emo | Overtone

We had the pleasure to sit down and chat with the UK alt-country artist Pip Marsh ahead of his latest single drop. Join us as we chat about being a UK country artist, his writing process and plans for the future!

How would you describe your sound? There’s some country in there, some rock and emo in there too, but it’s hard to pin down!

That’s what I want, man! My entire kinda heritage really… I grew up I guess as a country boy, my dad was agricultural, so I grew up in the sticks. Like most of us I got onto Papa Roach and Black Sabbath and Blink-182 and I fuckin’ there it is! So for years I was in bands, I got to do Download a few times and Sonisphere etc. Then, in my last band, I was writing and I was kinda writing more country vibes and that felt like where I needed to go. When that band disbanded… what if someone took all the cool shit from an alternative sound, an emo vibe, and that production warmth of country, into that y’allternative kinda vibe. So I was like, ‘I’m gonna write some music how I’d write a song, but then I’m gonna put some banjo in it, some mandolin, and just make it really fucking y’allternative. And here we are! I’m trying to do something fresh and different and people are resonating with it a bit!

And you’ve got a new single out this week (at the time of recording), right?

Dude, yeah! On Friday ‘We Should Drive’ is dropping. So hyped to get this song out! It feels like the perfect mix of alternative and country. There’s slide and pedal steals and shit, but the drums are fucking solid and the melodies are quite alternative. I’m really excited about it! I’ve got a few singles out and been working on stuff in Nashville, but this was written with my producer, Andy, this magic just fucking happened bro! I think it’s got legs!

It’s been less than a year since your debut solo release, right?

Less than a fucking year, man! It’s weird because obviously I’ve been in bands for years and done some really cool shit, used to be on Kerrang! TV pretty regularly and all that. But when my last band was ending… in a nutshell me and my dad had an on-again-off-again relationship for years. When we got back in touch he said ‘son, I’m not really liking this metal stuff you’ve been doing’. So I showed him the demos of the country stuff and he was like ‘this is really good, you should go to Nashville!’. I was like yeah, whatever. But then we lost him in the December and I was like ‘right, I’m gonna fucking do this for my dad’. And before I knew it I was stood on stage in Nashville playing the fucking Whiskey Jam and getting the whole crowd raising a glass to my dad. I just feel like where I’m meant to be! Just getting started, baby!

I imagine it’s a different approach to writing as a solo artist compared to with a band?

Oh, I much prefer it! As much as I love the people I was in bands with, we’re still friends and that, the politics just gets too much. Everyone wants to put their own stamp on things, which is fine, but sometimes it can get a bit… sucks all the fun out of it! So getting to go solo and work with people who I wanna work with and who will trust my vision is great! That’s what I love about working in Nashville, the sessions out there work so differently; one-to-one, 10-1 and you’ll write a song. You’re working with people from all different places and writing bangers! It’s so cool, man!

I’ve spoken to a few people recently who’ve done the Nashville writing scene and it’s so cool to see it’s embraced UK music a lot too!

Yeah! I was out there working with Scattered Brains, he’s produced Jelly Roll, Yellawolf, Struggle. And then I’m writing with Luke from Lakeview and my boy Mason who used to do guitar for Justin Bieber. I’m clearly just so the lowest of the food chain, there’s so much talent there. It’s that Wayne’s World shit, ‘I’m not worthy!’ But the whole point of it is for people to work for you as an artist, and that fucking worked!

It must be weird being from the more alternative side coming into the UK country scene?

Dude, I’m definitely the big dirty dollop of Marmite in the UK country scene! Everyone is so welcoming, everyone’s lovely, and for the most part… the UK country scene like the cosplay, they like the cowboy hats and stuff, and this is no shade on any UK country artist that does that, it works for them and that’s amazing. But for one you won’t catch me in a cowboy hat because I look like a fucking tit. But I’m not about that. I’d feel like a dick if I went out to America and started singing in an American accent. And again that’s no shade on anyone that does that.

I opened up for a guy called Sam Palladio. We’re really close friends, he was in the TV show Nashville, British actor but he played this American called Gunner Scott. It was one of my first shows. I went to open for him and I think people were expecting how it is on the show, but even his album’s rocky. So you can see the cowboy hats already. I burst on-stage, snare kick comes in, I’m like “what the fuck is up?!” Everyone is just like ‘what?!’. Cardiac arrests were happening, I’m sure!

But for the most part, people just respect that I’m doing my own thing and support it. That’s what’s cool about it! You’ve gotta stand out a little bit or you get lost in the feathers.

We’ve done Long Road festival the last few years, and I’ve done plenty of rock festivals over the years, but it’s the warmest reception I’ve had for sure!

Long Road’s a great one, the lineup this year is sick! I’m on Country Calling in Essex this year. But yeah, the country scene is warm. I did Buckle and Boots and C2C this year. I think going on tour with Lakeview was a really good thing for me. It put me on the path of ‘well he was on tour with Lakeview, so he must be a bit rocky’. Rather than seeing me with someone really proper country.

Is your plan to stick to single released or are you building to an EP or album?

Honestly, I’m in the dark with a lightsaber right now, hitting anything that moves! Right now I’m thinking an album probably isn’t the right thing for me. I’m just gonna Don Broco it for a bit. Then, when the time is right, I’ll drop an EP, and then probably another EP. Maybe a live record. I’m going back to Nashville soon to work with Scattered again, and me and my producer Andy are cooking. I’ll take whatever, man. I can’t announce it yet but I just confirmed a tour. One thing I can announce is I’m supporting my boy Liam Cromby, who is from We Are the Ocean. I’m just fucking in, man! I’m at this point where I want to play alternative and country shows. If people love it, amazing, if they don’t, just fuck off, innit!

I think it’s that hard to determine what to even put out these days. Even the social media side of things is a nightmare!

It’s so hard, man. It’s all fucking content now. You can be like, ‘I have a single ready to go, artwork’s ready… shit, I need to arrange a content day’ because you’re at that point now where you think should you sink £500 into a video, or £150 into a day of content. It’s really tough, man. The one bit of advice that I learnt recently is if you think of TikTok as an entertainment platform instead of a social media, it sounds daft but that slight switch and shift in brain pattern has helped my output a little!

South Wales’ own Ortario returned with a vengence at the start of this year with their brand new single, and a last-minute, awesome set at Planet Rock’s Winters End festival. After that, we knew we just had to sit down and chat with them!

How would you describe your sound?

Yeah, I’d definitely say pop-punky with a bit of kinda emo dashed. A bit of alternative rock as well. All mixed together to get that Ortario sound.

Welsh rock music!

You were quite a late addition to Winters End, right? How did that come about?

Yeah so that’s the thing, Pyrogaric had to drop out because the guitarist broke his arm! So we got approached by Planet Rock then asking if we could fill in. And I’m really glad we did, it was an amazing show, a good crowd. And we sold a load of merchandise which is another bonus! We’re really grateful!

I think we were definitely a different sounding band to some of the other ones!

It’s kinda weird in Wales. It doesn’t feel like there’s been much of a scene for a couple of years but it does seem like it’s coming back. It’s definitely bouncing back! In the early to mid 2000s it was a huge thing back then, it was thriving. But I think it did see a drop after that for a while. But I’ve noticed over the last coming decade there are so many bands emerging from South Wales, and they’re all great. There’s always a really good opportunity to find a band to play along with and get back on the scene. It’s great!

Check out our review of Winters End here!

Yeah, it’s great to see! There’s quite a few festivals down there at the minute too, right?

Yeah, there’s always something going on around here! We’re always surprised what’s going on ourselves to be honest!

There’s a massive festival going on in the summer called In It Together. I think it’s going to be Wales’ biggest festival. So hopefully one year we can get onto that one, that’d be a good opportunity for us. Another one is Steelhouse festival, another massive festival. They only do that a couple of miles up the road from where we live! It’s a nice weekend-long festival and they have some great bands, especially some grassroots bands from around the area as well. It’s a great atmosphere… if the weather’s good!

So you put out the first single off the EP last month, right?

Yeah, so that’s ‘Scream With Me’. We released that with a video. It’s a bit of a new release schedule for us. In the past we’ve always released albums or full EPs. We’re trying the single thing, which seems to be more common now. Drip feed a couple of singles out instead. But I think once all the singles are out from this line, we’re gonna release that as an EP at the end. Release some videos with the singles as well. We want to keep the content running as much as possible!

You mentioned that the next single is coming pretty soon, right?

Yeah! It’s ready to go. It’s back from the studio and mastered and ready for release. It’s just a case of… ‘Scream With Me’ I think has a couple of weeks left on the circuit and then we’ll release the new one then. It’s called ‘Open Eyes’, and it’ll be out in the coming months. We’ll get a video out for it as well, so keep an eye on our social media! We’ll have some promotional material going out for it soon!

Have you struggled to focus more on singles over bigger releases, then?

Yeah… I think the thing about it is that you need to have a schedule. Normally you go into studio and record some stuff you’ve been testing for a year and you get it as one big project. Whereas now we have to kinda sit on our hands with some of the stuff we’ve been working on and then stick to a schedule, which is a bit different for us. Be a bit more structured in the release. We were ready to start with the next track before we’d even released the other one! Doing a release you have to be ready for the next release; it’s just a perpetual cycle.

It’s kinda weird; we’ve just released ‘Scream with Me’ so for a lot of people it’s a new track, but we’ve actually played it for a year! It does seem to be the way that everyone’s going these days though and it does seem to work, with streaming and social media and stuff. You need stuff that’s instantly accessible really. Everyone sees that single and you can just focus on that one thing. People have got short attention spans! There’s so much content these days, we’ve just gotta keep up with that!

In one sense though it does mean we put a lot more time into that one track, rather than having eight tracks coming out and four of them are great. We’re not just rushing things then!

Is another album on the cards down the line?

Yeah, I think we’ve got a tonne of material that we’re working on at the moment. It’s just a case of putting it all together and testing it. The place where we recorded all of our previous EPs are closing down in April, so we’re looking to start producing our own stuff anyway. We’re just getting all the gear for that at the moment. It gives us a nice challenge then, as well! It gives us more freedom, and the chance to be more self-sufficient. Now we can record every little idea we have and play with it for a couple of months… then re-record it again!

We’re gonna start doing things our own way and spending more time on the finer details of the recording process. A couple of us are producers on the side anyway so it’s good that we can use that knowledge on our own music!

Have you guys got a pretty busy rest of the year planned?

March is pretty quiet for us now as we’re getting some new content ready. Then we’re back in April and May. Got the Station 18 festival in May which we’re really looking forward to in Swansea. It’s a cracking line-up all weekend so if you have the time head to Swansea and take a look! Should be a good one! Apart from that we’re always looking and open to playing shows anywhere and everywhere! Try and get out of Wales a bit more. So any opportunity for us then we’re gonna snap it up!

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Pip Marsh: ‘I’m definitely the big dirty dollop of Marmite in the UK country scene!’