Marner Brown

We met up with guitarist of Marner Brown, Aaron Grimes, 24 in the Hawley Arms for a few drinks, far too many cigarettes, and a chat about his experiences with the music industry and being in a band.

Aaron got into guitar aged 10, after watching a live performance of the guitar god Jimmy Hendrix. Starting with an 'awful' first guitar, a £70 fender strat copy which he still has in storage, he slowly progressed and persisted to be the guitarist he is today.

Marner Brown have had a few changes of line up in then 5/6 years, with only their lead guitar, vox and keyboars being original members. However, it seems for the better by their latest sounds. Aaron explains how the bands mixed interests, he's into Zeppelin, and 'Old School Stuff such as The Who'. Whereas the other members interests range from Manchester sounds (Stone Roses etc..) to Funk, Britpop (Supergrass) as well as a mutual love for Prince. This is a good thing though, according to Aaron as,'it provides variations in the sounds and influences in their music.'
Their sound and the way they play is so important to Marner Brown 'you've got to be good live, anyone can make a good record, theres computer programmes etc that can help the sound but live you dont have that mask. youve got to be good to get people to listen to you... you cant just sit on your arse at a computer all day (refering to social networking within bands).'
The phenomena of Social Networking, has become a big part of being in a band, especially lesser known ones. The band do have a Facebook and Twitter to keep up with fans however, it is a task as Aaron explains, we're not into it but understand how its important to keep it up.'
The problem is, it seems, 'anyone can make themselves a page about their band... its not so much about how good you are but how popular you are... and how well you can self promote.'

The most rock and roll thing he's ever done...?

At a Quicksilver fashion/music show, the roadie at the time let off fire extinguisher, which then set off the alarms on all 3 floors of hotel, thick gas flooded the hotel. The other hotel guests went mental, while the band went back to bed and all fell asleep covered in white foam from the extinguisher. The tour manager then went round the hotel and dusted/cleaned it all with a pillow to try and clear them of the blame, but forgot to clear his footprints on his way back to the room, so they were busted and got chucked out of the hotel. The police were called, they were threatened with deportation and prosecution. In true rock and roll fashion they got away with it.
In short, they don't just do the cliche smashing shit up.

And Aaron's advice for being in a band?

• practice your ass off, get good at your instrument.(he plays/practices 6 hours a day)
• if your shit and in a  band which doesnt work out you are screwed. if you're good then you can always be a studio musician etc
• keep in mind that there's always something to improve, always room to get better
• enjoy it, there's no point otherwise...

If you fancy going to see the guys you can check out their gigs here.

Hope you've enjoyed this interview.
keep on rocking in the free world.

Amie and Liv
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