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Every Monday we will be bringing you interviews with unsigned UK or Ireland artists for Independent Music Monday. Recently we caught up with unsigned Bath band The Marianas to find out more…

Who is in the band, how did you meet and where are you from?
We’re a group of five and we all grew up around the city of Bath, Somerset. Chloe is our lead vocalist, Sam grooves on guitar, and Theo is the keyboard wizard. Liam’s math-y bass lines make up for one half of the backbone of the band, and Jack is the other half, bringing his inventive, funky drumming with him. After being a band of this size for 2 years you start feeling like you’re in a crazy but wholesome family.

Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
The joy of being our band is that we all have pretty different music tastes that stem from different musical backgrounds. Theo, Liam and Jack were on the classically trained side when it came to picking up their instruments whereas Chloe and Sam had their icons laid out in front of them from the start. Sam grew up with an eclectic mix of Ibiza classics (basically his Mum’s Ministry of Sound CD collection) and his Dad’s love for bombastic 80s rock tunes. Chloe, meanwhile, loved The Gorillaz and early 2000s girlbands. Combining that love with Theo’s taste in electronic music gave us the first records we ever wrote (Bad News and You’re a Holiday). As of today, we really love and look up to Everything Everything, Tears for Fears and Chic.

How would you describe your sound?
Our sound is really a blend of what we mentioned above. We love the idea of taking nostalgic sounds and reinventing them for the modern age. Most of our songs start out with a guitar riff or bass line that we build an entire world of sound around. Sure, we aim to easily tick off certain nostalgic boxes in people’s heads but we also endeavour to keep it fresh. We would best describe our sound as Alternative Pop-Rock.

What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Our latest release is titled ‘Premonitions’. We recorded it in Theo’s bedroom before lockdown came into effect. This version was originally an acoustic demo as we’ve actually played the song live as a full band a couple of times this year. This full band version had more energy and instrumentation but, as a band, we felt more connected with the acoustic demo, so during lockdown Theo bounced mixes of it back and forth with the band until, in March, we released it on Bandcamp, with proceeds going to our beloved local music venue (Moles, Bath). Sam wrote the lyrics about recurring nightmares he had about climate change – so the song is quite a candid look into dreams and whether or not they can actually foreshadow times to come. This is our first self produced release since ‘You’re a Holiday’, as ‘Bad News’ and ‘In Your Sleep’ were both done in a studio with our producer.

What’s your local music scene like?
Our local scene is packed full of so many talented artists that we’d quickly run out of space on all our hands put together trying to count them for you. There are so many unique artists that are an absolute blast to gig with. Sadly, we’ve had venues close down in recent years, so we make sure that when we gig in Bath we make the gigs as packed and as big as they can be. We can’t imagine how hard it has been for our local venues these past seven months but our scene is one that will surely (but responsibly) be jumping back into the venues the moment they open.

What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We have tons planned for the next twelve months. We’ve just come back from the recording studio so we have a whole new single release cycle on our hands. A local Bath venue, Moles, is reopening in October and we’re making our return there on the 30th of October. The audience will be sitting at tables and keeping a distance. The concept is fairly weird and slightly nerve racking for us as we like to make people boogie but I’d say we’re equally excited because we have a roster of new songs to show the world and we’d do anything for our local venues.

Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
In terms of artists? We’d love to work with David Byrne (Talking Heads), The Japanese House and/or The Gorillaz because all of them have such distinctive features to their sounds; they’re all unmistakable in their own right. As for producers, we’d love to work with Mike Crossey someday as he has produced a couple of our favourite records in recent time (What If Nothing by Walk The Moon, 5am by Amber Run).

Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
It feels like it’s been years since we last played live. We have a tally of how many times Sam has accidentally wacked Chloe around the head with his guitar due to them frantically dancing around the stage. Other than that we are a band that love to snack, so our pre-gig rituals are really just pre-gig hummus and crisp feasts.

What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
We’re a band that wants to make you dance. We’re a band that wants to make you get up and party, laugh, cry, embrace someone and then rinse and repeat. All our songs come from a genuine place in our heart so we hope when you listen to our tracks you have just as much fun listening to them as we had writing them. Stay safe, comfy and happy and we hope to catch you at a concert soon! Thank you for having us Merryn!

You can find out more about where you can find The Marianas online, their music, how to buy tickets for Moles on 30th October and more via their Linktree.