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We've always strived to write the perfect song. That's what it boils down to really. You don't want to be the best musicians or have the most flamboyant music, you just want to write the best songs. -Pete Trewavas |
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One of the hallmarks of Marillion is how well they listen to each another, especially for such top-flight musicians who could easily solo endlessly and showboat over the other's parts.
 Fish |
"We don't really think of it in those terms but I suppose we've grown together in a way. There's a natural empathy for what each of us does, and a huge amount of respect for what we do together," says Trewavas. "What ends up coming out of a room with the five us playing is just something special, and there's no way of knowing why. You can't analyze it too much. It just happens and it's great when that spark is going on."
Even after 10 studio albums with Hogarth, they still get blowback, from press and fans alike, for the departure of original vocalist Fish, who's remained an active solo artist, though always closely tied to his '80s work with Marillion, which remains his meal ticket.
"Occasionally, you get the diehard fans, the ones who scream the loudest, but that's really the exception rather than the rule. What we get is less about Fish than about being a band who's been around for so long," Rothery observes. "So many journalists have preconceptions about what we stand for. It's a cliché but the whole 'Scottish heavy metal band' for some people or Fish's theatrical elements. That's incredibly frustrating if it's just a case of lazy journalism. We had two reviews of the [new] album in the main daily newspapers in the UK. The one in The Times was an excellent piece but The Telegraph just completely slighted it, but it was obvious the guy hadn't listened to the record. It's so easy to trot out clichés."
Like Faith But Not Faith
With their own recording studio and label, Marillion has an enviable independence, especially amongst working bands.
"Now, to be in the position not to have interference at all from a record company is the best possible situation for an artist to be in. Financially it also makes so much more sense because you only have to sell a fraction of the records to sustain a decent career," comments Rothery. "When you sign to a major label, depending on your deal, you make well less than a [British] pound a copy. We sell an album directly, and depending on what edition it is, we can make 10-15 pounds a copy. All of the sudden, you can sell half as many albums and make twice as much money. It's insane to sign a deal – which we've done in the past – especially with independent labels, where you get an advance and your lucky to see any royalties after that. At least doing it our way helps ensure the continued survival of the band. With the way the industry is going, with so many sales lost to downloading and CD copying, in a way we're in a better position to survive than a lot of bands signed to major labels, tied up in contracts for years and years."
The last time Marillion made it across the Atlantic was a mostly acoustic trio of Rothery, Hogarth and Trewavas in 2005. This very intimate setting made abundantly clear that despite all the usual bells and whistles in their work, the core songwriting is amazingly strong.
"You've got to get that right. If you can play a song on one or two instruments and get the point across, get the feel across, then everything else will come together and flow," says Trewavas. "What's nice about those kind of shows is it gave us a chance to pare the songs down and give people an idea how the songs may have been put together in the first place, before the production and the extra bits and pieces get put on. A song always has a starting point, and that's what we were taking the arrangements back to. It's amazing to have just three of us perform [a song] and still have the same intensity, and sometimes more intensity because we can get quieter. There isn't the same sense of volume or performance in an acoustic show. If somebody whispers more people will listen than if somebody shouts."
Right now there's no firm plans for a U.S. tour behind Somewhere Else, but Trewavas remains hopeful. "You never know. We're personally pushing for it because we'd love to come back. Whether the reality can happen, well, I don't know. The problem we have is we can do both coasts and dip into the Midwest but there's a whole area where we don't know what to do. Logistically and financially it doesn't always make sense, which is really sad. It's a huge beast to try and conquer, and I don't think you should even try to conquer it in one go."
Unlike many of their peers, this hardly seems the end of Marillion's story. There's still music to be harnessed, feelings wrestled into poetry you can lift a pint to, and these five gents are just the ones to do it.
"All being well, we've got at least another three or four albums in us. Provided we all last that long [laughs]. I can't see any of us doing anything else really. The chemistry and magic we have together is quite unique and we'd be insane to stop," says Rothery.
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