Matt Webb from Marianas Trench dives deep into new album “Phantoms”

We had the opportunity to catch up with Matt Webb, guitarist for Marianas Trench, and pick his brain about their newest album Phantoms.

You guys have mentioned that Edgar Allen Poe was a huge influence for the album. Why Poe, and was there a piece of his in particular that stood out for you the most?

“I have a tough time answering that question because it’s sort of more directed towards Josh, who was sort of behind all the lyrics on this one. But I do know that Josh was up at his dad’s place and he’s got quite a collection of literature and happened to be looking through some books and found some Edgar Allen Poe and just took to reading it when he was sort of away at his parent’s cottage. He was just so inspired by a lot of the lyrics and his beautiful writing and wanted to sort of incorporate some of the darker subject matter of his material into the lyrical content of the record. I think that’s where that all came from. I can’t specifically say why he was inspired by it but I do know that’s where it all started from, just stumbling upon some books in his dad’s library.”

What was the writing process for Phantoms like? Was it any different from your past albums or did it follow the same path?

“Yeah well what we like to do is generally think of a theme to base the album around. So, on this record we did sort of a haunted theme and what that does is it gives you sort of a world to work with and, you know, you can pull lyrical content and songwriting choices and production choices from that. And so, we get into the studio and Josh comes up with some ideas and then he’s got it all going in his head and we start putting down tracks and fit pieces together and get going and that’s sort of the way we always do it. But, when you’ve got that theme to work around you can start to incorporate different instruments that you might be used to produce some sort of haunted sound. Or, you start with a song title like “Ghost” and then build a track around that. It just sort of gives you a little template to work from and that way you’re not just drawing at random inspiration from all over the place. It’s sort of a little more cohesive and synced I guess.”

What was the mixing process like?

“Well for me mixing is my favorite part of the recording cycle because the hard work for us is done and then we get to go into a beautiful mixing studio. We always mix at a studio called The Warehouse Studios in Vancouver which is owned by Bryan Adams. It’s a beautiful, beautiful old building and we go in there and we work an engineer named Zach and we get everything up and running and spend a day working; sort of like one day per song usually for us, we’re kind of slow at mixing. But it’s a really enjoyable process and we work with a guy named Dave Ogilvie who’s got a tremendous track record. He’s worked with Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Skinny Puppy and all kinds of stuff over the years and he’s a dear friend of ours and has been mixing Marianas for a long time now. So it’s always great to get into the studio with him and move some faders around and tweak some knobs and hopefully it turned out okay.”

Did you guys have any big worries around releasing Phantoms?

“No, not really. I mean it’s always nerve-racking when you release new material to the world. You’re always a little unsure if your fans will like it but we just got to make music that we enjoy making and our fans so far have been incredibly receptive of it. It’s always a little nerve-racking on like the eve of release day, you know. You want to be able to put a project together that people enjoy, and you want to be able to go on tour, and you hope people are excited to come see you play and I suppose that is nerve-racking. But we’re very proud of the record and confident in the material and it seems to be well received so far. And we started the Suspending Gravity tour within a week of the album release and already like everybody’s singing back the songs, they know the words, and that’s pretty impressive so we’ve got great fans that have been very supportive and are excited to hear the new stuff.”

How did the concept and sound of the album influence your production of the album?

“Well that seemed to evolve because we were on tour in New Orleans and we were really impressed by the Voodoo culture down there and sort of the way that death is viewed more as like a party instead of a morose event. So, that whole theme came about because we thought it was kinda cool. Then, in terms of like the production choices as a result of that, we were just making, you know we’re still in the studio doing what we do, but we added a few things here and there, like a theremin that you wouldn’t necessarily hear and it’s got more of a haunted sound to it and the harpsichord which is kind of like this old school haunted sounding instrument. These are things that we never would have thought to have used had we not had that theme.”

Did focusing only on real instrument sounds, rather than electronic, pose a challenge or was it more of a fun puzzle to figure out?

“Yeah, more of a fun puzzle for sure.

What song on the album do you think most of your fans will listen to and think “that’s definitely a Marianas Trench song?”

“That’s a good question. I don’t really know. It’s funny because we’ve just been debuting a lot of these songs live on this most recent tour that we’re on right now. So far, the crowd reactions have been very positive towards everything. But, I think “Glimmer” seems to be a positive choice for a lot of people. I expect that will probably be a single at some point. One of my personal favorites is called “Your Ghost” and “The Killing Kind” it’s the closing track so it’s sort of a little more artsy number but it’s something that I definitely enjoy. So far the reactions have been pretty positive to everything but I’m not sure that I can pick one particular track.”

Do you personally have a favorite lyric from the album?

“That’s a tough one, I don’t know. I don’t, I don’t have a favorite. I sort of associate with it differently than most people would because we spent so long in the studio making this music and now we’re performing it live and I don’t know. I’m not sure. Yeah, I don’t have an answer for that.”

If you had to write a slogan that would promote the album, say a billboard, what would it say?

“Marianas Trench. Tight pants, wide bands.”

We would like to give a big thank you to Matt for taking the time to make this interview happen! Marianas Trench’s new album Phantoms is out now! You can catch them on their Suspending Gravity tour this spring!

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