MARSICANS are a Leeds-born indie band known for their northern humour, catchy songs and onstage energy. Following their recent shows in Ireland, I got the chance to talk to guitarist and vocalist, Oli Jameson, about songwriting, festival season, and their latest single ‘Suburbs’.

Your new single ‘Suburbs’ is just out, I wanted to know what would the songwriting process be like for you guys with a song like this?

Well, for this song, we’d [written] a few of the quick and more punchy, catchy, short ones – like short little indie tunes. So we kind of had this idea for a while, but we didn’t really know where to take it. I had a slide guitar in the bottom of my guitar case, and started kind of messing around with these samples that we’d had but not put into a song before. So we had a few ideas that we kind of chucked into a melting pot. We ended up with maybe three or four options for it, and we ended up going for the kind of, I suppose, anthemic — I mean, we kind of imagined it as a festival moment. But it had so many different sorts of incarnations, and it was one of those songs that really developed more in the studio. We’ve kind of got a tendency to throw loads of ideas into one song.

Do you think that this kind of anthemic sound, this festival sound, came from playing those sorts of gigs? You played Reading and Leeds this summer, you had a bit of a festival summer. How was that for you guys?

It was amazing, yeah! Reading and Leeds were always going to be sort of a highlight for us. They were at the end of all our outdoor festivals. And the summer started so strong – I think our first one was Barn On The Farm, and that was great. It was packed, and we were already like “Wow, it’s already such a good festival season!” But we always knew that those two, Reading and Leeds, were going to be the big ones. We got there and like, everyone has these sleepervans, like huge double-decker sleepervans. And we pulled up in our van — Our van is like, an old Royal Mail van. It’s all battered and, like, the door doesn’t work properly on it. So we felt so not up to — you know, like we’re not big enough for them! And we walked onstage and it was just huge, and we were like “God, this is probably a bit bigger than we could manage!” It was actually amazing, though, Reading and Leeds. We were really happy with it and the number of people who turned up and everything. I think the weather helped a bit. I mean, it was raining, but that’s to be expected. It was really cool, though. We used to go to that festival all the time when we were teenagers, so it felt like we really connected with everyone who was there, everyone who’d been there in their wet tents all weekend and all that, we knew exactly what they were feeling like.

Did you notice much of a difference between Reading and Leeds? I know they both have the same lineup, but did you notice a difference crowd-wise?

Yeah, Reading’s much smaller. And it’s also in the centre, which I hadn’t realised, whereas Leeds is out of the way. I wouldn’t really give a preference, both were really great, but Reading was definitely smaller. It’s changed so much since we were there. The dance tents are all so big there; I think at Reading the dance tents were probably the biggest thing, but not so much at Leeds. We actually left the campsite at, like, two in the morning, and tried to get into a casino [he laughs]. We wanted food and everywhere was shut, so we left the campsite, and we saw this casino. I think I had like a five pound note, so I was like “Right, everybody get five pounds out, and we’ll try get into this casino”, but they took one look at us in our wellies and said “nope, not allowed in lads”, so we got a kebab instead.

Fair, sometimes that’s all you need to finish the night out! So you guys had a few dates in Ireland recently, a night in Cork and in Whelan’s in Dublin.

Yeah, we did. And we did a little festival in Moira in County Down, I think it was.

Oh, that’s cool! So how have those been in comparison to the big stages you’d been playing all summer? ?

Really cool, yeah. We all really, really, really enjoyed Dublin. Everyone was really friendly and the venue was really cool. We just wished we’d had more time to kind of get around, and explore. But the gig was great, and we met a lot of nice people. Actually, by chance we got to meet a guy called Fern, who mixed ‘Suburbs’, the recent single. He’s from New York, and he was in Dublin by chance that night, so he got to come and see us in this small little room, and we got to meet a lot of people who’ve been waiting a long time to see us. So yeah, it was really cool, and we’re dying to go back.

You mentioned Fern [mixer and producer Fernando Lodeiro], there, I was going to ask actually — how was it for you guys having ‘Suburbs’ mixed by him and Joe [mastering engineer Joe LaPorta], considering their impressive catalogue of work? It must have been quite cool.

Yeah, it was. Fern got in touch almost a year ago, I think. And all the artists he’s worked with are a lot of our favourite bands. He assisted on a lot of Vampire Weekend albums, and did sessions with Paul McCartney and stuff. And so we were like “of course, yeah! But this is going to cost a lot of money” [he laughs]. So he mixed the track for us, and it just sounded so different to any way we’ve heard our tracks mixed before. So we’d only ever spoken to him over email, which I suppose is actually quite common in the music industry at the moment. But it was really cool then to have a couple of beers with him, and he was, like, telling us stories about having Paul McCartney around to his studio for a session. He said he spent the whole day before making sure all his cables and stuff were all tidy and neat, and when Paul McCartney got there he was just like an excited kid and wasn’t bothered at all about any of that kind of stuff. And I just love the fact that these people, they’re just people, but they’re on a different level. So everything they do is kind of fascinating, I think. Just to have some sort of loose link to them is validating, in a way.

So the first time you met Fern then, was in Dublin recently?

Yeah, yeah! He was there with another guy who he’d worked with who was based in Dublin. So it was all this kind of reunion type thing, and we just sort of crashed it!

That worked out well so! On the topic of ‘Suburbs’, can you tell me a little about the music video?

Yeah, we filmed it when we were over in the US for a little bit. We did Toronto for Canada Music Week, and we filmed a little bit there, and then we spend time in Ithaca in upstate New York. We were going to buy a good camera, but we couldn’t afford one, so we filmed it on James’s phone (he laughs) and we got some of our friends to edit it for us. It turned out great.

Yeah, it looks great. It’s really atmospheric. It suits the song to a T, I think.

We just kind of passed the phone around and filmed ourselves doing classic city things. It was fun!

My last question I suppose is about next year – what are you guys looking forward to in the next year and what can we expect?

Well, there’ll be a few more singles out I’d say, and maybe something more than a single, but I don’t know yet. And touring, more touring pretty early on, I think. But that’s all it is for us, we just release songs and tour, it’s just a nonstop cycle for us. Just continue, as is, I think.

Best of luck on your tour with Fickle Friends, and thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me, Oli.

Thanks so much, it’ll be great! No problem.

 

MARSICANS are supporting Fickle Friends on their upcoming tour starting in October, with dates in London, Glasgow, Manchester and more. Tickets are still available. Their most recent single, ‘Suburbs’, is now available for purchase and streaming.