Marvell

What is your name and role within Marvell?

Tom Marvell, lead singer.

Where are you currently based and what is the music scene like there?

We are based on the Northern Beaches, Sydney. The music scene here is a weird one, we have so many great bands getting around and not enough great venues.. Moonshine Bar in Manly was the probably the venue of choice for bands up and coming, but since the renovation has since lost that reputation! Mona Vale Pub aka “The Parkhouse” has seen the opportunity and stepped up live music and is now the best place to see bands weekly, obviously pre-COVID, we have had crowds upwards of 500 people there. Would love to see more venues make it a weekly thing to have local and traveling bands play and let the talent around to have a platform to show off.

How did you first start playing music?

Mum and dad always had a musical talent, Max (my brother and co-lead singer) and I grew up with mum singing and dad playing guitar. That lead to us learning various instruments, and eventually both learning guitar; Max was always the singer and happy to put on a show for the family but for myself,, I never really started singing until I was 17 and even then was too shy to sing infront of anyone. Since then, singing to an audience has become my favourite thing to do! The only time I ever get nervous to sing is if there is no one in the crowd, you could put us In front of 50,000 people tomorrow and we would thrive!

How did Marvell form?

Before we had a band, Max and myself decided to give the music thing a go and started writing music, which led to us getting into the studio and recording our first EP in Melbourne. After it was finished, our producer Jan and his manager Michael Parisi said to us, “The next thing you need to do is get yourself a shithot band,” so we started recruiting as soon as we got home. I had been telling our guitarist Jesse that we were starting a band for years, so he was the first call we made. He was in straight away! Followed by our OG drummer and life long friend BJ who was also keen, we then tried a few bass guitarists and ended up meeting a young Harry Frank, who settled in nicely and that gave us the full line up. Since then, we have had a few line up changes with, Theo Henry taking over on the drums and Dylan Frost on bass guitar.

Your new single ’19 Homes’ is out now, what influenced the sound and songwriting for this track?

The sound of that track really just came from that Kings of Leon style riff at the start that transformed from acoustic guitars to an almost bluesy rock anthem. It was written almost entirely by Max when we were looking for a house to rent at the time and must have been turned down by about 20 real estate agents. The pure frustration turned into “19 homes in 90 days”…we later got a great house and an even better song, so in the end it all worked out.

How did you go about 19 Homes? Where and when did you record and who with?

We recorded the song in Melbourne with producer Jan Skubiszewski at his live-in style farmhouse studio, Red Moon Studios.

It’s honestly one of my favourite places in the world, an absolute please to write and record music there.

How did you approach the recording process?

We were without a bass guitarist, and had only had our new drummer Theo onboard for about three weeks, so Jan (producer) became our bass guitarist. We basically spent the first two days just playing through songs, re-writing parts and getting our drummer and jan up to speed on the material. It was so much fun and it all came together rather smoothly, so after that we were popping out a new finished track every two days.

What equipment/programs did you use?

Jan has his studio beautifuly set up with an insane collection of acoustic and electric guitars, boxes of pedals, Hammond organs, crazy percussion instruments, multiple guitar amps and an amazing ear for setting up room mics all through the barn turned studio! As for the programs, that’s just numbers and letters to me!

What did you find most challenging and rewarding during the creation of 19 Homes?

Well Jesse our lead guitarist ended up shooting himself in the hand with an arrow from a bow that I had brought down to the studio for down time activities; we hadn’t even recorded a full song and thought he was going to be off the guitar for months. After a long night in the hospital and getting surgery on the hand, the arrow had missed all bones, tendons and nerves and walked in and finished the record like a fucken boss!

Who are you listening to at moment?

I’ve got a strange array of music going at the moment, I’ve fell in love with a few of THE VANNS’ new tracks, but also have had other bands/artists playing loudly at work like Brad Cox, Counting Crows, CCR, even James Blunt.Then all the standards on the radio…

What do you like to do away from music?

I’m a carpenter by trade, so that tends to keep me pretty busy but if I’m not working or at the local pub, I’m always keen on a good snob lunch, watching the footy, heading down to the snow, or curling up and sleeping on the couch.

What’s planned for the remainder of 2020?

We have a few things in planning for the remainder of this crazy year including a long awaited tour, but it’s just too hard to be sure of anything for this year anymore

Favourite food and place to hangout?

I love my food and I love my snob lunches! Two favourite places to eat on the Northern Beaches at the moment would be BERTS in Newport, all the seafood there is insane, especially the anchovies and oysters !!

And SAKÉ in Manly, the toothfish and prawn dumplings are crazy delicious and the cocktails are crazy good, just be ready to empty the wallet !