Early Moments

Keith Mack grew up in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and moved to New York City in the early 1980’s. He was one of the original members of the band “Patty Smyth and Scandal.” Scandal produced a number of top-40 hits including “The Warrior” and “Good-bye To You,” leading to Gold and Platinum albums.

The band toured throughout the U.S., Canada, and Japan. They also made a number of videos for MTV, and appeared on many television shows including “American Bandstand,” “Solid Gold” and Dick Clark's New Year’s Eve Show.

After Scandal, Keith went on to tour and record with Joe Cocker, Paul Young, among many others. These tours included appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, as well as other television appearances. One of the highlights of the tour with Joe Cocker was playing a concert in Berlin the day "The Wall" came down in November of 1989.

Keith has just released his first solo CD featuring his vocals. "The Moment" is a full production of all original songs co-written with John Thompson. Joining Keith on "The Moment" are John Thompson, Eran Asias, Johnny Neel, Patty Smyth, and Ed Shockley.

“When I talked to Patty Smyth about singing on the record, I was almost finished recording it,” Keith told us. “She heard Grace and thought that might be a good one for her to sing on, but I had already sung the whole song, including background vocals. I had hoped she could do more than just sing background on a song, so I got together with John and we rewrote the lyrics to the bridge to make sense for her to sing it by herself, and then she sang with me to the end as sort of a duet.”

Keith reflects on the song-writing process:

I made this record because of the writing connection I have with John Thompson. I co-wrote all of the songs on “The Moment” with him. Since we met we’ve written some 25 or 30 songs... and we continue to write. We even Skype-write from hotel rooms when I’m on the road. Gotta love technology. After our writing session I'll record the song with voice and guitar on my phone and send it to John. When we get together to write, we’ll show each other ideas we have — John might have a title or piece of a lyric, and I might have a melody or piece of music that I think might fit with it or vice versa. It happens a lot of different ways. We just try to keep open. Then at some point things connect, and it feels like a song that needs to be finished and we just follow it — it seems to take on a life of it’s own.

It’s kind of hard to describe the writing process... it seems a bit magical sometimes, and you don’t really know how it happens. You look back and try not to think about it too much for fear it won’t happen that way again.

One thing that has influenced my writing of melody and music is playing fingerstyle guitar. When you arrange or write for fingerstyle, you become very aware of how the melody relates to the bass lines and the music because you’re playing everything.

You can purchase “The Moment” here:

Give a listen to Keith’s fingerstyle guitar records:
 

And be sure to check Keith’s website and his Facebook page for news about upcoming live dates.

Management: Skyhook Management