# The Marsh Family: From Viral Sensation to Original Music-Hope,Heart & Harmony

An episode of [Tony Mantor's : Almost Live..... Nashville](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1751194045), 29 Sep 2026, 27 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/c41d385f-64b2-4514-9415-b4d50130ce01/1ddf9e57-cdb9-46e9-8e40-b4d50167bd0b/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=d1742151-672b-4e4d-997b-b4d50130ce0c

Show Notes What began as a family singing together in their living room during the COVID-19 lockdown quickly became an international phenomenon. In this episode of Almost Live Nashville, Tony Mantor welcomes members of the Marsh Family to share their incredible journey from viral videos to worldwide recognition. The family discusses their debut album, Hollow Chapters, the move into original songwriting, and how they've used music to spark conversations about mental health, prostate cancer awareness, family, politics, and hope. They also open up about working together as parents and children, the challenges of sudden fame, and why authenticity remains at the heart of everything they create. This inspiring conversation reminds us that music can heal, unite, and give people the courage to talk about life's most important issues. In this episode you'll hear: • The story behind the Marsh Family's overnight success • The inspiration for their debut album Hollow Chapters • How music helped them connect with millions around the world • The importance of family, kindness, and authenticity • Why they believe music can change lives If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow Almost Live Nashville so you never miss another great conversation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Tony Mantour. Thanks for joining us today. Welcome
[0:03] Speaker 1: to Almost Live Nashville, where music, entertainment, and great conversations
[0:08] Speaker 1: come together.
[0:09] Speaker 2: If you haven't already, tap follow.
[0:11] Speaker 1: This way you stay up to date, never missing the
[0:13] Speaker 1: great conversation and guests coming your way. Today's guests are
[0:19] Speaker 1: unlike any we've had before. What started as a family
[0:22] Speaker 1: singing together in their living room during one of the
[0:24] Speaker 1: world's most uncertain times turned into an international phenomenon. Their
[0:28] Speaker 1: viral videos reach millions, earning appearances on Good Morning America,
[0:32] Speaker 1: Jimmy Kimmel Live, and praise from artists and actors around
[0:36] Speaker 1: the globe. Behind the harmonies and the headlines is a
[0:39] Speaker 1: family with a much deeper mission. They've used their platform
[0:43] Speaker 1: to support important causes, bring people together, and prove that
[0:46] Speaker 1: music can still be a force for empathy and positive change.
[0:50] Speaker 1: Now with their debut album, Hollow Chapters, the Marsh family
[0:54] Speaker 1: is here to talk about the journey from a family
[0:57] Speaker 1: living room in Kent to millions of screens around the world,
[1:00] Speaker 1: the stories behind the music, and why authenticity and kindness
[1:04] Speaker 1: matter now more than ever.
[1:05] Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us today.
[1:07] Speaker 1: It's a pleasure to have you here.
[1:08] Speaker 3: Not at all. It's great to be here.
[1:10] Speaker 4: There's four of the six of us. The two girls
[1:12] Speaker 4: are still at school, sadly, so they're missing.
[1:15] Speaker 2: Okay.
[1:15] Speaker 1: All right. For those who are discovering you for the
[1:18] Speaker 1: first time, Tell us who the Marsh family is and
[1:22] Speaker 1: of course, your musical journey.
[1:24] Speaker 4: So the Marsh family is a group of six musicians,
[1:27] Speaker 4: two parents and four kids based in the UK who
[1:30] Speaker 4: were hobbyists up to the pandemic. And we started sharing
[1:35] Speaker 4: some of our videos like everyone when people were bored
[1:38] Speaker 4: during lockdowns. And to our surprise, people were interested and
[1:42] Speaker 4: amused by them. And that gave us a kind of
[1:44] Speaker 4: bit of an incentive to keep going and put some
[1:45] Speaker 4: extra time and effort in. And over the past six years,
[1:48] Speaker 4: we've moved from hobbyists to something a bit more than hobbyists.
[1:51] Speaker 4: And yeah, we're excited to have released a first album
[1:54] Speaker 4: not long ago.
[1:55] Speaker 1: When your video started reaching millions of people around the world,
[1:59] Speaker 1: what was the moment you realized, man, our lives have
[2:02] Speaker 1: changed forever.
[2:03] Speaker 2: What are we going to do with this?
[2:05] Speaker 5: I mean, weirdly, I think we realised it awfully quickly
[2:08] Speaker 5: because people talk about things happening overnight. But for us,
[2:10] Speaker 5: it really did. And it was literally we went to
[2:14] Speaker 5: bed and everything was normal. And the next morning, a
[2:16] Speaker 5: million people had watched our video. And suddenly there were
[2:19] Speaker 5: people outside during lockdown, which was absolutely terrifying. In a
[2:23] Speaker 5: strange way, although it happened overnight, because we were all
[2:26] Speaker 5: in lockdown, we could only see into people's living rooms
[2:29] Speaker 5: in the way that everyone was watching us through these
[2:31] Speaker 5: little screens.
[2:32] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[2:33] Speaker 5: So it allowed us to feel a little bit separate
[2:35] Speaker 5: from it. I mean, we got amazing messages from all
[2:37] Speaker 5: over the world and we still have people who, in
[2:39] Speaker 5: those very early days, messages from Australia and Canada who
[2:43] Speaker 5: kind of check in all the time. But it allowed
[2:45] Speaker 5: us to go back to school and life when things
[2:47] Speaker 5: opened up and not feel completely strange and not feel
[2:50] Speaker 5: like people were looking at us in a different way.
[2:52] Speaker 5: So we were lucky, but it did really happen overnight.
[2:55] Speaker 1: With all this happening, you've appeared on shows like Good
[2:59] Speaker 1: Morning America, Jimmy Kimmel Live. What stands out the most
[3:03] Speaker 1: to you from all those experiences?
[3:05] Speaker 6: I mean, it's obviously crazy hearing stuff like that back
[3:08] Speaker 6: because it all happened in such a weird kind of
[3:10] Speaker 6: bubble of time. Definitely the one that stands out the
[3:13] Speaker 6: most for us was we were on Comic Relief in 2022,
[3:16] Speaker 6: I believe it was, which was huge for us. It
[3:19] Speaker 6: was a very weird experience again, because rather than the
[3:21] Speaker 6: usual crowd being there, they were sort of filtering people
[3:24] Speaker 6: in and out, socially distanced. But yeah, the experiences and
[3:27] Speaker 6: the shows and the people that we've gotten to talk
[3:29] Speaker 6: to from making our music in our living room, which.
[3:32] Speaker 3: Is where it started, is crazy to think about.
[3:34] Speaker 1: Your work has been praised by people like you, Grant,
[3:37] Speaker 1: Spike Lee, and many others. Has there been one compliment
[3:41] Speaker 1: or message that really touched you.
[3:44] Speaker 2: As a family?
[3:45] Speaker 5: I think, I mean, obviously the famous people are pretty
[3:48] Speaker 5: jaw dropping and we get very excited about that. But
[3:51] Speaker 5: I think the first message that I got from a
[3:53] Speaker 5: nurse who was working in an intensive care unit at
[3:55] Speaker 5: the beginning of COVID who messaged and said, your video
[3:58] Speaker 5: made my day a little bit easier.
[4:00] Speaker 3: Like that was.
[4:01] Speaker 5: Kind of what prompted us to keep going, even though
[4:03] Speaker 5: it's been complicated and as life has changed, obviously we've
[4:06] Speaker 5: had to be flexible. Those kinds of messages were the
[4:08] Speaker 5: ones that meant the most to us, I think.
[4:11] Speaker 1: Now we've got two of the four siblings that are
[4:13] Speaker 1: part of this today. What is it like doing this
[4:16] Speaker 1: as a family with your parents? Because lots of times
[4:20] Speaker 1: that disconnect happens as you hit your teens and you.
[4:23] Speaker 2: Want to have your own lives.
[4:25] Speaker 1: So how does it feel now to have this family
[4:28] Speaker 1: unit working together?
[4:30] Speaker 7: I think in some senses it's definitely a benefit. I
[4:33] Speaker 7: think there was always a close understanding that we had
[4:36] Speaker 7: with each other that wasn't really going to change dramatically
[4:40] Speaker 7: with the music. And so far, the balance of how
[4:43] Speaker 7: we've done anything has always felt really comfortable with how
[4:46] Speaker 7: everyone's feeling about the music. We are constantly negotiating, and
[4:52] Speaker 7: there's always elements that are somebody's frustrated on any given day,
[4:57] Speaker 7: as there would be in any house.
[4:58] Speaker 6: Sure.
[4:59] Speaker 3: And so I.
[4:59] Speaker 7: Think it does add like a unique spin to some
[5:04] Speaker 7: of the songwriting dynamics at times. But overall, I'd say
[5:07] Speaker 7: it's actually a really, really nice way of kind of
[5:10] Speaker 7: making sure that everyone still stays in close contact. I'm now,
[5:14] Speaker 7: as you can tell, I'm in a different place. I'm
[5:16] Speaker 7: at university. And yet the music is still a very
[5:19] Speaker 7: good way of kind of like making sure that we
[5:20] Speaker 7: stay in touch, stay together.
[5:22] Speaker 1: Good, good. Now, you brought something up, which I think
[5:26] Speaker 1: is really interesting, is the family dynamic. So it all
[5:30] Speaker 1: sounds good when people say, oh, you're doing it as
[5:32] Speaker 1: a family. That's just great. But it's not always easy.
[5:35] Speaker 2: I mean, music isn't easy.
[5:37] Speaker 1: Just life isn't easy. So I've got a couple, three
[5:40] Speaker 1: questions here. Who's the perfectionist? Who's the comedian? And who's
[5:45] Speaker 1: the one that keeps everyone on schedule?
[5:47] Speaker 6: I think the perfectionist is the easiest answer there. Dad
[5:51] Speaker 6: is by far the most perfectionist, especially since we've started
[5:54] Speaker 6: being more professional about things. He's very hard on himself,
[5:58] Speaker 6: but Equally, if you're sort of recording some vocal line
[6:02] Speaker 6: or some harmony, especially because we normally have the issue
[6:04] Speaker 6: that part of our music is we layer lots of
[6:07] Speaker 6: harmonies on top. So whoever sings a harmony first, however
[6:10] Speaker 6: they do it, everybody else has to copy that. So
[6:13] Speaker 6: there's always people complaining about, why has he done that
[6:16] Speaker 6: stupid timing? But yeah, Dad's definitely the perfectionist, but I
[6:20] Speaker 6: think that's how we get our kind of unique sound.
[6:23] Speaker 1: Okay.
[6:23] Speaker 5: In terms of comedian, um, I dunno, I think that, that,
[6:26] Speaker 5: that hat gets passed around. It does tend to affect,
[6:29] Speaker 5: you know, who's, who's in the best frame of mind.
[6:32] Speaker 5: I think Thomas is often quite positive and will be
[6:35] Speaker 5: an entertaining, but keeping people on schedule. I mean, if it's,
[6:38] Speaker 5: if it's a feeding schedule, probably me.
[6:41] Speaker 2: Okay.
[6:41] Speaker 3: All right.
[6:42] Speaker 1: Well, I, I would say that's probably not surprising. The
[6:45] Speaker 1: mother's usually the anchor, right?
[6:49] Speaker 6: Yeah.
[6:50] Speaker 5: I think that just, uh, yeah, that just naturally happens that, um, Yeah,
[6:54] Speaker 5: we just have to work to all of our schedules.
[6:56] Speaker 5: And I tend to know what everybody else is doing
[6:58] Speaker 5: outside of the world of music. So that's often my role.
[7:02] Speaker 6: We've had to make a full online calendar now because
[7:05] Speaker 6: it was getting too out of control with everyone. So
[7:07] Speaker 6: mum's fully got an organised schedule where you have to
[7:10] Speaker 6: tick whether you're going to be at this particular event
[7:13] Speaker 6: or rehearsal.
[7:14] Speaker 1: Your new title is hollow chapters, actually a pretty intriguing name.
[7:19] Speaker 1: So what does it represent and what do you hope
[7:22] Speaker 1: listeners take away from it?
[7:24] Speaker 4: So hollow chapters, that, that actual phrase comes from the
[7:27] Speaker 4: subject matter of one of the songs, uh, cause the
[7:30] Speaker 4: songs rove across ideas of life cycle, um, kind of long,
[7:35] Speaker 4: long histories, looking back at mythology and then some very contemporary, uh,
[7:39] Speaker 4: more political songs, looking for stories and heroes. And Hollow
[7:43] Speaker 4: Chapters is a reference to the wooden horse of Troy
[7:46] Speaker 4: because Tess, our youngest, who sings that lead single, has
[7:50] Speaker 4: always loved Greek mythology. And so we wanted to make
[7:53] Speaker 4: sure that all of the kids and everybody in the
[7:54] Speaker 4: family had an opportunity both to be front and centre
[7:57] Speaker 4: of one of the songs and also make sure that
[7:59] Speaker 4: they brought their preferences and what they enjoyed together. and
[8:03] Speaker 4: brought their kind of heart and emphasis and soul kind
[8:06] Speaker 4: of into the different tracks. So yeah, hollow chapters is,
[8:09] Speaker 4: it refers to the sense that there's a kind of
[8:11] Speaker 4: danger of all these Greek warriors, of course, people that
[8:14] Speaker 4: know the myth that are gonna drop out as a
[8:15] Speaker 4: surprise in the middle of the city and raise the.
[8:18] Speaker 3: Town of Troy.
[8:20] Speaker 4: And in some ways, you know, some of these themes
[8:23] Speaker 4: of the album reflect what we've been singing about since
[8:26] Speaker 4: the pandemic, because we've often, whether it's parody kind of
[8:28] Speaker 4: social media content or the slightly more serious, more perfectionist
[8:33] Speaker 4: songs that we've done in the studio, want to talk
[8:35] Speaker 4: about what's real in people's lives. And I think there's
[8:37] Speaker 4: lots in some of those older stories that are still
[8:40] Speaker 4: with us now when it comes to information and questions
[8:43] Speaker 4: of truth and conspiracy and that kind of stuff. So yeah,
[8:46] Speaker 4: that's some of what we wanted to get into in
[8:48] Speaker 4: the album. It's kind of linked by theme rather than
[8:51] Speaker 4: by genre or any one individual.
[8:54] Speaker 1: I think this is really interesting that this CD makes
[8:58] Speaker 1: a move into original songwriting. Why was now the right
[9:02] Speaker 1: time to tell your own stories instead of the parodies
[9:05] Speaker 1: like you were just talking about?
[9:07] Speaker 7: I think kind of writing our own music isn't something necessarily...
[9:14] Speaker 7: It was just something that came to the forefront in
[9:17] Speaker 7: the last year or so when we decided we wanted
[9:19] Speaker 7: it to be a real project. As you say, the
[9:23] Speaker 7: parody stuff, particularly for the online audiences, that was always
[9:26] Speaker 7: the focus going up to that point. But a couple
[9:29] Speaker 7: of the songs on the album had been kind of
[9:32] Speaker 7: being loosely written and compiled and the kind of nascent
[9:36] Speaker 7: ideas were forming even three or four years ago, as
[9:39] Speaker 7: far back as that. And so we decided last year,
[9:42] Speaker 7: given that it was a particularly kind of appropriate point,
[9:46] Speaker 7: I think, in our, as Dad mentioned, a lot of
[9:50] Speaker 7: it being about cycles of life and similar themes. I
[9:55] Speaker 7: think we felt that in the current, both global context
[9:59] Speaker 7: and personal context, that the period around 2024-25 was a
[10:05] Speaker 7: good opportunity to delve into our original music and see
[10:08] Speaker 7: where we could take it.
[10:09] Speaker 1: Now, A New Way tackles themes of generational frustration. What
[10:14] Speaker 1: conversations inspired that song? And what message do you hope
[10:18] Speaker 1: that people hear out of this?
[10:19] Speaker 7: I think the song definitely came out of just a
[10:24] Speaker 7: frustration with constantly seeing the same kind of news headlines
[10:31] Speaker 7: and stories and kind of trajectories, whether it's to do
[10:34] Speaker 7: like from a personal perspective to do with like kind
[10:37] Speaker 7: of climate crises and also from a political perspective, a
[10:41] Speaker 7: lot of the stuff that we've been kind of on
[10:42] Speaker 7: an individual level parodying was also kind of, you know,
[10:45] Speaker 7: it does really like build up and take its toll
[10:47] Speaker 7: when you keep seeing the same sort of new cycles,
[10:50] Speaker 7: new stories coming up again and again.
[10:52] Speaker 3: And I think it was that pent.
[10:54] Speaker 7: Up frustration that we definitely hope to convey in the
[10:59] Speaker 7: lyrics of the song and the idea that we just
[11:01] Speaker 7: need to break away, not just from the individual cases
[11:05] Speaker 7: of each new story, but from the kind of cycles
[11:09] Speaker 7: that caused them.
[11:10] Speaker 2: Okay.
[11:11] Speaker 1: Now, Your music often reflects personal experiences. Lots of times
[11:17] Speaker 1: that has a big meaning to people. Now, one is
[11:20] Speaker 1: also including Daniel's health challenges. How has that adversity shaped
[11:25] Speaker 1: your creativity? and strengthen the family bond within your music?
[11:29] Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, I think it's always been something that we
[11:32] Speaker 5: have kind of discussed. There have been various things that
[11:35] Speaker 5: have come up. And as a family, we've talked about them.
[11:38] Speaker 5: And interestingly, when we have sung about them, we've had
[11:40] Speaker 5: very different responses. Some people, I think this kind of
[11:43] Speaker 5: feeds into what Alfie was talking about with a new
[11:45] Speaker 5: way and this idea that the next generation are going
[11:47] Speaker 5: to somehow do things differently or change things. And yet
[11:50] Speaker 5: we also get a lot of things aimed at us
[11:52] Speaker 5: about why we shouldn't be talking to our children about
[11:54] Speaker 5: politics or politics. menopause or some of the ailments and
[11:57] Speaker 5: illnesses that we all experience and yet if we don't
[12:00] Speaker 5: how on earth are we going to expect them to
[12:02] Speaker 5: sort of understand or move forward or do something differently
[12:05] Speaker 5: so I think it was from our point of view
[12:07] Speaker 5: just another source of information to sort of build upon
[12:11] Speaker 5: and find a way of kind of putting a spin
[12:13] Speaker 5: on it that makes it easier for all of us
[12:14] Speaker 5: to deal with but it does often resonate with people
[12:17] Speaker 5: outside of our walls we found when we sing about
[12:19] Speaker 5: things that matter to us.
[12:21] Speaker 4: I think one of the things we learned way back
[12:23] Speaker 4: in the pandemic time is the power sometimes unintentionally, is
[12:27] Speaker 4: the power of music. It doesn't have to be perfect music.
[12:31] Speaker 4: Everything doesn't have to be, you know, auto-tuned or absolutely.
[12:34] Speaker 4: But like, as long as it's got that authenticity and
[12:37] Speaker 4: the message is somehow there and people can see it
[12:40] Speaker 4: and hear it, it really reaches and moves people. And
[12:42] Speaker 4: that's what we found when we shared songs. Sometimes people
[12:45] Speaker 4: didn't really care what we were singing about. It was
[12:46] Speaker 4: just to watch some other people singing in the pandemic days.
[12:49] Speaker 4: But we've discovered that we can kind of move people
[12:52] Speaker 4: and we've learned from that mirror i suppose because we
[12:54] Speaker 4: haven't had other influences right one of the nice things
[12:57] Speaker 4: is very frustrating being a family as tom mentioned being
[12:59] Speaker 4: a perfectionist and learning how the industry works and being
[13:02] Speaker 4: kind of fiercely independent and having a grassroots global support
[13:05] Speaker 4: but one of the nice things about it is you
[13:07] Speaker 4: can sing about what you want yes very true I was.
[13:09] Speaker 5: Just going to add there that what we've discovered, certainly
[13:12] Speaker 5: when we sang about things that a lot of the
[13:14] Speaker 5: time people wouldn't talk about, like my dad's thankfully successful
[13:17] Speaker 5: battle with prostate cancer. We did a song about prostate
[13:20] Speaker 5: cancer and a lot of people then said, I spoke
[13:23] Speaker 5: to my dad for the first time about this situation
[13:25] Speaker 5: because your song gave me a way into it. So
[13:27] Speaker 5: we found that actually a song, whether it's politics or health,
[13:31] Speaker 5: can cross a boundary and people will talk about it
[13:33] Speaker 5: and it will give them an in to be able
[13:35] Speaker 5: to raise a topic or, you know, investigate something further.
[13:39] Speaker 5: that they might not have felt comfortable doing before. So yeah,
[13:41] Speaker 5: we've been quite lucky that we've been able to sort
[13:44] Speaker 5: of step across quite a lot of those boundaries with music,
[13:47] Speaker 5: sometimes funny, other times not.
[13:48] Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up because you've openly supported
[13:52] Speaker 1: mental health awareness, NHS charities, prostate cancer, like you just mentioned.
[13:58] Speaker 1: Have you found, and you just kind of mentioned that,
[14:00] Speaker 1: but can you elaborate and expand on that, what you
[14:04] Speaker 1: got for response from people? Because like you said, some
[14:08] Speaker 1: of these, things that you just mentioned are hard to
[14:11] Speaker 1: talk about.
[14:12] Speaker 2: People don't want to talk about it.
[14:14] Speaker 1: And this music allows you to get out there, expand
[14:19] Speaker 1: on things that you want to, and really put a
[14:21] Speaker 1: message across. How have you found that message to, number one,
[14:26] Speaker 1: hit the audience? And then what has their response been
[14:29] Speaker 1: back to you because of it?
[14:31] Speaker 4: I mean, in terms of the response back, the amount
[14:35] Speaker 4: of support that we've received, like for making this album
[14:37] Speaker 4: that we just released, It's grassroots funded.
[14:39] Speaker 3: It was from a Kickstarter.
[14:40] Speaker 4: We had incredible support that we weren't expecting that paid
[14:43] Speaker 4: for the studio time and the mastering and loads of
[14:46] Speaker 4: extra plugins and allowed us to add a couple of
[14:48] Speaker 4: extra tracks and that kind of thing. But what's been
[14:50] Speaker 4: really exciting, to be honest, is in the last couple
[14:53] Speaker 4: of years, it's only since last year that we've been
[14:54] Speaker 4: brave enough to sally forth outside of these four walls
[14:58] Speaker 4: and beyond the camera and into the real world and
[15:00] Speaker 4: playing music initially at open mics and now at gigs.
[15:04] Speaker 4: And it's been so incredible to have people coming up
[15:07] Speaker 4: to us Some of them have been following us for
[15:08] Speaker 4: ages and some of them haven't. But just kind of
[15:10] Speaker 4: having that personal response, it's been quite overwhelming, to be honest,
[15:14] Speaker 4: at times.
[15:14] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[15:15] Speaker 4: To actually look someone in the eyes and for them
[15:17] Speaker 4: to say, you helped us through that or you gave
[15:20] Speaker 4: us a bit of relief from this or we took
[15:23] Speaker 4: this action because of that. So it's heartened us. I
[15:27] Speaker 4: think it's given us, it's kicked us on. It's given
[15:29] Speaker 4: us the will to beyond just having fun with one
[15:31] Speaker 4: another as a family, which we could always do, that's
[15:34] Speaker 4: as much as anything, I think, is what's driven us
[15:36] Speaker 4: on to get to a point where we had something
[15:39] Speaker 4: that we could share with people to capture this moment.
[15:41] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[15:42] Speaker 5: I would say it's obviously, from our point of view,
[15:44] Speaker 5: not always sweetness and light, because what we do positively
[15:47] Speaker 5: to do with, you know, sort of health things or
[15:50] Speaker 5: funny songs, equally, if you step into the world of politics,
[15:54] Speaker 5: you will incite as much as you will comfort.
[15:57] Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
[15:58] Speaker 5: So we have become, you know, I don't think you
[16:01] Speaker 5: ever become immune to these things, but we certainly are
[16:04] Speaker 5: aware that there are very differing opinions.
[16:07] Speaker 2: Sure.
[16:08] Speaker 5: When you put your head above the parapet, you expect
[16:10] Speaker 5: to get things thrown at you. So it has been interesting.
[16:13] Speaker 5: And I think as much as we kind of protect
[16:16] Speaker 5: certainly each other and the kids, obviously.
[16:18] Speaker 2: Right.
[16:19] Speaker 5: It's never a bad thing, I think, for people to understand,
[16:22] Speaker 5: for the kids to understand that there are people out
[16:24] Speaker 5: there who have very, very different opinions.
[16:26] Speaker 1: Yes.
[16:27] Speaker 5: And why that might be. So that's been useful.
[16:29] Speaker 2: That leads me to the two boys.
[16:31] Speaker 1: Being a mom and a dad, you understand life more
[16:36] Speaker 1: because you're older. You just mentioned several things because of that.
[16:40] Speaker 1: But you also understand that when you touch other people
[16:44] Speaker 1: in certain ways because of your music and whatever, and
[16:46] Speaker 1: they tell you about it, it gives you that inner
[16:49] Speaker 1: warmth that you're doing something that's good. Now, younger kids,
[16:53] Speaker 1: and don't take this personally, don't always get that, you know,
[16:56] Speaker 1: because they're still learning life. They're still getting part of
[16:59] Speaker 1: what's going on in the world. So how does it
[17:01] Speaker 1: feel to the both of you when people come up
[17:04] Speaker 1: and they might bypass your mom and your dad to
[17:06] Speaker 1: tell you maybe what your song meant to their family
[17:09] Speaker 1: or them or how it helped them through a difficult time?
[17:12] Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an amazing feeling.
[17:14] Speaker 6: I mean, it's I think because it's such a unique
[17:17] Speaker 6: experience that we've had. Obviously, it happened at sort of
[17:20] Speaker 6: different timings and ages for all of us. But to
[17:24] Speaker 6: have that as a part of growing up in such
[17:27] Speaker 6: a sort of key part of our lives to be
[17:29] Speaker 6: told something like that. by someone that says listen your
[17:32] Speaker 6: song or what you've done has had a huge impact
[17:35] Speaker 6: on me is like just from a sort of developmental
[17:38] Speaker 6: like growing up that that has a huge impact and
[17:40] Speaker 6: like it really makes you proud of what of what
[17:42] Speaker 6: you're doing like you know you're obviously you want to
[17:45] Speaker 6: be doing what you love but equally like mum said
[17:48] Speaker 6: there's backlash you're aware that there's you know people that
[17:51] Speaker 6: will will not be as in favor but what those
[17:53] Speaker 6: moments of people that tell you how much something means
[17:57] Speaker 6: to you it's it's yeah I mean it makes it
[17:59] Speaker 6: all worth it.
[18:00] Speaker 2: What about you, Alfie?
[18:01] Speaker 1: Anyone come up to you and just say, man, this
[18:04] Speaker 1: changed my life or this helped me through a rough time?
[18:08] Speaker 2: How did that affect you?
[18:09] Speaker 7: Yeah, I think recently, particularly when we were doing our
[18:13] Speaker 7: live performances that accompanied the album release in kind of
[18:17] Speaker 7: mid-April time or late April, we did a couple of
[18:20] Speaker 7: live kind of concert performances. Off the back of them,
[18:24] Speaker 7: there were a couple of people like had flown all
[18:27] Speaker 7: the way from Austria or Germany just to stay for
[18:31] Speaker 7: one day and watch and to say how and like.
[18:34] Speaker 3: And so speaking.
[18:35] Speaker 7: to those guys who were just incredible and kind of
[18:39] Speaker 7: the admiration for both their dedication to like kind of
[18:42] Speaker 7: their support for us was just such an amazing feeling.
[18:46] Speaker 3: It was a real honor that they'd kind of put
[18:48] Speaker 3: that much.
[18:49] Speaker 7: Trust and yeah, and support into us and belief into
[18:53] Speaker 7: what we're doing. And so as Tom says, it's really
[18:55] Speaker 7: a kind of encouraging, both very delightful and very encouraging
[19:00] Speaker 7: experience to have when it does happen.
[19:02] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[19:02] Speaker 7: Because it does really make you feel like you're making
[19:05] Speaker 7: a difference with what you're doing, which is especially important
[19:09] Speaker 7: in particularly from like a digital perspective.
[19:12] Speaker 3: Right.
[19:13] Speaker 4: So.
[19:13] Speaker 3: So, yeah, definitely.
[19:14] Speaker 6: I mean, that's why doing doing things live has been
[19:17] Speaker 6: so great for us.
[19:18] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[19:19] Speaker 6: Because when we were sort of blowing up in the
[19:21] Speaker 6: in the pandemic there's a sort of detachment to it
[19:23] Speaker 6: you know like it's obviously amazing right but being there
[19:26] Speaker 6: on a stage or afterwards like looking someone in the
[19:29] Speaker 6: eye that says i really enjoy your music it's been
[19:32] Speaker 6: great it's such a different thing and it's why it's
[19:35] Speaker 6: like it's such a an amazing thing to do stuff
[19:37] Speaker 6: live i'm really glad that we've started to do that
[19:39] Speaker 6: because it's such a different thing.
[19:41] Speaker 4: I think the musical landscape has changed so much in
[19:46] Speaker 4: the last five or six years since the pandemic. And
[19:48] Speaker 4: you look at now what's happening with AI, and there's
[19:50] Speaker 4: a sense that, you know, people want the real, they
[19:53] Speaker 4: want the organic.
[19:54] Speaker 3: Yes.
[19:54] Speaker 4: And it's, you know, it's going to take flight to
[19:57] Speaker 4: smaller corners probably, but like it's so important to protect that. And, yeah,
[20:02] Speaker 4: so I totally agree. I think it's part of the
[20:05] Speaker 4: exciting features of performing some of the stuff live. Although
[20:09] Speaker 4: it brings its own challenges when, you know, you make
[20:11] Speaker 4: the recording in the studio and you can, oh, let's
[20:12] Speaker 4: add some oboe. Let's add a load of extra stuff.
[20:14] Speaker 3: Yeah. You've got to deliver that with six of you.
[20:17] Speaker 2: Right.
[20:18] Speaker 4: There's a lot of hormones in a family anyway, this
[20:20] Speaker 4: size and this age, right? So it's not always easy
[20:23] Speaker 4: to get the show on the road. But when it works,
[20:26] Speaker 4: it's brilliant. Yeah.
[20:27] Speaker 1: The one thing I liked you mentioned is all the
[20:29] Speaker 1: different things that you've been feeling. One of the things
[20:32] Speaker 1: I think that stayed true to you is that despite
[20:35] Speaker 1: your international success, you stayed rooted in your local community
[20:38] Speaker 1: in Kent. How has the response been from your local area?
[20:43] Speaker 1: And then, of course, when you expand out, go to
[20:45] Speaker 1: other areas, how has that followed you?
[20:47] Speaker 3: I mean, I think.
[20:49] Speaker 5: Kent is a sort of microcosm of the rest of
[20:51] Speaker 5: the world at the moment in that we have obviously
[20:54] Speaker 5: a lot of lovely supporters and friends who have come
[20:58] Speaker 5: to gigs and we have a little sort of a
[21:01] Speaker 5: tribe of people that we can rely upon. But we
[21:04] Speaker 5: are politically in quite a divided situation and the local
[21:08] Speaker 5: council is run by a political group that we would
[21:11] Speaker 5: say we were very much not in the same vein as.
[21:14] Speaker 5: So it's definitely been something that we have kind of...
[21:18] Speaker 5: wondered about when we've gone out to see how people
[21:20] Speaker 5: are going to respond to us, but it's actually always
[21:22] Speaker 5: been incredibly supportive and lovely.
[21:25] Speaker 3: Good.
[21:25] Speaker 5: And it's definitely made us, we're actually moving out of
[21:28] Speaker 5: our local area over the summer and going up to
[21:31] Speaker 5: the north of England to play a couple of gigs
[21:34] Speaker 5: in a festival up there. So yeah, we've got braver,
[21:36] Speaker 5: I think.
[21:37] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[21:37] Speaker 5: It's definitely been exciting to experience.
[21:41] Speaker 4: We hope to take inspiration from some of the places
[21:45] Speaker 4: that you know really well, and the people that you know,
[21:47] Speaker 4: and that's where you find some of the stories and
[21:50] Speaker 4: some of the locations as well.
[21:51] Speaker 3: Right.
[21:52] Speaker 4: Doing local festivals. We're still trying to figure out what
[21:55] Speaker 4: an audience expects from us because it's quite, you know,
[21:57] Speaker 4: there's a bunch of people that don't know you.
[21:59] Speaker 1: Sure.
[21:59] Speaker 3: You turn up as a family band.
[22:01] Speaker 2: Right.
[22:01] Speaker 4: Everyone's heart already sinks probably when they see the acoustic
[22:04] Speaker 4: guitar or whatever. And then you kind of, you want
[22:06] Speaker 4: to surprise them positively. And most of the time we
[22:09] Speaker 4: manage that. But then some people that know our work
[22:12] Speaker 4: online kind of expects a lot of humor and a
[22:15] Speaker 4: lot of parody. And so we're playing with that balance.
[22:18] Speaker 4: And again, it's a work in progress, I think. But yeah,
[22:21] Speaker 4: so far so good.
[22:22] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[22:22] Speaker 1: I've got one last question for you. But before we
[22:25] Speaker 1: get to that. how do people find you and connect
[22:27] Speaker 1: with you?
[22:28] Speaker 5: So you can check us on all socials. It's marshfamilysongs.com
[22:33] Speaker 5: and you will find us, yeah, on all of the
[22:35] Speaker 5: different social sites there. And that will take you and
[22:38] Speaker 5: link to our website, which is also marshfamilysongs.com. And you
[22:41] Speaker 5: can find out about where we're going to be playing
[22:43] Speaker 5: and you can find out how to get the albums
[22:45] Speaker 5: and yeah, all of the other things that we've been
[22:47] Speaker 5: up to.
[22:48] Speaker 1: My final question is for each of you. I want
[22:51] Speaker 1: each member of the Marsh family to What would you
[22:54] Speaker 1: like to tell and leave the listeners with one message
[22:59] Speaker 1: about hope, creativity and finding joy through music and how
[23:03] Speaker 1: you approach it? What would you tell them?
[23:06] Speaker 3: Who wants to go first?
[23:08] Speaker 5: I think we actually put it on a mug once
[23:10] Speaker 5: that it's better to sing than to cry. And that
[23:13] Speaker 5: was always our idea from the very earliest days. Put
[23:17] Speaker 5: it to song, put it to music, and it's better
[23:19] Speaker 5: than sitting feeling miserable about the event. So that would
[23:22] Speaker 5: be mine.
[23:23] Speaker 7: Yeah, I think kind of building on that, music has
[23:25] Speaker 7: always been such a good form of expression. And not
[23:31] Speaker 7: just from a political lens, although obviously that.
[23:35] Speaker 3: Is something that is pertinent now.
[23:38] Speaker 7: But I think just being able to express emotions through
[23:44] Speaker 7: the music is such a valuable experience. So yeah, I'd
[23:48] Speaker 7: see music as, as a brilliant avenue for emotional expression and,
[23:53] Speaker 7: and always as mum was saying, kind of like a venting.
[23:55] Speaker 6: Mine's not original, but I think it, that no one
[23:58] Speaker 6: has summed it up better than, um, Stevie Wonder in the,
[24:02] Speaker 6: the lyric music is a world within itself with a
[24:04] Speaker 6: language we all understand.
[24:06] Speaker 7: Right.
[24:06] Speaker 3: With an equal opportunity for all to sing, dance and
[24:08] Speaker 3: clap their hands.
[24:09] Speaker 5: Touche.
[24:10] Speaker 2: Okay.
[24:11] Speaker 4: I just finished with, um, I guess the three words
[24:14] Speaker 4: that we always return to, hope, heart, and humor. You
[24:18] Speaker 4: can't get them all the time. Sometimes you only get
[24:20] Speaker 4: one and not the others, but look for those and
[24:23] Speaker 4: they should point in the right direction.
[24:25] Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, one last bonus question just got me thinking about,
[24:29] Speaker 1: since we've got such a difference in age here because
[24:32] Speaker 1: it's a mother and a father and they're kids, what
[24:35] Speaker 1: are the influences of music that you.
[24:39] Speaker 2: bring to the family band?
[24:42] Speaker 3: Well, Elders first. I was going to say, I was
[24:45] Speaker 3: just going to pop and say Elders first. You guys
[24:47] Speaker 3: have got more experience than us.
[24:49] Speaker 5: I think we realized this year that we'd probably done
[24:52] Speaker 5: our job when sort of Thomas's... Spotify Roundup had him
[24:58] Speaker 5: as the age of 72.
[24:59] Speaker 3: Yeah, average listening age of 72.
[25:02] Speaker 5: Because he's well in... Your biggest present for your birthday
[25:07] Speaker 5: was a Doctor Hook album. So we realised that obviously
[25:10] Speaker 5: we'd managed to influence them, if not subliminally, then very
[25:13] Speaker 5: much intentionally. But I think that's always been our thing,
[25:16] Speaker 5: and particularly from Ben, that music... you shouldn't be restrained
[25:22] Speaker 5: by genre. That if you like it, if it makes
[25:24] Speaker 5: you feel something, if you can sing along to it,
[25:28] Speaker 5: then we'll listen to it.
[25:29] Speaker 2: Right.
[25:30] Speaker 5: We have a completely random assortment. In fact, every summer
[25:32] Speaker 5: we have a summer playlist that everybody has to add to.
[25:35] Speaker 5: We get overruled. Mine always get overruled.
[25:38] Speaker 3: My 80s classics are off and binned, unfortunately.
[25:41] Speaker 5: But yeah, if you like it and you can sing it,
[25:45] Speaker 5: then you should be playing it and you should be
[25:46] Speaker 5: listening to it. Yeah.
[25:48] Speaker 4: So the short answer is mum is 80s power ballad classic.
[25:52] Speaker 4: I'm probably anything world music or Peter Gabriel.
[25:56] Speaker 3: Yeah. Kind of that brings a balance here. Paul Simon
[25:59] Speaker 3: and boys.
[26:00] Speaker 2: What about you?
[26:01] Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, I'm a weird mix of stuff.
[26:04] Speaker 6: My playlist is very strange, but I'd say, yeah, sort
[26:06] Speaker 6: of 70s, 70s rock and kind of folk rock.
[26:10] Speaker 3: It's kind of where I sit.
[26:13] Speaker 7: And I'd say my core inspiration is, has like always
[26:17] Speaker 7: been sting yeah or the police and sting uh but
[26:20] Speaker 7: sting particularly uh so yeah.
[26:22] Speaker 5: And then just to speak for the two girls our
[26:24] Speaker 5: youngest is actually her main motivation i think at the
[26:27] Speaker 5: moment the steel lifespan um so we have a really
[26:30] Speaker 5: random and eclectic um uh backdrop when it comes to
[26:34] Speaker 5: writing and performing.
[26:36] Speaker 1: Yeah that's good that's that's really good i mean you've
[26:39] Speaker 1: got a good blend and that's really what counts i
[26:42] Speaker 1: was just kind of interesting on the influences but It's
[26:44] Speaker 1: evidently worked for you, and that's the main thing. Well,
[26:48] Speaker 1: this has been great. I really appreciate you taking the
[26:50] Speaker 1: time to join me today.
[26:52] Speaker 5: Thank you.
[26:52] Speaker 3: Thanks for having us. Thanks very much for having us.
[26:55] Speaker 2: Oh, it's been my pleasure. Thanks again.
[26:57] Speaker 1: A sincere thank you to our guests for sharing their
[27:00] Speaker 1: journey with us today. And thanks for spending part of
[27:03] Speaker 1: your day with us. We hope today's conversation gave you
[27:06] Speaker 1: something to take with you. If you haven't already, remember...
[27:10] Speaker 1: Tap follow so you never miss the great conversations and
[27:14] Speaker 1: guests still ahead. You can always reach us at media
[27:17] Speaker 1: at plateau music dot com. Thanks for being part of
[27:21] Speaker 1: what we're building here on Almost Live Nashville. We'll see
[27:24] Speaker 1: you next time.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.