Introducing: The Marches

The Marches are a Scottish female pop-rock band, with members based across Ayrshire and Paisley. Established as a four piece in December 2023, The Marches have been preparing original music behind the scenes, and have curated an album of songs ready to be released towards the end of the year. Heavily influenced by some of the greatest female fronted bands of the past, Fleetwood Mac and The Bangles to name a few, The Marches hope to bring a similar timeless sound back into the music industry. ‘In Comes The Fear’ was released on Friday 5th of July, and ‘Talking Too Much’, the newest single from The Marches was released on Friday 13th September! The Marches have plenty more songs to follow. Stay tuned!”

1. Your new single, 'Talking Too Much,' is a witty response to male detractors on the Glasgow music scene. What inspired you to take that tongue-in-cheek approach in this song?

Funnily enough, it was based on a true story and a real life experience at a gig. We were approached by a guy at The Keg in Paisley, and were advised that we are really good - for all girls at least! He went on to describe how female bands tend to be less talented in his experience. We were expecting to hear similar comments in the industry, but with this being one of our first few gigs, we weren’t really expecting it so early on! We decided to take ownership of what was clearly a backhanded compliment and make light of the situation. We are proud of our music, our talent, and of being women!

2. You’ve mentioned being influenced by iconic female-fronted bands. How do these influences shape your sound and the message you want to convey through your music?

Among the group we have a wide taste in music! The ones we have in common and talk about most tend to be Female solo artist and Female fronted bands. This goes from The Bangles, to PJ Harvey to Taylor Swift. All of these woman pose as role models for us. It has helped having a sound engineer that has worked with a couple of our biggest influences, the Cranberries for example. The overall sound we aim to achieve has a been a group effort and resulted in being a  merge of taylor swift pop with a PJ rock edge. 

3. After the success of 'In Comes The Fear' and headlining at King Tuts, how has your experience in the Scottish music scene evolved, and what challenges have you faced along the way?

It was an absolute dream to start off in the Scottish music scene with our headline gig at King Tuts and releasing our first single ‘In Comes the Fear’! Since then, we have done four further gigs, including 2 headline gigs, support and performing in a local charity event. We have been able to connect with many amazing people, and bands, and are now a well known band within our local communities! We have also had both our singles played on many radio stations all across Scotland, with our latest single ‘Talking Too Much’ being played on BBC Radio Scotland! 

4. 'Talking Too Much' has an anthemic pop rock sound. Can you share a bit about the songwriting and production process behind this track?

Our latest single “Talking Too much” was actually written well before the band got together. Roughly 5 years ago the chorus came about whilst playing the main riff on guitar and it all came together from there. 

Once brought to the band the meaning of the song and message changed. The comment “not bad for a girl band” was made to us after performing at The Keg in Paisley. We then knew what this song should symbolise. And we wanted to be blunt about it,  hence adding this comment right at the start of the song, mimicking our real life experience as an all female band. 

When going to record this single at Raptors music studio, it was understood this song should be full of attitude. The pop/rock sound fitted. Our friends Danny Ollie and Martin, who worked on recording/mixing and advising on this track, all shared the same idea. We wanted a strong pop song that bit back at the infamous comment! 

5. With more music on the horizon, what can fans expect from your upcoming releases, and how do you plan to keep building on the momentum you’ve gained?

Everything we have planned ready for release is a little different from the last but with the same crisp harmonies and exciting guitar riffs that we have layered throughout our existing tracks. We want to show our diversity as a group whilst also maintaining what we feel is a unique sound within the existing music industry. Fans of our music can expect a lot more to come - with a catalogue of songs getting the final tweaks behind the scenes ahead of release.  We plan to keep our listeners interested by releasing new music as regularly as within our means to continue the momentum we have built - and we plan on showcasing some never-heard-before songs at our upcoming gigs. It’s all really exciting for us, and we have a lot of belief and passion for the projects that are upcoming. We can only hope that they get the momentum we feel that they deserve as the feedback on the first two tracks have been great. For In Comes The Fear, we were played in so many countries across the world, like the USA, Spain, South Africa, Canada, and it blew us away. We think it would be amazing to have more of that ‘worldwide recognition’ going forward with our tracks in the future, too.