Review Fix Exclusive: J Marco Talks ‘Stranger In The Night’ And More

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter J Marco, who discusses the creative process and goals for his new album, “Myth.”

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

J Marco: My creative process really varies from song to song. Some songs will almost write themselves in an hour, while others reveal themselves piece by piece over a few weeks. I don’t quite understand it, really.  I don’t try to force it, I try to go by feeling.  When something feels right it’s usually right, and nothing can ruin a song quicker than forcing it, in my opinion.

Review Fix: What’s your standout song on the new album? How was it written?

J Marco: It’s tough for me to get any distance between the songs and I in order to pick one.  But, if I had to pick one, I think it would be “The Void”.  It has in it everything that I was going for on this record.  The Void was one of those songs that slowly builds over a few weeks.  I remember that I had about three or four different choruses for it that I wasn’t too thrilled with for the longest time, and one night around 2 a.m the final chorus just jumped into my head out of nowhere, and I had to get out of bed and record it immediately so I wouldn’t forget it.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2017?

J Marco: My goals for 2017 are to get this record heard by as many people as possible, play as many shows as possible, tour, and just really give it all that I’ve got while continuing to write and get ideas together for the next record.  I ultimately just want to create music that connects with people and myself.

Review Fix: What makes this a special album?

J Marco: To me, this album is special because I really didn’t know if I could even do it.  When this project began, I had no idea what to expect.  Doing this record has allowed me to learn so much about the creative process, the music business, and has granted me the opportunity to meet some really amazing people along the way.  This album is special because it’s the first album under my name alone, and I believe it is a mission statement of sorts.

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

J Marco: Above everything else, I want people to enjoy it and relate to it in their own way.  Personally, I don’t like records that tell you how to feel or tell you exactly what the song is about.  The kind of records I like are sort of a musical ink blot test, in that they allow the listener to project their own meaning onto it.  I tried to make a record that gives the listener a little room to breathe.

Review Fix: What’s next?

J Marco: I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing.  Writing songs that I believe in, and putting them out into the world.  Hopefully, people continue to like them and want to come see these songs played live.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to say?

J Marco: Check out J-Marco.com for all live dates & you can purchase physical copies of the record there as well.  Also, thank you all so much for the support.  It truly means the world to me.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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