Marathon

So over the last few days I was able to compile a few different interviews with the guys in Marathon to make a super interview. Originally I was just talking to Matt but then he suggested sending the answers to the other members and just choosing the best ones. But I thought it would be really cool to get all the answers in one big interview to give a better insight into the overall opinions of the band itself. Really cool interview.

So can I can grab your name, what you do in Marathon and is it cold up your way yet? Cause its freezing here.

R - Ryan, I play guitar. We should mention Craig, who plays bass - he’s getting really busy at the moment, so he’s absent for this interview. We love him though. I get cold in movie theatres so I’m just a big baby and shouldn’t complain about the cold

M - Matt, I play drums. Shit just got super cold in the last night or two. Full on two blankets type stuff

L - Hi dude. My name is Luke. I provide the majority of the vocals and lyrics for Marathon. And yeah, shit is getting cold though I'm sure it's not as cold as Canberra.

New record. Greg's putting that out for you guys through Arrest. How does it feel to finally get an official release going? Especially through a really great up and coming label?

R - Greg has been around forever. I remember frequenting Mary Street up here when I was just 18 and even then he’d be at every show. He’s super supportive and a really positive energy in the scene up here, and has always done distro or organised shows or anything else to help the scene and the bands. I’m really stoked he’s doing this label, and I think it has the potential to grow into something really important.

M - It's been something that I've worked towards in bands for a good 6 years or so and have never really made happen. So I'm stoked. On the Marathon front, It's been something that we've been working towards for about 3 years through different lineups and nonsense so it's great to finally have something to show for it. I think Greg's fantastic and is doing amazing things for a bunch of bands on Arrest.

L - I wasn't a member of the first Marathon lineup that started playing shows. So an EP was basically the goal from the moment I joined the band... We finished up a lot of ideas the other guys had and I worked hard to get the vocals right and we were recording between 3 and 4 months later. I'm stoked to have it out through Arrest. I haven't had much to do with Greg beyond a conversation here and there, but I already look up to the dude – He seems to have a fantastic outlook on music for someone who has been around so long.

You guys have actually been a band since 08 right? But I actually had never heard of you until you were booked for a show at The Jam Factory a few months ago. Why is this? Because you guys really do put on a great show. Does it have anything to do with member changes? I understand there have been quite a few.

R - If I could have, I would have started Marathon straight away in 2006 when my previous band broke up. I was jamming the songs from our first demo with my friend Luke on bass, a guy named Colin Cadell on vocals and a drummer in 2007, which sort of went nowhere after a while. Soon later Matt and I where jamming as a 2 piece before we found a bass player (Robb Perkin, who also plays drums in Quiet Steps), but again I don’t think it was totally his cup of tea in the end. Craig came in and he’s one of our best friends, and a unique person, which is great to have around. We started recording our first demo with a vocalist named Steven Parker, who soon bailed, and we played our first show with Lochlan Watt (Western Decay, The Surrogate, currently Ironhide) singing for us. I left the country for a few months and when I came back we had a vocalist named Nick Bellringer, who recorded on the original demo. We played a few shows and sort of got ourselves established with him fronting us. When he left, we kind of pressured Luke to join, and then it was now.

M - Ryan and I have been doing this for a fair bit longer than 08. And yeah, its pretty much been a matter of finding the right people for what we had in mind. Which has been both a blessing and a curse. It's been a long road and the music itself has come a long way too I think. It's also great to hear people dig the live show, means we're doing something right. As it stands, we've had this lineup for about a year now, and it's been a big momentum push in obviously getting the EP done and getting outside of QLD.

L - I know Marathon has been an idea in Ryan's head for many years now. He has actually jammed with a lot of dudes but the lineup who have played shows has only changed once, technically. (This is to the best of my understanding)I guess you might not have heard of us as that weekend as it was our first trip out of town and we're yet to have an official release.

Why have there been so many member changes?

R - I think you have the usual things like conflicting commitments, clash of personality or just plain personal taste, As in any band those smaller issues contribute to the ocming and going of members. To be honest, I think it was also the fact that from the outset I had a pretty clear vision and a pretty solid reason of what Marathon was to me. Despite a huge range of influences, I knew what I wanted to sound like and I knew what type of band I wanted it to be. I’m not adverse to compromise when it is positive, but I think in terms of chemistry and the progression of Marathon musically and ideologically, those member changes were necessary.

M - Unfortunate circumstances really. Some people haven't taken to the music that we were making at the time, others didn't hold up or stick around. I like to think that it's all been worth it to this point.

L - That's not for me to answer.

Has this ever been off putting? Or maybe made you think about cutting your losses and moving on?

R - Not for me. I know what I want to do with this band and if someone isn’t ‘right’ for that, then it’s just the way it is - it’s not positive or negative, it’s like the colour of your hair or the place you were born.

M - It's demotivating to a point, but then like I said Ryan and I have been doing this for years and it never really seemed like something that would stop us. I remember there being a period of a month or so where we would still get together and jam just the two of us before we found Johnson and eventually Luke.

L - Again, I can't really answer that. Though, I feel Marathon is very tight now with this lineup. We've all played in bands together before (Quite a few if you add them up) and we seem to share a common goal musically. We do butt heads quite often, but I really respect/care about the other three members of Marathon and I hope that what we share now in a creative and emotional sense will continue to exist for a long time. Right now I feel like the music I am making is the only thing keeping me from losing my mind.

You play a sound that has really quite a large metal/thrash/punk/hardcore influence. Essentially, a really quite unique sound. Is this something you pursued from the begining of the band?

R - Everyone comments on that. It’s obvious. Entombed, Converge, Pageninetynine, 108, Cursed are all big influences - but that’s boring - that’s more like, what the end product comes out sounding like. The answer to your question is yes; What I find more interesting is listening to bands like Big Black or Shellac, The Jesus Lizard, Pissed Jeans, Clockcleaner or Chokebore and taking certain things from those bands - structuring, sounds, experimentation and making it work in the context of Marathon. I look at bands like Trap Them or Trash Talk (etc, etc) moreso as contemporaries rather than influences.

M - Yes. It's really been Ryan's brainchild from the get go, so as a matter of the music that is made it all stems from what he brings to the table to begin with. For the most part it is very fast, thrashy stuff. Lately we've been writing a bit more bass and drums heavy songs which are starting to come through on the EP and the new tracks we're writing.

L - I'm not sure what the original intention of Marathon was. I know now that we strive to create aggressive and honest music. To every band that manages to be aggressive, threatening, honest and innovative there is 500 bands who choose to be none of those things, so hopefully a person or two can pick up on what we're trying to do.

What do you guys all listen to outside of Marathon?

R - High Violet by The National is one of the greatest albums ever made. That’s been on constant rotation for me for the past week. Also Lemuria and Pygmylush are both constant. I guess I don’t listen to too much heavy music these days - I find a lot of black metal really draws me in and select hardcore bands like Trash Talk, Last Lights, Nomos and bands like that. I get more excited about local hardcore nowadays. Oh, I’ve also found myself listening to a lot of the post-Pg.99/Majority Rule bands like Malady, Verse En Coma and Haram. That shit all rules.

M - I listen to a lot, although it's all pretty punk/hardcore influenced. Lately it's been a lot of Young Widows, La Dispute, Breach, Ghost Town, Dial and Mindsnare. Great drumming all round.

L - I know this is a cliched answer, but we really do have a varied taste in music. We have that bands that meet in the middle and seem to be key influences in what we all bring to Marathon ie: Converge, The Hope Conspiracy, Trap Them etc and there's a million more metal/hardcore bands that the other dudes listen to that I have zero interest in. Having said that, the artists that I draw influence from most in regards to the music I help create in Marathon are dudes like Jeffrey Eaton (Modern Life Is War), Jacob Bannon (Converge), Jesse Lacey (Brand New), Matt Fox (Shai Hulud) etc. Some of my all time favourite bands are Blink 182, Modern Life Is War, Shai Hulud, Propagandhi, At The Drive In, The Get Up Kids, Latterman, Hot Water Music etc.

Is it hard to smash all these influences and genres together, or does it come together quite easily?

R - Yeah it does, but I think ‘easy’ is a funny word. I think we’re willing and eager to put in the work it takes to write a good song, so in that way it is ‘easy’. Like I said, I know what I want going into this, and I am pretty meticulous/neurotic about any song I write and take into practice.

M - It seems to come together pretty well, but we never sit down and say "ok this needs to be a more metal song" or "this one should be a bit more epic and post-whatever". I often find myself thinking "how the fuck did we come up with that?" and I can never remember. It just happens.

L - We all bring what we know. I don't try to write in any specific manner, I try to remain honest to myself. I don't write about the most positive aspects of my life – That comes out when I spend time with the people I care about, or when I'm laughing or just alone reading a book and not feeling depressed. The lyrics and effort I put into Marathon and the result being the live performance is simply the most positive way I've found I can let go of all the emotions I'd rather not weigh me down. I could become dependent on drugs, I could hurt myself psychically or I could paint but I don't. I'm lucky enough to have found friends who trust me enough to run around them in circles and scream about my deepest, darkest secrets whilst they play some sick riffs.

Also, you have a twelve minute song. Which when I heard for the first time blew me away. How did this song get written? Did it sort of just happen?

R - Nothing ‘just happens’. Haha. It’s just a song, and it’s one of my favourites - but no one ever asks “This song is under 2 minutes - why is that?” which I think is funny. I’m glad you liked it - it’s a challenging song to listen to, which is how we wrote it. I wanted to write a song that was crushing but still melodic in a ways, and conveyed an intense mass of emotion. I think ‘Silence Where Sound Ought To Be’ is our most emotional song.

M - Silence I think started off as just a slower song with pretty deliberate chord structures and repetition and was never intended to be a long song. Then we kinda thought "we can really fuck with people here and draw this out for ages" and, we did. It's be re-written a couple of times and each time it seemed to just get longer and have more parts taken out or changed and added.

L - The “Epic” song was mentioned when I joined the band. I remember thinking “How the fuck am I going to put vocals to that” when I first heard a rough take of it. I'm actually really proud of how that song turned out. The end of 2009 was a horrible time for me, and the blame for that falls square on my shoulders. That song is intended to be my apology to someone I care about a lot who I chose to hurt in a really childish and selfish way. I've spent too much of my life afraid of trusting people and letting people close to me simply because of past experiences, so I tend to push people away do things to hurt them. I hope that that song has helped to break a little piece of me that holds all those insecurities and fears away and I can start deal with that problem. Oh, and the song is called “Silence Where Sound Ought To Be”.

Not really a musically related question. I constantly hear about alcohol related violence in The Valley and the Goldy. Is it really as bad as what the ABC makes it out to be? And what do you believe needs to be done to curb this problem?

R - Yeah there is a fair bit of violence these days. But that sort of violence I don’t really have a problem with. Violence is part and parcel of being human and it’s unnatural to fight that. Due to evolution we’re able to establish the notions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ but those notions don’t necessarily exist in the natural world, and moreover, those notions, or at least the priorities contained within them would be completely different for me as opposed to a kid living in, for example, Baghdad. I honestly think a lot of the violence is fuelled by alcohol. I think it would be interesting to just let these guys (and it is mainly males) go and sort themselves out - natural selection, but short of that I don’t know. I don’t really get down with the concept of police and most security guards are scumbags so I can’t really give you a good answer.

M - If it is, I don't see. With anything news related you're going to have a certain amount of embellishment and it's going to be framed so that it'll catch your attention so you're only going to see the worst bits and lots of it. That's how news is sold. I don't think it's that bad...actually let me rephrase, there's certainly potential for it to be a lot worse. As I said though, I don't see it.

L - Oh man. I don't know – I don't go out as much as I used to so maybe shit has gotten more out of hand than I realise. In my experience it just depends on where you're hanging and who you're hanging with, you know? Dudes get full of booze and the slower/less intelligent dudes are usually the guys who feel they've got something to prove and before they know it they've put some guy in Hospital and potentially fucked his life forever. I don't get violent on alcohol... I get a quicker/smarter mouth and I tend to take less shit but I've managed to be ok so far. I'm not sure how they can fix this – People are fucking stupid and you can't change that. I think making lockout times earlier isn't going to work though, that's just an extra hour or two each weekend where drunk dudes are roaming the streets full of drunken courage without any security around to stop any violence. Oh, and having said that – Most security guards are fucking deadshits as well who don't help the problem!

Now I actually read an interview a while ago that Luke did with Sam from Ghost Town and in the interview Luke said that he had read a book called 'Anti Matter Anthology'. Now apparently the guy who wrote it also used to interview old punk bands and would ask personal questions to get under peoples skin. Thus making a tense yet insightful read. So I am going to have a go.

What would you do if your new record got slammed in a heap of reviews?

R - I can’t say I’d really care. If there were constructive criticism to be taken, I would digest that and develop opinions based on it, but beyond that, in the immortal words of Conor Oberst: “I do not read the reviews - no, I am not singing for you.”

M - Make another one.

L - I'd be upset of course. I mean, when it boils down to it no one can take away this tiny little piece of creativity I shared with friends and what I put into it and the fact I know I meant every single word said. But that's just it, I don't really have too much going for me at the moment – I've got the people I spend my time with, my shitty job and Marathon... Everything boils back down to being creative and letting things out and if a whole bunch of people straight up write that off it's gonna hurt. That shit can't be controlled though, we're only tiny and I doubt we'll read many reviews about this first Ep anyway, so let's just hope they're all half decent!

How would you feel if one of the band members turned around on the release date and said they hated the record?

R - Well no one’s arm was ever twisted in this band, so I don’t think that would happen. If it did it would be their own fault so I guess it would be a case of that person moving on, because we always discuss any element of the music we’re making.

M - Well, too bad.

L - We'd discuss it and figure out what element of the release it is they hated. Then we'd figure out if that is something that can be overcome/managed differently next time around.

Low point of 2010 for yourself?

R - Not having a great time at the moment. I’m on the verge of losing someone I love dearly. Also being told by a close friend that Marathon "isn't a good band". Haha, brutal!

M - Failing my fucking Aural Studies exams.

L - Refer back to the song about our 12 minute song – Some things relating to that.. Also, not getting to play with Shai Hulud and Orlando getting knocked out of the NBA playoffs by the fucking Celtics!

Who or what was the last person to make you shed a tear?

R -The person mentioned above – the girl I love, not the dude who hates my band, haha.

M - Myself. for so many reasons.

L - A girl I care about quite a bit. Insecurities about my appearance.

Finally. Your artwork is really quite cool. Who did it?

Seldon Hunt. www.seldonhunt.com

Last words before we finish up?

R - Love one another but don’t suffer fools.

M - Thanks dude!

L - Listen to Yeah Right, Fires Of Waco, Ironhide, Jerk Store, I Exist, Between The Devil And The Deep, Headaches, Arrows, To The North, Ghost Town, and Downpour. Thanks for asking these questions man!

There you go. If you have not listened to this band yet, do so as of now! Ryans friend is clearly an idiot when he says Marathon is a shit band. Dont pay attention to that answer and do yourself a favour, buy their EP when it is released in June/July from either their myspace or Arrest Records

http://www.myspace.com/marathonruins

http://www.purevolume.com/marathonruins