When Marianas Trench’s lead singer Josh Ramsay came up with the title Astoria, he saw the album as a concept record based on 1980’s fantasy adventure films; specifically The Goonies, which is set in the seemingly doomed town of Astoria, Oregon.
The idea was to let a classic coming of age movie inspire the music and
overall feel of the record. Then, however, Ramsay had no idea the
circumstances in his own life would result in a personal journey that
took him from the highest high to the darkest point in his life and
career. “A couple of years ago I felt on top of the world,” he says: “My
band, finally, after years of work, signed a huge American record deal.
We were headlining arenas in Canada. I’d been nominated for a Grammy
for ‘Call Me Maybe,’ (Carly Rae Jepsen). I was engaged to the love of my
life and it was like, this is my moment.”
Soon afterwards,
Ramsay’s mother – who, along with his entire musical family, he credits
as his most important influences – was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia
– a debilitating, fast-acting “cross between Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer’s.” That and the self-imposed pressure of writing and
recording Astoria put him into a tailspin. “I worked myself into not
being able to write at all. My mother got sicker. I wasn’t coping well
and I became incredibly difficult to be around.” So difficult, in fact,
his relationship with his fiancé deteriorated swiftly and ultimately
ended.
The pressure to start work on the next Marianas Trench
record intensified even more, until, in early 2015, he was briefly
hospitalized. “It was the lowest of my low moments, but then something
shifted. I thought; I can’t make my mom better or fix my mistakes. The
only thing in my power was to write Astoria, follow every artistic
impulse I have and see where it goes.”
Within 24 hours of his
release, Ramsay was in his Richmond, BC studio with new material pouring
out of him, but ultimately moved, lock, stock and console, to his
Gastown apartment, which he christened ‘The Benhouse Studio’ (named for
his Labrador Retriever, who gets an executive producer credit on
Astoria). “I thought why not record here? It’s more accessible and I
liked the idea that the place I’d felt the worst in my life could maybe
turn into the place I did the best thing I’ve ever done.”
The
band decorated the space with 1980’s movie posters and album jackets,
and packed it with recording and instrument technology that would only
have been available in the eighties. But while Astoria has a decidedly
eighties feel, it’s far from a throwback. “I was trying to make the
record as if I’d been a contemporary at that time. I pulled from that
time in my own way.”
“Josh was like, ‘we’re going to live it,’”
says guitarist Matt Webb. “He said: ‘I’m going to show up everyday in
leather pants.’ So we tightened up our pants, threw tank tops on and
pretended we were eighties rock and roll stars.”
Ramsay and the
rest of the band researched sounds relentlessly, drawing on their large
collection of vintage gear. “If we were looking for a part that sounded
like the Eurythmics we’d find out what guitars, mics and preamps they
used and sit there with giant grins on our faces when we got those
sounds,” Webb says.
“What I wanted to do once I had the
Benhouse set up was have people, musicians or not, who’ve meant
something in my life, and get them on the record,” Ramsay says. Among
them; The Odds’ Craig Northey, 54-40’s Dave Genn and Roger Joseph
Manning Jr., of one Ramsay’s favourite bands, Jellyfish. “But my
favourite thing is that Astoria ends with an a cappella refrain sung by
my family, including my mother.”
With free form epics such as
the opening title track and album closer ‘End Of An Era,’ emotionally
raw offerings like ‘Wildfire’ and ‘This Means War,’ Astoria is a fitting
follow up to Marianas Trench’s Platinum-selling, concept-based releases
Masterpiece Theatre (2009) and Ever After (2011). Channeling influences
as diverse as The Beatles, Queen, Tears for Fears, Michael Jackson,
George Michael and Depeche Mode, among others, it’s Marianas Trench’s
most ambitious record to date: unapologetically cinematic, constantly
surprising and featuring lush orchestral textures that segue seamlessly
into spare, but powerful songs like the standout ‘Dearly Departed.’
Tracks like ‘Shut Up And Kiss Me’ and ‘While We’re Young’ take on the
best and worst moments of Ramsay’s recent life, but as deeply personal
as they are, they’re the kind of songs anyone with a pulse can slip into
and see their lives reflected in. And nowhere more so than on lead
single, ‘One Love,’ which poses the question, ‘What if the one true
love’s the only one that you get?’ “There’s not a lot of metaphor
there,” Ramsay says. “It’s a bleak fear I feel, but at the same time
it’s hopeful.”
While ‘One Love’ will resonate with virtually
anyone on the first listen: “I wasn’t going for that at all. I didn’t
give a fuck about people relating. I just did, artistically, what I
wanted to, but it’s so lyrically candid I’m actually nervous; it’s like
someone reading your diary. Still, the record has a lot of hope in it,
too. It’s my personal best and the band is better than ever,” he
continues; crediting guitarist Matt Webb, bassist Mike Ayley, and
drummer Ian Casselman for giving him time to sort his life out. “Nobody
pushed and I don’t think I’d have made it through without that support.”
On Astoria, the band members were more a part of the process than
previously, and, more than ever, their four-part harmonies are a
centerpiece of the record. “It’s like Josh creates a baby and we help
pick out the clothes and give it a haircut,” Ayley says.
“But
the process was really open,” Casselman puts in, “particularly when we
were doing gang vocals with up to 20 people and Josh would say ‘just
sing whatever comes to mind.’”
In the end, the band is closer
than ever. “I don’t laugh as hard with anybody else,” Webb says,
mentioning the band’s often hilarious entry to award shows in everything
from oversized hamster balls to a bouncy castle. “Some of the ideas
we’ve had have us in tears, laughing about how inconvenient and
uncomfortable it’ll be, but one of the reasons we’ve remained so strong
is we laugh, a lot.”
Although they’ve toured extensively in the
States, when Astoria is released on October 23rd, 2015 on 604 Records
in Canada and Cherrytree/Interscope worldwide, it will be their first
physical release in the US, and the band can’t wait: “I feel like this
is our best moment. For me, Astoria is the record of my career so far –
at least until we start the next one and I go crazy again,” Ramsay says,
laughing.
Music industry professionals, journalist and artists
alike are fond of saying ‘the album is dead.’ Now and again, however, a
band like Marianas Trench comes along and puts the boots to that
assertion. Put bluntly, each song on Astoria is as strong as the record
as a whole and, like the very best of recordings, tells the raw,
unvarnished truth, candidly and absolutely fearlessly.
About Marianas Trench: Since their 2006 debut, Fix Me, the Vancouver,
BC-based four piece have had two Certified Platinum-selling records
(Masterpiece Theatre, Ever After), chart topping hits including
‘Fallout,’ ‘Haven’t Had Enough,’ and ‘Stutter,’ garnered multiple SOCAN
and MMVA Awards, number 1 videos on MuchMusic, and JUNO nominations, and
won the 2013 JUNO Award for Group of the Year.
Over time
Marianas Trench have toured relentlessly in Canada and globally;
headlining tours in Australia and New Zealand, and the US. They’ve also
headlined events at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and 2015 Pan Am
Games in Toronto, as well as in the Philippines and South Korea.
Details - Marianas Trench with Walk Off The Earth and Kieran Mercer
