Circus Mind, the brainchild of New York’s own Mark Rechler, is a genre-bending rock collective that turns every performance into a high-wire act of musical creativity.
The members of the band Circus Mind include Mark Rechler (keyboards, vocals), Steve Finkelstein (percussion), Dan Roth (drums), Michael Amendola (saxophone), Brian Duggan (guitar), and Mathew Fox (bass)
Drawing inspiration from legends like Traffic, Steely Dan, Little Feat, Mott the Hoople, and New Orleans icons Dr. John, The Meters, and The Neville Brothers, this dynamic band delivers a fresh, modern spin on classic influences. Their high-energy sets have graced the stages of Jazzfest, The Fat Friday Annual Mardi Gras Ball, Brooklyn Bowl, The Capitol Theatre, B.B. King’s, and more, cementing Circus Mind’s reputation as one of the most adventurous and entertaining acts on the scene today.
Circus Mind returns with “Barstool Hero,” the bold and unpredictable title track from their highly anticipated upcoming album, due out later this fall. Renowned for their adventurous blend of funk, rock, reggae, and psychedelia, the band delivers yet another unexpected musical journey—this time spinning a cautionary tale over a laid-back reggae rhythm, vintage rock flair, and flashes of dub-inspired eccentricity.
Who were your earliest musical inspirations?
I had two old brothers who handed down their albums to me; my earliest ones were Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles, and Elton John. I spent hours with those albums. One brother got into post Punk Clash, Talking Heads, and Elvis Costello while the other brother was listening to The Dead, Allman Brothers, Zappa, and lots of Prog. Those were then handed down to me. That was the original basis of my listening until I went to Tulane in New Orleans for Architecture School. I quickly got turned on to New Orleans funk, swamp Rock, and Zydeco, It was a whole new amazing world. The Meters, The Neville Brothers, The Radiators, Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, and so many more. Seeing these amazing artists every week around town was a real inspiration. For Circus Mind’s first album, we went down to NoLa to do some trawling through New Orleans and had Cyril Neville and Leo Nocentelli play on a few tracks, and we have been friends since and have played many shows together.
How would you describe your sound and style?
Circus Mind is hard to pin down in some ways as we pivot and twist from genre to genre. Maybe in ways that Steely Dan does but yet always sound like Steely Dan, Phish does that too but always sound like Phish. Our new album has lots of Nola Funk, some classic and alternative rock influences, Reggae, Dub, Beatle Pop influences like bands like Jellyfish sometimes exploit. When I am writing songs I try not to box myself in by labeling this as a certain genre; if it has good hooks and is well written, I bring it to the band, and we just get cracking.
Can you share the most memorable show you’ve ever played?
There were quite a few; one freaky one was when we were touring through Colorado and we get to this super trippy ghost town called Crestone. It has really high jagged mountains, and when we pulled in around 11am, there were no people, just Run down homes, and buildings, some yurts. We did see a few monks walking around, as we found out it is a spiritual place where they travel too. We stopped at the salon where we were to play, and they were putting us up by a scary old cemetery. We set up and sound checked, and still, like, no humans. The saloon owner was kind of wild-eyed and said, “Don’t worry; it gets crazy around here.” He wasn’t kidding because when we started, it filled in and people went nuts , upon our set break it seemed they all had the wild eyed look. It was some sort of Meth town I think or some crazy drugs; they were fired up. Later that evening lots of gun shots and screaming we got the hell out of there as quick as we could! Lol
What’s been your toughest gig experience so far?
Too many to count, so many empty, quiet, or bad sound, or feeling ill. Never fun oy. The early days were quite like that. It took a while to build and to get good our selves and mature. We have been together 21 years, of course with some line up changes along the way, but it definitely took time to find our stride. This current line up is easily the best one we have had. So tight and strong with amazing players.
Walk us through your creative process when making music.
The Creative Process can change depending, but typically I find myself singing something, and I am not sure what it is, like a funky lick or some cool groove. Luckily iPhones are right in our pocket, and I sing whatever it is onto my voice memo app. When I get to a keyboard the process gets rolling, and it’s usually music all first. Sometimes it flows, and you just want to stay on it and not leave until it’s complete, or you will lose contact with that muse. Other times this wild weird thing happens where I am developing it my head for almost a week. I can listen to nothing else musically, and I just find myself finding new parts or adding to others and constantly sharing into my voice memo app. Its consumes me and it’s fun and annoying as I am total distracted until it is all out. When the music is all worked out I find I was already singing a few words or sounds in places and so I have little bit of a start. Lyrically the creative process has different paths. I might pick up a book and randomly find a cool line to start; sometimes I go to notes in my phone of cool lines I hear people say or phrases that come up. I might go to one of those, other times it just comes out and I am almost not there, I am kind of watching from the outside and trying not to judge or get I will get in the way. I find better to get all thoughts on paper and make judgement and or edits later. When it’s all done I usually walk away and forget about it for a few weeks and move on. Then the days when I sit at my piano and break out some of the new songs I have written I start to see which are Circus Mind tracks, and I feel must be recorded. I will just brig to the band, and we will do 5-6 rehearsals before we go to the studio and they pretty much work out their own parts. Our Producer Chris Fasulo is also a creative partner and suggest a lot and brings so much talent to our recordings.
If you could open for any act, who would it be?
How did the pandemic shape your writing or performing? It sounds so weird to say, but I had an amazing pandemic. I know it was very tragic for so many; I don’t mean to belittle any of that. However, my adult kids moved back in , we got a puppy, and I decided to finish unfinished songs, write some more, and record an album with this gifted time. I was sort of on a creative mission surrounded by family and pets, and it was extremely fruitful as we created the album Joy Machine. The title actually refers to the family dog, as they bring so much love to us all. We rehearsed outside and recorded much remotely or in masks, and that was weird, of course, but also just what we had to do. I am really proud of that album and the following one, Bioluminate, which was outtakes from those sessions. Sadly there was some darkness that came out of all that too. We lost our longtimebass player and good friend Chris Crosby, who was just to gifted. And me and original guitarist and friend and music partner David Berg had a falling out. So it marked the end of that period of Circus Mind which had been 16 years.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2oGO2rYV3IJVFzk3FpEXIa?si=45c59bb0f1ac4e9b. Link to album
What advice would you give to someone trying to break into the industry?
STAY AWAY, Don’t quit your day Job! BUT, never stop playing and creating it the best. I just think the business is so warped and of course ever
Who are your biggest influences today?
Current Influences… So many! Geese, Goose are my fav young jammers, Wilco -constant goto great music live and on album, My Morning Jacket – Massive Live show, Radiohead are the king, Stephen Wilson fav prog master, Tedeschi Trucks Band – the perfect Live show and amazing song writing, Brad Mehldau is my fav Jazz keyboardist right now, The Rumble best young band out of New Orleans. Justto name a few.
Tell us your best joke.
Are you more of a cat person or a dog person? Why do we have to choose? I love both and have 2 dogs and cat at the moment. They are all so cool and get along great. Each with so many great features. I guess if I have to pick I am gonna go dog. We have 2 Frenchies. They are friggin’ hilarious.
If you had a time machine, would you go forward or backward?
I wrote a song about this on the Joy Machine album called three Muses and in my mindI took a Time Machine back to the Belle Epoque in Paris, and I was able to hang out with Picasso, Le Corbusier, and Django Reinhart in a row boat in the park. It’s a very fun Nola meets Jellyfish kind of track.
What’s your go-to comfort food on a date night?
Funny you should ask, me and the wife have a date tonight in our neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and are heading to an amazing spot called Fulgurances, which always has a tasting menu and brings in a different guest chef every 2 months. Tonight is a chef from one of Mexico City’s top restaurants, Pujol. We are foodies; I want to always go to the hot spot all over.
If you could ask your future self one question, what would it be?
One of our latest singles is called Waste of Time and answers this very question. Why am I doing this? Why am I spending so much time and energy (and money!) on this art form. It’s snide and funny and sort of questions this thing we do. It can apply to most creatives, I suppose, but I think being a painter would have been a lot cheaper and easier, or perhaps some other visual art. Next time I guess. 😀
https://www.instagram.com/circusmindband
