Indie-rock band, Marathon, is willing the go the distance. The five-piece based out of Lebanon, PA mixes the ambient stylings of Coldplay and Cursive while exploring the progressive feel of Circa Survive. Check out their story below!
Members:
Zach Wagner – Lead Vocals // Lead Guitar
Erich Wagner – Backup Vocals // Rhythm Guitar // Percussion
Rob Battle – Bass
Paul Winter – Keyboard
Ricky Kreiser – Drums
How did you form?
It is partially a family band – Erich, myself (Paul), and Zach are related (Erich and Zach being brothers). Rob is from the same area, went to school with us, and now lives with Erich. Ricky comes from a neighboring city – Lancaster, and we discovered him through mutual musical friends. The current lineup has been together for roughly a year, coming together in the summer of 2013. However, we’ve all been playing music since we were teenagers, and have collaborated musically since then as well to either jam or to work on different projects. So there is a familiarity to the group that allows for its cohesion and our ability to work together naturally. Zach is truly the locus of the music, being that he is the chief songwriter and possesses an amazing amount of musical talent beyond his main instruments. It is simply what he was born to do.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
There are two things that are competing for the main highlight from two different facades of our career – one is the release of our debut album, in particular its reception thus far, and the other is a number of performances that stuck with us, which culminated in Pittsburgh’s PrideFest earlier this summer. In regards to the album, the amount of praise it has received has been inspiring. You don’t exactly know what you’re going to get back when you put something out, and when people – whether it be people we know, fans, other musicians, or writers – want to tell you that they love what you are doing, that’s telling us something on a bigger scale. I also mentioned PrideFest, which stands out on its own because of how huge of a festival it was (and because of its nature), but it also felt like an amazing way to wrap up some of our initial touring. Honestly, we’ve fell in love with a number of venues, some of which, surprisingly, were more intimate locations, which is the exact opposite of what we experienced at PrideFest. There’s a different kind of excitement to be had both for the fans and us when we are playing on the floor at a sold-out show in a small venue, versus the excitement of playing on a gigantic stage in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh. Those are the kinds of things that we look forward to experiencing, and, overall, it has been an incredible start to our career.
Why should people listen to you? What makes you different?
I think the easiest way to describe what we do is as a fresh take on things. We certainly share similar vibes with other alternative artists, and people pick up on that. Yet it’s never the same response. A lot of people have made comparisons but we rarely hear the same comparison twice. That’s a good thing – it means we’ve found a place of our own without having to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. What we do is familiar enough to people that they can pick up on the overall ‘genre’ of our music and get into the songs. At the same time, there are aspects of our music that are totally our own. A good example of this is the drums in ‘Roomful of Clocks’.
Be sure to check out Marathon on all their social media!
Website // Facebook // Twitter // YouTube // Bandcamp
