Interview with Oceans on Mars

To kick off 2021 in suitable style, we’ve got our premier interview of the year. Welcome, Oceans on Mars! The alt rockers from Manchester have given us the lowdown on how they formed and where it’s all going for them.

RECORD WEEKLY’S INTERVIEW WITH OCEANS ON MARS

Hey guys, how are you?

We are all pretty well thank you. 2020 was a mess to say the least, but may as well stay positive about 2021!

What’s your general feeling about 2021 then, other than positivity?

It’s clearly not that had one of the strongest starts to a year, but I (Angus) am confident it’ll get better. Hoping that we can actually play a show, too.

That would be just a little bit nice! So tell us, when did you form the band and how did you decide on the name?

We formed the band in high school, originally called Fuse. After doing a few covers for around a year, and a few new members joined the crew, we decided to start writing original material in 2017. Following a lot of awful band name suggestions, we came across the idea of ‘something’ on Mars, which slowly led to the idea of Oceans on Mars.

The pandemic taking hold in 2020 put everything on pause — especially in the music industry. Did you have to cancel or postpone a lot of gigs?

We had to cancel a lot of gigs. We had a whole tour booked up with Krooked Tongue, a lot of festivals with Scruff of the Neck and, most importantly, were due to play at our dream venue, the O2 Ritz Manchester, supporting Jordan Allen. We were hoping these would be ready for 2021 but, sadly, much of it has been cancelled.

With a whole new year comes a whole lot of excitement — talk us through your new single and what inspired it.

Our new single, ‘Mirror’, out 8th January, is about dealing with your own emotions and anger. It’s one of our much more upbeat and energetic tracks, and definitely the start of a new, grungier sound. It’s heavily influenced by Queens of the Stone Age, Soundgarden and Nirvana, which has allowed us to push to a more experimental size of songwriting, which we hope everyone enjoys.

No doubt we will! Outside the realms of music, which three things are you looking forward to most in 2021?

I know it’s music related but I think, for everyone, we all need to go a festival. Can’t beat it. I’m also looking forward to not being stuck inside for half of the year and being able to see family and friends. And lastly, being able to stay in the pub later than 10pm, of course!