{image1}Although frontman and leader Mark Allen Harrod, who plays acoustic guitar and sings, is based in Racine, his band, The Mahp, is a Milwaukee band, he'll tell you. Harrod is also eager to say the band, which started as an outlet for his music, is rapidly becoming more of a band effort, more of a among between four talented musicians.

For proof of all that, one need look no further than The Mahp's melodic and rootsy sophomore CD, "Stories," which will be launched with a quartet of release parties in Milwaukee, Racine, Chicago and the Twin Cities.

The band -- which also comprises drummer Brad Hawes, bassist Chris Jakubiak and guitarist/keyboardist Scott Cannaday -- is firmly rooted in modern American rock, and Dave Matthews and Matchbox 20 are clearly touchstones for a band whose members claim influences as diverse as Ani DiFranco, Miles Davis, Genesis, Chuck Mangione, Radiohead and The Cure.

As the band preps for those CD release parties: Saturday, March 26 at the BBC in Milwaukee and Saturday, April 30 at McAuliffe's Pub in Racine, we talked with Harrod about the disc and how the band is changing.

OMC: We have to ask, what's with the name?

Mark Harrod: In 2002, after separating from my first band, Copper, I started playing solo shows featuring local artists around Racine and would advertise the shows as the Mark Allen Harrod Project -- the M.A.H.P. After about six or eight months of that, I started playing regularly with bassist Chris Jakubiak. After another few months, drummer Brad Hawes became a Mark Allen Harrod Project regular and the name, The MAHP, just seemed to stick with us the whole time. After adding Scott Cannaday on lead guitar and releasing the first CD, "In the Rye," we started talking about changing the name to something more band-worthy, but we couldn't agree on anything. We finally decided to keep the name, The Mahp, but get rid of what it once meant. In other words, we are no longer the Mark Allen Harrod Project. We are The Mahp.

OMC: The band appears to have pretty diverse influences, but the band's music seems to be most reflective of your tastes. Does the rest of the band have a lot of input into songwriting?

MH: Up to this point, I've written a vast majority of the songs. That's changed a bit recently. I'm still the primary songwriter, but our focus for the third album is going to be collaboration. We're very excited about that. You can get a sense of the direction the songs are going in with a couple of the songs on "Stories" that we collaborated on: "Turtle" and "Shimmer." We're very proud of these songs and can't wait to start writing the next album.

OMC: Does the new record differ from the first one? Did you try to take a new approach?

MH: Yup. More songs on the album. More tracks and instrumentation on each song. More time in the studio. More money out of the pocketbook. More band input. People will notice a slight shift in our music. As we are no longer the Mark Allen Harrod Project, we are focusing on us as a band and trying to collaborate more and more. Fans are going to start noticing other band member's musical influences in our recordings. That keeps us all excited for what's going to happen. I'm surrounded by three of the most talented musicians I know. I'd be stupid not to collaborate with them. Songs like "Turtle" and "Shimmer" are just the tip of the iceberg for us.

OMC: This disc is quite lengthy, did you consider holding back some of the material toward disc number three or are there so many songs in the can that you could afford to splurge?

MH: I'd say we could afford to splurge. We actually did leave a few songs off the album. A couple songs that we play live we just don't feel comfortable with putting on an album. We like the idea of having something at the live show that you can't hear on the album. If the demand gets crazy high for recording these songs, that's a good thing, right? I've also got a ton of "back-up" songs for future recordings if we struggle with collaborating. It won't be a problem coming out with a third album, but we're going to do it right and grow as a band writing music together before tapping into the "back-up" songs.

OMC: What's the scene like these days in Racine? Are there a lot of bands out there and enough venues?

MH: The scene is good down here. I didn't grow up here, but I call Racine home. I broke a vertabrae in my neck in 2001 and spent a lot of time here recovering while staying at a friend's house. I met so many great people that I couldn't leave. Four years later, I'm still here and still happy. There are a lot of good bands in this area: The Dammitheads, Cosmic Railroad, Bascom Hill, Mean Jake. So many more, too. Racine has great clubs and great festivals for the bands too. George's Tavern, McAuliffe's Pub, Yardarm Bar & Grill and Shilling's Pub are some of our favorite places to play.

Racine also has Thoughts for Food in the winter, a multi-venue, multi-band night benefiting the Racine Food Pantry, and Harborfest during the summer. But let me say this, we are not a Racine band. I'm the only member of the band that lives in Racine, and it would be unfair to the other band members to say that. All of the members of The Mahp live in or near Milwaukee. We are a Milwaukee area band and are very proud to announce that fact when we travel outside of this area.

The Mahp's Web site is themahp.com.