An Interview with Andy Marsh of Thy Art Is Murder

Thy Art Is Murder have returned to Manchester tonight, and ROCKFLESH sent their very best… erm… well they sent Sarah… to have a chat with guitarist Andy Marsh. Here’s what the deathcore legends had to say about politics, pills, and THAT Michael Jackson moment. I’m greeted by an exchange of Advil between band members…

“So…. You take a lot of Advil?”

I get through one big jar every month. Hang on, I’m just going to refill my little personal jar.

“English ibuprofen isn’t as cool looking as Advil, that looks like jellybeans to me…”

I’m sorry, I’m ready now!.

“I don’t think I am, the lift was out of order and I’m really flushed after climbing those stairs”

Do you need some Advil too?

“How was your show in Antwerp last night?”

It was really good, it was the first show of the tour and probably the best first show we’ve ever had.

“What made it so good?”

I don’t know? Normally that first show is really rough and we haven’t played together in like 6 weeks, so that is just what it’s like… we don’t practice in between tours and those first one or two shows end up being a bit rough.

“If you’re not practicing and getting together between tours and stuff, how do you decide on your set list?”

We use our imaginations. And Spotify. You know on Spotify how you can click and drag songs into a playlist, and it tells you the total amount of time that all the songs run for? Then we know if we’re on a festival and if we have to play for 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour. Drag your songs into the playlist and tells you how much time those songs go for. I discovered this a few years ago when I had to fill in for my friends band in Australia, so I had to build their set list into my playlist so I could learn the songs and I didn’t realise that the playlist is public. I didn’t understand that Spotify was like social media and I didn’t even know I had people following me. So I unwittingly published that bands set list before the tour. We’ve learnt from that and we keep these things private now so we can imagine how the set will flow.

“I caught you at Bloodstock last year in an incredibly windy appearance, but you were genuinely one of my favourite sets of the weekend and I know a lot of people who agree. You seem to be on some kind of titanic rise to new heights of Metal fame at the moment”

I don’t know about that. I thought the Titanic sank.

“Not what I’m saying at all…”

Are you saying we’re the Hindenburg? That we’re slowly ascending and then we’ll just burst into flames? Is that where you’re going with this?

“No…” *absolutely dying inside at this moment*

But yeah… if it wasn’t for the wind, CJ wouldn’t have had THAT Michael Jackson moment.

“Best moment I’ve ever seen at any festival ever… but see, like just now, I’ve been singing your praises and giving you a lot of love… this is what fans do! How do you keep yourself grounded at times like that?”

I think it’s important to keep yourself insulated from too much of that. Otherwise… you do meet a lot of people in the music business who they are the coolest people ever. That ego makes them untouchable. When you’ve been around in the business for a longer time you understand a bit more about the ebb and flow. We might be doing really well at the moment, but we might not be doing as good in six months. You never know so it’s just important to go with the flow and be consistent. I think that’s our strength, whereas some other bands may have some kind of artificial inflation, whether it’s marketing or trying to be trendy or whatever. We just try to make good records and play good shows, and if it works then that’s great, and if it doesn’t, then we did our best.

“Human Target was one of the albums featured in ROCKFLESH top albums countdown”

Was it number one?

“I want to say… yes? But no, it wasn’t.”

Who got number one???

“Probably something really black and obscure knowing our Stewart… I can’t remember now! But going back to your album, can you tell me a bit about the creative process behind making the album?”

We made this one exactly the same way we made all the other albums. We leave it until the last minute and then we wrote a bunch of songs. We hated it. Then it came out and we liked it. But I think now, we hate it again.

“Is this what you go through with every album?”

We don’t really think about it. We just go to the studio and write those songs at the last minute. It’s so we don’t sit around plotting global domination through the years. We just turn up and go ‘I guess we better write the album’ and see what happens.

“That’s an incredibly laid back approach to it”

I like to explain to interviewers that it’s unique in that if we make the albums really quickly then the inspiration or the mood will be a bit more focused as an accidental by product, than if you were to  make an album over 2 or 3 years then you could be feeling good one year, bad the next year. Or even month to month or every 6 months. So if we just make the album in a month, then they will sound like that month to us and I think that’s kind of cool.

“On Human Target, one of the tracks that really got people talking was Make America Hate Again. It’s an incredibly politically charged song. I love it, my friends love it, but on the other hand I know people who are angry that you would bring politics into music. Do you believe if you’ve got the platform then you should be responsible for voicing your opinions on such sore subjects?”

Absolutely. It’s our platform, we can do what we want with it. I mean, you Brits voted for Brexit, so…?

“I didn’t vote for Brexit”

(“I didn’t even vote” – another voice from elsewhere in the room)

As a nation you did! Haha. But you know, the right wing attitudes are now on the rise in Australia, UK and USA and it’s not ideal for the way that we would want society to progress. So naturally we would want to cover topics like that in our songs. And anyway, why shouldn’t we be political… we can talk about whatever the Hell we want.

“What is the biggest challenge you have overcome as a band?”

I wouldn’t say that there was one big challenge… it’s just the consistency thing. People lose focus too easily in this day and age and they give up really quickly, at least in my experience. If you really want to do something then there’s no real silver bullet that’s going to help you get that. There’s going to be hurdles, there’s going to be set backs and you just have to remain focused and committed and understand that if you work hardly consistently then that’s going to pay compound interest. There’s people who work really hard in really short bursts and they grind and grind and grind and find it doesn’t go their way, so they give up for 6 months. They then get re-energised and try really hard. I’m like well if you just kept trying in that down time it would pay off. When the stock market goes down, people sell everything. But why… it’s always going to go up in the long run. And if we keep working hard then we are always going to go up in the long term. Hopefully.

“Andy, what started your musical journey? Who were your influences and what made you want to be a musician?”

I only started playing guitar when I was about 18 or 19 which is pretty late, I guess. That was my avenue to music, whereas I suppose for most guitar players, music is their avenue to guitar. I just wanted to play the guitar. And then I had to find more advanced music to get better at guitar. If you’re just playing punk rock you’re whole life, you’ve probably not got a reason to get better.

“You weren’t happy with the same three chords then?”

Haha yeah. I just started to get into Metal and a whole bunch of shreddy guitar players, and that will help me get better. I got into Metal in the early to mid 2000s.

“What bands are you listening to at the moment?”

Great American Ghost, from Boston. They’ve got a new album coming out. Obviously nobody else can hear it. Except for me, because I am putting it out. But actually, I am pretty obsessed with it. It’s like Gojira and Pantera doing the hardcore thing and stuff, it’s pretty sick. Normally I just listen to whatever I am working on or whatever I am interested in trying to work on.

“Do you have anything left to tick off on your musical bucket list?”

Yeah… I want to tour with Behemoth and Slipknot and Lamb of God. That’s about it. I don’t really keep a bucket list because I think if you have crazy aspirations then you’ll be disappointed more frequently. If you have low goals that are more immediately achievable then it keeps you on track.

“You have a tour of the US coming up after this European one finishes. What are your plans after that’s through?”

Probably announce another little tour to fill the gap after America. And then we’re back in Europe for the Summer for festivals. Then maybe another tour. Or then a break. A break would be nice… a long break!

Thy Art Is Murder will return to the UK in June 2020 for Download Festival.

Interview by Sarah Cummings
Photography by Gregg Howarth