Interview: Marty Isenberg Brings THE WAY I FEEL INSIDE to Joe's Pub

Marty Isenberg’s The Way I Feel Inside blends the whimsical, offbeat charm of Wes Anderson's iconic mixtapes and cinematic language with his own personal story. It’s a soundtrack to the wonder, loneliness and nostalgia of life in the modern world- presented as a concert that unfolds like a movie, with theatrical storytelling and Isenberg at the center of the frame. Isenberg is bringing the show to Joe's Pub in downtown Manhattan for one special night on Wednesday, June 3rd at 9:30 p.m.The performance will feature an all-star ensemble: Sami Stevens on vocals, Alicyn Yaffee on guitar, Rodrigo Recabarren on drums, and Nitzan Gavrielli on piano.

Read a conversation with Isenberg about the show.

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What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming show?

This will be the first time we perform the show at home since we really have shaped it from a jazz concert into a full blown theatrical experience. We’ve performed the concert with its cabaret aspect at venues like Birdland, but now that the show has toured around the country, it’s really found its uniqueness, and I’m excited to share that with our New York audience.

How do you feel about the response you've been getting to your new album, The Way I Feel Inside, so far?

I’m ecstatic. The piece has definitely struck a nerve. We’ve had great feedback from critics, and to have something I created resonate with audiences as well as curators all over the country is really a humbling experience.

Did you expect the level of response you received when you were recording it? What initially drove you to put this album together?

I expected very little but of course I hoped that it would find an audience. I waited 15 years of my career to release something under my own name, and in that sense it felt like a story I was burning to tell. The concept for the album began as a jazz mixtape inspired by Wes Anderson. I realized that many of my favorite songs and artists I discovered via Mr. Anderson’s early films. So the questions for me were: what was it about these songs, that resonated with me? What was it about them that resonated with Mr. Anderson’s films? The theme that seems to connect them for me is this feeling of alienation. Creating magical worlds out of loneliness. So that’s what the album really explores. In the process of trying to perform the music for audiences, I realized I could dive even deeper into the themes of storytelling, and the emotions of the songs to really create a unique experience for audiences.

Are you planning any special surprises for the Joe's Pub show? Have you tweaked anything as you've been touring with this show?

We are constantly making little adjustments to make the show better ever performance. Even though the show’s blocking and storytelling is frozen, it’s fundamentally a jazz concert with some of the best musicians in the NYC jazz scene. Which means every night is a completely different experience on stage.

What else have you been working on lately?

Like many people working in the arts, A LOT. I have projects I do as a sideman such as Dan Lehner’s Wave Forms. I perform in the musical theater world as a bassist. I’m writing music for my next album that hopefully I will record this coming year, and over the last few years I’ve got into improv comedy! It was supposed to be a hobby to help me decompress but now I’m performing with the Wayfaring Strangers with Greg Kotis (urinetown playwright) and many other stellar performers. I’m curious and excited to see how I may someday merge these two skill sets into a project of my own. Or maybe not, who knows!

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Visit Marty online at www.martyisenberg.com for more information on the artist.

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