Canadian pop-rock legends Marianas Trench will be kicking off their Force of Nature tour with shows Saturday and Sunday Nov 16 and 17 at the Light House Arts Centre in Halifax.
Hot off the release of their latest full-length album, Haven, the JUNO Award-winning band is taking their theatrical sound across Canada after finishing their US tour in October. Bassist Mike Ayley says they’re excited to take on the east coast as their first Canadian stop.
“It’s always good out there,” says Ayley in an interview with The Coast. “The people on the east coast are pretty much the nicest in the country.”
Their tour supports Haven, an ambitious album with a narrative that follows the steps of Joseph Campbell’s concept of the hero’s journey—though Ayley says the album stemmed from an earlier concept that was scrapped.
“Josh [Ramsay] is always looking for concepts,” he says of the band’s lead vocalist. “They can come from anywhere. Sometimes they seem to fall out of the sky. But this one, originally, somebody had suggested something about a sort of comic book-ish world. And he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s okay. It’s not quite right.’”
As the band started digging into what they liked about the concept, Ramsay stumbled upon the hero’s journey—a narrative template ascribed to works where the main character leaves home for a world of wonder, overcomes some obstacle, and then returns with a newfound knowledge or power.
While Ayley was familiar with the concept’s use in books, television, and movies, he hadn’t heard of it in terms of an album before.
“There are a certain amount of plot points—12, 13, 14. That sounds like an album,” says Ayley. “I remember when he told us… that sounds like a pretty bold venture there.”
Production
That’s usually how their albums begin, according to Ayley. Ramsay will have an idea seemingly out of nowhere, and they will work on refining that idea as much as possible.
“I think there are always ideas out there, but I think when you’re ready for them if your antennas are up, you can pick up good stuff.”
For Haven, the idea grew to become an album filled with symphonic elements, soaring vocal performances from Ramsay and songs that touch on various aspects of life, from finding your way through adulthood to becoming a father. It remains as theatrical as their previous works, but in Ayley’s words, the symphony adds a visual element to the album.
On the technical side, he says it began with Ramsay composing songs digitally, “delving deep” into string software and then recreating the sound with a symphony. Even the keyboards, which are usually done digitally, were recorded in analogue to add a unique warmth to their sound. Their keyboard for this record was the same model used in Van Halen’s “Jump” and on several Corey Hart tracks.
As they’ve evolved as a band, so too has their production. Their first couple of albums required them to hire a producer, but by the time 2011’s Ever After came around, Ramsay had fully taken up production duties out of his home studio. The big change here was that they stopped recording demos, instead opting to create one track while replacing the rough bits as they go.
“We would just sort of write and make the final product as we’re going in,” says Ayley. “The goal being, when you’re getting those vocal performances, they’re actually truly inspired at the time, rather than getting this great demo and then, ‘How do I capture this again?’”
The only downside is that when the album is finished, the band hasn’t had all that much time practicing the song for touring, Ayley says.
“You’ll see when we’re live that we’re all chipping in a little more on vocals than we have in the past, but it’s actually more fun for us,” he says. “I will say that this album is by far the hardest to play and sing that we’ve ever done. Josh’s vocals are higher. Our vocals are higher. The parts we’re playing are more complicated, and the independence is really challenging. This time around, it’s the most professional I’ve probably had to be to get my performance up to show early.”
So far, their tour for Haven has brought them across the United States, and for Ayley, it’s the best tour yet.
“The audience was so happy, and we were so happy just to be there, that the energy was the best ever… It’s a different thing than we’ve done in the past, but it’s really translating. It feels like you are coming into the show rather than we’re bringing the show to you. You go into that experience.”
Marianas Trench will be playing on Nov 16 and 17 at the Light House Arts Centre at 1800 Argyle Street in Halifax. Tickets can be purchased from the Light House Arts Centre website.
This article appears in Nov 7-30, 2024.
