Not only is Marianas Trench the deepest known spot in any ocean (located in the floor of the North Pacific Ocean), it’s also a Vancouver-based rock band that is the brainchild of vocalist/guitarist Josh Ramsay. Ramsay — whose dad once owned the Little Mountain Sound studio that recorded bands like Aerosmith and AC/DC in the ’80s, and whose vocal teacher mom recorded and toured with Leonard Cohen for two years — had been writing and recording since his teen years. He unsurprisingly learned to track his own songs early on, crafting music under the influence of rock and pop-punk bands as well as vocal groups with an ear for bright harmonies. Still a teenager, he began shopping his solo stuff around and took plenty of advice for improvement over the next several years. The rotating cast of musicians in the band that eventually appeared around Ramsay settled down by the early 2000s with people from the local scene: guitarist Steve Marshall, keyboardist Matt Webb, bassist Morgan Hempsted, and drummer Ian Casselman. Initially, they were called Ramsay Fiction, and the frontman’s persistence paid off when the band finally scored a deal with 604 Records (co-founded by Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger) in early 2003. By the 2006 release of their debut, however, the group — by then called Marianas Trench — comprised Ramsay alongside Casselman, guitarist/vocalist Matt Webb, and bassist/vocalist Michael Ayley. Their label debut, Fix Me, surfaced in the fall of 2006, and the single “Say Anything” soon broke into the Top Three on the Canadian singles chart; “Decided to Break It” also did well on radio and MuchMusic. Marianas Trench then contributed a song (“Alibis”) to the spring 2007 soundtrack for ABC Family’s popular teen sci-fi show Kyle XY. Their sophomore effort, Masterpiece Theatre, was released in 2009 and quickly became both a critical and commercial success after going platinum in their native Canada. Feeling ambitious, Marianas Trench decided to try their hand at a concept record, in 2011 releasing the more narrative Ever After, which was reissued with bonus material in the U.S. in 2014. A pair of singles, “Pop 101” and “Here’s to the Zeroes,” were released that same year, both were later included on the four-song EP Something Old/Something New, which showed up in early 2015. In keeping with their conceptual themes, the Marianas Trench’s fourth LP, the Goonies-referencing Astoria, arrived later that year and was inspired by fantasy and adventure movies of the ’80s.
Live the Music
