The Marches | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: All right.

0:00 Speaker 2: That is don't fool me twice by the band the Marches, And of course you heard that the first time on American radio here on WM and H on this very program. And we've got let's see who we have here. I believe Kate Morrow is with us via Microsoft teams. Kate, can you hear me?

0:17 Speaker 3: Yeah? I can hear you.

0:18 Speaker 2: Hello, excellent, Welcome to the show. Is anyone else from the band with you?

0:22 Speaker 1: Or are you?

0:23 Speaker 3: Is it?

0:23 Speaker 1: Are you flying solo?

0:25 Speaker 3: Unfortunately the Ghetos couldn't come with me, so I'm playing solo. But I'm very happy to be here.

0:30 Speaker 1: That is quite all right. We're very happy to have you. Welcome to the show.

0:32 Speaker 2: I love your sound particularly and you probably hear this all the time, but I'm particularly taken with the vocals and the harmonies. And do all four of you sing live?

0:45 Speaker 3: Yes? So that's something we've just started to incorporate into our live sets. I was the last one to start singing yes. Vocals.

0:55 Speaker 2: Well, you don't see a lot of singing drummers, and you know, I think it's obvious why. I mean, you know, drumming it's the most physical instrument, right, You're using all four of your limbs, So it's probably challenging. I've always assumed anyway, that's it's challenging for drummers to sing because you're already using a lot of wind.

1:11 Speaker 1: You're already you're you're already.

1:12 Speaker 2: Doing so much. How has that been for you? You said that you were the last of the four to really start singing. I mean, how how has that been for you? Has it been challenging or is it kind of come naturally or what's happened?

1:22 Speaker 3: Like I bet both? You know, when I'm playing live, I usually do tend to sing along with it a microphone, although I don't seem very good. Now we're starting to We're starting to incorporate into our set and I'm having time to practice with the ghettos, get used to playing west the drums at the same time, and it's going really well. It sounds amazing when we have all four of us, so I'm enjoying it.

1:44 Speaker 2: Is it important to you as a band to replicate because I would imagine this is very difficult because again, such a it seems to me, And again when whether it's that song or November, it seems like it's such a key part of your sound. Those those harmonies. Is it important to be able to replicate that live? Or do you not worry about it as much? Maybe live it can be a little looser and a little raw, or I mean, how do you approach that? Do you do you really try to replicate what's what's what you've recorded or or is it not that big of a deal.

2:20 Speaker 3: No, I think we definitely are trying to make sure our life sound is quite similar to the tracks. Yeah, and so we are. We haven't working on it.

2:28 Speaker 2: It is important, do you like, how do you in terms of practicing, uh, kind of replicating that vocally? Do you do you ever, like just sit like the four of you and just try singing the parts and and you know, you each find your octave or do you just or do you just play the songs and practice, you know, the singing obviously while you're playing.

2:49 Speaker 3: Do you know when we've tried to do it like a capella, we usually just end up laughing. We do it with all the instruments in the fields. Yeah, it was we'll just sit and laugh at each other.

3:00 Speaker 2: No, that makes sense, That makes sense. Now, how long has the band been around? You're relatively new, right the marches?

3:06 Speaker 3: Yeah, we are so and the four of us came together in May twenty twenty four, so it's been in nearly two years. Nearly two years.

3:14 Speaker 1: Next, okay, okay, so relatively relatively new. Now I'm curious about So.

3:22 Speaker 2: I was reading this So the BBC it says here and you can tell me if this is right, but it says here the BBC kind of has introduced you as calling you, uh, Glasgow's freshest girl band. And when I see that, something occurs to me. Now, obviously, so you're you're all females in the band, but I find it odd that that someone would.

3:49 Speaker 1: Point that out.

3:49 Speaker 2: I'm only bringing it up because I'm curious how you feel about when say, the BBC refers to you as Glasgow's freshest girl band, Because to me, it's weird that. You know, it's like, you don't call a bunch of dudes in a rock band. You don't call them a boy band, you know, unless you're referring to you know, a specific genre.

4:09 Speaker 1: Right, But but how do you feel about that?

4:12 Speaker 2: Like, to me, it seems almost sexist when the BBC goes out of their way to label you as that. You know, you're a rock band you happen to be for women, but why do you need this special label?

4:24 Speaker 1: I'm curious how you feel about that, do you know?

4:30 Speaker 3: I think you can take it in a number of ways. And you know, we are all females. We are all female bands, so that's simplely understandable. And the presenters who said that they were females themselves, okay, and the Glasgow sine there aren't many for or aren't many all female bands. Yeah, I can understand why they have said that. You know, it's not something that we're deliberately, you know, not trying to mark ourselves as obviously we are get band that is us. However, you know, like you said, you could see a rock band, you could say whatever.

5:05 Speaker 3: However we just took it as we just took it as our compliment from the BBC and all the lessen do so many bands every day that if they're calling those the freshiesh ghetto bands in Glasgow, then I think we are quite happy to take that as a compliment.

5:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that's good. That's a great way to look at it. Yeah, it just struck me as strange. But as you mentioned too, it was it was women who are saying it so that changes the context a bit too, so so that that's good. That's good, But I mean, but you are you are a rock band. And and for for anyone who you know, for anyone who is joining us late who didn't hear the track, don't fool me twice. I mean, you're I'm curious to know more about your sound and your influences because I I hear some different things in there, But like, who are some of your influences?

5:52 Speaker 3: Well, some of our influences definitely have to be Fleet with Mac. For example, the Angles when we're starting out, those were the kind of bands that we're saying very much our sound. Now we have changed direction, you know, don't for me twice as the start of our more rockier sound.

6:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, and so we are.

6:12 Speaker 3: Just came to finding their feet there. You could say, like alanis motor Set for example, definitely an influence there.

6:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I like the Fleewood Mac. I can definitely hear that. I'm a big Fleewood Mac fan, and I know what you mean. Yeah, that's that's definitely And and again it kind of goes to that vocal approach, right, you know, it reminds me of a very very evocative of Fleewood Mac.

6:39 Speaker 1: And then oh.

6:40 Speaker 3: Absolutely we do call our singer Stevie Nix because she does so just like her rethink it's amazing.

6:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's fantastic. That's fantastic.

6:48 Speaker 2: So Don't Fool Me Twice as the newest single, and then you've got November, which we also did play on the show. Really like that, and then you've got You've got a couple others before that. What's what's kind of the do you have plans to do an EP or a full album or I mean, there's so many different ways to release music these days, but are you going to do more singles? Do you know kind of what your forward trajectory is as far.

7:14 Speaker 3: As that, Yes, absolutely, so I think our next plan is to release an EP okay, which is very exciting, going along the lines of Don't Form Me Twice and that more rockier sound. Yeah, November and Don't Form Twice was released on like our double asage release, it was put on vinyl, and November was the end of our first chapter together kind of like our old sound, and then Don't for Me Twice is the beginning of our new sound. So the beginning then of our EP and what's the Cup in twenty twenty six?

7:44 Speaker 1: Oh, very cool.

7:45 Speaker 2: Now in terms of because you talk about that kind of your old sound and your new sound, that that transition, is that something that you decided as a band in other words, was it Is it intentional or is it more just sort of organic, like that's kind of the direction you're you're going and you're just going with it. I'm curious about that. Is that something you where you sat down and you said, you know, the four of you said we need to go, we want to change direction, or or is it just kind of something that's happening.

8:18 Speaker 3: So it just kind of happened in the room. The four of us set and we write our songs together. Whilst writing Don't for Me twice and a couple of our others which are unreleased, we realized, wow, we love playing this sound. It comes so easy to us, like it's definitely the direction we wanted to head, and so we decided to make that kind of move and say, okay, it is quite a big change up going down the more rockier route, but definitely yeah, that's when we decided this is where we want to go.

8:44 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, yeah, So it sounds like kind of a kind of a combination of both. Right, it's you know, you kind of naturally started doing that, but but then once you realize it's working, you know, and don't exactly Yeah, and it makes sense. I mean, you don't Fool Me Twice is a great track. I definitely want to hear more of that. So that's that's that's really good. And you've done some festivals, right, yes, we have.

9:09 Speaker 3: We did our first set of festivals this year. Yeah.

9:11 Speaker 2: I was looking at this, so let's see, uh, come back around. Oh yeah, oh there's a bunch of them.

9:17 Speaker 1: Listen here.

9:18 Speaker 2: How many of you done? It looks like you've done quite a few, right, Yeah, so yeah.

9:23 Speaker 3: We've done quite a few. Most noticeable we played Scotland's biggest outdoor festival, Beldrum up in Inverness. Okay, we managed to do two stages there. We did a live electric set and then we also did an acoustic set as well on a slightly smaller stage, which was really fun. And we've done some festivals local to where we live in the west of Scotland as well. Yeah, that's been a nice mix of the smaller ones and then obviously Scotland's biggest, so it'd been really fun.

9:49 Speaker 2: That's great because the thing about festivals is, you know, and I always say, and obviously you know this because you're experiencing it, but I always say, especially for young new bands, festivals, not only do they get you in front of these very large crowds, so they expose you to you know, a potentially whole new fan base and can help you to build a fan base very quickly, but also the networking opportunities that come with playing festivals it's unparalleled. You know, you meet you meet all these other artists that you're playing with, but also you know all kinds of industry people at these festivals and that helps you build so you know, so you build an audience, but you also build a network and a reputation within the industry that is so critical.

10:34 Speaker 2: So festivals are if you can play. And we've got a lot of guests. We've had a lot of guests from the UK who've been you know, we've done a festival or two, but no one who's done as many as you have. And it seems like you really, I mean, you're really just approaching that head on, which is fantastic. I tell everybody play every festival you can because it is so it is so critical. I mean you can make big leaps and bounds as playing festivals. So that's that's fantastic.

11:02 Speaker 3: Absolutely, yep. You don't know who's going to be there watching you, so as it's just a great way to reach new people, nu audances, different places, make connections, as you said, for your network. So absolutely, And.

11:12 Speaker 2: What is this by the way, the uh it says you sold out the SWG three Poetry Club show.

11:18 Speaker 1: What's that?

11:19 Speaker 3: Yes? So s WG three is a venue in Glasgow. The Poetry Club is the name of the venue. So that was where we did our headline show for our single Feel at All and we managed to completely sell out that show.

11:33 Speaker 2: Oh excellent, excellent, Okay, very good. Yeah, so you're off to a great start. Now are you playing? Are you playing consistently? Are you touring? Are you are you doing a lot of like like what's the live situation?

11:44 Speaker 1: Now?

11:44 Speaker 2: I can tell you here in the United States, a lot of a lot of bands kind of high at least in this part of the country. A lot of bands kind of hibernate a little bit in the winter. They you know, they're active recording and writing, but they don't play out as much. But what's what's the situation where you are as far as live shows.

12:00 Speaker 3: So we did our last live show of the year on the sixth of December. That was our headline show for the release of Don't Film Me Twice in November, so that as well, that was in Glasgow. That was really cool. We are taking a little bit of a break over new year, starting to write some new songs and then in February and March time we're actually going on a tour.

12:21 Speaker 1: Oh outstanding. Are you now?

12:24 Speaker 2: Are you going on your own tour or are you opening for for somebody or what's what are you doing for the tour?

12:32 Speaker 3: So far, it's I believe it as a headline tour. I believe it might be a joint headline in one of the locations. It's oh to be one hundred percent confirmed as yet, however, yet it does look as if will be the headline. So it's very exciting.

12:47 Speaker 2: Oh, very good. That is outstanding. Outstanding And can you talk a little bit too about the themes of of your songs because I saw something about you know this is more than you know you kind of think of it as it's not just a band but a movement, and it's it seems like there's there's certain themes that come up, you know, like empowerment and and uh you know and and uh taking control and and so forth. I mean, can can you talk a little bit about that? And I'm curious how important that is to you as a band to kind of like, you know, do you have a certain message that you're trying to put forth.

13:23 Speaker 3: Yeah, I would definitely say impowerment is a really good one. Definitely one of the themes. Yeah, I guess like our message is just I suppose it is empowerments. Really, we just write music. We love what we do, and we want to just put out music that we love to play, we love to listen to, and so yeah, that's that's definitely what I would say for that.

13:46 Speaker 2: Yeah, outstanding. Well Will in a moment, I'm gonna play this track November, which is the I think the first song of your band that we've played on the show. But uh, you know, we're always happy to kind of be the you know, the entry point into American radio for for some of these great bands that are that are coming out of your your area. There's so much so much incredible talent there. But so we're gonna play that track in a moment and we'll let you go. But Kate, thank you so much for joining us.

14:17 Speaker 2: And where where's the best place to go online or the best places to go for people to keep up with everything that The Marches is doing, because you've got a lot going on, So we want to make sure our listeners know how they can follow you online.

14:30 Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely so the best place you can beaches is probably our Instagram. We are The Marches Music on Instagram. We've got a blue tech so you'll be able to find those and you can get our music all on Apple Music, in Spotify and all the use of stream.

14:43 Speaker 2: Insights outstanding, outstanding.

14:46 Speaker 1: All right, Kate Morrow, thank you so much. We'll let you go.

14:48 Speaker 2: We're going to hit that track, but we will definitely do this again in the future. Like I said, we're big fans. I love the vocals, it's it just sounds so good. And I'm glad Fleewood Matt came up because now that totally makes sense to me.

14:59 Speaker 3: But but yes, absolutely.

15:02 Speaker 1: Absolutely so, we will do this again in the future. Keep up the great work. We'll talk to you soon.

15:06 Speaker 3: Thanks Kate, thank you so much for having me. Thank you you got it.

15:10 Speaker 1: Bye bye bye. All right, I didn't mean to start the track yet.

15:16 Speaker 2: That is Kate Morrow from the band The Marches, and I really this is another great song. You heard it here first on American radio here on WM and H. This is another great track. This is called November and the band is The Marches.