SPILL FEATURE: I’M WORKING ON SOMETHING – A CONVERSATION WITH STEVE MARRINER

I’M WORKING ON SOMETHING

A CONVERSATION WITH STEVE MARRINER

Steve Marriner has been performing for a long time and has made a name for himself as a songwriter, musician, producer, and overall recording/performing artist. Since the age of 11, he has been on the stage, initially playing harmonica. He has expanded his repertoire since then, playing almost anything he puts his mind to, and he plays very well. In 1999, he was part of the The Johnny Russell Band when they recorded their album, Whippersnapper. By 2000, he had joined the JW-Jones Band, with whom he recorded and toured. He released his first solo album in 2007, Going Up, before joining the influential and popular band MonkeyJunk in 2008.

After several albums with MonkeyJunk and a solo album in 2021, Marriner has released a new solo album, after producing a couple of albums, one for David Gogo and Big Dave McLean (both of which were nominated for Junos this year). Hear My Heart, is his first album since 2021’s Hope Dies Last. I had a chance to talk with Marriner, as he was getting ready to perform at a festival in Edmonton.

Marriner hopes that people, when they hear his music, feel there are some good things on the planet and there is hope. “I want people to feel happy and lighthearted. So, I think there is a bit more of that vibe on this album. The title reflects the personal nature of the songs.” Even his choice of a cover for the album, Genesis’s “I Can’t Dance”, comes from a very personal place.

“There is a great story, it is just that a couple of years ago I was at a party and someone had played it on the stereo, and I had never heard the song. I missed it when it came out the first time in 1991and I was six years old. I wasn’t really paying attention to what was on pop radio at the time. So, when I heard it at this party, the vocals grabbed me and I thought, this is really bluesy. The original has that late 1980s-1990s production values, but beyond that I thought this could very easily be a Stones type of rocker. That is how I heard it in my head, and I loved the chorus, it is so captivating. That huge note, it just grabs your attention. It spoke to me, and I wanted to play it.”

Even though he is covering songs from the early 1990s, Marriner embodies the sound of an older artist, not the young gentleman he is. “More mature,” laughed Marriner. “I’ve been doing this a long time, despite just turning 40. I did my first gig, a professional gig, when I was 13. That was with musicians who were the same age as my dad at the time. So, I have been hanging around mature adult people for most of my life. And the music that I have been inspired by, is traditional blues music. Maybe it is the way the delivery is done in that music, has more gravitas for me. I have never really been a pop guy. Not for any reason other than it was just the music that spoke to me when I was younger, and I did a lot of deep diving on Chicago blues records and all that music I digested comes out the way it comes out. I think it’s just that all the musicians or singers I have been trying to emulate or be inspired by, have all been much older than me, and this style is from a time before my time. As cliche as it is, I have been called an old soul since I was a kid, so it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

HEAR MY HEART ALBUM REVIEW

And Marriner is clear that he is not just a blues fan or artist. There are a lot of different influences in his music. “With every record I make, I am trying to be more honest with myself than the last. When MonkeyJunk started recording together we were very concerned that it should be bluesy enough, so we would not alienate any of our supporters. We wanted to give them something they could sink their teeth into. But that is only part of my musical story. As much as I love Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, I also love Willie Nelson and Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and George Jones. I love New Orleans funk too. The Meters, Allen Toussaint, all kinds of stuff.  With each album I give myself more and more permission to let the melting pot happen, and however it comes out, it comes out.”

Really, it comes down to not being pigeonholed with one form of music. “I try not to critique my own process. I can have a traditional harmonica instrumental at the end of a record that has a Genesis cover, and I am ok with that, because that is who I am.”

As noted above, Marriner has produced two albums that were nominated for Junos. Production is something that he not only enjoys, it is something he would like to do more of. “I produce records for other people as often as they will let me. It’s my favourite thing to do, other than playing live. I love making records, I love working artists. It is especially rewarding to work with artists like Gogo and Big Dave who I have known for so long and I am such close friends with. They give me their trust. You always have different relationships with different artists. When I know an artist a bit more personally, there is an extra layer of trust. They might give me something they might not give to everybody. They feel comfortable enough with me to be vulnerable and trust my judgement. With those two artists in particular, they divert to me and feel comfortable doing it, where I butt heads with other artists a bit more over creative decisions. It is all part of the process. Working with those two yielded great results because there was a lot of cooperation and comfort between us all and trust.”

Marriner is a creative artist who creates music for himself and for others. To that end, he hopes that his music can be a small (or large) oasis in the crazy world in which we live. “Maybe just feeling lighter than they did before. It is a crazy time, the world is heavy right now. Maybe there are a few shards of hope in my music, make people feel good. The one song that is not so veiled, called “Through The Night”, is about as political as I ever get. But it is intentionally vague because whatever your stance is, I feel like the post COVID world is still trying to figure out how to hang out with each other. People are socially awkward, and people have a short fuse. There are a lot of scary world events going on. But I remain ever hopeful, maybe to a fault. I am a perpetual optimist and I feel like despite the chaos, there is a lot of beauty to be found and I hope people can look through the noise and find something good. And maybe they will feel a little bit better, at least temporarily, maybe there will be a little afterglow after hearing my record.”

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Photo Credits: Jeff Topham