Marianas Trench versus the world
Life inspires touring pop-rock act’s deep lyrics
Vancouver pop-rock act Marianas Trench is facing some competition from its geological namesake.
Weeks ago, scientists released the first recordings from the deepest place on Earth — the Marianas (or Mariana) Trench, located almost 11,000 metres below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The band’s drummer, Ian Casselman, is impressed with what he’s heard — ambient burbles and mechanical whirrs. “It’s awesome, it’s MUCH cooler than us,” he says.
There’s also a lot of depth in Marianas Trench’s fourth and latest album, Astoria, a fun, ’80s-flavoured orchestral extravaganza with dark lyrical undertones. While the cover art pays homage to The Goonies — an ’80s film about kids who find an old treasure map — frontman Josh Ramsay sings about heartbreak (One Love), recklessness (Astoria) and the pain of watching a loved one fade away (Forget Me Not).
Prior to writing the album, he broke up with his fiancé. His mom was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, which is often accompanied by Parkinson’s-like symptoms. Ramsay himself was hospitalized with pancreatitis.
“Most of the stuff that Josh writes is very autobiographical,” says Casselman.
We recently talked to the Trench timekeeper about lyrics, ’80s films, and the Junos.
Q Are you surprised Astoria doesn’t feel even darker, considering what Josh went through?
A He’s a real melody guy. He always liked Everclear for what they did — (singer Art Alexakis’s) lyrics were super dark, but he came up with some really bubbly, happy hooks. I’m not just tooting Josh’s horn, but he has a lot of artistic integrity. He won’t swear in a song just for effect, he doesn’t sing about girls in a tits-and-ass kind of way. He takes the lyrical side of it very, very seriously and he doesn’t apologize for it.
Q How did The Goonies influence the album?
A With our last album, Ever After, we used fairy tales as an inspiration. For this one, we used ’80s coming-of-age movies — where someone young goes on an adventure and has to overcome obstacles created by the adult world. We picked The Goonies because it was such a fun, cool movie and that’s why we called the album Astoria. It’s the town where the movie takes place in.
Q You’ve got more than 30 guest artists on Astoria — from Dave Genn to the Vancouver Film Orchestra. Anyone in particular stand out for you?
A The biggest one that made me smile is (Roger Joseph Manning Jr.). He plays keys in Beck’s band
and he was one of the main guys in Jellyfish, one of our biggest influences. When I hear his voice on our title track, I always smile. It’s one of my favourite parts on the album, just to hear that he sang on it. They were a crazy vocal band. A lot of people don’t know them because they sounded like bubble gum Queen and came out at the same time as grunge, so (Jellyfish) were toast.
Q Do you ever feel the same way about Marianas Trench? That you don’t quite fit into today’s musical landscape?
A Not anymore. In the beginning, it took us a while to maybe hone our skill because Josh really tried to combine the Foo Fighters and The Beach Boys — that was the original vision for Marianas Trench. When the first album came out, a lot of people really liked it but rock radio was like “These guys are too poppy” and pop radio was like “These guys are too heavy.” After that, we decided to lighten up the tone — we basically turned down the distortion on the guitar and added more keys.