A Q&A WITH MARJORINE: PSYCH SPACE POP, MUSHROOMS & FLORIDA
photos by Marisa Whitaker
[Nicholas Comaratta and I met at Main Drag Music during The Thing’s after party for their Music Hall of Williamsburg gig last December. We’re sitting in The Dark Room, a studio and venue in Gowanus, for our interview. Marjorine’s new EP, Drop Deep, was written, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Nicholas. Marjorine is David Arthur (bass), Matt Carroll (drums), and Nicholas (guitar/vocals).]
Marisa Whitaker: I’m so glad we met. I love the initiative. We met and were talking about setting up an interview at some point, and you followed through.
Nicholas Comaratta: I've been booking a bunch of DJ gigs this year and talking to my buddies who are also trying to book more DJ gigs. I just keep harping on the power of the follow up because when you send an email or message, you gotta follow up. I'm always annoying people. We actually met somebody else that night at The Thing after party who works for a Narcan distributor. Literally the day before that, we were talking about getting Narcan for this space because we're doing shows, and that should be something that we have. I've been nagging her. I appreciate you appreciating the initiative.
MW: Yeah, of course. I don't think it's ever weird if an artist reaches out for an interview. I got my start through commercial music journalism, where I’d get pitches from artists’ teams mostly. With local and indie bands, it’s all up to you — social, bookings, merch, promotion, etc. I can’t say I know very many bands that are doing all of it, and it’s because it’s a lot and hard to keep up and do it all yourself.
NC: That’s what we're trying to embody more with this space, too, is just giving more local opportunities. Interacting with venues and booking agents sometimes can be a real pain, because they want to know what your socials are like and stuff. In some of the shows that we're booking, we're booking artists that we really like, but then also giving new and upcoming artists opportunities.
MW: Why did you start Marjorine?
NC: I was out of the city for the pandemic. Before that, I was making a lot of electronic music and playing in another band, and then that band sort of drifted away during the pandemic. I was listening to Sgt. Pepper's one night in 2020 and was going through this artistic crisis, “What am I gonna do for the rest of my life?”, not knowing what was gonna happen with the pandemic and stuff. I was like, “Fuck, The Beatles did this shit in 1967. I should just make psych rock. That's what I really want to do.” I’ve always wanted to.
MW: Way cool. Yeah, dude, as I said, I fuck with the EP. It’s so in my lane, being a huge psych rock fan. I got obsessed while I was working at a sick record store in Missouri. There’s a few other bands in town who make music in a similar vein, like The Mystery Lights and The Thing, but why do you love psych music? What inspires you to make it? Especially in a time like right now when it’s not as common.
NC: When I first started making music around 12 years ago, I was obsessed with Radiohead and early Tame Impala records, like Innerspeaker and Lonerism, and from that obsession, I knew that I wanted to chase a sound that's in the middle of that. I might have texted you or put it in the press kit, but this EP is what I envision as being “psychedelic space pop.” I love King Gizzard and stuff like that, but a lot of it goes pretty hard. It's pretty distorted and garagey. Our first album that we released last year is pretty garagey, too. Why I did this EP on my own was to hone in more on the space-poppy vibe that I've been thinking of. It’s something that I've been chasing for 12, 13 years now, essentially. In a pretentious way [Laughs], I’m trying to do something that doesn't sound like other people. I mentioned Radiohead, early Tame Impala stuff, and King Gizzard, but I also recognize that I don't want to sound like them. I’m pushing myself to explore new sounds and combine different stuff. I was making a lot of electronic music for five or six years before the pandemic, and a lot of the things that I learned in making electronic music, I still use those techniques and concepts when I'm making this music, too. It’s in that vein, and I’m bridging a lot of my different influences. I work at a record store here in Williamsburg, and it introduces me to all these different influences and different types of music. I’ve been doing deep dives on specific artists, and one day I listened to all The Police’s records. They have an album Ghost in the Machine, where they really dove into synthesizers and shit like that. I never would have thought of The Police in that way. I like educating myself more and just listening to more and more music.
MW: I don't think that there's any place in the world where you can learn more about music than a record store. I love that you work at one too. I always tell my interviewees, musicians, that the way you view music is so different from the way I view music, you know? I can hit a G chord on the guitar, but that's about it. Where does making an EP like this begin? The EP is so intricate and layered and all these different fucking sounds.
NC: I had never really messed with alternate tunings on the guitar. In December of 2023, I just started — I pretty much write most of my songs like this — playing my shitty Mexican acoustic guitar. That's where they start, just sitting on the couch and fiddling around while watching TV or movies. I was like, “Alright, I'm gonna just commit to drop D.” Figure out what that sounds like, get different sounds. I started writing all these riffs and ideas in drop D. I'm definitely the type of person where, when I write a riff and start working on a song, even though it's just simple and on the acoustic guitar, I can start hearing how everything else is gonna fit and develop into a full song with a verse, a chorus, and a bridge. I’m messing around on the guitar for a while before committing to going into the studio to actually record it, which is obviously a whole other step of the process. It's taking what's in my brain and trying to put it into the computer and on tape. The EP’s first track, “Body,” I had that in my brain. I knew how every part was going to be, and it was just a matter of getting it out there. There's still moments where I know that there's some empty space here, and I want to add a synth part. I start exploring with different chord progressions and synth melodies. There's a bridge between having it in my head and putting it out there, but also leaving room for experimentation. The third track, which is called “Dave’s Red Couch,” was a tribute to our bassist’s couch. I've lived with him for a number of years, and I've written tons of songs sitting on that couch. He's really proud of that couch. He deserves a shout out for that. For that song, I wrote that guitar riff, and he was like, “This is the most Midwest-emo thing you've ever written.” I was trying to go for a krautrock, hypnotic thing, which I think is there. That one was a little more difficult to put all the different parts together. Instead of hearing it in my head, I started doubting myself in terms of what it was going to be. It ended up turning into something that I really wouldn't have envisioned it being in the end. I was pushing myself to do something new and different that I haven't really done before.
MW: My favorite song is “Day of Sun.” Tell me about it.
NC: I wrote all these songs in Florida last year in December. I was visiting family, and I brought an acoustic guitar. I woke up the first morning, and it was super sunny and really nice out. I started strumming those chords, and those were the first words that came out of my mouth. That was pretty much it. It just happened. I knew that it was going to be a guitar intro with vocals, and then the full band would come in. It was a lot of experimenting with the idea of what the full band would sound like when it all comes in. People think I’m crazy, but when I’m traveling, I always want to have some sort of musical instrument with me. A new space gets me super inspired. I'll sometimes even go on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace in that place and look for a cheap acoustic guitar if I didn't bring one. I get a lot of inspiration from being in a new place. New York's awesome and super inspiring, but when you get out of here, it can be equally inspiring. When you come back, it can be even more inspiring.
MW: I love that you said that. I interviewed Lee DeWyze for SPIN a while ago. He had flown out to a festival and was super inspired by the town it was in. He ended up renting a house there for a few months after that and wrote a whole new album. That album wouldn't have been what it is had he not been in that town, in that exact time, in that moment. I think of Joni Mitchell and Laurel Canyon too. There's millions of examples — but what were some of the physical attributes or experiences or items or sounds in Florida that inspired you?
NC: That's a good question. I think we all suffer from seasonal affective disorder here in New York. While in Florida, I liked to run. I ran around nine miles a day each day that I was there because it was so nice out. When I’d finish, I’d have a serious runner high and be buzzing. Also — I tell this story a lot — but I was there with my sister and her kids, and we went to a water park one day. Her kids are all under the age of seven. I was like, “I'm going to a water park. I'm going to take some mushrooms and just have some fun.” I think it was Christmas Day, actually. When we were going up the stairs of the slide for the first time, I’m holding my nephew’s hand, and he's like, “It's pretty high up here, Uncle Nick,” and I'm like, “I'm almost scared now.” [Laughs.] We get to the top, and it's like, “Alright, Uncle Nick's gonna go first to show everybody that you can be brave and do it.” I went into the blackout one, where it's totally dark while you're going down. It was a crazy rush.
MW: Sounds like a trip.
NC: It was. I felt really rejuvenated. [Laughs] We were staying at this place, right by this swamp area, which is obviously a totally different environment to what we have here in New York. I think that was also equally inspiring from an environmental aspect too.
photo by Marisa Whitaker
MW: You told me earlier that you watched a lot of movies while you were making the EP. What are some of the films you were watching that inspired you? What about music influences?
NC: I recorded in upstate by myself. I was isolated with my mom's dog, and I was watching a bunch of movies. I watched No Country for Old Men for the first time, and that was definitely a massive inspiration. I also listen to a lot of interviews and podcasts with artists and directors to learn from their process and to be inspired. I love talking to other artists at parties because knowing that other people are going through similar crises of confidence in their art making makes me feel better. Not to tell another mushroom story, but …
MW: I like mushrooms too. Let’s hear it.
NC: I really like mushrooms. I saw Dune: Part Two when I was upstate. I had read the book, and I was super excited for the films. I had read earlier that week that Frank Herbert, the author, was all about mushrooms, so I knew I had to take some mushrooms and go see Dune: Part Two. [Laughs.] I don’t know what happened, but I was in the perfect seat in this IMAX screening, and at one point, I just started sweating profusely. I had to take off my jacket and hoodie, and at some point, I literally blacked out. I thought I was being so obvious and that dude who has to get up to leave because he’s tripping too hard in this movie. Wondering if the people around me could tell. My thing with psychedelics, and what I try to remind myself, is that I bought this thing to go on this adventure. I got on this roller coaster because I want that thrill. I got myself together, and the next scene was Timothée Chalamet conquering the Shai-Hulud, and it felt like I had conquered Shai-Hulud. [Laughs.] I really liked the movie, and I was very inspired by the director, Dennis Villeneuve. I proceeded to see it two more times in theaters. I'd say that was a big inspiration in terms of the process. I went home that night and did a bunch of recordings. I woke up the next morning, and I think I laid down the vocals of “Day Of Sun” because I was so inspired. In terms of musical influences for the EP, Radiohead, unfortunately, is one of my biggest north stars. Not even in terms of sound, but their ability to experiment and push boundaries. I was listening to a lot of Stereolab and Broadcast at the time too. I’d be walking the dog and listening to movie podcasts, and I’d come home inspired by those conversations with artists working on their thing and how they overcome challenges.
MW: You said in your press write-up that this EP is a successor to your 2022 EP, Mattress 4 U. In what way is it a follow-up? Is it a sort of second chapter?
NC: It’s an EP also with four songs, with just me doing all the parts, and both are from an isolated period. With the Mattress EP, I wrote and recorded all that when I was in Palm Springs for six months in 2021 during the pandemic. I wanted to go somewhere new and try something different. It's just me in a room by myself, experimenting with these different songs. It's also me chasing that psychedelic space pop vibe that I had talked about before. Whereas the album that we released last year, which was recorded with the whole band, is definitely more garage, more traditional psych rock. For these four songs, I think in terms of sound and aesthetic, the isolation aspect, and it being all done by me is why it's like the spiritual successor. It wasn't necessarily meant to be that way. I didn't go to Florida, being like, “I'm gonna write an EP. I'm gonna write a bunch of songs.” I came back from Florida and I was like, “Oh, these are all in drop D. I like the idea of doing something in drop D, and just focusing on that.” It came together that way.
MW: You also had written on the press write-up: “On this EP I decided to lean into this repetition, in many ways to represent the way one’s brain can focus on repetitive thoughts and phrases when you’re stuck in a certain mood or emotional state.”
NC: I said before that in the EP, only two of the songs have changes in lyrics. Otherwise, it's just me saying the same thing over and over again. Most of the lyrics I write for most of my stuff, it's just the first thing that comes out of my head. Not all of it is repetitive, I do a lot of storytelling in some of my songs too. I wasn't intending to have a theme or anything that I was writing the EP around. The first track “Body,” we were rehearsing last night, and Dave, the bassist, was like, “Is ‘Body’ about the vomiting thing that you've been going through?” And I was like, “Yeah, damn.” This is a lot, I guess, but I've been a stoner for around 12, 13 years. I'm not anymore, because over the last year and a half, right before I wrote these songs in Florida last year, I started randomly getting these vomiting fits of vomiting for, like, 12 hours. At first I was like, “Am I immunocompromised? Am I more susceptible to food poisoning?” There was no link. It wasn't from drinking, and I was eating different stuff. It probably happened five or six times, from Thanksgiving of 2023 until Thanksgiving of 2024. I ended up in the hospital because I was so dehydrated and sick. Finally, one of the doctors was like, “Do you smoke a lot of weed?” And I was like, “Yes, I do smoke a lot of weed.” But I was also offended. [Laughs] I was like, “Fuck off. This isn't for weed. Weed doesn't do this to you.” The doctor said, “You've been taking a lot of hot showers. That's the only thing that brings you relief. You have this thing called CHS, cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome.” It’s because the weed is too dank these days. Going back to that repetitive thought process, “Body” is me thinking, “What the fuck is happening to my body?” and the fact that it was a consistent thought that I had. It's also a reference to growing older, changing, and changing relationships in your life. Questioning, “What is happening? Why do I feel this way?” And how, when I was isolated, those thoughts can repeat in your brain.
MW: God bless you. That sounds terrible. However, it’s cool you turned your experience into a song.
NC: One of the taglines that I use for just this project is “hypnosis enthusiasts.” I really like hypnotic repetitive stuff. It annoys some people, I realize, but I like the concept of getting stuck in your head.
MW: What do you want people to get out of their listening experience of the EP?
NC: What you were saying in terms of layers and soundscapes earlier, I would hope that people can listen to it on headphones. As I produce and work on more music, the difference between listening on headphones, between earbuds or over ear, in a car, or on your phone speakers, I have a very different listening experience. Listening with over ear headphones in my bed is so different from listening through my iPhone speaker. If somebody listens through an iPhone speaker or computer speakers, hopefully they can latch on to some of the melodies and that those melodies can get stuck in their head. That's, unfortunately, what my job is, to get things stuck in people's heads. From a selfish standpoint, I would hope people could listen to it with headphones on, and hear all the textures and layers, and have a response to that, and feel like it's a cohesive piece of art from front to back.
MW: I feel it, and it is. I love it. I'm for real. Are you excited to play it live? How do you think it’ll be different live compared to listening to the recording?
NC: Definitely. I would say yes to both, in terms of being excited, but also expecting it to be different. I added a bunch of different things to the recordings. I have a 12-string electric guitar all over this record that won't be in the live versions. We’re still figuring out how to match those textures. We're rehearsing for our release show on the day that it comes out. We're gonna play two of the songs for that release show. We’re working through them and figuring out what parts from the record are super necessary, and which parts we cannot necessarily replicate live. It’s a really fun challenge. I have tons of pedals, and I have way too many delay pedals. It's a lot of me being the mad scientist in my brain, “How can I create that sound?” Moving from one sound to another, turning pedals on and off, which is super fun, and a nice escape from being in my head. Working on the tracks with the other band members is really helpful too. Dave, our bassist, is going to be playing some synth parts for the first time, and we're gonna have our drummer Matt playing some synth parts too. I guess we're technically playing three of the songs for the show next week.
MW: What about the fourth song on the EP?
NC: The fourth one, we have to figure that out. These are things that I go to sleep at night, or I don't sleep at night, thinking about. “How are we gonna do this?” I close my eyes and that's what I think about, unfortunately. It's always a challenge. I hate to keep harping on it, they’re such a big inspiration, but when Radiohead released Kid A, it was a big left turn. People say it's the biggest left turn in music history, whatever. [Laughs] One of the things that I fucking love, and they did the same thing with The King of Limbs, when they released that, it was like, “Yeah, we just released this electronic sound-scapey record, and the next thing we're going to do is release live versions of them, so you can see that we can do this live, and it's going to be different.” That's a massive inspiration for me, and it gives me confidence to do weird things in the studio and not have to necessarily worry about what it's going to sound like live. As long as you surround yourself with capable and inspiring musicians who are willing to go on that journey with you, you'll be able to attain those sounds in a new and interesting way too. It's an exciting challenge.
MW: What are you most looking forward to about the gig?
NC: Getting the songs out there. You're literally one of three people who have heard it. It's just you and the other two members of the band, and that's it. I went through a phase when I first started making music, and I kept telling people, “I wrote this song, and I recorded it. Look at how cool this is.” I wanted to share it with everybody. In the past couple of years, I've definitely become way more protective of things until they're absolutely done. I realized that it's not in your best interest as an artist to show people the working product. In some cases it's good, like if it’s a demo and you’re wondering for feedback on the melody or something like that. I've had good experiences with sharing stuff, but I did a lot of over sharing for the longest time. Literally today, just before I came over here, I submitted the final, final, final masters. You heard the second to last master, so hopefully the version that goes up will be a slightly better version. I'm mostly just excited for that, and also to let it go and be like, “It's done.” I've been thinking about it for over a year now. Letting it go is a very good release for me, and because I'm obsessive and want to always be doing things, it's the excitement of working on the next project too.
photo by Marisa Whitaker
MW: What did we miss that you want people to know about the EP?
NC: That's a good question. I think the biggest thing that I've come around to since I shared the EP with the rest of the band is that this is another step closer to the sound that I have in my head. When I'm recording or engineering as a band, I try to think, “What if we were a sort of Davie-Bowie-esque? What if we were recording this as an alien band on another planet? What would it sound like? Why would it sound different from other stuff that we hear?” I promised the other band members this recently, this is the last thing where I'm repeating the same thing over and over again. This is also because I'm not smoking weed anymore. You can definitely trace me starting to smoke a bunch of weed, getting into production, laying down in bed, and listening to stuff with my headphones on. Instead of focusing on the lyrics, I started focusing on everything else. Now that I'm out of that phase, I should start focusing more on lyrics and lyrical content because I know people care about that. I don't necessarily care. I have fun writing funny things, but I don't really have fun writing heartfelt things. I want to tell stories and write catchy lyrics, but it's more fun for me when it's just fun. I guess that's a dumb way of saying it. We have some songs about dogs that we’re working on that are a lot of fun, and we've got this other project called “Trash Train.” It’s a reference to Bushwick, and the trains that ran by our old studio, which was in the same building as that restaurant Habibi, and that bridge that you walk across. That train is literally a trash train.
MW: I saw a trash train on my way here.
NC: I want to dive more into telling interesting stories, but stories that I find fun and meaningful. I recognize that I should write things that people want to engage with, but first and foremost, I should be writing things that I would engage with before anything else.