MacD on Music: Who Knows What The Marra Brings?

Line-up changes are nothing new in music. For as long as there have been bands, there have been members coming and going. Fleetwood Mac began life as a blues band, but as people came and went, they gradually evolved into the iconic group that gave us ‘Rumours’.

Black Sabbath have, at some point, had virtually every major metal singer as their frontman, the only constant being guitarist Tony Iommi, and Van Halen went through three singers, going from David Lee Roth to Sammy Hagar to Gary Cherone back to Hagar then finally back to Roth.

This week, I’m talking to a local group that has been through a few pretty significant changes themselves, The Marra. Starting off as a five piece, the group shrunk to a two-piece last year before re-emerging this year as a (different) five piece. Now consisting of stalwarts Shane MacGowan (guitar) and Ryan Ward (vocals) along with new members Matthew Crossan (guitar) and Luke McLaughlin (bass), both of Touts fame, and Conor Lynch of The Switch (drums). I caught up with Shane recently to discuss this bright new The Marra ahead of their comeback gig in Bennigan’s this Saturday.

Speaking about how the new line-up came about, Shane tells me: “As you know, me and Ryan were recording everything ourselves. It was going well. We spent most of last year just recording with Rory in Blast Furnace. We got to Christmas, and we had, I think, five songs recorded. We released two and we thought: we need to get back on the live scene because there’s no money in streaming.

"It’s hard to keep a band afloat if you’re just spending money recording and not doing anything with it. I think we just missed that aspect of it as well. After Christmas I said to Ryan ‘We need to push on a bit’. We had people in and out of the studio while we were recording but after Christmas I reached out to Mark Holden [manager of Touts] because I thought we need someone who can take off some of the stuff we were doing, trying to organise stuff. He’s been a massive help. He’s done a lot for us. He got us a booking agent, Matt Bates. His roster includes the Libertines and Catfish and the Bottlemen.”

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“We’d asked Matthew before that to come to a recording session to see how he’d get on and what he’d contribute. He blew us away, to be honest, and we thought ‘Jesus, we need someone like this in the band’. Conor Lynch, he was already playing drums on all the tracks, so he seemed like the perfect choice for drummer. Then Matthew suggested we bring in Luke on bass. It was pretty smooth, the way it all happened, and we just got to practising then.”

I asked if the chemistry was there right away: “It was, aye. It was a nice feeling for that to happen. It was the first time everyone was on the same page in terms of, let’s go somewhere with this. Let’s push it all the way. It’s a Touts/The Marra merger and they’ve brought a lot. They sort of brought what we were missing.” I asked how this has affected their sound: “It’s made it better, I think.

"They’ve obviously brought in their punk roots, which has helped things, especially with the faster, more aggressive songs. They’ve both brought in songs to the set too, so the set feels more complete now.”

Speaking about the return to the stage: “It’s been a long time. At the start you don’t miss it because you’ve got extra time to record and write. To be honest, I feel like everything was supposed to happen the way it did. I’m really grateful that we have them three boys with us as well.” I asked if this is the definitive line-up: “I think so. If it isn’t, it’s over. We want this to be the one. It feels like the first time other people have had an input, in terms of putting songs into the mix or coming up with parts or whatever, whereas before it did feel like just me and Ryan, that we were the only people contributing.

"I still respect and still call the old boys in the band my friends, but Luke and Matthew have that experience of playing big stages, and even Conor has been on the gig scene flat out and he’s well versed in the studio. I think they’re just the perfect set of people we’re looking for.”

And that’s it from The Marra. They’ll be playing Bennigan’s this Saturday (10^th May). Doors are 8.30 and tickets are £10 and available on Eventbrite.

Now, onto other business. Co. Kerry’s Junior Brother has recently announced the release of his new album, ‘The End’, on September 5^th. Described as “One of the island’s songwriting greats” by The Thin Air’s Brian Coney, Junior Brother is “carefully pushing the boundaries of what modern Irish folk looks and sounds like”.

Now, socials time. Junior Brother can be found on Instagram @junior.brother and The Marra @themarra_band.