Electric Mud is a band composed of brothers Marc and Matt Hansen, their cousin Matthew Sorena, long-time friend David Stagno, and military brother Colton Cori. Together, they’ve won multiple Music Awards in their home base city of San Diego and took home the title of the International Singer-Songwriter Association’s Band of the Year. In May 2023, Electric Mud opened for The Rolling Stones during the Hackney Diamonds Tour in Glendale, Arizona. All of them see clearly a path to headlining and selling out stadiums in the future. It’s a transcendental feeling to watch a crowd sing your songs or to know that young kids have you on the radio when they drive around town. They’ve clearly developed some very advanced chops together, and with family and shared labor ties to each other, it makes sense that they can connect, but it’s their attitude in the studio that turns the gears of this well-oiled music box.
Matty was the first one to get the band together. He’s also the one who counts off their songs as the drummer. Helping him with the musical foundations is Matthew on the bass. The Matts lay down a rhythm, and Colton and David keep up melody and harmony on the guitar and keys.
Finally, Marc Hansen, after only being a guitarist, became their lead singer after finding out that singing and songwriting are “like a drug” for him. Their style as a band is certainly traditional: they play rock and roll music and stay true to the genre. While it’s not original, music isn’t about constant subversion. The band is neither unbelievably unique nor boring and formulaic. All five of them have agreed on a humble approach to the construction of their band—they will always prioritize playing in the studio together based on the feelings they’ve loved since childhood over trying to become people that they aren’t. It’s best to pay homage to the Muddy Waters and Hank Williams songs that brought them to music in order for them to reach the flow state they search for in recording albums.
When recording their first album, they got into this state in the company of none other than Keith Richards. When the Rolling Stones guitarist started pumping his head to their studio collaboration, it put him in a musical mood. He started singing when he wanted a smoke break, asking the band for a light: “Give me some fire” coming out of Keith Richards’s mouth turned into “Give me some fire, baby” in Electric Mud’s first song. They couldn’t have reached that point without both the inspiration of prior rockstars and their intense cohesion in the studio. This cohesion and the background of the members kept the band together for years and years and still today, despite numerous tribulations.
Marc and Matty grew up together in Staten Island. They played gigs in New York, enjoying the seedy bars and late nights out on the city. They later enlisted in the Navy and got transferred to a Navy base in San Diego, where they would play gigs as a full band. While this lifestyle is not as feasible for them today, they miss the ‘glory days’ as much as any other band. The bars loved having their business; they would drink and bring more drinkers with them, and they kept getting good feedback at these small gigs. Even then, Electric Mud was the first to arrive at a venue and the last to leave. They built their reputation from professionalism and fun, becoming known as both a delightful band to put in any lineup and a serious choice to give your venue a good night.
The brothers have a Navy background, which Colton shares and Marc was a SEAL. Between boot camp and hard labor like scraping battleships, these three have been through a lot together and connect very well. With the blood ties between brothers and cousins as well, the band seemed inseparable. Even when the Navy service of half the band seriously got in the way of gigs, they’d work around it. Any leave the boys had, they’d fly to New York to play or fly their boys out to play, even a parking lot show in San Diego. Electric Mud is a passion project, there’s no doubt about it. Watching them perform is seeing the years-long connection between them, and it’s so much deeper than a couple of garage rehearsals. Their concerts are an experience of serious shared love over rock and roll, and it’s palpable from the audience. In seedy bars and stadiums alike, this band is fantastic, and they always have each others’ backs.
Published by: Khy Talara
