Voyaging Ahead With Marvel Years

CREDIT: Vanessa Prado

I had a great time getting to know Vermont native Marvel Years! We talked about New England, his upcoming EP, who he’s been listening to lately, and more. Check our full interview below:

I know Friday is going to be be another big day for you because you're releasing the second part of your EP! But before we get into all that good stuff, I'd love to start from the very beginning. Could you talk about your story a little bit and how you got into making music?

I started playing guitar when I was like 10 years old and then started like doing mashups and stuff like that throughout high school. Then eventually, I took like an electronic music class in high school, and I just started making little beats or whatever. I'm throwing them up on YouTube and SoundCloud and then, you know, just got noticed, got show offers from that stuff. It kind of just snowballed from there. Now we're here.

Wow, that's so cool that your high school even offered something like that!

Yeah, definitely unique for sure. That was a huge help for me personally.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Vermont, went to school in Vermont. It was kind of like a smaller school, but it was just very open minded. They had like a lot of cool things that they offer there, including that class. So yeah, helped out a lot.

How did you come up with your name, Marvel Years?

Well, it started originally as Wonder Years. Basically, I was just thinking when I started making music in high school, I was like, man, like, I don't know what to do. I didn't know if I should go to college and get like a nine to five or like, if I should just pursue the music thing. And I started thinking, like, you know, this is the time in my life to like, pursue music if I really want to. And I kind of coined it like The Wonder Years, like trying to figure myself out personally, as well as professionally. And then there was a TV show called The Wonder Years, and there's a band called The Wonder Years, so I changed it to Marvel because like wondering, Marvel, like kind of mean the same thing.

Last Friday, you released a new single “Shades On” - can you talk a little bit about what inspired this track for you?

“Shades On” I actually I wrote it when I lived in LA for a little bit. So I was just like driving down the PCH one day, like during sunset, and I just had this tune in my head that I was humming to myself. And it kind of just reminded me like, that's how I wrote it. You know, it reminded me it just like driving through California during a sunset, you know, looking at the ocean type of thing. So yeah, that's kind of where like the idea of it came from.

This coming Friday, you're going to be releasing the second part of your Voyage Ahead. EP. What can you tell me about that?

The Voyage Ahead part one I mostly wrote through COVID. So like when I was on lock downs. And then part two I wrote like when we were just getting out of COVID, like when I was getting back on the road. So it made sense for me to split them up a little bit. Part two is kind of a continuation. It's almost like an evolution of the music. So you could listen to part one first, and then part two, you could kind of hear the growth. And you know, the music evolving a little bit.

I'm very excited to hear that on Friday. And I'm sure you'll be playing a lot from both of those at your gig coming up in Providence. I saw you're doing a Halloween weekend thing there. What can you say about that event?

Yeah, I'm stoked on that one. I haven't played a show in Rhode Island a minute so it's gonna be sick to get up there. New England fam. I live in New York City right now so it's not too far away. I'm gonna have a lot of friends come down from Vermont for that one . I'm really stoked on that show.

Do you have any other performances coming up that you're looking forward to?

Yeah, I got shows pretty much every weekend till December. But I'm playing Denver, Colorado this Friday, so that should be fun. I'm hitting Pacific Northwest after that. So really stoked to get up there. Just all over the country basically. Really stoked to be touring again after the whole COVID thing. We're back, baby!

I've seen that you've done a lot of different shows with Maddy O'Neal, who I love. I got to interview her a few months ago and she's awesome. What is it about your friendship? How did you guys meet?

I’ve known Maddy the longest out of anybody I know in the music industry. I played my first show with her in Denver when I was like 18. Maddy is like my sister in the touring industry and just like in general. I love that girl, man. She's like one of my favorite people ever.

What are your goals for after this EP drops on Friday?

I got a couple like singles coming out towards the end of the year. I'm writing an album right now. I'm trying to juggle the EP thing while writing an album. So after this drops, it'll be over. It'll be out there. And then I'm just gonna focus on the album, and hopefully have that done by the end of the year, you know, and get it out early next year. So I'm really stoked on that.

What artists have you been listening to lately?

A lot of like, Bob Moses, actually. And then also just like no specific artists, but I've been digging through SoundCloud a lot, looking for like up and comers. So there's an artist on SoundCloud, which I really love. He's from Colorado. Yeah, just like digging, basically just trying to find new music to play live. And also just like for inspiration and stuff like that.

Very cool. You never know what you're gonna find on SoundCloud!

It really is a treasure trove over there. I love it.

Well, last but certainly not least, here in the state of Maine, our state motto is “the way life should be.” So I want to know, according to you, what is the way life should be?

Spend it with friends, man. That's one thing I'm learning. The older I get, you know, even when we're touring, just staying sane on the road touring, like just having friends. And just having people you could talk to you and like interact with and love is like so important. So yeah, just spend as much time with your friends. You can reach out to them. Tell them love them. You know?

Keep an eye out for part 2 of Marvel Years’ Voyage Ahead EP dropping THIS FRIDAY! In the meantime, stream him here.