Sam: Before Marian Hill, I was dabbling with singer–songwriter projects, and I had performed at a lot of open mic nights and local venues in the city. I know you two are originally from Philadelphia, so are there any particular Philadelphia groups, people, or musical acts that were a direct influence to your progression? From there, it was just building outward from that blueprint. That became our template moving forward, along with the addition of Steve Davit, who plays sax with us when we go live. The components that make up that song are big drums with a hip–hop pattern, heavy bass tones with smaller atmospheric elements creating space and ambience, contrasted by very middle–of–the–mix, underproduced bluesy vocals. Jeremy: In a very practical sense, our sound really came from our song "Whiskey." We were both working on lots of projects at that time, which all sounded cool and different, just kind of trying see what worked and what felt good. You guys have referred to your style as a “classic bass sway." Is that still a good descriptor? How do you think that that style kind of came together? We did one tour around Sway, one tour when Act One came out, and then the " Down" tour, which is what just happened. Jeremy: We’ve done a lot of scattered one–offs and a lot of festivals. Kansas City was our biggest crowd, which was really cool. It was our first time playing two nights in a row at a venue. Sam: We did get to play two nights at The Fonda, which was awesome.
It was this new venue with a brand new production, so I think just because it was all starting, that was definitely a real rush there. Jeremy: Playing in New York was really special because we started the tour at a brand new venue in Brooklyn called Brooklyn Steel.
Were there any dates or particular performances that stood out to you over others? It was cool because we toured with these songs in the fall, but this time around, we were really comfortable with them and could just sit back and enjoy the moment. The rooms were mostly sold out, and if not, very full. Marian Hill - ACT ONE (Complete Collection)