Marriages thrive in LA, where the city creates a good tension. That’s why their music is so fierce, speaking deep to your rock sensitivity and wrecking with its emotional load. It’s been two years since band’s Kitsune EP debut, so their new release Salome dropping this April is the sound we know it’s been worth waiting for. Planning on tours and art projects, we speak to Marriages on their cool, rock life.

On the band… we started on the tail end of our previous band, Red Sparowes going on hiatus.  We wanted to go a new direction and focus on more vocal-centric, concise song writing.  Our goals were to create a band that wasn’t held to any constraints stylistically and was as light-weight as possible to make touring and the general challenges of being in a band as minimal as possible.  Andrew Clinco joined the band shortly after Kitsune was released, as our full-time drummer and equal songwriter.

On democracy… songwriting is a democratic process – anyone can bring in a song, and many songs are written collaboratively in the practice space.  Sometimes we’ll give ourselves arbitrary rules to try to create challenges in songwriting to keep things interesting – like limit the time of a song, or the instrumentation, but generally it’s a free for all.

On Salome… the title itself is inspired by a woman, a figure associated with violence and seduction.  While she is referenced in the bible, as well as other works, including Oscar Wilde’s tragedy, the inspiration wasn’t overt – rather it’s the artwork and the general theme of power through ritual, seduction and violence which, in her case lead the execution of John the Baptist.

The album took two years to write, in three studios and with two engineers.  It started to feel cursed for a second!  It’s really rewarding to see it out in the world now, we’re excited to get out and tour on the record.

On the power of music… live music is fascinating.  The energy of the audience, the shape and structure of the venue, the visual component of the band, the music itself.  It can all converge to be something amazing, or horrible. I’ve played the exact same songs, on the same tour, and the variables outside of the music itself can almost have more impact.  Generally, though, it’s the only medium I’ve been involved in that really engages all of the senses in that way. It can be a really powerful and trans-formative experience, and those moments can be very addictive.

On dreams…  lots of touring. Another record in the next two years. Also, we’re all visual artists, so we plan on putting out collaborative art projects associated with the album and band in general.

On Idols… most of them are personal figures in our  lives, honestly.  But otherwise, at the moment, Stanley Kubrick, Brian Eno and Josef Koudelka.

On Marriages’ soundtrack…

The Cure – A Forest
Swans – Killing For Company
Killing Joke – Love Like Blood
Hawkwind – Silver Machine
Tangerine Dream – Love on a Real Train

Listen to the title track ‘Salome’ here and watch out for Marriages’ new album out on Sargent House April, 7th.