Marah. Aprenda inglés (del bueno) con Harlem

"We are very rock & roll"

Ningún disco, tampoco el aún reciente Angels of Destruction!, su sexta entrega, hace justicia a Marah. El grupo neoyorquino (de Brooklyn) comandado por los hermanos Bielanko rompe con la pana en directo. Ahí se muestra como una de las mejores bandas de rock and roll que te puedes echar hoy en día a la cara. Si vuelven, no te los pierdas.

Please, mister (esta llamada de atención la aprendí de Faemino y Cansado; nunca falla), who are you?
This is David Bielanko. I am the singer. I am the diva. I stand in the middle.

¿Por qué dirías que Angels of Destruction! es el mejor disco que habéis grabado?
On 2005´s album, If You Didn´t Laugh, You´d Cry, I felt that Marah had turned a corner and realized we could work much faster and to greater effect by being more spontaneous, hasty and punk rock about our recording process. To work quickly helps Marah capture its essence. On Angels of Destruction! we took those lessons a step further by pushing the band, the writing and the atmosphere in a similar spontaneous direction, by design. We recorded most of these songs in the first or second take. Later we worked them but never to the point of overworking them. At this point, our attitude is talent over technique, and let it be.
This year we also added Christine Smith on the piano and she helped us realize the sound of these songs a lot too... This album has made me believe that Marah are still growing and developing and maybe our best work is still yet to come! That thought makes me excited beyond words! I am very proud that Angels of Destruction! is reaching people and that folks are finding it to have great depth.

¿Por qué abandonasteis la idea de grabar un álbum triple?
In total, we recorded 33 songs. Some of them were very hard to leave behind, some of them I plan to go back and rescue soon, some of them just weren´t finished (mixed, mastered, etc.) others simply didn´t fit in. In the end, Angels of Destruction! was merely the first cohesive record that revealed itself from a mountain of new music that we created in 2007. Also, it was simply unaffordable and unrealistic to finish and release all of that music at once. Story of my life!

¿Qué has querido contarnos en las nuevas canciones?
Most of these songs speak of the oldest themes in the world: good and evil, right and wrong, the darkness and the light of things. In our lives, destruction and redemption are forces we as a band are constantly confronted with. In a way, this concept is the very essence of rock and roll music (just ask Jerry Lee Lewis!). Angels and devils are always fighting it out for the last word.


¿Crees que escribes mejores canciones ahora que has dejado de lado el alcohol?
Much of this record was written on both sides of this fence, so who knows??? (some while drinking, and some while drinking Coca Cola light). There is an undeniable sense of ¨The times they are a´changin´, ¨Standing at the crossroads¨, ¨A change is gonna come¨...
If you ask me, however, my brother Serge summed it up the best when he turned up at the studio with a new song called ¨Wilderness¨. In 5 minutes Serge drove home a point that I´d been trying to make for months. ¨Wilderness¨ deals with being beaten and bloody, but still standing. It´s about having to endure great hardships and woes only to find a deeper and more soulful you. Later we added chain-gang elements and worked to capture a band playing like slaves, building a road through a wasteland, but always moving towards salvation. Step into the light!

Para mí sois una banda de rock and roll. ¿Es reducir demasiado? ¿Hay otra manera mejor de presentaros?
Most days I have to agree with you. We are quite simply a rock and roll band. Sometimes we play our songs too loud, sometimes we get so excited we play them too fast. We work very hard to make songs that say something....sadness, joy, rage, fear, love and friendship whatever? We are sentimental and soulful people....we are always looking for a connection between us and our audience. We are very rock & roll.

Son legendarios los enfrentamientos, tensiones y desencuentros vividos en grupos que incluyen hermanos en sus filas. En vuestro caso, el que Serge y tú seáis hermanos, ¿facilita las cosas o las complica?
Serge and I have no other siblings. We have played music together since we were little kids. Occasionally we fight like demons, but must get over it quickly in order for the music to continue. We are like the Zipi Zape of rock and roll!


He oído a más de una persona decir que le gustan más vuestros directos que vuestros discos. ¿Sois una banda que ofrece su verdadera medida sobre el escenario?
Sometimes I feel like it is very difficult to ´bottle´ what we really do and who we really are. Night after night on stage is where I feel that we truly can shine. When the sun goes down, in a nightclub, it feels like us against the world and we have all grown quite used to that feeling. It does seem though, that perhaps Angels of Destruction! is the closest we´ve ever ome to an 'accurate album' (by that, I mean a photograph of us frozen in one small moment in time. Hola!)

¿Es realmente especial para vosotros tocar en España? ¿Os hace especial ilusión?
I have always been a bit of a romantic. I tend to live in my head a lot.. Spain has great rock & roll music fans, yes... and we like playing music here quite a bit too, but to me it is something more than that... Spain has a bit of magic that makes our shows here something I look forward to with great anticipation and when the tour is over and I´m back home in New York City, I miss you!
We have visited the Prado in Madrid and saw the dark and haunting paintings of Goya! We have played at Azkena Rock Festival in the blinding summer sun! We have seen snow on mountain tops and sat on the beach in Mataró! One night in Oviedo I drank so much cloudy apple cider that i woke up in a park! We´ve spent a grand total of 11,000 € on tapas!!! Spain is full of magic.

Bueno, eso es lo que ponemos en Bilbao de bote/fondo cuando quedamos con la cuadrilla. Para acabar, ¿qué planes tenéis?
Our future is very much up to us at this moment...I´d love to release another album in 2008 and work super hard towards making this band one of the very best in the world. Everything else just feels pointless to me.