Meet the lead singer of indie rock band Jade Earth: Micah Marshall!
With Will Scott’s infamous guitar skills, Kevan Larson jamming on the drums, Trevor Aarsvold’s sick bass, and Micah’s awesome vocals – what more could you want?
So tell me about how you guys came together as a band. Were you all friends or did you get together just for the band?
“Are you ready? I’ll try and condense the story for you. So last year, I’d heard there was this incoming freshman (Will) and heard that he played the guitar, so during the first week of school, I got his number and called him up and asked if he wanted to jam sometime. With Kevan, I knew him for about a year and a half before we started making music together. One day, Will and I were jamming in the music building, and we asked him if he wanted to jam with us. Then Trevor, our bassist, went to elementary school with Kevan. We asked him if he wanted to join and he was more than willing to play with us.”
How did you guys come up with the name?
“We had some ridiculous names for a while there. We were going to be Vape Cop. And then we were Friends of Kevan. Jade Earth was the one name that we didn’t hate.”
So you’re going to keep this one?
“Yeah, I think it has a lot of meanings that have emerged from it, too. The most obvious being a green earth, since we’re involved in Divest Gustavus and are big into environmentalism.”
Do you take charge of writing the songs as well or is it a collaborative process?
“At its simplest, I would say that I write the lyrics, but the process is very collaborative. We have a space in north Minneapolis at Hush Studios, and we just get together and play until two or three in the morning. It’s bizarre, there’s a lot of gibberish involved. We are kind of meticulous about critiquing each other and saying what we want, but for the most part, we try to let each other do what we’re best at.”
What are your musical influences?
“We’re really into the band Sticky Fingers, they’re an Australian band. They take that reggae and rock and roll vibe and make a weird mixture out of it that’s so cool. We like weird mixtures. We’re also really into this band, Chon. Kev has played a couple of shows with them actually. I’ve seen them a couple times and have hung out with the guys.”
Are they based in the Cities?
“No, actually, they’re from California. They just did this huge tour throughout the United States, which was really cool.”
Are you hoping to do something like that in the future? Record an album, go on tour, have fangirls follow you around?
“Oh yeah, I’m definitely hoping that this leads to making a full length album. I sometimes think about how we got together and what we’ve been through for what seems like such a long time now and it seems crazy. Things are moving fast now but we’ve always had each other and music to fall back to and it has helped me personally, in a lot of ways and propelled us to take it even further. I see that going as far as it’s meant to be and what feels right.”
Do you remember your very first show? Did it go as well as you were hoping it would?
“The first show that we did was at the end of last year. My favorite moment, and the moment I knew that I wanted to be a musician, was when my friend who owned the house we were playing in was having this big argument with his roommates, so we weren’t going to play. We had the drums stuffed in the bathroom and everything. But we ended up pleading with the people at the party and asking if we could play our music, and they were up for whatever, so we pulled everything out and then played a show. And by the time we did our horrible rendition of Blitzkrieg Bop, the house was packed.”
What’s your favorite song to perform?
“Annalise is definitely our favorite song to play right now. I love the breakdown into the reggae section, and Trevor has this disgusting eight bar bass solo, and he never does the same thing. I love to see the crowd’s reactions and to see them thinking ‘they brought reggae back!’”
Do you have a favorite lyric from Annalise?
“The constant aggression that leads to depression / Have you thought about progress we needed to focus? / I want you to notice, let go what you’re holding on / Slow it down but don’t stop the motion / Believing and hoping that you are the one.”
Any final thoughts before I stop taking notes? Definitely the heaviest question so far.
“Yeah, our music is for everyone! Our reason for getting into music was to do something different. When we see people at our shows, I’m happy. It doesn’t matter to me who you are, as long as you’re enjoying yourself. Good music is good music, regardless of genre.”