Marines - Be the Morning

There's something mysterious, and a little magical, about Sydney band The Marines. A few years ago, with no grand plan or particular ambition, five friends came together just for the sheer pleasure of making new music. Rabid music fans themselves, with pedigrees in various other bands, they began with just a rented workman's cottage, a portable studio, and a batch of promising tunes. Now, they're about to release a debut album that has some of the industry's biggest names abuzz. "I'll never forget the recording sessions, they were special right from the get-go," says guitarist Ben Carew. "We were all crammed into this tiny old cottage, with gear absolutely everywhere. It was a summer heat-wave and these ancient, rustic smells just seeped out of the brickwork; it was like stepping back in time. We had the cricket on the radio, drank beer and just lay down track after track in the searing heat. But it came so easy, I remember, it just flowed, which is usually a good sign." "We've all played in bands with each other before, so it did come together fast. When we started working up the songs, this unique sound just kind of fell out of the sky," says bass player Darren Moffatt. "I remember thinking at the time, 'wow, this is like Brian Wilson, Wilco, Queen and Rufus Wainwright all jamming in a seedy country bar in the middle of nowhere'. For five inherently nerdy guys, it sounded implausibly cool." Indeed, their album 'Be the Morning' is the sound of classic AM radio shoved kicking and screaming through a post-rock filter, according to singer Dan K. "Yeah, I'm a pretty huge fan of the Beach Boys, Todd Rundgren and even the Carpenters, but the other guys are right into Radiohead, Arcade Fire and Wilco, so it makes for an interesting mix, that's for sure." "Dan's tunes are the key. The songwriting is just incredibly strong. It gives the whole album a real focus and narrative core," says drummer Christian Gibson. "And some of the tunes go to some pretty dark places too. I can speculate to what extent they might autobiographical for him, but it doesn't matter in the end. They have mystery and a kind of universal truth which is pretty compelling." And like many brilliantly creative people, it appears singer Dan K is quite the eccentric. The stacked layers of intricate harmonies which are such a feature of the album were actually recorded in a car, of all places. "I couldn't believe how he recorded the backing vocals," laughs guitarist Michael Kirch. "He did them over a period of weeks on his Mac Book whilst driving around the streets of Sydney. God knows what the other motorists must have thought. Only Dan would do that!"