Review Fix chats with the members of Marina City, who discuss their pair of new EPs, creative process, origin and goals for the future.
About the Band:
Dubbed by multi-platinum record producer John Feldmann* as a mix “between Fall Out Boy and Avenged Sevenfold” Marina City has introduced their rapidly growing audience to a genre they didn’t even know they craved: Aggressive Pop Rock. Fusing heavy instrumentals with keys and catchy three-part harmonies, the band knows how to stand out above the rest. They have been named one of the “Top 10 Independent Bands You Need to Know” by MTV & Altmusic, the “Band You Need to See” by Alternative Press for both Warped Tour and Riot Fest 2016, and were declared The 2016 Band Of The Year by Chicago Nightlife Awards . On The Request Magazine writes: “(Marina City) have brought a very real, intense rock flavor to vocals that could easily appear in today’s top 40… they are showing the world what real music in popular culture could and should sound like.â€
Review Fix: How did the band get together?
Ryan Argast: I was a solo act signed to a production deal. Eric, Brian, and Matt were all part of my backing band including the original lead guitarist and bassist of Marina City. When I was done being a solo act and I didn’t need to resign my contract I wanted to do something different and start over. We became Marina City. A couple months in the project a childhood friend Aaron joined for bass and we met Todor through playing shows with his previous band.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like for these EPs?
Aaron Heiy: For Lost Doesn’t Mean alone we really wanted to do a re-imagined E.P. Making these songs acoustic but still full band at the same time. We wanted to be as creative as possible to do something different that no one else has done and put every different style of music into these. It’s considered an acoustic E.P but we still have drums and electric guitar in most of them. We completely re-wrote all of our songs to have a different feel for this project. We will be playing most of them on the BadXChannels tour this fall/winter.
Review Fix: What’s your standout song on the new EPs? How was it written?
Argast: The stand out song was probably “Your Song†due to it being a brand new song from the EP. We wrote it while writing our last EP, “Wanderlust.†We just didn’t want to have too many slow songs on the EP at the time so we saved it in our back pocket. Realistically it is probably a 2 and half year song. We remember it flowing really naturally when writing it. Felt like it wrote itself.
Review Fix: What are your goals for 2017?
Argast: Our goal is to break away from being considered a local band and become a regular national touring act. We’ve been touring a lot and been able to do great things but we hope to be taken seriously to booking agents, labels, and managers that we can bring a lot to the table.
Review Fix: What makes these EPs special?
Eric Somers-Urrea: We had the opportunity to try something that’s very unique and different than a typical EP. We’ve known for a long time we wanted to write an acoustic EP but we wanted to challenge ourselves as much as possible to make it something more. So we decided to take the recording process on the road and record the EP in front of a live in-studio audience and in 5 different recording studios across the Midwest. It was tough to pull off but the result is something we’re very proud of.
Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?
Brian Johnson: We want everyone to know there are no limits to what you can do in a band, at your job, and in life in general. Just surround yourself with happy, positive and encouraging people and you can accomplish anything and live your dream. Just GO FOR IT. If you have faith and believe in yourself, you cannot be stopped.
I just want the world to be a better place because Marina City exists.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Argast: We have been writing a bunch of new songs so we hope to start recording them after this BadXChannels tour for an early 2017 release.
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