SPILL FEATURE: WE’RE GOING ON TOUR, SO WHY NOT HAVE A LITTLE BONUS – A CONVERSATION WITH WES MARSKELL OF THE DARCYS

WE’RE GOING ON TOUR, SO WHY NOT HAVE A LITTLE BONUS

A CONVERSATION WITH WES MARSKELL OF THE DARCYS

The last couple of years have been phenomenal for The Darcys (Wes Marskell and Jason Couse). Their last album, Rendering Feelings, became a massive success, earning major airplay on alternative radio, and several songs appeared in TV shows and sports ads, including Grey’s Anatomy, My Life With The Walter Boys, and The World Series. Earlier this year, they released Rendering Feelings (GOODTIME Edition), which included two excellent new songs: “GOODTIME” and “over thinking.” The Darcys have more in store with their upcoming EP, The Noise, featuring a wonderful set of new songs: “Hard Feelings,” “The Noise,” and “The Ride.” Recently, I spoke with Marskell about The Darcys’ upcoming EP, the 10th anniversary of their album Centerfold, and the upcoming The GOODTIME Tour.

“‘GOODTIME’ and ‘over thinking’ just really felt like they existed in the same universe as Rendering Feelings, and these songs felt like they were something different,” Marskell shares about The Noise. “We’re going on tour, so why not have a little bonus.” “GOODTIME” is sure to be a huge hit at these upcoming shows because of its kinetic energy, anthemic chorus, and punchy, distorted guitar riffs. “We just had this monster riff – just tried to make it as big of a party as possible… We’d been seeing some success with ‘Dreaming’ with sports TV. FOX Sports was playing it. It was in the World Series… We have riffs, but we don’t have these big riffs like sports riffs. We were like, ‘Why not pursue this riff that we have?’”

Although fans have mentioned that “The Ride” reminds them somewhat of The Cure, The Darcys drew no inspiration from the band. “People say that the opening riff is like The Cure, which is funny because I don’t really listen to The Cure,” Marskell says. “We just try to do what we think is cool and what we think is fun, and obviously we want to sit in with Tame Impala or Cage The Elephant and these cool alternative bands. I don’t feel like there is a lot of references or touchpoints right now. It’s more about honing what we like doing and trying to make our sound as unique and special as it can be.”

“Hard Feelings” was written about The Darcys living in Echo Park, Los Angeles, when the fires hit.  “It’s a beautiful, wonderful big city, but Echo Park in L.A. is just like doing its own thing – sometimes it can be really extreme,” Marskell reflects. “When the fires were here, it was stressful, and there’s always helicopters here. We were just trying to capture that energy of this space and what it feels like and sounds like… It was really about encapsulating this piece of L.A. Also, because we made Centerfold years ago, and we were new to L.A., this is like we’ve been here for years now and with Centerfold being 10 years old and having this song, it just felt like an epilogue to that sound and ideas.”

The Darcys are also celebrating the 10th anniversary of their album Centerfold. “It really set the course for what we do now,” Marskell reflects. “Going back and listening to it and learning it for the tour, I’m super proud of it. I think it holds up. I think it’s as good as anything we’ve done. It’s fun, and it’s so nice to hear everyone so excited about hearing it live… I get messages all the time – these anecdotal things. It’s just really cool to hear people have a connection to that record.”

PURCHASE THE NOISE VIA BANDCAMP

Centerfold marked some significant changes for The Darcys. They downsized from a four-piece band to a duo. They shifted their sound from cinematic, dark, art-rock territory to a more retro, danceable ‘80s-vibe sound, drawing inspiration from disco, new wave, and electro-pop. Additionally, they traded in guitars (there is still some on the album) for synthesizers. “When we first made it, I think people didn’t know what to think of that retro vibe, but then within two years everyone was sort of making ‘80s-tinged alt rock,” Marskell recalls. “Some of our older music I don’t even know if we made a chorus. We wanted to have structure so people could anticipate what’s next, know it, and enjoy it when it came around… When we were making Warring and our self-titled album, we could do whatever we wanted because it was arty and there was no ‘Is this good or bad?’ It was just ‘This is what it is.’ When we moved onto Centerfold and beyond, it was held up against other good songs that have choruses and that are on the radio, and we’d think, ‘Is this good?’ People always say I would never make a pop record, and it’s hard. That’s why a lot of people don’t do it because you can do your own thing and make it creative and arty, but there are still touchpoints, and it is hard to fit in that box and still feel good about it. I think we really grew as songwriters in that time because it forced us to learn some new skills and condense things to three minutes and not have them be like five minutes and just vibe for a while.”

The huge left turn in their sound received mixed reactions. “People were like, ‘This sucks. I hate it. I used to like your band, and now you’re not cool,’ and other people were like, ‘This is my favourite record you’ve ever put out,’” Marskell explains. “We gained many new fans at that time, but it was intense. I took some of the negative stuff pretty hard.”

“Miracle” was the lead single from Centerfold. The music video for “Miracle” pays homage to the beloved film Footloose. “The best thing about that music video is Kevin Bacon tweeted that he liked it,” Marskell says. “We had shrunk down to a two-piece band, we had this new record, and we were trying to make a big splash as a new thing, and we were like, ‘Let’s also extend that to the greater universe of the video and make it big, dramatic, fun, and exciting.’ Footloose was such an iconic ‘80s masterpiece, so it just felt like a good one as a touchpoint for us to have fun with.”

“San Diego, 1988” is a song that Marskell is especially proud of from Centerfold. “To me, ‘San Diego, 1988’ is one of the better songs we’ve ever written,” he states. “It’s hard to ignore that people connected with it… That song seems to capture an emotion or feeling for people.”

The fan favourite “Black Diamonds” is one of the few songs from Centerfold that prominently features a guitar. The instantly catchy guitar riff is funky and hypnotic. “We moved away from the guitar on that record because before we were so guitar heavy,” Marskell says. “The guitar is something that was a big part of our band – it was like ‘We’ve got to do a guitar riff somewhere… We were trying to be like, ‘OK. The record is ending. Don’t worry. We still own guitars. We still know what we’re doing.’ That’s easily the most requested song for us to play live. That’s everyone’s favourite track.”

Another popular song from Centerfold among fans is “Arizona Hwy.” It initially had a different title, but Marskell mentions they “got a lot of pushback.” Continuing, he says, “Someone was like, ‘There is so much California stuff on the record. It’s so over the top.’ I think it actually had a California title in its origin… The Arizona Highway is something we think about a lot as a band that has just toured, and it’s just like a straight shot, and there’s the Grand Canyon, and it’s a wild time to be out there. I think we’re always trying to write songs that people can connect to and that we also feel connected to.”

In November, The Darcys will be embarking on The GOODTIME Tour. Marskell is really excited to play these shows. “One of my favourite things to do is play the songs that we wrote, and people just want to hear them,” he smiles. “I’m excited about everything. I just love the driving. We always work the merch table and say hi to everyone. We run the setlist… I don’t know if there is anything I’m not looking forward to except maybe not eating a healthy meal for a month.”

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Photo Credit: Ryan Evans