Chicago's Nora Marks have been making their mark all over the country with their brand of melodic rock. After their debut LP Opt Out in 2021 and the follow-up EP, The Buzzing Of Flies, Nora Marks are ready to take over the scene in the coming months. Vocalist Michael Garrity took a few moments to chat with TGEFM about the band, their influences, the future of music and what's next for Nora Marks.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congratulations on the success of last year's The Buzzing of Flies! What can you tell us about Nora Marks and your sound?
Thank you! Buzzing was a really fun project for us to work on and definitely (as intended) was a huge step for us in defining how we want to evolve moving forward. This was the record where Matt (Garrity – drums) and Matt (Galante – bass) really took the reigns in terms of what I've been calling the “creative director” role of establishing the tones and textures and mood of the music (and artwork), freeing me up to focus on the songwriting and melodic elements. They really created the foundation of that record, even contributing lyrical content for the songs “Final Form” and “Mouth of the Horse.”
At the start of the band, we weren't really thinking about doing anything other than making pretty straightforward punk/pop-punk type music, but even at a less mature stage, it was impossible to keep other influences out completely. Even possibly to our detriment. I think we were trying too hard to incorporate too much without the experience to back it up.
A lot of the sound now comes from leaning into shared references and being able to more clearly communicate our ideas. It gets easier and easier to find a way to incorporate everything that still satisfies all of us. Lately, we're establishing a blend of something that seems to veer into “post-hardcore” (probably the one genre we all love equally), but that maintains elements of more traditional indie rock or pop-rock that keeps it accessible.
Funny enough, though, “Sit Pretty” doesn't incorporate much of this, as it was definitely originally written to be a no-nonsense aggressive punk song.
What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst?
If we're going all the way back to the beginning, I can't really say anything other than Taking Back Sunday's Tell All Your Friends album. That one hit me hard and left a significant impact on my world from the moment I heard it. One way or another, all my taste in and passion for music pretty much comes downstream from that record. I liked music before that, but I wasn't exactly “into music” before that.
As a band, there are definitely artists that we pull from or reference very specifically as we're creating new music, trying to find the sweet spot between a couple of artists who I think are similar at a macro level, although the nuances of their sounds and styles vary greatly. The main ones we reference are usually Drug Church, At the Drive In, Brand New, and Joyce Manor.
As a writer, I'm largely inspired by a very specific songwriter canon. The big ones being Conor Oberst, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Nick Cave, The National, Tom Waits, Elliott Smith, and lately Lana Del Rey. These are the artists to me that are the most effective at transforming small moments, intimate emotions, or deep dark personal thoughts into sprawling, relatable statements of honesty and depth. Always in service to the songs, never at their expense. A lot of this stuff I think gets lumped in or written off as “sad sack” music, but when you get deeper into it, it's actually teeming with humor and life and beauty. It can be taken seriously because it doesn't have to take itself so seriously. That's what I'm always chasing or trying to do, personally.
You are gearing up to re-release the single “Sit Pretty.” The track originally came out in 2017, what made you decide to revisit the tune in 2023?
This song basically has never left our live set rotation, except for a couple months in 2021/2022 right after Opt Out came out. It's always been one that connects strongly with the audience and it's super fun to play, so we really have no plans or intentions of ever losing it in a permanent way.
However, a lot of our older recordings are a time capsule of an unpolished version of the band. When we didn't really have the chops or recording experience needed to make something that came through the speakers with as much energy as it conjures in a live setting. And we've just changed so much since then. I'm the only person still doing the things in the band now (singing and playing guitar) that I did on those recordings.
With this track specifically, there's the totally practical reason to re-record it – because we're going to keep playing it and want people to go back and listen to the best possible version of the song. But also as a piece of songwriting, it still holds strong against the rest of our catalog, and I think we all just felt it deserves to really have its “time in the sun,” if you will.
Nora Marks is hitting the road in July with Cut Your Losses. What can fans expect from your live show? What song is your favorite to play live, what song is the most difficult in a live setting?
One thing I love about our live show as we continue to get better at this is the ways in which we're able to bring out new aspects of the songs in each setting and pull from different dimensions of them to suit the stage or audience we're playing for. I love making catchy music that sounds nice and accessible when you're streaming it or whatever, but I also love playing loud and aggressive shows that are high energy. Another way that The Buzzing of Flies was huge for our band was that we concocted a whole small collection of songs that worked well one way on record but were malleable in a live setting. I think we definitely tend to play harder and have more intensity in our performances than people expect when they've only heard our recorded output.
Favorite song to play live is probably “Mouth of the Horse,” mostly because it's the one where I get to take off the guitar for a bit. “Final Form” I love in the opposite way, since it's mostly just me playing guitar and getting to focus on that element of the music on such a killer track is always a fun change of pace.
Most difficult definitely varies among each member. “Nice to Me” is one that at times requires a lot of quick back-and-forth transitioning between singing and playing guitar leads, but we also don't play that one much anymore because it can really slow down the set. Of the stuff in regular rotation, “I Think You Earned It” is definitely the one that requires the most concentration for me. It's a lot of lyrics to remember and the rhythm guitar really has to stay in the pocket at the same time.
Speaking of the live experience, what's the state of the scene from your point of view? We are living in a “just deal with COVID” world and everything about this timeline is some level of completely fucked, but since 2020, it does seem like the live experience has been rejuvenated for the crowds and artists. How has the live scene changed over these last few years for Nora Marks and its fans?
Well for one, we have fans now, which is definitely a significant change. 🙂
I mean, if I'm being honest, I personally view our time playing shows in the Chicago Music Scene as very distinct and delineated as “before” and “after” with regards to the COVID-related closures and venues eventually opening back up. Many of the bands that were most prominent and active in the city in 2018-2019 seem to have disbanded or slowed down significantly, and a lot of acts that were just starting out are some of the biggest local bands around right now. Heet Deth comes to mind, for sure. It's essentially a completely different landscape.
This is actually something we talk about a lot, because it's kind of hard from our perspective to understand if the way the scene operates really is all that different, or if it's just our experience that is different. Over the years and especially through and after the lockdown situation, we improved significantly. So it's hard to tell if we're just able to take advantage of the opportunities that come with putting in that work. If that makes sense.
But I will say it does at least feel different to me, and one element of that is that the overall scene has become highly supportive starting around 2021, with artists from across styles and genres all helping to create something that feels very connected despite what aesthetic differences we may have.
Nobody can deny the world has been changing drastically over the last few years. Where do you see the future of music, both for Nora Marks and also for the scene at large transitioning in light of these events?
I think I actually have no idea. I don't think I'm worried about things like AI replacing songwriters or whatever, because that kind of thinking really misses the point of why we write songs or what it is about music that brings people out of their homes to a show in the first place.
But it does seem like regionalism and highly localized music scenes are on the verge of becoming the sort of lifeblood of the live music world. Touring seems to be increasingly unstable and unsustainable for many bands, and I think for that part of the industry to stay afloat, these local scenes have to really create strong communities that will consistently come out to see and support their local bands. If that can sustain itself through a few more years of economic and political turmoil, I think live music will always have a place.
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should know about?
Oh man, Chicago is so stacked with great stuff right now I don't even know where to begin. I mean, in just the last four weeks we got masterpiece records from OK Cool, Pinksqueeze, and Cut Your Losses, and that's not even counting all the great albums that came out earlier this year (Anything is Everything, Sweet Bike, We Weren't Invited, Tommy Kessler) or still to come (Totally Cashed, Strawberry Boy, Turn N Fire) or just different singles or small releases tucked in between everything. I can't even keep up, and I honestly find it very hard to wrap my mind around the fact that we get to play anywhere near the orbit of these bands. Anyone unfamiliar with any of them should become familiar quickly!
But that being said, one band I definitely think people should start looking out for is Shotgun Funeral (featuring ex-members of Annie's Takeout). Their first single “Cartography” is dropping in early July (I think). I've heard it a bunch of times now and it's very good.
What's next for the members of Nora Marks?
We've already got a new single recorded and being mixed and mastered as I type. This one will be out in early August, followed by a release show we have planned at Schuba's. Ideally, I think we'd like to parlay this track into a full album, which we've already titled and started to conceptualize. We've got another song mostly written for that, too.
Shortly after that, my wife will be having a baby, so we're going to take a couple of months off from live shows and use the time to keep writing. I'd love for us to get some traction on this new music and hopefully be able to refresh our live set a bit when we do return to the stage. Also hoping to do some more (or at least more extensive) touring in 2023 if it's in the cards for us.
Was there anything I missed that you'd like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
Just want to also take the chance to thank Isaac and Loco from Psych City Studio here in Chicago (also from the bands We Weren't Invited and Isn't It Strange?) for helping us with this new version of “Sit Pretty” and really doing justice to this song for us. They've been involved in a lot of great local projects in the last 12-16 months here, and we were really excited to work with them and get to be part of their catalog and legacy.
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A Pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed's musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he's self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/