AHEAD of their Tenement Trail debut, Tenement TV had the chance to catch up with Marsicans to chat about their festival season and some of their earliest Scottish show memories.
“Playing a sick Glasgow show with our wonderful American friends in Hippo Campus, then watching their jaws drop as we took them with us to DJ at Baby Strange’s club night on Sauchiehall Street. Not sure they have nights like that in Minnesota?”
“The last night of a tour that wound up in Edinburgh with the boys in Indigo Velvet. They took us out, got us very drunk and the only thing open that sold food within ten miles of our hotel was an all-night garage. The look on the face of a kid on shift when a group of hungry, lost Yorkshiremen descended upon this little window demanding pre-packaged sandwiches is one I’ll take to the grave.”
Aside from drunken nights out, there is something more than drags Marsicans back up the border time and time again.
“Definitely the people. Every Glasgow show we’ve played has been wicked and our crowds have always been full of energy.”
Coming up to Scotland and going across the country, Marsicans have seen their music reach more and more people as their fan base has grown massively over the last twelve months.
“It’s amazing. We put a lot of ourselves into our music and spend lots of time making painstaking democratic decisions in a windowless rehearsal room, week in week out, in the pursuit of perfection. Knowing that it matters to anyone other than ourselves fills me with pride and wonderment for the future.”
This strive for perfection and hard-work has saw Marsicans release some pretty diverse and distinguishable music. This creativity stems from the relationship the band have with one-another.
“This band is a democracy. A dramatic, diligent and sometimes difficult democracy, but that’s what ultimately makes out music what it is. Everyone sticks their spoon in the pot and it helps us to avoid following any one person’s train of through for too long. It allows us to draw on lots of different influences rather than just one person’s and that melting pot makes Marsicans songs sound the way they do.”
As indie music faces greater scepticism about it’s importance of a genre, bands in the scene face challenges like never before.
“Reminding everyone that indie exists. Urban music has certainly stolen the crown that guitar bands once wore as kings of the alternative to pop, but that will change eventually. I could quote that half-cut Alex Turner speech from the Brit awards here about ‘that old rock n roll’ but I’ll spare you.”
With a huge summer of festivals under their belt, Marsicans are huge fans of the festival circuit and have even crossed some bucket list shows off.
“Bumping into band that we’re mates with/like/stalk a few times over the summer and getting to know everyone a little better. I think my favourite thing about being in a band generally is travelling and meeting like-minded people. Who knows bands better than bands eh?”
“Amazingly we have already ticked it off the list! I dreamt of playing Glastonbury as a kid and we were fortunate enough to play back in 2016. I suppose now it’ll have to be Benicassim.”
2018 has been an incredible year for the band, enjoying some surreal moments, but we remain impatient for a full-length album, can you blame us?
“Being invited by Radio One to play a live session at BBC Maida Vale Studios. The place is steeped in musical history and it was surreal being able to walk the same halls as our idols. We did vocal warm-ups at a piano that Paul McCartney played on the Beatles’ Maida Vale session and we all lost our shit.”
“There will always be new music. The album is a daunting thing and something we want to get right before releasing. There will be one, however.”
Marsicans play Tenement Trail 2018. Grab your tickets now.
