We Get The Story Of ‘Astoria’: EP Talks To Marianas Trench

Marianas Trench 1

Canadian legends Marianas Trench are about to embark on their SPF80S tour, taking in the US, Canada, and Europe, to promote their new album, ‘Astoria’. Their drummer, Ian Casselman took some time out to answer our questions.

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EP: At EP we primarily know you from your crazy appearances on the red carpet at the MMVAs when we’ve been watching out for Jedward – loved your mermaid costumes the other year! So what’s the Marianas Trench story?

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MT: Well you see the story is we are all actually mermen and that was our true selves on the mmva carpet that year. We wanted to visit your land and expose ourselves to your world so that we can learn more about you wonderful humans. We drank a magic potion that allowed us to grow legs and now we shall tour our lovely planet, above ground that is.

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EP:We’re loving ‘Astoria’. Where does the name come from? How would you describe your musical style?
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MT: We actually got the name Astoria from the movie The Goonies, one of our favourite movies of all time. I would say our style is rock and roll infused with vocals and harmonies. We kind of like to sprinkle paprika on everything.

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EP: You’re about to set off on tour across the US and the UK (I want to come see you in London! Can we do this??) to promote ‘Astoria’. What can fans expect on the tour?
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MT: Our shows kind of differ from country to country. In Canada, we’re very fortunate to be able to play in arenas. And when you play in front of a lot of people, you can bring in a lot of production, flying contraptions and what not. When we are in the US, we play in smaller clubs anywhere between 500 and 2000, and we try and jam pack it with as many lights as possible. Hopefully when we tour Europe for the first time, we’ll be able to do the same as in the US and blind everybody with all these lights so then we can cover up our not so good looks.

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EP: You’re doing a massive tour – 38 dates (unless we’ve counted wrong) – how do you prepare for such a long tour? Is it hard being away from family and friends for so long?
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MT: We’ve done these long tours for a while now so preparing for them is kind of easy. I’ve given up on packing enough underwear and socks so I just make sure I have enough to make it til laundry day. I usually forget something so it’s wonderful to have this thing called a credit card, they come in very handy. It is hard being away from friends and family yes, part of the deal of being a touring band. We miss our water buddies.

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EP: Who are your musical influences (we can hear a bit of Queen in your four part harmonies, and maybe some Prince in the guitar)? And your influences in life?
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MT: We honestly try to listen to everything and keep an open mind when it comes to music, you really never know who you can learn from. We try to never be put into a box or stuck in one style and just try and really keep our options open.

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EP: ‘Astoria’ has a real 80s feel about it – what’s the inspiration behind that?
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MT: We just really wanted to make an 80s album and tried really hard to immerse ourselves in that decade when it came to music, and fashion actually. Gotta love that hair metal. We tried to use only instruments that were available in the 80s and music technology that was available in that time as well, recording mediums and such. We really wanted to stay authentic and capture that 80s vibe.
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EP: Where can fans buy tickets to your tour, and where can they get ‘Astoria’?
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Tickets can be purchased here:
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Album can be purchased here:
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MARIANAS TRENCH
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Find Marianas Trench online on their official website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and VEVO. Visit their website for more information about their tour.

About the author

Lisa has been writing for over 20 years, starting as the entertainment editor on her university newspaper. Since then she's written for Popwrapped, Maximum Pop, Celebmix, and ListenOnRepeat.

Lisa loves all good music, with particular fondness for Jedward and David Bowie. She's interviewed Edward Grimes (Jedward), Kevin Godley, Trevor Horn, Paul Young, Peter Cox (Go West), Brendan B Brown (Wheatus), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), among many many more. Lisa is also available for freelance writing - please email lisa@essentiallypop.com

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