Fox Reviews Rock

Introduction

Forged in the underground scene of Amsterdam, Marathon have been making waves both in The Netherlands and the world over. With their debut album “Fading Image” coming out recently the band have a real momentum about them. We caught up with Marathon before their appearance at this years Orange Blossom Special Festival (OBS). Hopefully you enjoy the interview with the post-punk / Grunge band!

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Interview

I think it’s first important to establish if anyone in the band has run a marathon… And then to enquire as to why this was picked to be the band’s name?

I (Kay, singer) actually did do some running events. No marathon yet, but yeah i’m into running. However I became into running long after we started the band. Like in the last 2 years. It has nothing to do with the name. The band is called like this, cause when we were right in the search for a bandname, we all were late for practice because of roadclosures due to the amsterdam marathon.

We have noticed that both international and national media have noted you as a band to watch. Does this sort of thing motivate you or make you nervous?

Not nervous, it’s a bit of pressure, but we just do what we do and love the most. We just love to make music. As a bunch of friends, enjoying our time together, seeing something of the world and meeting so many nice people in the crowd and onstage.

I (Fox) will be seeing you perform this summer at the Orange Blossom Special Festival. What should I expect to see and how excited are you to play this festival?

Expect a very motivated band haha. We have heard so many nice sounds about OBS. I think already for a year, even before we got booked for the festival. It’s a big honour that we get the chance to close down the mainstage on Saturday and we just gonna do everything to make it the best and most energetic show possible. 

Your accompanying artwork has a similar look across the board. Would you mind telling us who makes these for you as what about this style you like so much?

All the artwork, from first singles to our debutalbum, have been designed by Bob Mollema. A great artist. We give him all the freedom to do his work. We just send him our music and he starts drawing. I think besides one or two occasions, we never interfered in this proces. He just gets the energy, message and vibe right all the time. Organically. 

In 2023 you released your self-titled EP. I adore the bass on “Mosquitos & Flies” . I would like to know though what song in existence has the best bass on it? My opinion is its probably The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, but I’d love to know your opinion.

I don’t think there’s a best bassline ever! But there’s a lot of different ones that have stayed with me like: tame impala – let it happen, joy division – disorder, beatles – come together , doe maar – sinds een dag of twee, rage against the machine – killing in the name of, and the first song I ever learned on bass billy talent – surrender.

Returning briefly to Orange Blossom Special Festival, their mascot changes every year to a different animal. This time it is an otter. But if your band was to have an animal mascot, what would it be and why?

We have a cat as a kind of mascot actually. It’s on our tshirts, caps and stickers!

Your sound is difficult to pin down, I’d personally stick it right in the middle of post-punk and grunge. But I would love to know how you would describe your sound and what bands inspired you along the way.

Yeah, you get that pretty well. It’s a mix of post-punk, new wave, grunge, shoegaze and indie. We just love so many bands and there is not just one that really inspired us or so. We jam along and see what happens and often people start comparing our songs to others’ after releasing or playing live. We do love Slowdive, DIIV, Killing Joke, Placebo, Deftones and a whole bunch of other great bands and artists. 

It feels like your singles progressively lead to something, that something being your debut album “Fading Image”. I would love to know what your own personal favourite song is from the album and why?

Ofcourse we love the album as a whole. It’s the variety that makes the album for us. So we are not too keen on pinpointing one song. But Shadow Raised a Star is a special one for us. It’s a old idea that transformed into this during the years. And that’s symbolic for how we work and for the emotion and hard work we put in every single song of us. 

If you could play in any country in the world , which would be your top choice and what about that country appeals so much to you?

We would love to play in Japan one time! Lennart (drummer) and I (Kay) visited the country and visited a concert over there. It’s different, more respectful and a bit crazy and we would love to bring our music to Japan. But ey, we just love to play everywhere. Currently we love our shows in France and Germany, people seem to like it real much.

I notice you’re from Amsterdam. Is it really as crazy as people say , and I really need to know what your thoughts on Stroopwafel’s are. Do you have any suggestions on the best ways to enjoy them , and maybe the best place to buy them from?

Amsterdam is a beautiful place to live. It’s small, riding a bicycle is a way of living and no we don’t smoke weed all the time. Ofcourse there is gentrification, over the top housing prices and a shit load of other stuff going on that needs to be adressed. But we make the best of it. Stroopwafels are nice yeah. Actually we just buy them in the supermarket, we ate tons of stroopwafels during the creation of Fading Image actually. But they are a bit dull honestly. The best way is to buy them fresh on a local market. And please dont buy them in overpriced stroopwafels shops in the touristic heart of Amsterdam.

Your music tends to have a real blend of melancholic and joyous sounds, is this a reflection on how you see the world at the moment?

The world can be a tough place right now. We don’t write this directly into the music though. But ofcourse we see and feel what is happening and ofcourse this ends up in the emotions of the songs. But it’s more about day to day life, written into scribblings and jams, never too direct but more in the deep layers of every song. 

I was recently listening to “Shadow Raised A Star” and it reminded me so much of songs by the band Thrice. I would love to know what bands you have previously been compared to and which one you took as the biggest compliment?

Never heard of them actually. We’ve been compared to so many bands haha… Sonic Youth has been one from the start up until now. The fun thing is, we actually discovered bands by comparisons made by fans. Like The Sound and the Chameleons. Great bands.

How did the album name come about , was it one persons idea , or a group effort? Also I would love to hear some of the rejected names!

It was a good and long search, but we were very keen to find the best name possible. I think we actually used some AI to help us. Nina entered all the lyrics into this and some nice suggestions came out. But we did our homework too, writing down the words that really felt like the best summary of the feelings and lyrics of the album. And so we felt like there was a lot about change, transience and progress. Everything comes and fades. Like a fading picture. Constantly on the move, it’s still there but for how long? And what does it end up like? Will there be nothing? Or is it a canvas for a new start?

Finally, can you tell us something funny that has happened at one of your shows?

Gosh, we played a lot of shows over the years and can’t really name one single thing now. I did my first ever crowdsurf at one of our shows, at the Best Kept Secret festival. That was funny and memorable!

All rights to the songs used in this interview are retained by Marathon. This site claims no rights over them. All images were provided by Marathon and taken by Junn.