We had a chat with Marsheaux, the brilliant synth-pop duo made up of Greek singers and musicians Marianthi Melitsi and Sophia Srigiannidou, just before the their excellent albums “Inhale” and “A Broken Frame” were released by the Canadian label Artoffact and (Undo Records). Let’s get to know this dynamic duo a little better…
Chain D.L.K.: What’s your definition of pop or the definition you like most?
Marsheaux : “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.
And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,
there will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
there will be an answer. let it be.
Let it be, let it be, …..
And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light, that shines on me,
shine until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music, mother Mary comes to me,
speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
Let it be, let it be, …..”
Paul McCartney
Chain D.L.K.: Could you tell us how you guys met and decided to create Marsheaux?
Marsheaux: We met at a “Depeche Mode” party in Thessaloniki, organized by Hysterika ,the Greek Depeche Mode fan club. We were there with common friends and then, at one moment, the “Stories of Old” song starts playing. We found out that we had common interests. We began hanging around and after two years we moved to Athens for different reasons. It was in Athens that we came up with the idea. It was a spontaneous act while trying to prove to our boyfriends that we could make better music than they did. It proved to be a great idea for both of us, once it helped us get through the faze of adjustment with the new city.
Chain D.L.K.: How did the situation in your country influence your music?
Marsheaux: We are trying to stay focused but it’s not that easy. It’s been hard for quite a few years now. Greek people’s everyday life today is very different from how it used to be. We don’t want this to affect our music and we have succeeded to a certain degree. Greeks are by nature fighters and we will get through this faze of history, only facing problems that are not completely irreversible! At this point, our politicians have failed us completely and a lot of the job concerning social welfare is being delivered by private efforts. It is too big of an issue to discuss in a few lines.
Chain D.L.K.: You remixed plenty of notorious tracks… what are the best and the worst remixes you did, from your point of view?
Marsheaux: We won’t mention our worst! It wouldn’t be fair cause every time we do a remix we consider it to be one of our best. We love making remixes! To mention just a few of our best ones: Mylene Farmer, Katy Perry and Bertine Zetlitzs.
Chain D.L.K.: Have you ever had an imaginary conversation with one of your musical reference points? Do you have any complaint for them?
Marsheaux: We would really love to have a musical small talk with Mute’s Daniel Miller or Human League’s Phil Oakey. We were very lucky to meet Andy McCluskey of OMD, a music legend with great knowledge and extreme opinions about music! It is literally a great pleasure to talk to him about music in general!
Chain D.L.K.: I had the privilege to listen to your forthcoming album…My compliments! It’s really amazing! Could you introduce it using your own words?
Marsheaux: We spent the last few months in the studio working on the whole “A Broken Frame” album. The original idea was to make it and sell it to our consents, but we changed our mind on the way and decided to release it properly. “A Broken Frame” is maybe Depeche Mode’s most underestimated album. From the cover to the very last track, it’s a true masterpiece. We do believe that “A Broken Frame” is Depeche Mode’s kick-start and we are extremely happy that the result of our work is exactly what we had in mind at the beginning.
Chain D.L.K.: Is there any song you keep on humming when you’re not in a studio or on stage?
Marsheaux: sophie: Abba all the time.
marianthi: Some old Madonna songs and many Prince songs
Chain D.L.K.: Someone says you’re the perfect crossbreed between Depeche Mode and CocoRosie…do you agree with such a “genetic” definition?
Marsheaux: Yes we like it a lot. We like those kind of comparisons.
We bought the first Editor’s cd when we read a review about the fact that the band’s work was the best album Echo and the Bunnymen never did. Or when Tori Amos’s debut was compared to Kate Bush. We’ve heard a lot of Marsheaux comparisons. The best one was kind of ironic. At the time we were in the studio recording “Peek a boo”, a fan of ours wrote:” your new work sucks, you remind me of Belinda Carlisle”. That was the best compliment!
Chain D.L.K.: Who is the best critic you had and what was the worst compliment you ever received?
Marsheaux: The best was “if Marsheaux would release albums in 1983 ,they would be the queens on the top of the mountain” and “Lumineux Noir is the best synth pop album since Violator” and the worst one was from Warner Greece, when we sent them the Ebay “Queen” demos :”Sorry, but this is total crap for us to release ”
Chain D.L.K.: Your sound equipment includes many legendary synths (Roland CR-78, Korg MS-10, Roland SH101 and so on)…Is there any piece for which you care like for a child, for e.g.?
Marsheaux: We still buy old analogue synthesizers and drum machines. We want to buy a Roland Jupiter 8 but all the sellers we found are from the USA and it would cost us a fortune to send it to Greece. Aside from this, we want to buy the Korg MS50 .
We have our favorites, of course.
Marianthi’s is the set up with the Korgs sq10,MS10, MS20 and VC10 vocoder and Sophie’s is the Roland MC-4 Microcomposer
Chain D.L.K.: Is there any fil rouge linking together “Inhale” with your previous albums?
Marsheaux: Probably not. We want each one of our cd’s to be different than the previous ones. We also have different moods and impulses every time we start working on our new stuff. The only thing they have in common is the synth pop style. Nothing else. We never think like:”I dream of a disc we worked on, let’s do another similar one”
Chain D.L.K.: Can you imagine a world without music?
Marsheaux: No way. Our life was strongly connected to music way back before Marsheaux. We were the kids of ‘The Smash Hits/Record Mirror/Melody maker” and “No1” magazines. We loved to listen to the music in the UK charts and Billboard charts when we were kids!
Music is our soul, literally!
Chain D.L.K.: Any forthcoming tour?
Marsheaux: In March we’ll start promoting “A Broken Frame”. We have some touring dates in Europe and we’ll visit USA for the first time. We hope to come to Canada as well.
Chain D.L.K.: Is there anything you’d like to say before clicking on “send reply”?
Marsheaux: We are sending our wishes for a healthy and happy 2015, to all the people around the world! We also hope to listen to better music this year.
Visit Marsheaux online at: www.marsheaux.com