Q &A Interview with Mariage Blanc

Happy Monday everyone! We have an amazing guest today! A Interview with Matt, from Mariage Blanc. click here to check out my LP review of the band from last week! Enjoy.

Kanae: How did you guys come up with the band name, Mariage Blanc? Any stories?

Matt: There's not much to this story, haha.  When i met Josh (Kretzmer), he was already working on his own songs under the name "Mariage Blanc".  I'm not sure where he came up with it, but we ended up keeping it after forming the band with the other guys. Coincidentally, the name ended up working because the expression 'mariage blanc' means 'a marriage of convenience' in French, and the fact that we were sort of combining josh's songwriting and my songwriting gave the name more meaning to us.  


Kanae :The new LP is self-titled album. What made you guys decide to have it name the self-titled on the second album?

Matt: We ended up naming this record "Mariage Blanc" because we feel like it is more representative of the kind of music that we're interested in making, compared to the EP.  When we made the EP, Josh and I just brought in these pre-existing songs and sort of told everyone to just fill them out.  This record was different in the sense that it was a highly collaborative effort in which every member was contributing their own parts, ideas, ect... to the songs.  It was during the writing of this album that we learned to work as one unit.  


Kanae : Any funny stories during the recording?

Matt: Well, we practice and record in a large studio that we built about a year and a half ago. It's a great space, but one of its drawbacks is that it's unheated. We started recording this record in January of this year, and we did the drum tracks first.  It was so cold in the studio that our drummer Chris Williams could actually see his breath while he was doing his takes.  It was probably funnier to us than it was to him.  


Kanae:  What's the best show that you guys have ever played?

Matt:I can't speak for everyone, but for me I think my favorite show would probably be when we opened for Bear in Heaven in Pittsburgh in January (right before we started recording the album). We hadn't played out for awhile because we were finishing up writing the songs for the record, so we had all these new songs that we were playing for the first time and the show was completely packed.  That said, I could probably think of a bunch of other shows we've played that could compete for being my favorite as well.  We've played a lot of great shows (and also some that were not so great), just like any other band.  

Kanae : If you could perform with any artists or bands, who would you pick and why?


Matt: This is a really hard question to answer.  There are tons and tons of bands we admire that we'd love to play with, so I can't really choose between all of them.  I will say that in the past year or two, some artists that have released records that we really enjoy include:  The National, Phoenix, St. Vincent, Grizzly Bear, Neko Case and The Morning Benders.


Kanae: Any comments for Music psychos fans and Mariage Blanc fans?

Matt: For Music Psychos and Mariage Blanc fans (and just for fans of music in general), I would say just keep listening and discovering new music, there are a lot of great things out there right now.  If you really enjoy an album that a band makes, support them by buying it.  It's getting harder and harder to get people to pay attention to bands and to get them to buy records.  To Mariage Blanc fans specifically, we just want to say thank you to everyone, and keep listening!  Our self-titled album is offically for sale on itunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, etc.. and we're already beginning to work on some new tunes.  Also, I'd like to thank Music Psychos for taking time out to write about us.  It is very much appreciated.  




 Thank you so much Matt! Please come and play in Toronto sometime soon with the new LP! Click here to check out an amazing LP by Mariage Blanc!