Marina Orchestra Stays Calm
Marina Orchestra
The New Orleans rock band with island rhythms has a new single and a way to find comfort amidst the mundane chaos.
Right now, reasons to be cheerful are in short supply. Marina Orchestra supplied one on March 27 when it announced a sunny new single, “Let It Roll” from their forthcoming album Night Life. The six-piece, self-described “worldbeat rock” ensemble chooses to look on the bright side of life. They string together a blissed-out sound by fusing catchy pop-rock refrains and jangly surf rock guitar with exuberant Afro-Caribbean and reggae rhythms. As we adapt to the new normal of quarantine, it’s refreshing to find consistency–and dare I say, normalcy–in upbeat music that refuses to dissolve into chaos.
Listening to Marina Orchestra is like streaming a quick, tropical getaway. Their laidback sound offers a dose of savory escapism at a time when vacations are out of the question. Justin Powers, the lead songwriter and bandleader, said that choosing positivity is a driving force for his music. “Any music that makes you happy is such a healing force,” he says. “The approach to the band and type of music we play is to be uplifting, happy music. I feel like there’s always been a need for that.” That’s true now more than ever.
While many acts have chosen not to release new music during the lockdown, Marina Orchestra is continuing as semi-normal. Singer and horn player Ashley Shabankareh said the band has been recording tracks from the new album at home, “recording in closets and what-not.” They expect to release another single from the album within the next month or two. “We had been planning on releasing our single prior to COVID-19,” Shabankareh says, “but obviously, it’s adjusted a lot of our timelines for that single as well as our full album, which we were planning on releasing to coincide with our Jazz Fest performance.”
Despite the disruption to their touring schedule, the members of Marina Orchestra are doing what they can to maintain some semblance of normalcy. “We usually rehearse on Thursdays,” Powers says. “And with the band, we’ve been doing video chat. So it’s fun to keep that routine up.”
Routine instills ritual; ritual breeds order. Amongst so much disorder, we’re craving order and structure in our lives that’s been suddenly lost. For many of us, music is the ritual that keeps us sane. We turn towards certain songs to alter our mood and set the tone we want for our day. While so much of the world’s events remain out of our control, we can use music to give ourselves direction we crave.
As musicians who choose the up-tempo, in art and in life, Marina Orchestra feels responsible for keeping spirits high during the crisis. As Shabankareh says, “I hope it makes people want to get up and move and feel some spark of joy. I think the rhythm that occurs in our songs really lends itself to dancing.” And dance we will.
