Merle Marlow Band – Living It Up On Summertime
ARTIST NAME: Merle Marlow Band
SONG TITLE: Living It Up On Summertime
ALBUM TITLE: –
RELEASE DATE: June 10th 2022
GENRE: Country
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LYRICS
Creating a Song: We usually start from a guitar/vocal demo that our singer Merle Marlow has recorded on his phone. From there we work on the main guitar parts for the song, and record a demo with the whole band.
Themes: We always try to write songs about things that happen in our lives, but it also happens that we see something in the news or in the lives of our friends that brings us some inspiration for a song. I think the secret for getting inspiration as a songwriter is to be always attentive to everything and note any song idea you might have.
Greatest Musical Works: Our last single, “Western Sky”, released in 2021, has drawn some attention on radio stations here in Canada, and has been played on regular rotation on Sirius XM CBC Country, which is a great honour and achievement for an independent band like us.
Music Process: Outside of the band itself, we like to collaborate with talents we are comfortable with. That’s what happened for our last two singles, we worked with producer Marc-André Donais here in Montreal, he exactly understood the kind of sound we wanted and I think we are very proud and happy of the work we have done with him on those two singles.
Future Goals: We are very blessed to be able to play on big festivals this summer here in Canada, including the Truck Rodeo and the world famous St-Tite Western Festival, so we can share our music with an ever-growing number of people. Our next goal is to record an EP to be released in 2023.
Music Industry: I think the fact that music is now mostly promoted on social networks and streaming services is a chance for country music artists here in Canada. Before that, country music was a very local market, but now Canadian country artists are gaining some visibility in the US and in Europe. There is a share of challenges though, especially because artists cannot rely on selling music to make their money, we have to be more and more ingenious in finding new ways to make a little money, so we can continue making music.
Greatest Mistake: I think the main mistake that we try to avoid when we write a song is to imitate another artist or another song. Every song that we write, we make sure this is really representing who we are and make sure people can identify this is a song by the Merle Marlow Band.
Song: This song, “Living It Up On Summertime” was written last winter, when we were all locked-down here in Canada. We were hoping that this summer would be better than the last one, and wanted to write a summer-anthem we could play during our live shows. This song includes a lot of classic rock influences, mixed with our 90’s country influences.
Instruments: Like all the songs from the Merle Marlow Band, this song is really guitar-driven, but there are also some rolling banjo parts throughout the song that brings that summer flavour to it.
Musical Skills: We are very lucky to have a mix of musicians coming from various influences in the band. Our singer Merle Marlow has been raised on 90’s and 00’s country, and you can hear it in the vocals. Our bass player Jean-Sébastien, a former rodeo champion, our drummer Sébastien who has been playing in various top country bands for more than ten years, and our keyboard player Carl, who is a multi-instrumentalist all also have some strong country influences. Our guitar player Fred is a huge Led Zeppelin fan, and brings some rock and blues influences to the band.
Influences: Our biggest influences are Kenny Chesney, Montgomery Gentry and Brooks & Dunn. Recently we have been big fans of Luke Combs and Cody Johnson since their debuts, and here in Canada, Matt Lang is a huge influence and inspiration for us.
Press:
Following the path of other great Québec country artists that are recently breaking out from coast to coast, Montreal’s country band the Merle Marlow Band is releasing their brand new single “Living It Up On Summertime”. Written during the pandemic, the up-tempo rocking country track is the summer anthem that we all need to get back to some kind of normal and celebrate summertime. Following the release of their previous single “Western Sky” that got some attention on FM and satellite radio stations last summer, the band has teamed up again with producer Marc-André Donais, and the song has been mastered by legendary mastering engineer Andrew Mendelson (Kenny Chesney, Cole Swindell, Eric Church, Willie Nelson) at Georgetown Studios in Nashville. Get ready to live it up on summertime