Marianas Trench (band)

Marianas Trench
Marianas Trench at the 2011 MuchMusic Video Awards
Background information
Origin	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Genres	Pop punk, symphonic rock
Years active	2001—present
Labels	604, Cherrytree, Interscope
Website	marianastrench.net
Members	Josh Ramsay Matt Webb Mike Ayley Ian Casselman

Marianas Trench is a Canadian rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia, formed in 2001. The band consists of members Josh Ramsay (lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, pianist, songwriter, and occasional drummer), Matt Webb (lead guitarist and backing vocalist), Mike Ayley (bass guitarist and backing vocalist), and Ian Casselman (drummer, percussionist, and backing vocalist). The band has released four full-length studio albums, the most recent titled Astoria, released on October 23, 2015, along with 2011's Ever After, 2009's Masterpiece Theatre and 2006's Fix Me.^[1] Their third album Ever After was nominated for a Juno Award.

History

Early years of Josh Ramsay and formation of the group

Singer, guitarist, producer, and lyricist Josh Ramsay was born June 11, 1985, grew up in a musical family, with his mother being a vocal coach and his father owning a recording studio. Ramsay also shared the love of music and started singing at the age of 13. He later formed a band named Ramsay Fiction with friends Steve Marshall, Morgan Hempsted, Trevor Spilchen, and Erik Scott (currently the lead vocalist of the band "The Post War"), as well as his sister, Sara.^[2] It was said that current Marianas Trench lead guitarist, Matt Webb, was also a member of "Ramsay Fiction", but it was confirmed by Sara via Twitter that he joined after "Ramsay Fiction" was disbanded.^[3] Ramsay attended high school at Magee Secondary School. Later on toward the end of high school Ramsay developed an addiction to heroin,^[4] causing him to be kicked out of school and be late for band practices and shows. He later went on to go to rehab where he wrote a letter about his drug addiction in which he later turned into a song called "Lover Dearest". Ramsay also has written songs about previous personal issues such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa; he sings about this in multiple songs such as "Skin & Bones" and "Feeling Small".

After disbanding Ramsay Fiction, Ramsay searched for new band mates. He recruited high-school friend Matt Webb, and found drummer Ian Casselman's wanted ad in the Georgia Straight. (Casselman was also a member of Ramsay Fiction, though the band was in the process of becoming Marianas Trench during the time he joined). Through Casselman, they found Mike Ayley as bassist. The three guys found Mike because at the time he was Ian's roommate. The foursome chose the name Marianas Trench for their band simply because all the good band names were taken. After much persistence, they were signed under 604 Records, owned by Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, and Jonathan Simkin of Simkin Management.

Much of Ramsay’s inspiration^[5] for the band’s more upbeat, pop songs comes greatly from The Jackson 5. Ramsay was a fan of the Motown sound ever since his childhood, and after the great success of “Call Me Maybe”, the song which he co-wrote, he wrote “Pop 101” in order to comically explain the process of writing pop music.

Marianas Trench EP and Fix Me (2002–08)

The band recorded and released a self-titled EP in 2002. It contained songs which would later be added onto their debut album, Fix Me. The song "Sicker Things" contains lyrics which were later added to a song from a later release called "Perfect."

In 2006, the band released their debut full-length studio album entitled Fix Me. It included the singles "Say Anything", "Decided to Break It", and the hit single "Shake Tramp". Before the album was released, a song named "Fix Me" was on it and was later taken out, because "Say Anything" supposedly sounded more like a single. The album was named after "Fix Me" and the name stayed to pay homage even after the song was taken out. The album was engineered and mixed by Mike Fraser and the band performed concerts nationwide to promote the album, alongside Faber Drive.

Masterpiece Theatre (2009–11)

Masterpiece Theatre, the band's follow-up album, was released as planned on February 24, 2009, as announced on the band's MySpace on January 22, 2009.

The title track "Masterpiece Theatre I" is the basis of the entire album. The sixth track is titled "Masterpiece Theatre II," which is an expansion of the first track. The twelfth and final track is titled "Masterpiece Theatre III," which quotes each previous song in the album in addition to incorporating rhythms, melodies, and concepts from the other tracks.

The album debuted at No. 4 on the Canadian Albums Chart. "Cross My Heart" became the band's second song to peak at No. 1 on both the Much Music Countdown and iTunes Canada Digital Download. "Cross My Heart" was nominated for four MMVAs in 2009 and was certified platinum in Canada.^[6] Recently after, Marianas Trench reached the No. 1 spot with the song All To Myself on Much Music's MOD. All To Myself also made Platinum certification in August 2009 in Canada.^[7]

The music video for "Beside You" premiered on MuchOnDemand on October 30, 2009.

On September 23, 2010, the band played their first ever American show, at the Bowery Electric in Manhattan.^[8]

On November 30, 2010, Directors Cut of Masterpiece Theatre was released, which included bonus acoustic tracks of the songs "Celebrity Status" and "Cross My Heart", an alternate version of the song "Good to You" (feat. Jessica Lee), as well as a never-before recorded cover of "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel.

The band played the final show of their Masterpiece Theatre tour on December 18, 2010 in their hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia at the Orpheum Theatre, during which their manager and the co-founder of 604 Records, Jonathan Simkin, revealed the album had gone platinum in Canada.

During this time, the band played five free shows at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and one in Surrey.^[9] Josh Ramsay also took part in a project called 'Young Artists For Haiti' to try and raise funds to support the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

Ever After and Face the Music EP (2011–13)

The band has completed the process of recording their third studio album. On June 19, 2011, Ramsay tweeted that the album will be titled Ever After. It was set to be released November 29, 2011, but was then changed to November 21.^[1] Ramsay has also stated that there will be no breaks in between tracks on the new record, as soon as one track ends the next will begin without pause, making the album one entire song.^[10]

The first single released from the album was "Haven't Had Enough". It was released to iTunes on July 19, 2011. "Haven't Had Enough" reached the No. 1 spot on iTunes Canada Top of the Charts and Pop Downloads and was named "Song of the Week" by The Tune. It also went platinum. The next single was Fallout. They made a video for Fallout which came out early February 2012 and went golden.Through a series of Studio Updates on their YouTube page, the band has released recordings of the gospel choir for their song "Stutter" as well as a track with some of the vocals of the band. Other songs on the track include "Ever After", "By Now", "Truth or Dare", "Desperate Measures", "Porcelain", "Fallout", "Toy Soldiers", "B Team", "So Soon", and "No Place Like Home".^[11] The music video for "Haven't Had Enough" was released on August 25, 2011.^[12]

The second single from the album, "Fallout", was released on November 15, 2011. Filming for the song's music video began in December 2011. The video was released to the US on MTV on February 1, 2012 and in Canada on MuchMusic a day later. On April 26, 2012, Marianas Trench announced on their official website that "Desperate Measures" would serve as the third single from Ever After. The song has received Canadian radio airplay as of May 2012. The music video for the fourth single, "Stutter" that had been released on December 18, 2012. On June 10, 2013, the 3rd track on the album, By Now was announced as an official single, with the music video soon to follow.

On April 10, 2013, Marianas Trench announced that they had signed with Cherrytree Records and Interscope Records, who will handle their releases outside of Canada. 604 will continue to handle Canadian releases. A four-song extended play entitled Face the Music has been released on May 14, 2013, containing the album versions of "Haven't Had Enough" and "Desperate Measures", as well as acoustic versions of "Haven't Had Enough" and "Fallout".

In September 2013, Ramsay said on Twitter that they were soon heading back into the studio to work on a new full-length album they mentioned a few months before, and the band implied that it would be released hopefully in 2014. Josh even tweeted numerous times of himself writing songs for the new record before stating so, and currently still does. On October 19, his most recent tweet about writing a new song said, "Working on a new MT track that's ridiculous. Will either be awesome, or sh*t. Isn't that always the way?".

Something Old / Something New and Astoria (2014–present)

On July 12, 2014, the new single "Pop 101" (Barely Feat. Anami Vice) was announced.^[13] It was released on July 28, 2014. On October 30, they performed a new song titled "Here's to the Zeros" in the first show of their Australia/New Zealand tour. On December 13, 2014, the band announced that "Here's to the Zeros" would be the second single. It was released on December 25, 2014, in Canada and the United States with an international release on December 29, 2014. ^[14] On March 2, 2015, Marianas Trench announced that the music video for "Here's to the Zeros" would be released in the United States and Canada on March 5, 2015, and worldwide on March 6, 2015.^[15]

Since then, the band has put out an EP with these two singles on it as well as two previously-unreleased tracks of songs that predate Fix Me—Primetime and Sicker Things, previously only available as low-quality YouTube rips.

Astoria was released October 23, 2015.^[16] Josh Ramsay confirmed via his verified Twitter account that the album would be composed of entirely new material and will not feature either "Pop 101" or "Here's to the Zeros".^[17] On September 14, 2015, the group released a single from Astoria called "One Love". The track list online is composed of 17 songs – 5 of which are described as cinematic orchestral movements. On October 2, 2015, the second single from Astoria, "Wildfire," was released. The name Astoria comes from Astoria, Oregon , the hometown of The Goonies.^[18] On September 15, 2015, the group announced plans for their "The Hey You Guys!" Tour, across the United States in November 2015. Marianas Trench have been nominated as Group of the Year for the 2016 Juno Awards.^[19]

Musical style

Fix Me has been described as hard rock^[20] and pop punk.^[21] Masterpiece Theatre has been described as pop punk^[22][23] and symphonic rock.^[23] Ever After has been described as pop punk and symphonic rock.^[23] Astoria has been described as funk,^[24] pop,^[24][25][26] and pop punk.^[24]

Tours and other ventures

In 2009, the band went on the Beside You tour, beginning in St. Catharines, Ontario on October 4, 2009 and ending in Prairieland Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on December 31, 2009.

The band also participated in the University of British Columbia's Lipdub event on March 26, 2011. The video features approximately a thousand students and community members lip-syncing to the songs "Raise Your Glass," by Pink, and "Celebrity Status," by Marianas Trench. The video was released April 8, 2011.^[27]

Lead-guitarist of the band, Matt Webb, has pursued a side-project solo career. On April 19, 2011, Webb released his debut single from his solo album, entitled "Bad Girl". His 7-song debut extended play, "Coda and Jacket" was released on June 28, 2011. His second EP, entitled "Right Direction" was released on February 4, 2014.

Drummer Ian Casselman was featured covering "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch" in a Christmas album for their record label in 2012. Ramsay and Webb had also been features in previous editions of the label's Christmas releases, Ramsay covering "Baby Please Come Home" in 2010 and Webb singing "A Thousand Mile Christmas" in 2011.

Their first US show ever was September 23, 2010 at The Bowery Electric^[28] in Manhattan, New York City.

The band toured as an opening act with Simple Plan on the Get Your Heart On! Tour in 2010

Marianas Trench performed several free concerts during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, at the LiveCity Yaletown stage and Richmond O Zone.

Marianas Trench joined The Glamour Kills Tour in 2011 with The Ready Set, Allstar Weekend, The Downtown Fiction, and We Are The In Crowd.^[29]

Marianas Trench began the United States Ever After Tour on April 6, 2012 in New York City. Due to illness of frontman, Josh Ramsay, the rest of the tour was temporarily postponed and continued later in 2012.

They performed live as part of Journey's Backyard BBQ Tour in the Summer of 2012.

The band is also well known for their rather unusual entrances to the MuchMusic Video Awards, having arrived in a bouncy castle while at the same time riding inflatable horses in 2012, inside human sized hamster balls in 2011, a hot tub with ninja ambush in 2010, on a large float in 2009, and carrying a 6-foot party subway sandwich for fans in 2007, and as mermaids with a dunk tank in 2013.

Marianas Trench announced in June 2012 that they would be performing at the Fat As Butter Festival with additional tour dates as part of their first headlining tour of Australia in September 2012. Concert dates included locations in the Corner Hotel, Melbourne, The Zoo nightclub^[30] in Brisbane and The Metro Theatre in Sydney.^[31]

The band announced their first Canadian headlining Arena tour, Face The Music, in August 2012. The tour began October 12, 2012 in Barrie, Ontario and concluded November 3, 2012 in Kamloops, British Columbia. The tour included Down With Webster, Anami Vice, Crystalyne (*October 17, 2012 in Oshawa, Ontario) & Jesse Giddings (with the exception of October 18 in Montreal, Quebec, The New Cities opened for the band).

Marianas Trench participated at the Bazooka Rocks Festival, the Philippines' first indoor rock festival September 30, 2012 at the SMX Convention Center, Metro Manila along with The Pretty Reckless, The Maine, Forever the Sickest Kids, Mayday Parade, A Skylit Drive and Avastera.

On November 25, 2012, Marianas Trench performed Stutter at half-time at the 100th Grey Cup.

In 2013, Josh Ramsay was nominated for a Grammy award for co-writing "Call Me Maybe" for Carly Rae Jepsen.

On March 20, 2013, the group headlined the Canadian Radio Music Awards at Koolhaus in Toronto, Ontario.

From March 23 to April 19 of 2013 a second part of the Face The Music tour took place across Canada. This second part was named Face The Music: With A Vengeance.

On April 21, Marianas Trench performed an A Capella version of Fallout, leading straight into Stutter at the Juno Awards 2013.

In May and June 2013, they completed their first headlining coast to coast US tour, powered by Journeys, called The Noise Tour.

On October 22, Marianas Trench performed Pop 101 live for the first time at We Day Vancouver.

Marianas Trench performed as part of Toronto's PanAm Games celebration, being featured as part of the Panamania concert series. The group performed on July 15, 2015 at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto.

On October 9, 2015, the group performed at the Norfolk County Fair in Simcoe, Ontario.

On September 15, 2015 the group announced plans for their The Hey You Guys Tour, across the United States in November 2015.

On September 20, 2015 the group announced plans for their Never Say Die Tour (Marianas Trench) Tour, across Canada in March, 2016. In summer 2016, they started their SPF 80s Tour.

Band members

Current members

• Josh Ramsay – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano, keyboards, programming, drums, flugelhorn (2001–present)
• Matt Webb – lead guitar, vocals, piano, keyboards, programming, trombone (2001–present)
• Mike Ayley – bass guitar, vocals, trumpet (2001–present)
• Ian Casselman – drums and percussion, backing vocals, sousaphone (2001–present)

Discography

Studio albums

• Fix Me (2006)
• Masterpiece Theatre (2009)
• Ever After (2011)
• Astoria (2015)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Marianas Trench official website
• justalilhype! Vancouver HYPE Magazine in depth / abstract Interview
• Record label website