Don't miss Emma Ruth Rundle on tour with Turnover and Elvis Depressedly starting 10/10. Shows are selling out so get your tickets and come early she plays first with full band.
Oct 10 Washington DC @ Rock N Roll Hotel
Oct 11 Richmond, VA @ Broadberry
Oct 12 Carrboro, NC @ Cats Cradle
Oct 13 Orlando, FL @ The Social - SOLD OUT
Oct 14 Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
Oct 15 Lake Park, FL @ Kelsey Theater
Oct 17 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade Hell
Oct 18 Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
Oct 20 Houston, TX @ White Oak
Oct 21 Austin, TX @ Baracuda
Oct 22 Dallas, TX @ Trees
Oct 24 Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent
Oct 25 Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
Oct 26 Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
Oct 27 San Diego, CA @ The Irenic
Oct 28 Pomona, CA @ Glasshouse
Oct 29 San Fran, CA @ The Chapel - SOLD OUT
Oct 30 Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
Oct 31 Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater
Nov 1 Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Nov 3 Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
Nov 4 Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
Nov 5 Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck
Nov 7 DeKalb, IL @ House Cafe
Nov 8 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
Nov 9 Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
Nov 10 Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Nov 11 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
Nov 12 Cleveland, OH @ Agora Ballroom
Nov 13 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
Nov 14 Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
Nov 16 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Nov 17 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Nov 18 Philly, PA @ The TLA
Nov 19 Boston, MA @ Royale
EUROPEAN TOUR with Jaye Jayle see all dates at:
emmaruthrundle.com
Emma Ruth Rundle On GoldFlakePaint’s Essentials Of 2016
I have a distinct memory of visiting a ‘haunted house’ at the local fairground when I was younger, only to find myself completely dismayed when finding out that it was nothing more than some glow-in-the-dark tomfoolery and a guy in a gorilla costume who jumped on your carriage at the end of the ride (Why a gorilla? Tell me about it). Emma Ruth Rundle’s ‘Marked For Death’ is not that. This is a record that decisively indicates what’s to be found within then duly delivers with a thundering, fearsome bout of heavyweight indie rock. Marked for death? You better damn well believe it.
Something like Cat Power battling her way through the heaviest of thunderstorms, the new record is a marked stride forward in to the abyss from her 2014 ‘Some Heavy Ocean’ LP, the eight tracks on ‘Marked For Death’ positively burn with intensity, even before you dig in to the wildly striking set of lyrics that accompany these dramatic compositions. Indicative of the soaring, stifling nature of the record as a whole, the opening, and title, track stands as one of the year’s most ominous tracks; “Who else is going to love someone like you that’s marked for death?” Rundle bellows with all the fiery ferocity of someone who sees the world a little differently to most. A monumental effort not for the weary-hearted; but a monumental effort all the same.
Emma Ruth Rundle On Transcending Obscurity’s Best of 2016
I know I’m following up a non-metal album with another, but Emma Ruth Rundle’s third full length ‘Marked For Death’ really deserves the spotlight. Known for her work in Red Sparowes and Marriages, Emma Ruth Rundle’s solo releases have gone off in different directions. This one retains some of the singer/songwriter and folk elements, but skews more towards post rock and some surprisingly heavy instrumentation. Listen to Protection if you want an example of just how sprawling and heavy ‘Marked For Death’ can be, as softer layers spread over the verses until they build to a climax of crashing guitar riffs and pounding percussion. It reminds me of darker folk interspersed with bursts of post rock and shoegaze, all melded together into an album that’s fragile and powerful at the same time. Emma Ruth Rundle’s singing plays a large role in this, with softer passages giving off a haunting presence before picking up into much louder, forceful ones that command your attention. In the past she’s been known more for her work with other bands rather than her solo efforts, but ‘Marked For Death’ should be the album that changes this perception. There’s a considerable amount of depth to this release, and it’s worth dedicating some time to.
Bearded Gentlemen Conversation w/ Emma Ruth Rundle
Singer/songwriter, Emma Ruth Rundle, released her newest studio album, Marked For Death, at the end of September. Rundle, of Marriages and Red Sparowes fame, now has three solo efforts to her name. This newest album being her greatest and heaviest yet. Marked For Death is a riveting composition that sees Emma confront herself and deeper personal issues over the course of eight songs. In addition to being a talented musician, Emma is a visual artist. She expresses herself through watercolor, oils, and pencil on canvas, depicting emotional complexities that often resembles the content of her music. Jon Robertson and I were fortunate enough for the opportunity to send Emma some questions regarding her new solo album as well as her time in Marriages and her visual art.
Cody Davis: We are roughly two years removed from your last solo album, Some Heavy Ocean, and last year you, Greg, and Andrew released a brilliant Marriages album. I read you were simultaneously recording Some Heavy Ocean and Marriages’ Salome. What was balancing these two projects at the same time like?
Emma Ruth Rundle: Greetings. Thank you both for your kind words and interest in my musical endeavors. Actually, there was no overlap between Some Heavy Ocean and Salomé. We started recording Salomé around the time Some Heavy Ocean was released. The difficulty that this presented was that I was on tour with King Buzzo when it came time to give Salomé the final mix and was maybe a bit checked out. I think the vocals and guitars on Salomé suffered for this reason.
Jon Robertson: What are the biggest differences between writing solo material and material with Marriages, both musically and lyrically? How do decide what songs or lyrics go to which project?
ERR: From the very beginning Marriages has very much been a collaboration between Greg Burns and myself. Andrew was, of course, a big part of Salomé as well.
I would say that the collaborative aspect is what defines the biggest difference. In Marriages I feel more of a vehicle for exploring broader themes or concepts lyrically; for example, Kitsuné touched on the transformative aspect of the Shinto fox spirit possession whereas my solo work is autobiographical in a more direct way, though I sometimes use mythological and religious iconography as tools.
JR: The press release for Marked for Death talks about the “candid, unglamorous cover portrait” for the album. What is the concept or inspiration behind choosing this image?
The cover photo is a self-portrait I took out in the Pinion Hills desert house (the farm, Sargent House) where I recorded Marked For Death. I had been into photography and wanted to document some of the writing and recording processes. I’m very proud of that photo. I believe it captures an aspect of myself that was in the ruling house when I made this record. It’s raw and honest. I see a path in the music biz that wants to walk women down the production line of mainstream, idealized feminine beauty. There is no way of saying this without opening the doors to an argument of some kind with someone these days- for my 12-year-old self, I offer an alternative to the primed and packaged people we see. I wanted to challenge my own ego as well. In a way, it’s a confrontation of the self.
CD: Marked for Death presents itself as a conduit for many tumultuous and deeply personal feelings. I understand it can be quite a cathartic experience but do you ever find it difficult to convey these feelings through your music?
ERR: The difficulty lies in having to tour, talk about and relive the content after the record is finished.
CD: Sonny DiPerri was brought in to engineer and help produce Marked for Death, who last had his hands in Mizmor’s harrowing Yodh (which is an amazing construct of blackened doom metal). He has also worked with M83 and Animal Collective among many other projects. What did DiPerri bring to the Marked for Death sessions that were different from the production of Some Heavy Ocean?
ERR: Ah! Mizmor. I am both a friend and a fan. Our community if often smaller than some may know and I love that about music now.
Sonny is a fantastic human. Recording and working with him was great. He’s got a highly tuned aesthetic – we listened to many of the same records growing up and in preparation for our collaboration. I came to trust him quickly. Sonny really listens and is present for every step of the record making process and I found his work invaluable.
While we did bring the studio into the residential setting of the vacant farm, it was a grueling lockdown for 10 days, much more traditional than the lax meandering schedule Some Heavy Ocean “adhered to.”
JR: Who are the musicians who played on Marked for Death and who played what? Is it a similar lineup to Some Heavy Ocean?
ERR: The eminent Troy Zeigler (Field, Wrath of Sad) on bass. You already know Andrew Clinco, of Marriages, on drums and percussion. The unique spirit Andrea Calderon (Corima – a must-listen zhuel/prog ensemble) on violin. There is also some guest ghost vocal lent by Aurielle Zeitler (Ghost Marrow). And Sonny does shred some mellotron and swarmatron in there. Jason Adams lends one sweet cello line in the song “Marked For Death” too.
CD: Marked for Death is much darker and visceral than Some Heavy Ocean. “Protection”, “Medusa”, and “Heaven”, for example, have these eruptions of guitars and reverb and “Real Big Sky” is an original, gritty demo. Was this more morose sound a preconceived idea prior to writing or was this something that manifested itself as the album developed?
ERR: I wonder if this would still seem the case minus drums. The biggest shift from Some Heavy Ocean to Marked For Death is the addition of full drum kit. I was really on the fence about going this heavier route, arrangement wise. I was afraid it might preclude me from touring the album without a band, which is actually what I’m doing right now in Europe in support of Wovenhand.
In the end, I set out to make an emotionally potent album and chose instrumentation that I felt suited each song.
All of this music was written on an acoustic guitar. The songs came from my heart. I certainly didn’t set out to be the king of sad or anything. Authenticity is the goal. If anything, this process has helped me to want to move on to a brighter place. To change and overcome. To write more empowered or somehow lighter music. Singing these lyrics every night is taking me back to the low.
CD: Continuing from the last question. Where did the idea to keep the original demo version of “Real Big Sky” come from? For the record, I am a huge fan of this idea. It is a beautiful song.
ERR: Thanks. It’s not the actual demo but a recreation. We approached the song in several ways while in the studio. The original demo was recorded on my iPhone. It’s a capture of me playing my acoustic guitar through a little-distorted vox amp and singing in a trailer out there in the desert. We recreated it in a pure and simple way by running spas guitar through an SVT, only doing 1 to 2 takes. Keeping the performance honest, grating and simple/pure. Ha.
CD: Are there any moments on this new record that resonate with you personally more than others? Any particular song that strikes a deeper chord with you mentally or emotionally?
ERR: It’s “Real Big Sky” for sure. There’s a little film Brandon Kapelow made that goes along with it which came out beautifully and I think it captures some of that backstory and emotion nicely.
CD: Switching gears to current and future plans. You are in the midst of a European tour with Wovenhand currently. Are there any upcoming stops on this tour you are particularly excited to see or have already seen? European culture is strikingly different than American culture, it has to be cool to experience what the world offers.
ERR: Tis true. I’m working on my infantile German skills in the car actually. It’s a great honor to share a stage with Wovenhand and a privilege to travel and play music. Something we make personal sacrifices to be able to experience. I never want to seem ungrateful for any of this. The world is so fascinating and beautiful. To see it is my most favorite thing. Especially the changing landscapes and natural beauty. I would so love to visit Asia one day and both play and listen to music there, too.
CD: Do you have any near-future plans for a North American tour?
ERR: Yes. They are not quite announced yet but I might be able to say soon.
JR: Is there any new Marriages material on the horizon?
ERR: None that is as of now written. It’s my intention to continue Marriages down the road and perhaps we will see something in 2017/18.
CD: I recently read that you have wanted to be a painter from a young age and that you are getting ready to take on more paintings this year. Do you have any desires to see your visual art become your more notable artistic expression? Your visual art seems to follow in a similar vein as your music. Holistically, it appears to create this total package of complex emotional states (from my perspective at least.)
ERR: Thank you for taking note of this. To be honest, shifting my focus over time from rock music to ambient music and visual arts would be ideal for several reasons however the little success I have gained as a musician is not necessarily reflected in the success of my visual art. The art and music sort of evolve hand-in-hand and there were several points in my life where I was torn between which one to pursue. I didn’t last in the academic atmosphere anyway… I think of myself as an artist moving through many mediums – all the time – exploring different instruments as well as materials from ink to video – master of none ever but I guess that’s not the point.
CD: Emma, thank you so much again for taking the time to answer our questions. It is truly an honor to discuss great music and art with the people who craft it. We wish you the safest of travels and best of luck in Europe and when you return stateside. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see you soon on your next United States circuit!
Emma Ruth Rundle In Treble’s Top Albums And Top Songs Of 2016
#21 Album of 2016: Marked For Death
Emma Ruth Rundle’s made some powerful statements as a player in a greater whole, as a member of Marriages and Red Sparowes. Her third album as a solo artist is the one that carries the heaviest weight, however, its eight songs mired in both emotional devastation and ominous beauty. Recorded during the winter in the California desert, its chilling and often stark atmosphere reflects the surroundings in which it was made. Her songs evade easy categorization—gothic folk with a side of doom metal perhaps, as displayed in the haunted rise and fall of the title track or the skeletal ballad “Real Big Sky,” which closes the album on an emotional gut punch that leaves an even deeper and more painful mark than the album’s loudest songs—which are devastating in their own right. Marked For Death gains its power from hopelessness and transforms it into eerie, sometimes crushingly heavy beauty—wounded clarity in the eye of a storm of swirling guitars. – Jeff Terich
#32 Song of 2016: “Protection”
“Protection” is a continuous downward spiral into hopelessness and despair. On a record in which darkness is a constant, draped over anything and everything instead of merely nipping at the heels, “Protection” finds something climactic and anthemic about hitting a low. Emma Ruth Rundle portrays an unreciprocated dependency in terms both evocative (“Heaven sends him down to me“) and unglamorous (“I am worthless in your arms“) while finding a sort of romantic irony in it all: “But you offer this protection no one has given me.” As she grazes rock bottom, it explodes into a powerful, almost metal climax. Each echoing guitar riff parallels the comfort of those coldly protective arms, delivering triumph where there should only be defeat – Jeff Terich
Via Treble Magazine’s Top Albums of 2016 and Top Songs of 2016
Emma Ruth Rundle is taking a moment to catch her breath. The singer/songwriter and member of Los Angeles shoegaze trio Marriages is laying low in Montana after several weeks of touring in Europe in support of Sargent House labelmates Wovenhand. She’s also nursing a head cold, but all things considered, she’s in a good place—spending time friends and family, surrounded by nature while she waits for her Portland apartment, currently being subleased, to be vacated.
Just one year ago, she found herself in a scenario almost the direct opposite of where she is right now. While finishing up the songs on her new album Marked For Death, she was living alone in the desert, in a bitter cold. She was playing and writing music every day, which when completed resulted in the heaviest album of her career—both sonically and emotionally. It’s a richly layered, often beautiful, sometimes harrowing document of a particularly dark year in Rundle’s life. Loosely speaking, the record finds her tackling love, loss, mental health, loneliness, death, self-destruction and a pervasive sense of doom in tones both elegant and immense. She’s hesitant to go into detail about the circumstances that informed Marked For Death, but in a phone conversation during her brief stay in Montana, she confirms that it’s all based in real-life events.
“The record is autobiographical,” she says. “We’ll just leave it at that.”
Marked For Death is Emma Ruth Rundle’s biggest solo effort to date. Following the ethereal, experimental guitar sounds of the mostly instrumental album Electric Guitar One from 2011 and the more fleshed out, dream-pop sound of 2014′s Some Heavy Ocean, Marked for Death is the album of hers that contains the widest dynamics between sparse, gentle balladry and thunderous climaxes. The single “Protection” features the most immediate chorus on the album, crashing with the density of her other band, Marriages, while closing track “Real Big Sky” is just Rundle’s voice and guitar, one of the simplest and most devastating moments on the album.
Initially, Rundle’s plan was to record an album of just guitar and voice, but ended up taking a different tack after writing the leadoff title track. That song became both a stylistic and thematic keystone for the record, its powerful guitar punch providing a backdrop for an ill-fated protagonist: “Who else is going to love someone like you that’s marked for death?” The depth and darkness of the song led to Rundle putting more of her own life onto the record, and as it came together, she found herself more directly channeling certain harsh or heartbreaking experiences.
“I think that the events that took place in the real world…dictated a whole series of events that laid the ground for me to live in a way to write all these songs that have these themes,” she says. “Love and loss, and a lot of other things going on in the material. Alcoholism, all this other dysfunctional stuff. It was sort of more the real world. That song is a good beginning point.”
While the seeds of Marked For Death were planted shortly after Rundle’s 2014 album Some Heavy Ocean, she did much of the writing for the album during a self-imposed isolation in the California desert during the winter of 2015 and early 2016. She’s quick to dissuade any romantic notions of what that entails—no parties at the Ace Hotel, no glamping in a climate-controlled yurt. She essentially holed up in a house for a couple months without even seeing much life at all outside.
The loneliness and starkness of the landscape ended up informing the album to a certain degree. It was already shaping up to be an emotionally draining work, based on the songs that Rundle had written before her exile. Yet the quiet and emptiness pushed her deeper into that darkness to a degree, and it resonates through the album’s eight songs. You can almost picture the open skies and hilly roads unfolding in the distance in songs such as the slide-driven waltz “Medusa” or the dreamy, open space of “Furious Angel.” But while Rundle came out of it with an album featuring some of her most beautiful material, the experience of camping out in a barren locale took a psychological toll.
“People keep using the word ‘bleak’ with this record. And you know, the landscape was bleak,” she says of her surroundings during the creation of much of the album. “I ended up living alone for a couple months. It’s a high-elevation desert. You could see the mountains. It’s very fashionable to go to places like Joshua Tree, if you’re from Los Angeles. A lot of people go out there, and there’s studios and there’s a hippie community. You can go out and get some vegan food. This is not what that is, at all. It’s not a million miles within that kind of thing. It’s very cold. There was a stove that I was having to put wood in to stay warm. I don’t know. I was drinking a lot. It was grim. I think it was very grim, and because I was out there alone a lot of that stuff went unchecked.
“I’m sitting here looking over this lake in Montana right now and there’s this feeling that things are alive,” she adds. “The season’s changing here and there’s an ecosystem. But the desert is like a big empty mirror. I don’t know. It’s not the kind of feedback you get from a landscape when you’re in a forest. It’s bleak. It’s gnarly. It doesn’t give you anything. There’s no distraction there. You don’t sit back and enjoy the weather. You have to be alone with yourself in such a real way.”
Emma Ruth Rundle Marked For Death
The cover art, itself, of Marked for Death is a kind of window into Emma Ruth Rundle’s state of being during the album’s creation. It’s a simple self-portrait in black and white, shot during her desert stay, during which she documented much of her experience via photography (a hobby she took up for the sake of creating something without worrying about it generating any income). The look on her face is stoic yet evocative. She isn’t made up for a photo shoot—a press release describes the shot as “unglamorous”—but it feels intimate. It brings the listener even closer into a personal space that performers don’t always give their listeners access to. It’s also a reminder of where she determined she needed to go on a personal level.
“There’s something about that photo that’s very poignant,” she says. “That’s the time when the songs were written. That’s who I was then.”
“I think I got to a serious low—mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Almost at a zero,” she continues. “And I had some health problems earlier in the year, so it was almost like a breaking point. It had to be the end of something. I had to make changes toward a healthier lifestyle and pursue some kind of happiness. It’s unsustainable type of existence. I cannot write songs that are like that forever. That’s not sustainable. Maybe it was therapeutic. But there’s a whole other side to these kind of things where you perform these songs live and it takes you backward into this space in my heart. It’s almost like a backslide. But I was never not going to write the music because I might have to play it down the road.”
Emma Ruth Rundle has been returning to that vulnerable personal space while playing these songs on tour in Europe, and will again in the United States in 2017. But she’s traveled a great distance, spiritually, since writing Marked For Death. It’s an honest record, and one that directly represents a specific time in her life. On some level, perhaps, it’s an album she had to make, but it’s also a work with themes that can apply to a listener’s own experience. The catharsis for her is real, but it doesn’t necessarily belong to her. That catharsis is for everyone.
“I think one of the great things about music that has lyrics is that the listener can take whatever experience they’re having and interpret the lyrics through the filter of their own experience,” she says. “I think a lot of the themes are pretty simple and universal. I did not set out to make high art. It’s very human, very from the dirt. Very low vibration kind of themes. And that it’s relatable. That’s one thing I certainly love about music, growing up when i would hear lyrics I’d make up my own stories for what I think the stories were about. I’d never want to take that away from anyone.”
Emma Ruth Rundle “Marked For Death” Album Stream on Independent
The sheer breadth of musical projects that Emma Ruth Rundle has made her mark with is truly breath-taking; from the post-rock soundscape influenced Red Sparowes through to her fronting the organic, experimental, heavy shoegaze-tinged Marriages, her work showcases many sides of her personality. Nothing is quite so laid bare and personal however, as the work contained in her solo albums. All her disparate musical projects carry a dark underbelly of vulnerability that washes over and seduces the listener, but we only see Rundle at her lowest ebbs through her solo work. Her latest, Marked For Death is released through Sargent House on Friday 30th September, but you can stream it exclusively 4 days before its official release below.
More ambitious and adventurous than her previous solo album, 2014's Some Heavy Ocean, Marked For Death marks the point where Rundle’s distinct singer/songwriter style comes fully into fruition. The album chronicles a period of emotional upheaval in her life utilising fragility and femininity in exquisitely exposing ways. ‘There is intentionally nothing to hide behind here,' she says 'but at the same time I’m terrified of revealing myself. The subject matter is largely about being defeated and shrunken into the base human themes of love and loss. It’s a far cry from high art. It’s very much from the dirt.’
The waves of cascading reverb-drenched electric guitar provide a shimmering, dark foundation for the sweetly haunting melody of Rundle’s fragile vocals, surely her most exposed and finest vocal delivery to date. Her lyrics focus on themes of self-destruction, transmutation, love, loss and death but despite the moribundity of the subject matter, the music is at once transgressive, heart-breaking and exhilirating, as if the sonic soundscape created were carrying Rundle through her melancholy. Even if music doesn't heal all her wounds, it does provide her comfort and will no doubt prove just as cathartic for the listener.
Rundle has fully embraced her role as singer/songwriter, writing a record that reveals new depths on every listen whilst still retaining the unorthodox approach she’s showcased throughout her career. With Marked For Death, she has created an album that stands shoulder to shoulder with her previous preeminent work.
Emma Ruth Rundle's atmosphere-heavy guitar work is a lynchpin of Sargent House favourites Marriages and post-rock behemoth Red Sparowes, but her solo material displays a raw, more personal side to the LA native.
On second album, Marked For Death, Emma's love of atmosphere and alternate tunings is paired with an increased focus on her nuanced vocal delivery, resulting in an album that is more intimate and, as a result, emotionally heavy than past material.
Here, Emma lets us in on her unusual picking technique, the intimate relationship she holds with each of her instruments, and - of all things - time-travelling violins...
1. What was your first guitar and when did you get it?
"It's hard to recall whose instruments were whose during the time in my life when I started playing. I was spending a lot of time at McCabe's in Santa Monica. It's most likely that the first guitar I was playing was a really cheap (but playable) nylon-string. I do remember having that around and eventually destroying it years and years later. I must have been 12 years old.
"The first guitar that was mine was a 1973 Sunburst Fender Mustang. I was 13 then - someone at McCabe's took kindly to me and sold the guitar to my father for almost nothing. I played it through my stepmother's bass amp along to Hendrix, Nirvana and of course Smashing Pumpkins… badly…
"A Mustang is actually a good choice for a young person because of its small body and short scale. Once I started playing more seriously, I sold the guitar (for a good price, ha), as I couldn't stand how twangy it was or the intensely radiused neck. I thought it might be bad luck to let go of one's first ride, but I needed something with humbuckers."
2. The building's burning down – what one guitar do you save?
I love all my instruments and have very personal attachments to them all. I don't have any children or pets now, just tools
"Woah. It's so hard to say, but I guess I would have to save the Jag Baritone HH Special, just because it was so hard to acquire. I love all my instruments and have very personal attachments to them all. I don't have any children or pets now, just tools. Each one of the guitars has its own songs hidden inside.
"I might have to save my acoustic Blueridge OM as I have written the most music on it other than my Gibson SG (which is maybe the most 'replaceable' guitar). Hard to choose.
"The truth is, the fire might be a sign, giving me an opportunity to just walk away from all earthly possessions for good. I'd switch to flute at that point as it's easy to keep on your person at all times!"
3. Is there a guitar, or piece of gear, that you regret letting go?
"Not really, maybe my pipa. I had an Access Virus TI synth that was stolen, and I have never gotten over that."
4. And what's the next piece of gear you'd like to acquire?
"I have my heart set on the Chinese Gu Zheng. I guess it's considered a zither-like instrument. To me, it represents beauty, tradition and a domestic stability that I seek today. In other words, I feel like if I'm able to acquire one and get lessons it would mean I was able to stay in one place (geographically and mentally) long enough to improve myself, and that doing so would bring me some peace. Here is an example."
5. Is there an aspect of guitar playing that you'd like to be better at?
I wish I had learned to play with a plectrum. I play with extended nails on my right hand in a bastardised fingerstyle
"All of it, really. I wish I had learned to play with a plectrum. I play with extended nails on my right hand in a bastardised fingerstyle.
"I should be more familiar with standard tuning. I moved to alternate tunings very early on as they were just easier for me to make sense of. This has alienated me from other players to some extent. There is so much to learn... always."
6. When did you last practise and what did you play?
"I practised last night - I try to run through my set and then invariably end up noodling. The truth is I've never been a person who practises or does homework. I wish I was more focused and committed to exercises or learning specific things (pieces, styles, scales - anything) but I'm not. The instrument is a portal.
"Learning to play '80s-era metal solos on electric guitar is a goal I have set for myself to accomplish in the next 10 years. I know I will have to learn the art of practice first in order to learn the shreds."
7. If you could have a guitar lesson from one guitarist, dead or alive, who would it be?
"I would really have to meditate on this question. King Buzzo taught me a few things on tour once, and that was a real dream come true. Maybe I would spend a day with the late Chris Whitley. Richard Thompson… He is a master of all styles - so maybe he would be the best choice."
8. What item of gear would you take with you to a desert island?
"Is there power there? Could I harness electricity in some way? Let's assume no. I would take a violin as I think I could spend a lifetime trying to learn how to play it, and I heard somewhere that if you play a certain note at the right time, it tears a hole through time and space - so maybe I could get back to the mainland that way, eventually."
9. What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you onstage?
"Becoming aware of being on a stage. I've never had a fall or been assaulted. There are the gear failures all of us come to accept as part of the live experience."
10. What advice would you give your younger self about playing the guitar?
I would try to encourage young me to play with other people - I felt so alienated due to fear
"I would provide some encouragement and convey that it's okay to play one's own style and to work harder at developing it. I wish I could go back to help that girl and make her less afraid. I would advise her to start calling herself a guitarist and to feel unashamed and unafraid. Those feelings are ultimately a waste of time and get in the way of progress and accomplishment.
"I would try to encourage young me to play with other people - I felt so alienated due to fear. I would also have told her to start working on those shredding solos then so I wouldn't have to start from the ground up now. Ha!"
Marked For Death is out on 30 September via Sargent House.
NoiseSpeaks Interview w/ Marriages at ArcTanGent Festival
photo by Greg Burns
During ArcTanGent, NoiseSpeaks got to joke around with the members of Marriages between sets. Guitarist/vocalist Emma Ruth Rundle, bassist Greg Burns, and drummer Andrew Clinco poke fun at Silicon Valley, talk recent tours, and go in depth about their album, Salome.
This isn’t your first trip to the UK to tour, correct?
Emma: We were here earlier this year. We did a tour in Europe with Wovenhand and we finished it up with a show in London. Not sure when that was exactly.
Greg: About four months ago in April.
Emma: Was it that long ago?
So right after you released Salome?
Greg: Yeah, about two weeks after it had come out.
Emma, you’ve got the solo tour coming up with Alcest. Congratulations, by the way, that should be a fantastic tour. How was your headline tour in the US for Salome?
Emma: We just finished the headline tour for Salome before coming out here. We literally finished it and came here a few days after.
That’s right, the San Francisco date was that festival, Phono Del Sol. How did the tour go?
Emma: It was great. We became really good friends with Creepoid, and met a lot of new people and saw a lot of friends. We were able to realize the songs from the record in a positive way. It was a good experience.
Greg: It was also our first tour that we’ve done as a headlining tour. It was interesting to break that milestone. We had a good time.
Between Kitsune and Salome, there was not only a large time gap and also that Marriages’ sound changed quite a bit. Can you talk about the process of how your sound evolved? I think a lot of fans were shocked when Salome came out. They were expecting something more similar to the first EP.
Greg: Well, as far as the sound evolving, Kitsune was written right out of a Red Sparowes’ frame of mind. We didn’t write it with a drummer. We had Dave Clifford, a friend, play on the EP, but we wrote it and recorded it within six months of starting the band. So it was very stream of consciousness. Very little thought went into it, for good or bad. Dave played on the record and did some shows with us, and then shortly after that Andrew joined the band full time.
I think a big part of the evolution was just having Andrew as a permanent drummer. He plays a lot of instruments, he’s very musical and we enjoyed having him as part of the song writing process. But also, we payed a lot more attention to the songs themselves and really thought through the songs, almost to the point, that it slowed us down more than we wanted it to. That was part of the reason for the gap.
After that, the actual recording process took close to a year. It was really long. There were some challenges that were a bit unfortunate, but I won’t get into that. Normally for us to record a record, we’re done in a month. This time it took a year. That’s sort of the reason, which we won’t do again.
I saw you guys with Boris on some of the West Coast dates last year, so how was the tour with Boris?
Emma: We’ve toured with Boris a few times. And with Red Sparowes, we toured with Boris. I feel like Boris is one band we’ve probably toured more than any other band. So we’ve had a chance to see their daughter grow up and I always love touring with them and they are the nicest people. They’re hilarious and they put on an amazing show every time. They are all really kind.
Greg: Atsuo speaks English well, so there’s not really a language barrier. Surprisingly there are these weird ways to break through that where I personally don’t even think about it after the first or second day.
You guys are known in Japan a bit, are you hoping to tour Japan one day?
Greg & Emma: Yes!
Emma: I would love to go to Japan. I didn’t know we had any sort of presence there.
Some of the people I’ve talked to know you. Maybe Boris talked you guys up a little bit more. I noticed in a few of record shops, I saw Kitsune multiple times.
Emma: Maybe having the Japanese name was helpful.
Andrew: We didn’t do a Daymare release for Salome, though did we?
Emma: I don’t think so.
Andrew: I know they did for Kitsune, because I played on that song. The extra track. I always forget about that.
Greg: I was actually going to mention that. That’s actually one of my favorite Marriages’ song. It’s the first song that we recorded with Andrew in my living room as an extra bonus track for the Kitsune Japanese release. And I feel like probably a lot of people haven’t heard about that. You can almost see a bit of the evolution, and it’s a really experimental track.
Andrew: I’d like to hear that again.
I’d like to hear it too.
Greg: It’s called “Pyramids”.
Emma, I also wanted to ask you about your vocal evolution between Kitsune and Salome. ArcTanGent compared you to Sinead O’Connor in their program. I also see a lot of Dolores O’Riordan from The Cranberries in there.
Emma: Aw, thank you.
And also a bit of Alanis Morrisette
Emma: Ew…
Taking the Alanis Morrisette back…
Emma: That’s okay. The Cranberries are a huge influence, but the main thing is that we did write songs for Salome that were more vocally focused, whereas vocals were treated more as an instrument on Kitsune. There was a lot of processing. I was using a pedal at the time that had some fourmanship and generated harmonies as well. I don’t think at first we really wanted to have a band with a singer, it was all sort of meant to be more textural. But as we progressed, we decided we wanted to shift the focus into having songs as opposed to a journey of sound.
I can see that dynamic between the two.
Emma: So the mix was different and the way the vocals were recorded was different.
So you’re probably will be prepping for the Alcest tour soon, after that what is the plan for Marriages?
Andrew: Well, we all have our respective side projects, Emma has hers and I have my own that I work on. I play guitar in.
Emma: It’s called Drab Majesty, it’s amazing.
Andrew: Greg has a daughter, and I’m sure he needs to spend time with her to make up for lost tour time.
Emma: We’ve put in a lot of work this year. We have done a lot of touring so far. I think we’re going to take a little bit of a break, unless an extraordinary touring opportunity comes up. Then I think after a few months, we’ll try to reconvene and start writing again but maybe do it in a more intensive way.
More compact and not as drawn out as last time.
Andrew: Yeah, a think tank.
Greg: There’s actually a Silicon Valley CEO who has gotten us an Incubator with the idea that we create an app for our record, and we’re going… no I’m just kidding.
As someone who works in Silicon Valley, I wouldn’t be surprised if that didn’t happen at some point… How’s the LA scene compared to San Francisco?
Andrew: I think to be honest, I think the San Francisco scene is a lot more lively and a lot more attended. Shows are much more well attended in SF. Just due to the nature of the walking culture versus LA. And LA, I think there is a different kind of attention span in LA where the direct support gets more focus than a headline.
There is so much distraction and so many things going on that people don’t want to drive late at night. There’s all these issues surrounding attendance in LA. If you do pack a show in LA, that is amazing. There’s more venues in SF, just the volume of venues and a lot of great bands. I’m born and raised in LA, but I just have some allegiance to San Francisco from when I did live there. It’s kind of a better scene right now.
Any last words?
Andrew: We would love to go to Japan, if anyone reads this. Bring us over there.
Emma: Japan would be great.
Who would you want to support you if you went? Do a flop and have Boris support you?
Emma: Oh no, I would never want them to support us, that’d be weird.
Greg: There’s no way we could hold our own after them.
Emma: I’d want to go with Helms Alee, that would be so amazing.
ON TOUR WITH MARRIAGES + CREEPOID Now Up on The Farm Family
all photos and words by Danielle Leonard
Two weeks after I started interning at Sargent House, I was sent on a full US tour with Marriages. For someone who is not a musician and has never been on the road in this capacity, this was a totally new experience. On tour you'd expect to make a million new friends in every city but the ones I got the closest to were those I was trapped in a van with for a month straight. Before leaving, I had never even met anyone in either band, so it was a really nice surprise to discover that they were some of the most genuine and nicest people I’d ever met. They each have their own strong personalities (which tended at times to clash), but the passion and dedication put into their music creates an undeniable and necessary bond between them. We had our fair share of mechanical and van problems along the way, but even popping a tire fifteen minutes from the venue proves that while most things were out of our control, at least everyone stuffed in the van was going through it all together.
Marriages (featuring ex-members of post-rock group Red Sparrowes), are yet another great find. Tender and hypnotic vocals from their singer Emma Ruth Rundle, lie tastefully on top of delayed and eerie guitar, where the focus is on the texture and overall feel of the song rather than on non-stop riffage. I’m watching Marriages a fair distance away from the stage, and I find that I’m enjoying them far more with my eyes closed – happy to be led into the imaginative sound-world that they create. An acquaintance who is watching them with me is such a convert that he immediately buys Marriages’ latest album, Salome, from the adjacent merch stand.
L.I.F.E. Press Interviews Greg Burns + Photos from London Performance 8/24/15
Photos by Sara Feigin
See full Photoset HERE
L.I.F.E. Press: So you and Emma were in another band together before Marriages, right?
Greg Burns: We were. We were in a band called Red Sparowes but Sparowes is on a bit of a hiatus now. She played on the last Red Sparowes record and she was in the band for several years, but now we have Marriages.
LP: The instrumentals in the two bands have a similar feel, what made you guys decide to branch off and do something where you’ve incorporated vocals?
GB: We just really wanted to do something that was different than Red Sparowes that was a big part of it. On Kitsune, the first record, the vocals were more of a texture or an instrument in a way. On Salome they’re more prominent, but that was just the evolution of the band. We didn’t just want to have another instrumental band because we felt it would be too similar to Red Sparowes. We consciously wanted to have shorter more concise songs, and we wanted to do something that stood apart from Red Sparowes.
LP: On the topic of the vocals being more of a texture; what made you guys decide on Salome to put the vocals at more of the forefront of the songs?
GB: It was kind of just an evolution of the band. I think it just happened naturally when we writing the songs that it became more vocal centric. We didn’t decide until we were mixing the record to push the vocals up to the front. It wasn’t an explicit decision that we made, it just kind of happened.
LP: Since Salome is a bit different from Kitsune, how’s the response been while you’ve been touring since Salome was released in April?
GB: We’ve done a lot of touring on it now. We went to Europe with Wovenhands and that was amazing. The reception was really good, we were excited to see that people knew the songs and were singing the lyrics and stuff that was cool. We headlined The States, that’s the first time we did a headlining tour there, and it was good. The turn out in some places was better than others the cities were great. There were some really great stand out shows, like New York and Austin were especially good. In L.A. we had a lot of fun. We’ve started mixing it up, it’s important to us to really push ourselves in a lot of different ways including the performance aspect of it. About halfway through we started changing the configuration of where our instruments are set up and we would play on the floor sometimes and just anything to just sort of keep it fresh and stop it from being the same repetitive thing. The tour was awesome and we played Arctangent a couple of days ago and that was a really amazing experience.
LP: With Arctangent Festival, which has only been around for 3 years now, was it exciting to play something that’s so new and genre specific?
GB: It’s different from a lot of festivals in that it is very specific in terms of the music that they host. The things I thought were great about the festival were being new [as a band] and there were a lot of Sargent House (their record label) bands’ there, it was like a big kind of family thing going on there and a lot of friends were there, and it wasn’t so massive that you weren’t able to connect with people. It was cool to be able to hang out with everybody, including the people at the festival because at a lot of Festival’s there is an artist area that people never leave, but at Arctangent that sort of existed but it was far away from everything, so it was easier to just be at the festival. Which was very cool because it was cool to talk to people and actually be there and enjoy it. As far as the genre thing goes, I have mixed feelings about that, I do like it, because what happens is people there will go and see every band that’s playing, and they’re just committed to even checking out bands they’ve never heard of. At bigger Festivals though they’re there to see the three bands they love and maybe they’ll go check other stuff out, so it’s cool that people there just really love the music. But on the other hand, I do personally like when Festivals have a variety because I think it exposes bands to a kind of audience they would normally get exposure to. But Arctangent is a very special thing and I think what they’re doing is really very cool.
LP: So listening to your music, it feels like more than just an average band, it feels a bit like listening to an art piece. I get the vibe that I could like see you guys perform as an art instillation. Was that a thing you were going for, or am I just projecting my views on your music?
GB: Yea, I mean not in those terms, but I think that we try and do a lot outside of just playing music. We do try in our performance to do things that are different, more in the way that we engage with each other when we play, it’s more of a personal experience that we try and bring people into, as opposed to bands that get out on stage, face out to the crowd, and play their songs. In other cases we will set up on the floor we’ll put the drums at the front of the stage, because there’s something that happens playing music that it’s very easy to get into this routine playing songs where it’s a) it’s no longer that fun [for me] and b) there’s no real variation so it becomes static in a way that defeats the purpose of playing live, at least for us. That’s one thing, and another thing is we are all artists outside of the band, what we try and do is make a statement through our artwork which is on the record and also that we put out into the world that we’ll usually sell at shows. Lots of times Emma will sell art prints and I’ll sell photographs, so the whole thing is about an expression is about both visual art and the music itself and the performance. Sometimes I think we totally fail at doing that and we’re just a band on stage, and other times I think it really works, and it’s a much bigger experience. But I really appreciate you saying that, I’m glad you get that from the music because it’s sort of what we’re after.
LP: So there were a couple years between the release of the first album and your second album, did you plan to take your time with the second album?
GB: No, there were a lot of challenges with the record; it took a year to even actually record it. We had some pretty big problems with the engineering itself and the studio, just a lot of logistical problems in that way. I’ve never had an album take a year to record, so that was really frustrating for us. And then writing the record took longer than we wanted, but that partly was because there were other things going on for people. My daughter had been born, and Emma’s solo project was taking off, she had put a record out and was touring. But the most that we really would want between records would be just a couple of years. So we weren’t really happy with the time break between records, and we’re going to do everything we can to avoid that in the future.
LP: This London show seems to be your last scheduled show of the year, do you have any other plans for the band for the rest of the year?
GB: Not for Marriages no. Emma is going on tour with Alcest and Andrew has a solo project called Drab Majesty, and he’s about to tour with King Dude. Yea so I think the next thing that’s going to happen with Marriages is probably in several months we’re going to start writing the next record. And obviously if any opportunities come up we’re going to take them, but I think we plan to just concentrate on writing the next record.
LP: So I don’t think I have any questions left for you. Do you have anything else you’d like to say out to the world?
GB: I appreciate your time and your interest, and I just feel really grateful to be able to tour and write music and that we capture people’s interest just means a lot, so thank you.
Marriages & Creepoid @ Los Globos // Live Photos + Review
As part of a special Part Time Punks, LA dark-rockers Marriages and Philly’s grunge-gazers Creepoid destroyed the Los Globos downstairs with a pair of blistering sets.
When we caught Marriages back in July, it was in broad daylight. We told ourselves that the next time would have to be in the dark of a club because their sound is meant for it. This time around at Los Globos, the trio eschewed the stage for the floor setting up their gear facing each other at three points in a triangular fashion, appearing almost ritualistic. With the stage lights removed, all that lit up the main space were two work lamps laying on the floor between equipment. Wasting no time, Emma Ruth Rundle’s gloomy guitar quickly bursted throughout the room. Amidst sharp, searing riffs cutting through her haunting vocals was bassist Greg Burns’ fuzzed reverb frenzy and drummer Andrew Clinco’s heavy beat. Seeing them play songs from their new album Salome (Sargent House)—a dark, post-rock gem released this spring—it was as if a new dark expanse had opened up and swallowed us whole.
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Emma Ruth Rundle is in a mood. It may change in the span of a heartbeat or two, but it's never far from something like a storm-clouded beach with a single seagull circling, perhaps screaming. There may or may not be a carcass involved. Or a brooding flock of carnal impulses.
"I think everyone will agree that my particular moods are highly changeable," Rundle said, edgily, with her band members apparently overhearing her phone interview. She's speaking, specifically, of the way she interprets songs onstage. "Any given performance, there are lots of variables and logistical problems," she continues, covering most of what can go wrong with gear, sound, lighting and any other detail that may affect the artist's focus or the fans' reception. It's the kind of attention to detail that makes the difference between a mere talent and one bound for a successful career.
"Sometimes it's cathartic," she says. "Playing the instrument and in a state of not having to think about actualizing the performance aspect can coalesce into a successful performance—all demons exorcised."
Rundle used to be a lot quieter about it. "I'd been very shy my whole life, never identified as a front person, didn't feel comfortable having a spotlight on me, never made it out of the music scene in L.A.," she says. Still, she'd carved out her intentions with an education in music-making, sound and art at the renowned California Institute of the Arts.
Rundle eased into the new-millennial Los Angeles post-rock scene at the experimental end of shoegaze folk. Her own project, The Nocturnes, made largish waves in the local soup with its addition of goth flavors. But it was in L.A.'s Red Sparowes that Rundle began generating serious heat. With the confidence she was gaining Rundle began to grow into her own talent and clarify her vision for it. Some Heavy Ocean, her 2014 solo project for L.A.'s respected Sargent House label, spoke for her definitively, exploring stretch feats in her vocal expression and particularly in her guitar range, from nuanced to explosive.
Meanwhile, though, she had formed the band Marriages with fellow Red Sparowes alum Greg Burns. The duo later added drummer Andrew Clinco. In that project's 2015 release, Salome, Rundle's voice and guitar work are intentionally mixed down so that all the parts have equal importance, all members of the team. The songs on Salome don't explicitly report on the famous seductress' life and times, but they may reflect the complexity of Salome's circumstances, and, she admits, those of Rundle, herself.
"My life is not rainbows. None of this is story. The goal is to perform and not to act. The goal is to be present with the material and the music and the moment that you're making it. All of the emotion of that is all about things that happened in and around making that record. I don't know how to tell a story that isn't based in reality."
It's nonetheless a great story. Time Out London just called Salome one of the 25 best albums so far in this year that's seen releases from Blur, Sleater-Kinney and Sufjan Stevens among much more predictable company.
Marriages - Audiotree Live from Audiotree Live on Vimeo.
Check out the full live session of Marriages courtesy of Audiotree Live + don’t miss Marriages on their North American headlining summer tour w/ creepoid on the remaining dates before they head to the UK for ArcTanGent Festival and supporting Deafheaven’s UK performance at the Scala in London.
