, but currently based in Portland, OR. They cut their teeth in honky tonks around Texas, evidenced by the hard-hitting guitar slinging in “The Liar.” The song is frenetic with its outrageous, stream of consciousness storytelling — clever, off-the-cuff, and vivid. Brian Corley tells us more about the band’s process.
Who are some of your musical influences?
I think we draw a lot from Old 97s, Radney Foster, Better Than Ezra, The Cars, Elvis Costello, and RadioHead. Honestly, probably a lot more, but that feels like I’ve just named way too many already. Jason Isbell.
Name a perfect song and tell us why you feel that way.
George Jones “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” I’m saying perfect here, not favorite. I’d have a hard time telling you what my favorite song is, but as far as a perfect song, this is it. A perfect story with a perfect hook. The verses are beautiful, but I never expected the chorus the first time I listened to it. Oh, he’s dead? Just beautiful imagery, “He stopped loving her today, they hung the wreath upon his door.”
There are thousands of great songs out there, and I’m sure there will be a thousand more written, but none will ever top this one.
Explain the title of your song.
I try to write a song every day, and I was really wrestling with something that day. I knew we had a band meeting in a few hours, so I just decided to finish something.
For some reason, I ended up writing down the most outrageous lies I could think of and, before long, had this image of a guy at a party trying to impress everyone. I came up with a template for the verses: outrageous lie and a tangential brush with fame. I probably wrote twelve different versions before bringing it to the band and was kind of surprised they were into it. The guy I conjured was just “The Liar” in my mind, so that became the title.
Do you have any go-to albums to listen to in the van?
For me, podcasts seem to help the time pass faster on the road. There’s something about listening in on a conversation that helps take your mind off the white stripes of the highway beaming toward you and passing by like painted lasers.
That said, someone left the self-titled Ricky Martin record in the cd player of a van we rented a long time ago, so we played it between the venue and the hotel for a couple of weeks straight. At first we did it because we thought it was funny, but honestly, that CD has some bangers. I can’t lie, that guitar tone in “La Vida Loca” is no joke.
Do you play covers at your shows? Why or why not?
We used to play four-hour shows at Adair’s down in Deep Ellum (Dallas, TX). We had a good rotation of twenty or so originals, but we had to really stretch to fill that time. These days, covers are mainly for TikTok or Insta… it’s just as hard to come up with new material for those.