MacD on Music: The Marra Is A New Day

Earlier this year, you may recall reading about The Marra and their ambitious plan to release a single a month this year.

They got off to a great start with ‘Masterpiece’ and ‘I’ll Follow The Sun’ both coming at the start of this year. In the months since, the band has undergone some fairly significant changes.

The once-five piece has been reduced down to two, Shane MacGowan (guitar), Ryan Ward (vocals) and the group has effectively re-launched with the release of their new single ‘I Can’t Sleep’ this past Friday.

I caught up with Shane and Ryan to talk about the new song and find out what The Marra has in store: “We’re taking off where we left off. It was just a lot, with five people, to get together all the time. If we were doing a practice and everyone was doing different shifts, it was just a nightmare, to be honest, and we decided it would be easier if it was just the two of us.”

Speaking about the new song: “It’s an oldie. It’s about two years old. It’s a good first song to start back with and was mixed by Gordon Raphael [producer for The Strokes], who did our first single. It’s actually very Srokes-y inspired too, and he never said anything, which is good. It felt like it was the right one to come back with. Aggressive and fast.

"I think, before, a lot of the songs we were writing were slow and ballad-y and we were like ‘let’s write something fast and a wee bit angry’. It was nice to do that.”

As to who played on the song, Ryan tells me “Conor Lynch plays drums and Shane plays everything else and I’m on vocals. We recorded in Blast Furnace with Rory Donaghy.”

Shane: “It’s funny, all the guitars from the old demo are still in the song. We just went over them with studio guitars. I think that’s what gives it it’s sound.”

Ryan: “A lot of the recording was done in Shane’s, and we just finished it off in Blast Furnace, giving it a wee unique twist.”

Next, I asked them about their upcoming return to the live scene [dates TBD] and whether or not they’d be doing songs from before the Great Reset. Shane: “I think ‘That’s Just the Way’ did well for us and it’s nice to play live. I don’t know if we’ll play ‘Masterpiece’ again. I’m sort of over it.”

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Ryan: “Some would stay. We have four new ones ready to be released now. We were just laughing thinking about the last time we did an interview with you, and you asked what the plan was, and we said a song every month, so we’ve decided there’s no plan any more.”

Shane: “If we say there’s a plan it’ll not happen, so the plan is there’s no plan. Just release music when we can. I think singles first, just to get a bit of momentum back, but down the road definitely an EP. It’ll be nice to have a physical release of something.”

Ryan then told me about their new musical outlet: “We’ve become a TikTok cover band this last week or two. We only did it to promote the new song but lots of people are actually looking for it. We’re focusing more on the things we lacked the last time, like, for example, the online thing. It’s cool. Me and [Shane] made a TikTok account last week and within a week we had 5000 followers. We’re building a bit of an online myth. I wouldn’t say fanbase…”

Shane: “It feels like fans. People are saying they want to buy our music and I’m like ‘we don’t have any’, that’s why we need a physical release. In my head I’m thinking February or March to record an EP. That’s not the plan but it’s not set in stone.”

And that’s it from The Marra. Their new single ‘I Can’t Sleep’ is out now on all good streaming platforms.

Now, onto other business. Halloween saw the release of Sister Ghost’s long-awaited debut album ‘Beyond the Water’.

The album, recorded in Los Angeles in summer of 2022 with the producer Brad Wood (known for his work on Liz Phair’s ‘Exile on Guyville’ and Veruca Salt’s ‘American Thighs’), was launched in the Nerve Centre on Halloween night and features her progressive songwriting and empowering lyricism throughout. The album is available now on Bandcamp and all good streaming services.

Finally, one more new release, this time from Pilosa, who have recently released their new single ‘Ad Interim’. The song, described as “a real change in direction” for the group, is, like everything else in this article, available on all good streaming services.

And now, time for the socials. Pilosa can be found on Instagram @pilosa__music, Sister Ghost @sisterghostofficial and The Marra @themarra_band and on TikTok @the.marra.band.