“…and glorious praise was heaped upon them.”
Our new record, “Angels Of Destruction!” to me feels at once like the tip of the iceberg and the bottom of the well. Allow me to explain…
Six months ago…
I was still a little tipsy six months ago when I attended my first AA meeting. What I mean to say is that, for me, sobriety would be a complete self-reinvention. Everything was about to change. I would simply close the book on that chapter of my life and give myself over completely to the work. In doing so, it would reconnect me with my band (whom I love dearly and consider among the best in the world) and give me the perfect excuse to spend every waking hour creating more and better music as a single minded, hyper focused workaholic, as opposed to a single minded, hyper focused alcoholic. (Note: this is not advised in the 12-step program manual)
So our new record BEGAN its life as a DOUBLE album. I wrote songs, my brother Serge wrote them too. I mined our previous writings, and sometimes I even went to bed early attempting to dream up some cool jams we hadn’t written yet but no doubt would in several years. Songs began piling up. There were good ones, some great ones too! “AOD!” soon grew to be a TRIPLE album! This new music was Rock & Roll, it was Folk, it was Punk, it was smart, sad, funny and perfect in every way. Not only would it appeal to our existing fans, but it was also meant to steal away the fans of every other band (later at the Grammy’s I would have to apologize to thousands of bands!) A few rehearsals followed this revelation, and that sealed the deal. We alone would save Rock & Roll, and glorious praise would be heaped upon us!
Twenty days ago…
Twenty days ago I am dodging phone calls. I am ducking band members and bouncing checks. With the delivery deadline of our record just days away, reality is taking hold. Oh my God, I am finally sobering up! 35 SONGS? A TRIPLE ALBUM?? Who the fuck did I think I was? And besides that, how would our label Yep Roc fare with our opus, not to mention it’s a greeting card style hologram gatefold package that plays saloon piano when you open it? Could they afford that? Could we? Would they be blinded by our brilliance and sell millions, or would their humble North Carolina compound simply burst into flames? By this point, it didn’t matter. It was too late for all that now. The ball had been fumbled, the plot had been lost, and Team Marah was desperate for recovery.
Seven days ago…
Like Rudy, Marah now controls the football. Tubas are playing, cymbals are crashing, and although our helmet has slumped in front of our eyes, we are moving towards the end zone of Rock.
The tip of the iceberg…
“Angels Of Destruction!” is now 12 songs long, and we love it like that. Despite this being only a fraction of Marah’s recorded mass of late, we can’t help feeling a giddy excitement about the future. Our sixth record not only serves as walking paper from our good friends at Yep Roc, but it thrusts us unto the spinning edge of an exciting future, however certain that may be. Perhaps soon, there will be no more compact discs. Perhaps soon, you will merely hit the spacebar, and Chris Martin will appear in your living room singing “The Yellow Song” in an irksome falsetto. It doesn’t really matter. We will be ready.
The bottom of the well…
In Technicolor Folk Punk, this is an album of themes…Religion, Destruction, Redemption and Joy. We cut the music together, the six of us standing in a room (we played as hard and as loud as we could!) Like everything we’ve ever done, from the first song on our first album to the last song on our last, we put everything into this shit…our paychecks, our house pets, our relationships, and our reputations. It all goes in, and whatever comes out is no longer for us to decide. Our bucket scrapes the bottom of the well, and we pray God it holds water!
June 5, 2007, tonight…
At 6:30pm tonight, myself, Kirk “The Barber” Henderson, and the immensely talented Christine Smith (our newest member) will ride the L Train into Manhattan. We are to master (whatever that means) “Angels Of Destruction!”. If the record is flawed in any way, I wil try to take the blame and apologize to them, but I know they will have none of that. It won’t be necessary. It will be perfect. Because we are bound by love, soul, sweat and blood…and these things will always rise to the surface (how could they not?) And soon it will be time to take our gang mentality and TREMENDOUS Rock & Roll Show on the road again. Together we will shake the nightclub walls and bring “Angels Of Destruction!” to life.
“I’m a comet…I’m a flash!” – David Bielanko
Marah
P.S. – I have attempted to write this bio as accurately as I possibly can. In doing so, I was forced to explain my sobriety in order to illustrate the wicked blizzard of goings on around here lately. On behalf of the band, I would hope that ‘my story’ does not become ‘our story’ but merely part of the larger picture, which remains ‘our music’.
“I’m a snowflake…I’m a dove!” – D.B.
Angels of Destruction!
P.P.S. – shows to follow will be mega!
