MacD on Music: The Marra Never Dies

Last year was a great year for music in Derry, with so many great albums, singles and gigs (no, this is not another gig-centred column. There were enough of those last year). Album-wise, we had Parker (‘Never Let This Go’, available now exclusively in Cool Discs), Louise DaCosta (‘Smoke & Dreams’), Reevah (‘Daylight Savings’) while in the single department there was, among others, Cora Harkin (‘Glad I Got Away’ and ‘Waste of Time’), Selador (‘Love Sweet Love’), TomCat (‘It’s Not Always Gonna Be Like This) and, the subject of this week’s column, The Marra (‘That’s Just The Way’).

The Marra are Shane MacGowan (guitar), Ryan Ward (vocals), Conall McCool (lead guitar), Cale O’Donnell (bass) and Brian McCloskey (drums) and are releasing their new single ‘Masterpiece’ this Friday (26th). I caught up with Shane and Ryan to talk a bit about it.

Ryan: “It’s very Britpop inspired, ‘Urban Hymns’, the Verve kind of vibe. It was mixed by Michael Bell in Belfast. He recorded it as well. He just had a good understanding of it.”

Shane: “We wanted it to sound like how we play live and I think we did that well. It just sounds like us, which is the goal. Sometimes you record and it doesn’t sound anything like you, so we’re really happy with it. I don’t know if it is a masterpiece. We’ll let the critics decide.”

Still Shane: “It was written as a whisper, it was whispered in the demo, which is ironic since you roar it now. We don’t know what it’s about. We haven’t decided yet. At the end of the day, it’s not for us to decide. It’s everyone’s own interpretation to it.”

We then spoke a bit about the reception to ‘That’s Just The Way’: Shane: “It got a great reception. Gemma Bradley played us on Across the Line. We were down in Sandino’s having a drink when he [Ryan] got an e-mail from the BBC saying they were playing it so we went onto BBC iPlayer to listen back.”

Ryan: “With ‘Masterpiece’ now we’ve pushed a lot of radio. The likes of Drive 105, Highland. Radio X got back to us. Don’t know if they’re going to play it. They asked for the download and said they really liked the track.”

After that, I asked about a potential album: Ryan: “We have output for pushing three albums at the minute. Three different kinds of albums. At the minute, singles seems to be the only way to go to get through to people, especially starting off. In the future, it’s inevitable.”

Shane: “I think our goal this year is to release a single every month, maybe eventually an EP. Maybe an album.”

Ryan: “Our goal this year is to get as much output as possible, as many singles. We’ve a good few things lying, mixed and all.”

Shane: “We recorded our third song, last week, our third single. Hopefully we’ll release that at the end of February.”

Next up was the single launch, also this Friday and taking place in Bennigan’s: Ryan: “This time a week ago, we didn’t have anybody. We asked a few people but their schedules were clashing on the night. We ended up pulling Polar Bolero out of the bag and The Switch again and Black Lanterns. The first time I saw Polar Bolero they blew me away. We were on the same bill as them, I think we were supporting Dan Ferguson. Me and Conall were doing an acoustic gig that night and they were on before us so it was a tough act to follow, especially just me and Conall.”

Shane: “All proceeds go towards the soundman or soundwoman. That’s always the dearest aspect of the gig. I might have to become a soundman so we don’t have to pay one, except Gerry Craig [the legendary soundman at most Sandino’s gigs].”

Ryan: “And he’s a sound man too.”

Shane: “Every time he’s doing ours he’s brilliant. He did our Melter gig too.”

Ryan: “He did the gig, we supported Eskimo and the Belfast band Disorder. He’s done all our Sandino’s gigs.”

Shane: “We’re playing the week after at Gimme 5 [also in Bennigan’s] with Shasma and Little Kings. I think it’s mostly for Stendhal judges to come and see the people that’s applying.”

And that’s it from The Marra. ‘Masterpiece is out this Friday and it’s going to be launched in Bennigan’s that night, with support from Polar Bolero, Black Lanterns and The Switch.

They’ll be playing Bennigan’s again the following week (2nd February) along with White Lighter, Shasma, Little Kings and Hutch. Both gigs are sure to be brilliant so get your tickets now.

The Marra can be found on Instagram @themarra_band.