{"id":68745,"date":"2020-11-22T20:41:14","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T01:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=68745"},"modified":"2020-11-29T19:00:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T00:00:13","slug":"interview-with-mark-kelly-of-marillion-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2020\/interview-with-mark-kelly-of-marillion-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Kelly of Marillion & Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Alexandra Mrozowska
\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When a member of a renowned band decides to branch out and see about a side project, it\u2019s more often than not an infamously dubbed \u2018supergroup\u2019 they find themselves a part of. Pairing one big name with others often works in commercial terms, but a clash of egos may be inevitable too. Is it one of the reasons why Mark Kelly, the longtime keyboard player of Marillion, joined forces with relatively unknown musicians to form his solo band, Mark Kelly\u2019s Marathon…?\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t want people to have preconceived ideas about what it might sound like,\u201d says Mark, the \u2018it\u2019 he\u2019s talking about being the project\u2019s self-titled debut out on November 27 via earMUSIC. But there\u2019s more to Mark Kelly than just an artistic side to his persona. Initially, we sat down to talk the upcoming Marathon album and all the news from Marillion\u2019s camp. However, the conversation eventually shifted to twists and turns of the music industry Mark\u2019s been a part of for four decades, from streaming services and music piracy to a phenomenon he\u2019s credited with inventing \u2013 crowdfunding…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hardrock Haven: Alongside your career in Marillion, you founded your own project Mark Kelly\u2019s Marathon in 2018. What\u2019s prompted such an idea?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: Well, I\u2019ve been talking about doing a solo album for many years, but not really seriously, to be honest. First I started talking about it \u2018round about 1995, but I wasn\u2019t really into it as I\u2019m not really good at working on my own. I like to collaborate with people, so I never got really far with it and it just was one of these things that I\u2019ve always been thinking in terms of, \u201cAh, maybe one day I\u2019ll do it\u201d, but I was in no hurry. And then, a few years ago that changed when a friend of mine mentioned that he writes lyrics and said, \u201cHow would you like me to write some lyrics for some music from you?\u201d So I sent him some music which was mainly some ideas that I had from working with Marillion that were never used. When Marillion write albums, we jam a lot and we come up with a lot of ideas and most of them never get used. These were ones I particularly liked, so I sent them to him and he basically wrote the lyrics for the song \u201cAmelia\u201d to go with the music that I sent him. And that was the start of it really. So, then I started looking around to see if I could find another people to work with to create the music \u2018cause I don\u2019t play anything apart from keyboards. I asked my nephew, who\u2019s 23 and a musician and used to working on his own \u2013 he plays the guitar and bass and programs drums and does production \u2013 if he liked to work with me and he helped me develop the ideas to the point when they were ready for somebody to sing them. And trying to find a singer took me about a year (laughs). I was looking on Spotify \u2013 looking for bands there that were completely unknown. You know, there\u2019s thousands of bands there that have got like a few thousands streams \u2013 ones that nobody\u2019s heard of. And I would literally just randomly select [them] and listen to the singers and see if I had anybody I liked. And one day I came across this band called Big Blue Ball. As I was listening, I thought, \u201cThis guy\u2019s got really good. He\u2019s got a great voice. He sounds a lot like Peter Gabriel. He would be perfect for me.\u201d Anyway, I checked out and this guy actually was Peter Gabriel (laughs). It was some project that he did in 2007 and it\u2019s on Spotify and it\u2019s called Big Blue Ball… It\u2019s actually really good, but anyway, it wasn\u2019t very helpful because obviously I couldn\u2019t ask Peter Gabriel to sing. But I was telling this story about me mistaking Peter Gabriel for somebody unknown in an interview I did, and a friend of mine read it, and called me up and said, \u201cI know just the guy for you. If you want somebody that\u2019s got a voice like Peter Gabriel, check this guy out.\u201d And that was Ollie Smith, who I invited to have a go at singing with me. So, that\u2019s how I found Ollie. And from there, we worked and it actually came together as an album. But the reason it happened this year, I suppose, as well is because I always imagined going into the studio with the band and recording the album in a traditional way. And I was always trying to find the time, and Marillion would start working on our next studio album at the beginning of this year… And then after the COVID thing happened and everybody went into lockdown, I was at home and I phoned up the rest of the guys from Marathon and said, \u201cWell, how about everybody record their parts at home?\u201d So because of the fact that we had three or four months with nothing to do, I managed to get it recorded. So this year\u2019s actually been quite creative for me \u2013 even though it\u2019s been pretty bad for a lot of people, I\u2019ve actually had a good year so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Not only you I guess \u2013 so it was for most of the musicians I talked with recently… Anyway, you\u2019ve just mentioned that material you recorded under the moniker of Mark Kelly\u2019s Marathon is in part unused material written for Marillion. Why didn\u2019t Marillion use it in the first place? Was it too different stylistically, or were there just too many ideas coming up to use them all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: Well, I think it\u2019s a number of things. Definitely we come up with too many ideas; we\u2019ve got well over a thousand unused ideas… Stylistically, I\u2019m not sure. Some of them certainly to me sound like they could have been used by Marillion. And it\u2019s not all unused ideas \u2013 mainly the ideas in the song \u201cAmelia\u201d and other bits and pieces but most of this was the stuff that I came up by myself or with Conal, the bass player. It\u2019s a difficult question to answer \u2013 I suppose there are some things I know Marillion probably wouldn\u2019t have wanted to do. There\u2019s this song on the album called \u201cPuppets\u201d which has got a piano vocal introduction verse and to me, it sounds like a Progressive Rock style. It\u2019s more like old Marillion than modern Marillion I suppose, and with Marillion there\u2019s always been a desire to move on and do something different \u2013 not to sort of do music which maybe sounds like it might have been from the past. Whereas with my solo album, I was sort of being a bit nostalgic really and trying to create something that reminded me of when I first started liking music. I wanted to make an album that was… well, not a concept album, but in that sort of style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: You\u2019ve mentioned the moment when you got into music \u2013 what albums or artists are you so nostalgic about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: Mostly Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes, King Crimson \u2013 that sort of thing really, the bands from the early \u201870s. It was probably the period I liked best and I think it\u2019s just because I was a teenager at the time and that was what I grew up listening to. But I like songs that tell a story and that take you on the journey. That\u2019s why quite a few songs on this album are long and there\u2019s a song that\u2019s fifteen minutes long and it\u2019s not like verse-chorus-verse-chorus like a lot of songs. It\u2019s what you\u2019d call an episodic piece of music that moves through the different movements rather than being very repetitive like a lot of modern music. So that was the sort of thing I was trying to do. And even with the length of the album \u2013 it\u2019s only forty five minutes long and I made it no longer just so it\u2019d fit on the vinyl. It\u2019s going to be released on vinyl with a cover painting which fits on a gatefold sleeve… I was being really nostalgic with my approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: You\u2019ve also mentioned the fact that you were searching for an unknown singer for the band \u2013 and indeed, with the exception of guest performance by your Marillion bandmate Steve Rothery, there are no famous names credited on the album. What made you collaborate with this exact line-up and what did each of the musicians bring into the band?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: I suppose I was looking for the unknown musicians because I didn\u2019t want people to have preconceived ideas about what it might sound like. But somebody like the drummer, Henry Rogers \u2013 he\u2019s somebody I\u2019ve known for a number of years and he has played with quite a few other Progressive Rock bands. He\u2019s a really good drummer, he\u2019s young and I like his style, so I already knew I wanted him to play on it. With the guitar players, there\u2019s a guitar player who\u2019s called John Cordy and he\u2019s completely unknown. The way I found him was that I asked Steve Rothery if he knew of any good guitar players, thinking he might suggest himself (laughs). He said \u201cWell, I saw this guy on YouTube called John Cordy. You should check him out, he\u2019s really good.\u201d But they\u2019ve never met before, so I messaged John and suggested that he might be interested and he was surprised that Steve Rothery has even heard of him (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: I can imagine his reaction (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: (laughs) Yeah, his reaction was quite strange. But in the end Steve did actually play on the track \u201cPuppets\u201d once I explained to him that I would like him to do some guitar on one of the tracks. And the reason I asked him was because that piece of music that makes the chorus of that song was from a Marillion jam and Steve did play some lead guitar on it. And I wanted that guitar part and that sound. So since it was Steve, I said, \u201cCan you please just do what you did in the jam?,\u201d and he said \u201cYeah, no problem.\u201d So that was how it came about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And is the recently released single \u201cThis Time\u201d actually a rightful representative of the entire album?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: Not at all (laughs). Well, I started up with releasing \u201cAmelia\u201d as the first track, because otherwise with \u201cThis Time\u201d most people would say, \u201cOh yeah, it\u2019s a short song, it\u2019s really catchy and really instant…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: …almost radio friendly to a certain extent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: Yes, but my issue with a song is that I really like it, but I was worried that if I started with that track and if it was the very first thing that people heard from the album, they might get the wrong idea of what sort of album it is. And so, \u201cAmelia\u201d represents the album better as a whole. But I think a ten minute track \u2013 which is how long \u201cAmelia\u201d is \u2013 is not ideal for a lot of radio [stations] or any possibility of having it head outside of Progressive Rock circle. So this time I thought now that \u201cAmelia\u201d is out and people can investigate something else from the album, this was a good option for a second single \u2013 something to maybe get a bit of extra interest from people that aren\u2019t necessarily Marillion fans. Because that\u2019s really the audience that I was first trying to appeal to. But now, with \u201cThis Time\u201d, I\u2019m hoping that people that aren\u2019t Marillion fans but might be interested in it will hear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Speaking about \u201cThis Time\u201d, many reviewers point out to Pop influences in this song. As we talk this obvious association with the Progressive Rock circle, are you indeed influenced by Pop music too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: I think there isn\u2019t a lot of difference really between the music that The Beatles were making in the \u201860s and that sort of music that maybe Genesis were making in the \u201870s, Both were being innovative, they were writing strong vocal melodies and strong musical passages. The [Beatles] songs were obviously much shorter, the singles. But I like music to have good melodies, I like it to be harmonic and catchy I suppose… but I also like it to be interesting as well, so it\u2019s getting a balance really. With \u201cThis Time\u201d, I came up with a verse for it. And the thing with Ollie as the singer is that he\u2019s got a very commercial approach to singing, so he had some really instant and accessible melodies \u2013 which is probably why it sounds more like a Pop song. But I don\u2019t mind that. I like Pop music too, although this I\u2019d call more Pop-Rock really (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Obviously, you\u2019ve already said that you were working with a lyricist \u2013 Guy Vickers, to be exact. So it\u2019s not about the lyrics precisely as for the overall themes for the album and one of them seems to be a communication breakdown among people. Do you think it\u2019s an important topic to discuss in songs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: Well, if there is a theme, that\u2019s probably a communication breakdown indeed and maybe also exploration because of both \u201cAmelia\u201d and \u201cTwenty Fifty One\u201d, the two longest tracks on the album, deal with both of these subjects in different ways. Even \u201cThis Time\u201d, I suppose, is about communication \u2018cause it\u2019s about what happens possibly with long-distance relationships. Guy [Vickers] wrote the lyric and his wife\u2019s American, so they spend a lot of time apart. He lives and works in the UK and they move between the UK and the USA, so he knows what it\u2019s like. My partner is from Brazil, so we spent a number of years apart where we\u2019ve been communicating by FaceTime… It\u2019s difficult, but at least it\u2019s possible. I think trying to have a relationship with somebody living in Brazil, in a different time zone and thousands of miles away, wouldn\u2019t be at all possible twenty or thirty years ago. So I\u2019m grateful that we had the technology to get us through two or three years of being apart. We\u2019re living together now, so it\u2019s all fine (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. According to what you\u2019ve said a while ago, the pandemic sort of accelerated the process behind making the album. What about the other plans? You\u2019ve mentioned that Marillion\u2019s new album was in the works right before COVID hit…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: Now it\u2019s turning out okay, \u2018cause when I finished the Marathon album in the summer, we\u2019ve resumed the Marillion album and we\u2019re actually back in the studio now. Well, maybe not today, but generally we have been in the studio most days working on the next Marillion album and it\u2019s got to the stage now where we\u2019ve been arranging some of the jams that we\u2019ve had. And I suppose we\u2019ve got twenty or thirty unfinished song ideas \u2013 parts \u2013 that we will now take to the next stage and narrow it down to make fifteen things some of which will end up on the finished album. We\u2019ll be recording after the Christmas time, I reckon, and we\u2019ll have it finished by the summer. But that\u2019s a guess \u2013 I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s absolutely the timeline (laughs). But I\u2019m expecting that\u2019s what will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: It\u2019s next year anyway, so that\u2019s good news for the fans. And speaking of both Marillion and the pandemic, it\u2019s  amazing how Marillion stayed connected to their fans even in times like these. How did the idea for the virtual Marillion Couch Convention started?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: That was Lucy Jordache, our manager, who suggested it. I don\u2019t know how it all got started, but initially the idea was to try and do something to replace the Marillion Weekends that we\u2019d normally be doing. You know, we got together every couple of years and we\u2019re doing five or six all around the world each time now. We mainly do one in New Zealand and one in the UK… we\u2019ve done one in Montreal, one in Santiago… But the Couch Convention was a way of just connecting with everybody and saying, \u201cLet\u2019s all do the same thing for a weekend,\u201d which was not only streaming the Marillion shows, but also lots of other things going on as well. And it was quite nice for the band. We had quizzes and online chats with people, Steve Rothery did a cocktail making session (laughs) and I did a virtual park run with people… There was even a dog show (laughs). But it was amazing how people really got into that whole thing. And also, I never watch our videos. I never watch us playing on screen, but this time we sorta had to, because we were taking part in it. And it was quite a pleasant experience and being out to chat with people on messaging while it was happening was fun too. It was a good weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Looking back at decades of your career with Marillion, is there anything you\u2019re particularly proud of?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: Actually I\u2019m proud of the fact that we\u2019re still here. It\u2019s amazing. We\u2019re not hugely successful these days, but we are successful enough that we can make music for a living, which is great. I mean, I think that\u2019s an achievement that we\u2019ve been able to make music for a living for forty years. When I first joined Marillion, I said I would give it one year and see how it goes. And then… (laughs) Then we signed a record deal, and here we are. Next year will be my fortieth anniversary, so I think that\u2019s amazing. I never would\u2019ve expected then that we would still be here, making music, nearly forty years later.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And is there anything you wish you hadn\u2019t done?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: \u201cRegrets, I had a few…\u201d (laughs). Not really. Things like I wish I\u2019d paid more attention to what was going on with the business side of things in the early days of the band. But none of us did. We were too busy \u2013 kept too busy by everything that was happening. We could have been more sensible, but it\u2019s nothing to be really worried about and nothing that keeps me awake at night I think. We survived. I think was probably the hardest period for Marillion; the late \u201890s and we survived that. It\u2019s been actually the last five or six years we\u2019ve been on the up; it\u2019s not like we\u2019re in decline, we\u2019re actually playing nicer and bigger venues and selling out the places like the Royal Albert Hall in London… So it feels like we\u2019re having a bit of renaissance for the last few years. That\u2019s good time to be in Marillion (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: You\u2019ve also mentioned this division between the \u2018classic\u2019 Marillion and what you currently do as well as the band wanting to move forward musically rather than look back. Are you satisfied with the way your music evolved throughout the years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: I am. I think that with Marillion we have to accept that there are five of us and that we work like a democracy. And I suppose you could draw a Venn diagram where our musical tastes are all different but we intersect somewhere in the middle \u2013 and that\u2019s the area that we work in. Each of us push and pull in different directions, and what comes out is the Marillion sound. But over the years we were also really conscious of not repeating ourselves and not doing something that sounds like it might be something we could have done ten, twenty or thirty years ago. So that means that Marillion sound has evolved over the years. For me personally doing the Marathon project was a chance just to make some music. I was being a bit self-indulgent, just making the music that I just wanted to make. With Marathon I\u2019m the boss (laughs) and I decide what music we make… So the rest of the guys brought a creative input into the process, but at the end of the day the final choice comes down to me, which is quite nice, you know…? (laughs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: I guess so (laughs). Having been in the band for so long, you witnessed the major changes happening within the music industry. Did it change for the better, or for worse?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: I have to say it\u2019s generally worse than it was in some ways… Okay, the music industry\u2019s fine. I\u2019m not worried about the music industry \u2013 the record labels are doing okay and the demise of the music industry that was predicted with the whole filesharing, Napster and all that didn\u2019t happen. And now we\u2019ve got streaming services which are doing very well. But unfortunately, for a lot of bands, there\u2019s less money than it used to be. I think it\u2019s a difficult time and especially now that the bands can\u2019t tour, I think it\u2019s really hard. To be honest, for a lot of musicians to make a living [out of music] is practically impossible… So I think it\u2019s a difficult time and I don\u2019t know what will happen in the future… Hopefully, I was reading today that there\u2019s a vaccine that\u2019s ninety per cent effective that\u2019s being created by Pfizer. If that turned out to be the case and everybody could get vaccinated and things could return to relative normality, I think it\u2019d be really a sigh of relief for many musicians in the world that we can get back and play. That\u2019s how musicians make their money these days. But on the whole, I\u2019m optimistic about the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Fingers crossed for the things to resolve. These days, many bands wouldn\u2019t function without crowdfunding campaigns and you\u2019re the one credited with inventing it years ago. Where did the idea come from and did you expect it to become somewhat of a norm in the music industry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: I certainly didn\u2019t expect it to become a norm. Okay, like with most ideas, there\u2019s a number of factors that came into place. One I think it was an idea that the time has come \u2013 you know, with the invention of the Internet and with networking possibilities of the Internet it meant that something like crowdfunding could actually exist. The inspiration for it came from something that happened in the USA actually \u2013 when we released an album This Strange Engine <\/em>[1997]. We didn\u2019t have a record contract in the States and there was a Marillion mailing list called the Freaks with about a thousand people, mostly US residents. And I was on the list too, and I was asked the question if Marillion will tour in the United States that year. I said, \u201cIt\u2019s unlikely because we don\u2019t have a record deal and we always lose money when we tour the States\u201d, because that\u2019s how it was then. It was just so expensive and we were only playing in clubs… So I said it was unlikely and these fans were like, \u201cWhat about if we raise the money?\u201d And that was a revolutionary idea \u2013 more of a charity than crowdfunding because the idea was basically we open a bank account, people make donations and then if we get enough money, we come and do the tour. So they asked me the question, \u201cHow much do you think you would need?\u201d and I didn\u2019t really know but I\u2019ve made a guess and said \u201cSixty thousand dollars would probably be enough.\u201d And that\u2019s pretty much what happened \u2013 they basically raised sixty thousand dollars and we came and did the tour. And nobody got tickets to see the band for their donations \u2013 it was literally like they gave money and that was it. And they still had to buy tickets when we came on tour… So, it was a sort of experiment in how dedicated the fans of Marillion were and how far they were prepared to go in order to see us play. And we learned a few things from it. One was that some people making donations didn\u2019t even live in the States so they weren\u2019t even gonna see us… and they were still putting money in \u2018cause they liked the idea. There was a guy in the UK that put eight hundred pounds in just because he was so excited about the fact that this was happening and he wanted to be involved. So that was a valuable lesson. A few years later, in 2000, we didn\u2019t have a record deal in Europe either and we were being offered various deals. And I said, \u201cWell, what about if we ask the fans to fund the record rather than take a contract we don\u2019t really want for an advance that we need?\u201d So that\u2019s pretty much what we did. We asked the fans if they were willing to pay for the album in advance. And that was the first crowdfunded record, so a simple idea that worked really well because of the Marillion fanbase being so dedicated and their trust in us. I don\u2019t think it would\u2019ve worked for any band at that time doing it for the first time. We were in a fairly unique position I think and that\u2019s probably why it worked so well for us. And when somebody proves than a concept works, then it\u2019s easy to follow, isn\u2019t it? So I think that\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And what do you think are the pros and cons of crowdfunding now that it became much popular?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: The pros are that it makes it possible for almost any band \u2013 any band with a fanbase, I mean \u2013 to fund the recording of an album. Now it\u2019s probably not as necessary to have raised that sort of money because recording has become cheaper. Many people can record reasonable quality in a home studio for not a lot of money. But I think the downside is that some people see it as a way of making some easy money and that\u2019s not really the purpose of it as far as we\u2019re concerned. It\u2019s a way of engaging with your fans \u2013 they feel like they\u2019re a part of the project. When they\u2019re putting money upfront, it\u2019s like they\u2019ve got an investment in it almost. They\u2019re much more engaged in what\u2019s going on, they follow when the album\u2019s gonna be released and then consequently the touring and the rest of it will be on their radar as well. So that\u2019s a good thing I think, and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s many downsides. I think it\u2019s been a really useful tool and it\u2019s not just for music \u2013 people fund just anything via things like Kickstarter from technology projects to art works and whatever…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Exactly. So, what kind of advice would you give to bands who rely on crowdfunding to exist, with that pioneering experience under your belt?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: I\u2019d reiterate what I said \u2013 that it\u2019s about engagement really and you need to make sure that you\u2019re giving back and that you\u2019re including the fans in the process and making them feel like they\u2019ve got a connection with you. It\u2019s not just about taking their money and that\u2019s the end of it. We\u2019ve always communicated with the fans, we\u2019ve always had that bound with the fans \u2013 right from the very beginning. Before the Internet, we used to hang around after the shows and meet people and sign autographs and take photographs and that sort of thing. In fact, it got to the point where the fans knew that we were doing it and so many fans stayed behind after the shows that we would be left for hours… And in the end we had to stop doing it, \u2018cause you had one thousand people wanting to say hello after a gig (laughs). So we stopped that after a while. But that\u2019s the idea \u2013 it\u2019s a way of doing it. It\u2019s not just about the music. It\u2019s like a family thing (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: For some time you were also a co-CEO of The Featured Artists Coalition \u2013 an organization which represents the artists\u2019 rights in digital age. Do you think the rights of artists are more respected within the music industry now than it was a few years before?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: I\u2019d like to think it is, but things are moving far too slowly really. I\u2019m not as active with the whole Featured Artists Coalition these days. I stepped down from that role just because it was just taking up too much time and I had to sort of make some choices about where I was gonna spend my time. And Marillion really is my most important thing in my life work-wise… But I do think it\u2019s important that artists get together and have a voice \u2013 otherwise, things won\u2019t change. And I think there\u2019s a lot to be done still. I think the fact that we moved over to this new world of streaming is great for the labels, because they\u2019ve left behind all the costs of manufacturing and distribution and all that. But they still got the same arrangements with the artists, where the contracts are still based on physical product when there is no physical product. So the record labels are starting to make real money and not passing on a fair share to the artists. So there\u2019s still work to be done, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So with all that problems about streaming royalties you speak about, is your general opinion about streaming platforms a negative one after all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: It\u2019s a tricky one. As a listener, I love it. I use Spotify all the time and as I\u2019ve mentioned, I used Spotify trying to find a [Marathon] singer. When you start exploring it, there\u2019s so much great music on there. At least now, \u2018cause I was a subscriber to Spotify in 2009 when it first got going and there wasn\u2019t as much music then, and there certainly wasn\u2019t as much obscure music and all the rare stuff. But now pretty much everything I could think of and that I\u2019ve ever heard is on there. So it\u2019s a great resource, it\u2019s like having a fantastic library at your disposal. So as a listener I love it, but as an artist, I know that I\u2019m not getting paid very much for having my music on there. Marillion currently stream about a million tracks a week on Spotify and the income of it wouldn\u2019t be enough to even keep one of the band members on a working wage (laughs), never mind the five of us \u2013 or six of us counting Fish… So I think there\u2019s a long way to go. There\u2019s things that could be improved, like the way that they work out payments. Without getting too technical [about it], I think it\u2019s not fair that they distribute the money that comes in on a pro-rata basis, depending on popularity of artists. The most popular artists will get a share of money from people that never listened to them. For example, if you\u2019re a Progressive Rock fan and all you listen to is Progressive Rock music, Beyonc\u00e9 is still gonna get some of your money. And that\u2019s not right in my opinion. The money that the listener paid should go to the people that they listen to in whatever proportion. But that\u2019s not what happens \u2013 it  could, but it just doesn\u2019t matter to Spotify or the record labels how the money is distributed because it\u2019s numbers going for them… They have so many millions of streams and song titles that a company like Universal Music probably brings in over a billion dollars a year in streaming income, so they don\u2019t really care. Anyway, that\u2019s my issue with the streaming services, but I think it\u2019s great for a thing for a listener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: You\u2019ve also mentioned filesharing, so do you think these days music piracy is still that much of a problem as it was a decade or two ago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: Probably not. I mean, we got to the stage now where people can still pirate their music if they want to, and it\u2019s the same with movies. But now that you\u2019ve got access to so much music for not too much money, for most people it\u2019s just easier. Especially as you can have a free account on Spotify and listen to music \u2013 okay, in a bit restricted way, but there\u2019s no reason to pirate music anymore. It\u2019s sort of the same with movies \u2013 with things like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix… There\u2019s easy access to what you want to watch or listen to and I think the part of the problem with the piracy was that it wasn\u2019t always easy to get the digital copies of whatever you wanted to listen to when you wanted to listen to it. So it\u2019s still a problem, but not as much of a problem I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: At the beginning you\u2019ve mentioned your Marathon album being also released on vinyl, and obviously these are the kind of physical products people are now interested in again. So do you think we\u2019ll reach that stage one day when people stop buying any kind of physical product and rely on streaming only?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: I actually don\u2019t think so, because I think there\u2019s something really nice about owning a physical product. I think people still collect CDs and especially vinyl records. For some people it\u2019s more than just a music, and that\u2019s why I was trying to appeal to by releasing the album on vinyl. I\u2019d made sure that the artwork was a big picture that would look good on a gatefold sleeve. You open it up and you can see the entire picture across the two sides of the gatefold sleeve, with lots of detail and imagery that goes with the lyrics so when you listen to the music, you can lose yourself in the artwork as well as the music. And I think you can\u2019t do that with streaming, you know (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Absolutely, that little thumbnail doesn\u2019t really work that way (laughs). So what was your experience as a listener of \u2013 as you put it \u2013 losing yourself in the album artwork like, and with which albums?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: I used to love the old Yes albums, like Close To The Edge <\/em>and Yes Songs<\/em>, the triple live album that was just a huge painting by Roger Dean. And that for me was a perfect marriage of imagery and music. I had no idea what Jon Anderson was singing about, but it sort of didn\u2019t matter really (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: I get the picture (laughs). You\u2019ve mentioned that the new Marillion album is supposed to be out next year. But what are your plans for 2021, once everything hopefully goes back to normal \u2013 regarding Marathon as well?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: Well, we [Marillion] have some tour dates booked for the back end of 2021. We\u2019re planning to do some European shows and UK shows which is in October\/November. I\u2019m really hoping that goes ahead \u2018cause tickets are already gone on sale. And then I\u2019m hoping to do some shows with Marathon, maybe even opening for Marillion \u2013 some of those shows would be really nice. We\u2019ve got some plans to do Marillion weekends in the spring of 2022, so that\u2019s gonna keep us busy, and then… Well, you never know! Hopefully we can visit North America and South America by the second half of 2022. It\u2019s a long way off, but I think it\u2019s hard to make plans at the moment. We don\u2019t really know what it\u2019s gonna be like, but we\u2019ll see. That\u2019s a rough idea of where we\u2019re gonna be (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Is there anything you\u2019d like to wrap our interview up with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Kelly: I think you\u2019ve asked me just everything. Thanks for the interview!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo credits: earMUSIC<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mkmarathon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014 When a member of a renowned band decides to branch out and see about a side project, it\u2019s more often than not an infamously dubbed \u2018supergroup\u2019 they find themselves […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":68746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[203,15170,15169,13296],"class_list":{"0":"post-68745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews-recent","8":"tag-interview","9":"tag-marathon","10":"tag-marillion","11":"tag-mark-kelly"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}