Te Ahi Top 10 | Marsha

Taking out the top spot on this week’s Te Ahi Top 10 is local Ōtautahi band, Marsha, with their song ‘Hollow’. A brooding release, ‘Hollow’ is a song about destiny and the inability to cope with change.

We caught up with Felix from the band to chat about how they got started, their songwriting process and future plans.

Check out the interview below.

Hey guys! Congrats on taking out the top spot on this week’s Te Ahi Top 10 with your song ‘Hollow’, can you tell me a bit more about who you are and what you do?

Kia ora! We’re Marsha. We’re made up of four University of Canterbury students Sam, Milan, Evan, and Felix. 

Can you tell me about how Marsha came to be as a band? How did you guys meet?

Well… Sam, Felix, and Evan met at high school back in Wellington. We moved down to Christchurch to study at UC. Marsha officially formed in 2018, with Milan joining us just before lockdown as his predecessor, Jack Nolan, has gone on to do great things with his band, the Raddlers.

‘Hollow’ is quite a brooding track, can you tell me more about the meaning of the song?

Hollow is about existentialism, the concept of a ‘destiny’, and the inability to cope with change. It also touches on being overwhelmed by these things, and the unhealthy ways people might attempt to deal with them.

You’ve been playing a steady amount of gigs this year, including the recent Go-Live Festival, how do you guys go about getting ready for a live performance?

We’re pretty relaxed when it comes to live gig preparation. When we play at some venues in Ōtautahi, we must grab a beer from 12 Bar to get us really in the mood.

What is your favourite venue to play at in Ōtautahi?

This is a very tough question. We are so lucky to have a great collection of venues around the city. We’ve played at a handful including Space Academy, Wunderbar, 12 Bar, the Ngaio Marsh Theatre, A Rolling Stone, and most recently, the Christchurch Town Hall for the Go Live Festival. Darkroom will always have a special place in our hearts however, considering the amount of Aroha they have given us over the past few years. 

Tell me about your songwriting process as a band? Is it quite a collaborative process? 

Sam and Evan are the real driving force behind much of our music. They pitch their ideas to the band and we work on the idea together to develop them into a song. The songwriting process never really finishes though. Until the day we record them, we are constantly changing things to try to make them more interesting.

Talk to me about the recording process of ‘Hollow’, were there any challenges at all?

We recorded Hollow upstairs from the University of Canterbury Football Clubs changing rooms, the same venue where we recorded all our singles so far. We’ve been privileged to work with the same producer, Ben Sinclair, for all our singles too. He’s really nailed down the process that works well for us as a band.

Who would be some of your musical influences?

Individually, we have quite diverse music tastes. We are lucky to have enough overlap in our interests to keep us all excited about the music we make whilst being able to draw from our own music tastes. Some influences that we all align with include Preoccupations, the Pixies, the Smiths, and Idles.

What does the rest of 2021 have in store for you guys?

It’s crazy to think that there are only 5 months left in 2021! We have a few cool things lined up though including a show up in Takaka, our first shows at Dux & Blue Smoke, plus some very exciting recording opportunities. It has already been an intense but fun year for us as a band but that’s exactly what we’re after!

You can check out ‘Hollow’ below.

The Te Ahi Top 10 is our weekly chart as voted by YOU, our audience! Presented live every Thursday 3 – 4pm on RDU 98.5FM. 

To vote for the Te Ahi Top 10 simply download the RDUnited app and click the like icon for a track you love when it’s played on air. The tune with the most likes each week will be crowned the winner! Simple as that.