Band Marino

By S. Corey Thomas

Photo by Anna Melcon

A menacing two-headed sea monster looms hungrily over a group of floundering little fish on the cover of Band Marino’s debut release, The Sea & the Beast. This whimsical painting (the work of frontman Nathan Bond’s girlfriend, Anna Melcon) positively begs for a narrative — or at the very least, an interpretation. “Well, there are five fish,” offers Bond, “and there are five of us. And there’s a two-headed dragon.” He laughs, and pauses for effect. “We let people draw their own conclusions and make their own stories up.” Much like the provenance of their name, the members of Band Marino leave the tale of the Sea and the Beast undefined. But perhaps there’s an allegory here that the artists themselves have yet to discover.

The story of Band Marino isn’t so mysterious. The Orlando quintet began in 2003 as an impromptu two-piece when Bond recruited his best friend and fellow high school senior, Jonathan Nee, for a last-minute gig. “He didn’t really play any instruments at that point,” recalls Bond. “He’d just started messing around with the banjo, and we found an old keyboard in the attic, so I taught him some keyboard parts. We were just having a good time — it wasn’t anything serious.” After the initial show, the two continued to dabble and picked up other bookings. Before long, guitarist Jesse Adams, drummer Dylon York and bassist Abe Couch started jamming with the fledgling musicians. It soon became clear that they were onto something. “When [the others] joined the band, it all started clicking. But it was still a long road with the five of us, I think, due to the fact that we’re all really young ... Our guitar player is still 20.”

The band is hardly shy about this fact, even noting each member’s age alongside his instrument in the press kit. York is the oldest at 24, and Bond believes he contributes an important element of maturity to the dynamic. “[York is] very much a cornerstone of the band as far as leadership because he’s older — it helps a lot ... He actually has a business degree, and none of the rest of us have been able to finish college.” As any undergrad or touring musician can attest, the rigors of academia and the demands of a serious rock band are rarely complementary. While many of their peers are busy cramming for exams, however, the band members have been just as studious in their own pursuits.

Foremost in their self-education was the process of recording their debut. Although the methods were entirely foreign to the band (none of them had ever set foot in a studio before), they took it on DIY-style and learned the ropes along the way. Creating an album by trial and error proved to be an ordeal. “We went into tracking in the middle of August of 2005, and the record just came out Dececember 2, 2006,” Bond recalls. During this lengthy affair, the group went through two mix engineers and mastering houses and spent countless hours retracking in search of the perfect sound. “All of those things were worth doing [and] we’re glad we did them. It was just a lot of hard work ... It’s an investment, and you don’t invest unless you expect to make something back. We weren’t going to stop and just let it be something half-assed.”

The persistence seems to be paying off. The Sea & the Beast topped the charts in Orlando’s indie record shops for its first three weeks on the shelves; by the end of the month, it had sold nearly 1,300 copies. This achievement is even more impressive when one considers that the album is completely self-released. Issued under the band’s own Street Parade label, the recording also heralds Band Marino’s emergence as players in the challenging world of music publishing. Characteristically, they view this as a chance to further their industry education. “We’re stoked about doing this because it’s going to be a whole new thing we get to learn. Then, when we do sign a deal — if we do sign a deal — we’re gonna know that much more about what we’re doing because we would’ve done it ourselves already.”

The record itself is a lesson in traditional music. Without pretense or precociousness, the young artists draw from the deep wells of folk culture in crafting their newfangled tunes. As the primary songwriter, Bond confesses a fondness for these anachronistic styles: “The music that I’m really into, I will admit, is traditional music from around the world. I love the instruments they use ... I love the variety. It doesn’t get mundane to me.” Throughout its 11 tracks, The Sea & the Beast showcases a sonic palette of rustic Americana, country-pop and roots rock ‘n’ roll commingling in a vibrant whirl. Mandolins and harmonicas make cameos in shiny ballads like sepia-toned cowboys moseying through Technicolor spaghetti westerns. “I think it’s important to realize there are a lot of instruments out there, and there are a lot of colors,” explains Bond. “And that’s a big part of what music is about — creating a color and drawing a picture. You don’t want to use the same colors every time.”

Band Marino is currently gearing up to hit the road in support of their much-anticipated opus. Organized under the direction of longtime manager Chris Anderson, the tour scheduled for this spring will span the country, from the Deep South to the Midwest. A recent mention in Rolling Stone as one of the “Top 25 Bands on Myspace” is another auspicious sign of things to come for the humble musicians. Yet despite their youthful exuberance and preternatural success, the group isn’t letting the excitement overshadow the work ahead. “Being a young band — a new band — and also a new label, we’re trying to get all our ducks in a row... We’re just trying to assemble a cool team that we believe in — that we love — and then we’ll all go from there.” This is sage advice for any young person getting started in life. For Band Marino, the wisdom of experience is the best defense against the ominous monsters of the sea.

www.bandmarino.net