Roof Doctor: Prescription For Happiness.

Text by Kevin Stairiker. Images by Abigail Reimold.

Mark Harper is a sad man. Well, he used to be.

Listening to the songs that comprise I Am Going To Die, the first album from Harper and his band, Roof Doctor, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the anguish of the lyrics and the quiet confidence of the man singing them.

Though depressing subject matter can be a hard bridge to cross for some, the sadness stops at the lyrics for Roof Doctor. Joined by compatriots Alex Stackhouse on guitar, Chet Williams on saxophone, Sean Reilly on bass and Kevin Pascall on drums, Harper weaves his weariness with the world throughout pulsating bass, Dick Dale-like guitar riffs and some truly joyous sounding saxophone.

I Am Going To Die was released last summer. Roof Doctor is already well on its way to a sophomore release, tentatively entitled Mobile Freedom Home.

“We’re mapping out the 15 songs now and it’s looking like half will be sad but the other half will be happy,” Harper says with a laugh. “And I’m a little bit better at guitar now.”

Despite the word “folk” showing up three times in their official Bandcamp genre tagging (alongside “indie jam” and “Bruce-Springsteen-emocore”), Roof Doctor’s music more resembles that of a secretly steady rock ‘n’ roll band, with far more soaring melodies per chord than most bands in the area.

Their refusal to adhere to strict genre rules allows them to do whatever they want, whether it be a warped barbershop quartet ode to self-loathing (“Soda Jerk”) or a bouncy strummer lamenting the hardships of happiness (“Freedom”). Roof Doctor is what happens when you put five music nerds with instruments in a room together. There is a palpable energy between them, as each one plays off the other, both musically and verbally.

“Don’t let me lose my mojo, man!”Harper shouts to Pascall, the  appointed mojo-keeper.

The band was born out of a high school kinship between Harper and Stackhouse, when they played in bands with names like Rock of the Potato and Illuminati Slumber Party.

Roof Doctor was assembled fully in early 2012 to flesh out songs that Harper had written, some of which were released on a solo EP the year earlier. Since the release of I Am Going to Die, the band has played in basements, living rooms, churches and, quite often, their own home, Maggot House. Unfortunately for those who have yet to witness the loud and undeniably fun experience of seeing Roof Doctor in a live setting, the band will be scaling back on live shows in Philly as work progresses on Mobile Freedom Home.

“We’re looking to play only once or twice a month until the record gets done,” Harper says.