Interview: Marsicans

It’s been a long time coming for Marsicans. The Leeds band began their journey with the release of their debut EP The Chivalry back in 2014, which kick-started the release of more than a dozen singles and EPs over the next six years, finally culminating in the release of their debut album on Friday. We caught up with drummer Cale, and discussed Ursa Major, the impact of COVID-19 and finding their sound.

So your debut album comes out on Friday – how does it feel to finally be here?

Oh yeah, we are feeling really excited. COVID has thrown a curveball in there and I don't think any of us anticipated - obviously - an ongoing global pandemic while releasing our debut album, especially after years working on it. So, its different, but we are really excited to just finally get it out there for people. COVID has affected our run-up to release, we had to cancel our May gigs and it wiped out our festival season including SXSW - so it essentially shit all over our album preparation. We love playing live, that's the reason we do this, but we realised can still interact with our fans and celebrate the album over social media.

What was the process like finishing up the album in lockdown? Or was it pretty much ready to go by then?

We actually recorded the majority of the album last year - I think we actually finished recording it on the day of the Wimbledon final. And we had it mixed just before lockdown kicked in. We recorded the album at Rockfield Studios - a really famous old studio that’s a converted farm - we were really fortunate to record there, it was a really cool old studio, somewhere we could just go and get away from everything. We wanted to record it in a really 'classic' music studio and just break away from real life - and having a professional engineer as well really elevated the production on the album. 

You’ve been dropping singles and EPs for quite a few years now, why was now the right time to release the album?

We've released so many singles, I don't even know how many and we've just had our own way of doing things in a way - but now were doing something which feels proper. We are all excited and hopefully, Leeds doesn't go in lockdown when it comes out - we wanted to go out to the independent shops that supported us and buy our album - that would be a big moment for us.

How has your approach changed for this album in comparison to the earlier EPs?

The process of recording the album was different because with our previous singles, it would be us all in a room and would always be a 'live' process if that makes sense - this time for the album, what changed is that we'd perfect each track in the rehearsal studio and then go in and record it. We didn't have enough studio time when we were younger because we were skint, but we felt this was now album time so we spent way more time on it - changing sections, experimenting with sounds and just giving ourselves space to breathe. 

Your sound is pretty expansive and isn’t typical of what people might expect - was it a conscious decision to try and not be boxed into a particular sound?

Yeah, like I said, when recording our earlier tracks we didn't really have that much time to play around with sounds in the same way we have on ‘Ursa Major’. We wanted to actually landscape the album, make it sound more complete - we've released 5 or 6 singles so far and I'm glad you could hear those different elements in there. We've got interludes on the album as well that are more experimental I guess, it helps the whole album gel together more.

Was it a long process to find your sound?

I think we've had the time to find our sound, we didn't have major label sweep in for us early on and sit us in with a particular producer or whatever - back in school when we started, we were just doing covers of Arctic Monkeys and stuff, so if we'd done an album then we would have just sounded like Arctics and Bombay Bicycle Club probably. Given that we had the time to find our sound over years and years of singles, we had the freedom to really hone in our own sound. We've really enjoyed that freedom - the independent labels we've worked with are great and have given us free rein. 

What were you listening to as you were putting together the album, were there particular artists that inspired your approach?

It's quite tricky to not be influenced by other artists in our genre, so I tried to listen to heavier stuff. I went on a massive Rage Against The Machine spree, like the riff section on our single ‘Summery in Angus’ - we were really in that mode when we recorded that - there are other bits on the album that are a bit Pink Floyd as well. We've always loved heavy rock sounds and I love watching headliners at festivals and seeing how they perform to these massive crowds. We love playing live and we always try and hone our sound, taking influence from all the indie bands that came before us but trying to carve out our own lane. 

Rob described ‘Someone Else’s Touch’ as the most ambitious song on the album production-wise, what was the process of making that track like?

We didn't want to be just big song after big song - even though I would have loved that - but we did all want downtime during the album, to give the album breathing space. Most of the singles we've released were upbeat, summery tracks so it was nice to do slower stuff. We had the time to get those more mellow moments, and ‘Someone Else's Touch’ is an example of us really pushing ourselves - it's a bonkers trip, there are so many layers to that track. Our ambitions were fulfilled by having more time and creating sonically pleasing pieces. 

Is there a song from that project your especially proud of producing or writing?

‘Juliet’ was one that we were all instantly excited by - it had a lot of influence on the rest of the album. It has ‘Ursa Major’ in the lyrics and was a real stand out track for us, there are a couple of slightly more moody sounding tracks on there like 'Evie' which is definitely a favourite of mine. We wanted to mirror the Arctic Monkeys' album structure in a way, as their albums go darker in the final third but maintain some of the heaviness. We're really excited to do 'Leave Me Outside' live - in terms of the drumming it's a really cathartic performance, I have to channel my happy rage when we do that. I can’t wait to do that one at the Leeds show.

Listen to Ursa Major on Spotify / Apple Music / Amazon.

Buy tickets for Marsicans 2021 April Tour here.