In Conversation with Marlin’s Dreaming: New Zealand, Music Videos and “Hello, My Dear”
PHOTO BY CHRIS MAUGER
Dunedin-based four-piece Marlin’s Dreaming melds distinct and striking sonic landscapes within each album release. The widespread influences and unfiltered talent of Semisi Ma’ai’i (Vocals & Guitar), Oscar Johns (Bass), Hamish Morgan (Drums) and De Stevens (Guitar) work together to create otherworldly listening experiences. Their most recent release “Hello, My Dear,” while freshly unveiled, provides a stunning glimpse into the newest Marlin’s Dreaming record HIRL, set to release later this year.
“Hello, My Dear” is a warm, intentional and deeply introspective single. Ma’ai’i’s elastic vocals float above ear-catching bass lines and twang-tinted slide guitar. Within the creative process and in conversation, the bandmates are succinctly in tune with one another. Friendship is the commonality to their intricate, ever-changing artistry.
Pleaser: I want to dive in and talk about your new single “Hello, My Dear,” which I’m loving. To me, it feels very fresh but also nostalgic and comfortingly familiar, both sonically and lyrically. What influences did you draw from when making this track?
De Stevens: We sort of made that song when we were up in this place called Wânaka here in New Zealand which is sort of in the Central Otago area, which is in this beautiful, lush country. At the time, we were listening to a lot of American bands like Wilco. They’re kind of slightly country but not country. Maybe that was informing the sort of simple arrangement and having a bit of the slide guitar in there as well.
Semisi Ma’ia’i: [There’s] definitely Pacific Island influence on our music along [with] all of our stuff that we’ve just recently recorded.
But that song in particular is about going to a different place and then coming back to the place where you lived and not recognizing it. The chorus is kind of a little bit otherworldly.
It’s transient and it’s going away, and then you’re coming back to the place you don’t recognize anymore as it sort of sucks out a bit drier through the verses.
What inspired you to write this song? Was there a specific moment that caused you to write it or was it more general reflections about your life and coming back to that place that you’re familiar with?
SM: I moved from Dunedin to Auckland —Dunedin is a small city in the South Island of New Zealand. And then I moved up to the main city and I think it was going back there after being in the city. And there was that feeling of “I’ve left a certain place and then I’ve gone back to where I’ve come from, and I don’t really recognize it anymore.”
Are there parts of creating songs that you enjoy more or find the most fulfilling?
Hamish Morgan: I like the sort of jamming at the start of it, figuring out the sort of sections that we’re going to do, and I don’t know…making it fun.
Oscar Johns: Yeah, there’s a certain excitement early on with the song when it’s fresh. That’s when you feel most strongly about it.
DS: I like untangling Semisi’s compositions because he has almost no technical musical ability. It’s all completely just natural talent that comes from some other plane of existence.
But I like sort of untangling little things that he brings and that’s always the fun, early stages of writing a song as a band. And then in a year, just all collaborating and sort of playing it together. It all sort of just falls into place.
What is it like to write together as a band? Are there certain elements that come first, or do different band members have specialties that they contribute to the writing process?
SM: I would say I generally write some shorthand notes of lyrics and maybe a skeleton of chords, and then De’s able to put all the notes together. Hamish is able to create the world that everything lives in. He decides what world it’s going to live in. If it’s going to be slow, if it’s going to be fast, if it’s going to be loud, if it’s going to be soft.
However complicated the song needs to be or how simple it can feel often reinforces what I’m saying lyrically and what the composition is doing, or it can go against it purposefully.
You’ve talked about how this single and your upcoming album are a full-circle moment for you as a band, especially in terms of production. Could you expand on this and touch on how this new music compares to previous releases like Lizard Tears?
SM: We started off making very light music. And then we released a couple of albums that were kind of a little bit more jagged in anger and distorted and rocky. Since then, we released an album in mid-2021 called Hasten, which had a lot of those elements, but also had a lot of acoustic underpinning it all. And then we’ve now worked on this album, and it does feel like we’ve gone back to the start in terms of how it’s not super abrasive.
DS: I think musically it’s quite a lot simpler. The majority of the songs on the record sort of step more into a place that you could compare to the simplicity of a folk song in terms of the chord structure and the arrangement. I think that the production kind of leans into that too, and that we didn’t try to add too much mood to it. The mood was more coming from the song. It wasn’t coming from heaps of texture and lots of overproduction or layers or anything. We had this lovely man called Justyn Pilbrow mix the record and he really polished it. He put a sheen over everything. It kind of has this quite alternative, folky thing but it also leans into this quite shiny, slightly pop almost, sounding world with a really bright vocal at the top. I think that sets it apart from the last record Hasten — that feels quite dark and deep.
How do you think your sound will progress in the future?
SM: It will depend on what we’re listening to.
HM: Maybe a pop record.
SM: It’ll be pop, yeah.
Talk to me about this music video! What story did you set out to convey, and what was the creative process like?
SM: I directed the music video and kind of just went on a whim and made it, and it became a more polished and high-production idea than I ever intended. And we just kept spending money. I was supposed to be in quite a low budget. I’ve got a studio that I use for painting, and I was like, “Okay, great. I can use the studio and I just need to hire an actor, just need to pay them a little bit for a music video and let’s do that.” And then suddenly the studio wanted to charge me $1,500 on top of what I was already using it for, and the actor ended up being three actors. It’s sort of a slightly ambiguous story — well we keep it ambiguous in the video — but it’s about a man who is sort of a strange painter who lives by himself in a sort of torn-up, dilapidated apartment building in the 1940s. It’s basically just him unraveling and having hallucinations of seeing his younger self and walking the halls of this building and feeling like what he walked in on was not what he was seeing down in the holes. And then walking back into his room and finding an older version of himself. Is he walking in on someone who’s already been there? And is he not real or is he seeing a hallucination?
How do visuals enhance the creation and impact of your projects?
OJ: I feel like it came later for the videos we’ve done for this album. The videos are always something to help promote the track. It seems to be sort of further down the track when it’s time to release.
DS: Well, “Hello, My Dear” was actually recorded quite a while ago now, and so, for me at least, seeing what Semisi created with the video gave the song new life for me. It suddenly had this whole new depth to what Semisi was singing in the song, and it made the song sound like it was kind of bigger and grander in scale, too, because of the freshness of the video.
SM: But surely you saw something visually on a song like that or something? It’s quite cinematic, I feel like. Do you guys see visuals when you hear a song?
HM: Some of that song.
DS: Yeah, sometimes, I think.
SM: I always do.
DS: And it’s your job to do that, probably.
SM: Yeah, I always see a visual when I’m listening to a song. Not every time but a lot of the time, I’m like “Ah,” and it makes me feel a certain way. Or, even if it just reminds you of a movie soundtrack or something in your life.
Before “Hello, My Dear,” you released “Earnestly,” which features Erny Belle. What was your thought process behind releasing these two tracks first as an introduction to the new album?
DS: “Earnestly” was a good first pick as a single. It’s very major feeling and upbeat feeling and has a great hookey chorus.
HM: And just the structure as well.
DS: Yeah. It’s quite almost like a solid pop song, but having Erny in as a guest vocal felt like an important thing to just put out as soon as we could, for us and for her. And “Hello, My Dear” was kind of the same, but a different side of the same coin. It kind of, to me anyway, represents the real strengths of the record, but in a different way. It’s not as cheerful sounding as “Earnestly,” but it has the same kind of impact, I think.
What are each of your favorite tracks off this new record?
OJ: “Country Planes.” I think that’s still my favorite.
SM: One called “Wallpaper.”
HM: I think I’ve gone through a few different favorites, because it’s been what, like two or three years since we recorded a lot of them? I think “Wallpaper” is probably my favorite as well, or a song called “The Enemy.”
DS: I think either “The Enemy” or “Country Planes” are probably my favorites.
“Hello, My Dear” was actually my favorite for the longest time. When we first wrote that, I would almost imagine that it was the best song we’d ever written.
I was like “I don’t think we can one up this one.” I think “Country Planes” has a special place, I reckon.
SM: Yeah, there’s stuff in there that I feel really proud of, but it’s not necessarily my favorite song. Favorite songs are usually something kind of comfortable that I feel like I would listen to.
Lastly, what music are you listening to right now that our readers should check out?
OJ: We’re going to see Blonde Redhead tonight, so I’ve been listening to a lot of that. I’ve also been pretty addicted to Blake Mills.
HM: I’ve been listening to this band called Tapir! from the U.K., and they’re really cool.
SM: I’ve been listening to someone called Saya Gray.
DS: I’ve been listening to a lot of Group Listening, and I think they’re from the U.K. They’re kind of like a duo, but they have really great stuff. They have a great cover album.
Click here to stream “Hello, My Dear” on all platforms, and check out the music video below!
Tags: Marlin’s Dreaming, Hello, My Dear, Earnestly, Ditto Records, Twang, Indie Pop, Alternative, New Music
