Marillion releases 9th crowdfunded album, pandemic inspired 'An Hour Before It's Dark'

SAN ANTONIO (WOAI) — Isolation can sometimes be an incredible creative motivator, and the band Marillion didn't waste any time while in Britain's lockdown during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A band that is famous for jamming all together in the studio until a song is finished now had to stay apart for months during those early days of planning a new album - their first in six years.

There was a lot of uncertainty when we started making this album,” said co-founder and guitarist Steve Rothery during a recent interview from his home in England. “We started the creative process and then the pandemic happened. Then there as a period of several weeks where I wasn’t working with the band due to social distancing. When I finally did get to work with the band again, for me, I felt such a sense of relief and great joy in playing with them again. I think that this album could only have been made during the pandemic.”

What came out of that initial isolation is among the best piece of work that Marillion has ever released - "An Hour Before It's Dark," a truly positive look at life as we emerge from the pandemic.

MURDER MACHINES AND ANGELS ON EARTH

The song from the album that has garnered the most attention early on is "Murder Machines," which tackles the pandemic head-on - a topic that lyricist and lead vocalist Steve Hogarth initially didn't want to tackle, but it eventually crept into the sessions.

When we started writing, Steve really didn’t want to write about the pandemic,” Rothery said. “But when you live through something like this for 20 months, it can’t help but permeate the lyrics and the music to a certain extent. I think the album is an incredibly powerful statement about this moment in history that we’ve all had to live through. There is a celebration in this album for all of us who have lived through the pandemic.”

The lyrics to "Murder Machines" puts the treachery of the pandemic in perspective in a gesture that is normally one of love, but the virus turned it into something lethal.

I put my arms around her

I put my arms around her

I put my arms around her

And I killed her with love

I killed her with love

I killed her

“I think it’s one of those lyrics that’s got more than one meaning,” said Mark Kelly during a recent interview with Sinclair Broadcast Group. “The obvious one is the (COVID-19) virus and the fact that we all had to social distance. You weren’t aloud to hug your grandkids. Some people have reacted really well to it, and it has struck a chord with many. I mean we all had to live through this pandemic, but then there are some people that are just all over with this coronavirus thing. They just don’t want to hear any more about it. But I think as a song, it has more levels than that to it.”

Hogarth said the song was "born in the challenging times of lockdown and social distancing and has become so much more than just a mirror of our times, more than a song that deals with the precious as well as dark sides of human relationships."

“I tried not to write about the virus. But it’s been so much a part of life for the past two years that it kept creeping in. The terrifying reality that to wrap my arms around my father or mother could ultimately kill them, gave birth to this song. The lyric was then developed to hint at jealousy and heartbreak - the pain of watching the woman you love embrace another man, or the emotional “murder” of the serial adulterer. And, of course, the arms of the superpowers, and the psychopaths who sometimes have their fingers on the triggers. Beware the murder machines.”

Another song that has garnered much attention also puts a spotlight on the unsung heroes during the pandemic - those medical staff and people on the front lines who risk their lives to care for those battling this deadly virus. Rothery said it was an easy decision to end the album with and a risk he says not many bands would take.

“When Steve writes on the song ‘Care: Angels on Earth,’ he’s talking about the doctors and nurses and the medical staff that, in some cases, made the supreme sacrifice to try and save lives," he said. "That at the end of the album is such an incredible statement the way we’ve used the virus there, I can’t think of another band who would’ve taken this kind of approach and made it work.”

"An Hour Before It's Dark" is Marillion's 20th studio album and its ninth album that they've made with the help of what is now called crowdfunding, but when Marillion first asked their fans to pre-order an album it was unheard of let alone had a name yet.

We were there in the very early days of the internet, and it really helped sustain us," Rothery said. "I mean coming up with the model for crowdfunding, which is pretty much standard these days. It has been one of the things that has helped keep this band alive.”

And it all started back in 1997 when their fans in America wouldn't take no for an answer.

THE BIRTH OF CROWDFUNDING

Rothery formed Marillion back in 1979 and the band paid its dues on the English club circuit for years before finally getting noticed and was signed by EMI in 1982. At the time, Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls and their brand of synth pop exploded on the American music scene. Marillion was taking up the progressive rock mantle from the likes of Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd. Their music was unlike anything coming out at the time. With long musical pieces that could run over 10 minutes and some closer to 20, Marillion found their fan base in those that wanted a more mature kind of rock.

After the release of their first two albums - "Script of a Jester's Tear" and "Fugazi," Marillion scored a massive hit with the song "Kayleigh," from their breakthrough 1985 album "Misplaced Childhood." The song soared up the UK charts - landing at No. 2 - and hitting the top of the charts in many of European countries in the summer of 1985.

In 1989, original lead singer and lyricist Fish left the band for a solo career and new singer Steve Hogarth joined a few months later and has been with the band ever since. They released four albums with Hogarth in the fold that were met with different levels of success, but it was their 1997 album "This Strange Engine" that hit numerous pitfalls before its release and the thought of touring America just didn't seem financially feasible for the band.

In the weeks before the album's release in April 1997, the band was charting plans for its upcoming tour, which would take them through most of Europe. There seemed to be a snag when it came to planning a North American tour. Marillion's label in the United States at the time, Red Ant, was teetering financially. The decision, although not an easy one, was to cancel any plans to tour the states in 1997.

Marillion's American fan base learned of the decision not to tour. This didn't sit well with them, especially one fan named Jeff Pelletier, who had an ingenious idea to open a bank account and let the American fans underwrite the tour.

Mark Kelly was approached by Jeff about his plan, and initial was skeptical that the idea would work.

I never thought it would work, but I didn't want to shoot the guy down, so I went along with it. I thought he would raise a few thousand dollars from some well-meaning fans that really wanted us to tour and that would be it," Mark said. "It was a big leap of faith really, but within three weeks, there was $18,000 in their bank account. At that point, I told the band that I think we're going to be touring the United States."

Mark said that many fans don't realize how much it costs for an overseas band to tour the States. He said that "when you have to fly from the UK with your crew, equipment and the band, you've already spent $30-$40,000 before you've even played a gig, and that was back in 1997. Those costs were really what was going to make it not very viable for us to tour over in America, but those fans wouldn't take no for an answer."

In the end, the fans raised about $60,000, which was enough to fund a 21-city tour. That was unprecedented for an Internet campaign, and the band's biggest U.S. tour at that time since 1991.

“The tour fund really showed us the power of the internet and the power of this global family,” Rothery said. “When we raised, I think $60,000 or $70,000, the single biggest contribution was from an English guy, who just wanted the American fans to be able to experience the band again. That shows you that global community that we have.”

The tour fund campaign also woke up the band to new ideas in the way of fans funding their upcoming projects and how powerful the internet had become.

"We've got a really strong following in America," he said. "Those American fans proved that fans would band together and were behind us no matter what. They were also curious about what kind of music we'd be doing next."

After the next two albums "Radiation" (1998) and "marillion.com" (1999), the band completed its three-album contract with Castle Communications and were free to explore new musical territories, both in and out of the studio.

"Back in the old days, we'd churn out an album a year, but as you get older, you learn to slow down a bit," Mark said. "It was really getting difficult to do that. We literally would record an album, head out on tour and then go right back into the studio to write the next album to keep the money coming in. We decided to take control of the whole process."

To gain total independence, they would have to generate the necessary capital needed to fund the band through the recording process. So they went directly to the fans, sending out over 30,000 emails to members of its website asking if they would pre-order their unrecorded album nearly a year before it would see its release.

Within 48 hours, they received 6,000 responses saying "Yes" and when it was all said and done, nearly 13,000 copies were preordered and had an advance of more than $250,000, which was more than most record label advances the band would have received at the time.

That response from the fans also helped the band secure a worldwide distribution deal with its former label, EMI, and the band headed into its own studio to record "Anoraknophobia," the first album to be funded by the fans in advance.

"Anoraknophobia was really the album that gave us our independence," Mark said. "It gave us some breathing room and the financial stability to be able to say we're not going to make an album this year. It felt like we were making an album when we were ready rather than because we had to."

The first 7,000 people to pre-order the album were credited on the album sleeve in a special edition.

Another byproduct of the crowdfunding venture was that Marillion retained the rights to all its songs and didn't have to use that as a bargaining tool to obtain a sub-standard deal with a major label back then.

Now with the release of their 20th studio album, "An Hour Before It's Dark," Marillion has comes to terms with their place in music history and knows that the global family of fans they refer to as "freaks" is behind them no matter the musical direction.

“We have an incredible freedom because we pretty much self-financed,” he said. “The support we get from our fans is incredible. The bond we have with our audience. It is a global family.”

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