The Search for Sound: A Look Inside Ocean Child
Hailing out of the college town of Champaign, Ill. Marco is the lead singer and guitar player for the band Ocean Child which currently has 3 other members. The 20-year-old started Ocean Child in 2019 right before the COVID pandemic and was a solo project. But since starting at University of Illinois, Marco has grown it into a live band with a solid lineup. Marco is currently a Psychology major in school and was involved at WPGU, an independent, student run radio station in Champaign, Ill.
Marco: No matter where I’m going, what I’m doing, psychology is a part of all of it. People are a part of it. Psychology is the study of people and I love learning about it. It’s one of the reasons I love writing. It’s one of the reasons I love being a musician too. The value of community is something that I hold close to myself, and I think it’s something all artists should think about before starting a band. Because it’s about people and what you are making people feel from the music. Channeling that energy when you’re on stage but also the importance of other bands too; being a part of something. Incorporating other musicians and breaking down those barriers. Allowing people to grow along beside you is something I hold close to me. Anytime I go about making music or developing connections, all of that is super important for me. And I think a lot of that foundation comes for psychology, from taking classes and understanding the behaviors and emotions for when I develop music.
Marco has been developing Ocean Child since 2019 with the release of his first EP “How to Keep Someone from Disappearing”. He has gone through an impressive growth process as a musician, starting Ocean Child as a solo project to expanding it to a four-piece band.
Interviewer: Tell me, how did Ocean Child start? What kickstarted that drive to create your own project?
Marco: My dad got me my first DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) when I was a freshman in high school. That was my Christmas gift that year, along with an interface so I could record my guitar with it. And I didn’t really use the guitar at first; I would make hip-hop beats. I was big on hip-hop, and I was making beats. I learned the software by making beats and was really inspired by some random producers like MF Doom. So, I was doing that for a little bit, having fun with it, but eventually I lost that interest. I’m the type of person that needs to find something new to obsess over. I just started to get really into rock music. Anything that had guitar music, it became my new thing. So, I started to record some of these ideas over an instrumental, using the software with my vocals. And that’s what most of that first EP is, songs that I originally had on Soundcloud and transitioned it to Spotify. But that first EP was important because it helped me with the transition from hip-hop to guitar music. It’s cool to look back at the EP and see how much I have changed as a musician, as a person. This was all during my senior year of high school.
Interviewer: So, you started the current band you have now in college?
Marco: It’s interesting. All the music that you here on Spotify is done by me. I recorded it, did the drums, the guitar, vocals, and bass. The mixing, mastering, putting it out. But having a band to play with when we play the songs live. That’s what we do. I remember in high school I started a band with some kids in my gym class. It was a three-piece band, and we were playing some of my songs, but the pandemic hit and we couldn’t play those songs together for a bit. We ended up being able to start playing outdoor shows, like on lawns and stuff. So, there’s always been a band on the side and as Ocean Child has grown, the band has molded and shifted. But it has stayed consistent to the vision of what it is. We’re about four members now and it’s always shifted with members, but it’s stayed pretty consistent. The original band is no longer. Everyone in the band now is new.
Interviewer: When did the current members join the band? Was it recent, within the past year?
Marco: Yeah, around then. It was last May when there was this arts vendor thing happening in Chicago and the main dude curating artists asked me if Ocean Child wanted to perform. And at the time the band hadn’t had been a thing for about a year. I was like “Yeah, let’s do it” and I had to get a band together. I called my friends from back home last year and was like “Our first real gig is happening”. We came together and worked out four or five songs and played them at the event. That was our first exposure of playing a gig. Since the majority of Ocean Child has been during the pandemic, last summer was the first time we could really play for people. So, that was the start of the band.
Since last year, Ocean Child has begun to play more live shows around Champaign at house parties and basements.
Interviewer: It’s cool to see your progression from making music by yourself, to getting into guitar music, to now having a band. Would you be open to recording with your band for the new releases?
Marco: Yeah, we’re talked about it. So far, the band has been mostly for performing live. But now that we have solidified out line up and played shows together, it would be great to flesh out my ideas in a recording studio. I have a lot of new songs I’ve been working on, developing with the guys. We’re ready to record in a studio. I think it would be cool because for example, drums, right? All the drums you hear are programmed into Spotify; I sampled the drums. And it sounds pretty good. But I want to now record in a studio and record a person playing the tracks I’ve come up with. So, I’m planning to do that pretty soon. Hopefully we will get in the studio sometime this month.
I’m curious what Ocean Child’s music will sound like when they record in the studio. The human aspect of recording with a band is something that can’t be replicated with digital samples. The human mistakes and quirks that happen during recordings are a mark of what makes rock music, rock music.
Marco: I watched that recent documentary “Get Back”, and you can see how songs were developed though jams and you can hear the mistakes. And even in the older recordings of those final songs, you can hear that it’s not perfect. Nothing can be “perfect” when you’re playing in a band. And capturing some of that while maintaining that nice sheen that I like to have with my music. That’s something I’m very interested in with recording, what it would be like creating music with the band compared to a DAW, where everything is more likely to be perfected. But there’s the human factor that I want to play with. My music has never been like guitar solo or typical rock stuff but more focused on the song; we’re all playing for the song. All the bands I’ve loved growing up have that quality to them. It’s very much about the song than the individual. But what’s interesting about the studio is that the band is the instrument, a quality that is super important.
Interviewer: Yeah, you mentioned that you like The Beatles and seem to take some inspiration from them. Do you have specific bands or artists that inspired you to chase this down? Or anyone that you’re into right now that’s inspiring the music your currently making?
Marco: Yeah, right now I actually watched a documentary on the Talking Heads with my girlfriend. And I’m just blown away by them every time I listen to them. And I think they represent everything I envision for Ocean Child. They have a very direct way of creating and it’s interesting how they write and create. While that’s not how Ocean Child operates, we have more melancholic melodies, everything they represent is something that is really important to me. But that’s an artist in into down. I’ve always been into The Beatles, that’s always been my bread and butter. That’s what got me into it, developing songs on the acoustic and forming them.
Marco: I was a pretty quiet person, still am. And doing music helps me get through a lot of that. You know, I grew up and only child. So, I had to learn at a young age how to be by myself, stay entertained. Music became one of those things that would keep me entertained. Especially playing songs on the guitar and that becoming important to my expression.
Guitar music seems to be coming back as more young people rediscover the magic and power of band led music that is rock and roll. It’s exciting to see a new generation fall in love with classic acts and become inspired to create their own bands. Some of this might be a form of rebellion against mainstream music, which has largely been dominated by electronic beats and tweaked vocals for the past 15 years.
Marco: I’m a quiet person and I like going to parties, right? And something I enjoy about parties is the music. I was never into drinking and that stuff, but I loved going and vibing to music with my friends. And there’s something really different about playing in a basement, at a house show and that energy is generated from your own. What do I mean by that? With guitars, with drums, with analog equipment. The acoustics of the room, right? You’re generating all of that through your playing. I think once I started experiencing that, it seems like a lot of people want to start bands now. Because the thing about hip-hop music, while it’s great, at a local level it’s hard to generate that type of excitement and that type of energy. Whether it’s a backing track or freestyle. But generating that momentum through analog gear, through instruments, through playing right? It’s another type of energy. And what I think people are realizing is that a lot of your energy and excitement can be channeled through rock. And it was for a long time but it died out and was channeled through hip-hop. But people are realizing that you can generate so much more energy through rock music. And you can get a crowd going more, especially on a local level, in your local scene. Like I was saying, a lot of this angst and anger was powered though hip-hop but as time goes on, people are starting to revisit and put out more rock that’s pretty aggressive. And I’ve noticed it a lot, especially recently.
Not only does rock music provide a place for people to break out and react to the energy from a band, but it provides a type of support net that other types of genres can’t provide on a live scale. Whether that’s dancing and bouncing in a bit, falling and being helped up by a fellow audience member or the overall community that is made up of rock lovers that are inclusive for anyone who wants to experience the grand energy a band can put out.
Marco: Historically, movements in rock history has been around a divisive moment in time. You see history repeat itself. We’re in a very divisive time, divided moment in America and in life in general and I think these are the times when genres change and mold into something new that is exciting. I have no doubt that rock music is coming back.
Interviewer: For sure. I know you’re first show was last year in Chicago, and you’ve played numerous shows since then. Do you have a particular show that was something memorable for you, so far?
Marco: Man, they’re all really good. I’m grateful to be part of the scene at U of I; how excepting everyone is. Like you mentioned, while it’s still crazy everyone looks out for each other. And that’s true, man. Like I play house shows and everyone is super respectful. Yeah, there’s mosh pits, but people are respectful of other people’s space and gear. It’s a very inclusive and accepting crowd. I’ve never been at a house show, thank God, where it feels really off. Like really shady. Because my conception of house shows was that it was shady playing in a basement and there are weird people around. Yes, there is weird people, but they are respectful, cool and very interesting, weird people. That is the positive, wherever we play people are nice. But a specific place I like to play at is Red’s. It’s a house venue here in Champaign that started up this year. It was this first basement show I went to and I was like “One day Ocean Child is going to play here”. And we did, man. We played there twice. Always a great crowd, a great community. House shows is where we are honing our craft as a live band, putting on a show. And we’ve done it other places but what better place to do it than in a college town where your surrounded by cool people and music?
College’s historically have been harbors for new music movements and a jumping pad for emerging independent rock bands like Ocean Child. Bands like R.E.M., The Replacements, and even Aerosmith started on college circuits that helped grow an audience.
Interviewer: Where would you want to see yourself musically, as a band, in the next year or two?
Marco: (laughs) Man, playing Madison Square Garden. Right now, one step at a time. I’ve always taken it one step at a time; what’s the next thing we can do? Going into the studio and doing that. We’ve done the house circuit thing at U of I and it’s been great but what’s the next thing? And I think the next thing right now is expanding our catalog of songs. Putting out new music. And people seem to be taking to it, man. People like it, people like Ocean Child. We’re quite a quirky band with the dichotomy between the music that’s on Spotify to the music we play live. We’re more of a punky, edgy, exciting band.
Interviewer: So, live its faster and louder?
Marco: Yeah, sludgier. Its faster, louder, punkier, sludgier and everything in between. And that’s what I like about playing live. We play these indie tracks very different live and that’s what I like about it. The live experience is their own thing. The tracks on Spotify are very polished and are thought together. When we play live it’s like, “How can we put on a show?” I want to have a differentiator between us and the other bands around Chicago. And I think we have something that no one else does.
Interviewer: That would be cool to hear the punkier, louder recordings of the songs like what you play live. Do you have any upcoming shows or music coming up in the near future? I know you said you want to get in the studio and record some new music.
Marco: Yeah, we plan to be in the studio this month and have something out by next month. That’s our goal right now. But for the summer, we don’t have any shows planned but soon we will. We played a lot of shows from like February to now. It’s nice but a very exhausting experience. But its fulfilling. The one difficult thing is traveling from Chicago to Champaign and vice-versa. But playing shows, we’ve done that. We want to take a minute and rest and record. That’s our future plans for now. We’ve been talking about also doing a release party around lake Michigan. Maybe we’ll do a show out there. But we’ll see.
Marco and the band have gotten requests to play around the country like in LA and Texas. But the band is still in school and want to have time to finish their degrees. Juggling the music, shows, and college life is a handful, but Marco seems to be flourishing in it.
Interviewer: If you were stuck on an island and could only listen to three albums, what would they be?
Marco: So, right now for my island albums I would put “Revolver” by The Beatles. I would put…Gimmie two seconds. I would put “Remain in Light” by Talking Heads. And I would put “Violent Femmes” self-titled.
Interviewer: Yeah, those are great. It’s interesting to see the alternative music from the 80s, that was either heavily synth oriented or more stripped down.
Marco: In many ways, those 80s bands were ahead of their time. I’ve been getting into guitar pedals. I’ve never cared for pedals, I thought live effects were stupid. But recently I’ve been into getting a bare-bones pedal board that consists of the sounds I want. It can never be bad to have because you’re figuring out the sounds that make you unique on stage. I’m much more accepting of them now. I think I was just in that counter-culture camp of anti-pedals. But man, we play with some bands that have like 50 pedals on stage, clearly have way too much money, and some of the bands kinda hide behind their pedal board. And that was my conception of pedals, I was like “Man, they just put on pedals to hide their shit guitar playing”. Over that last few months, I’ve realized it’s different. I’ve worked a lot on sound design with DAWS but now I’m looking at sound design though a live setting. I’ve inherited some pedals though my dad’s friend and brought some of my own. Now I can mimic the sound more closely to the recording.
Interviewer: Do you have a specific pedal you’re into right now?
Marco: I just picked up a boss TR-2, a tremolo pedal. It was kinda an impulse buy at this guitar store that had a massive number of pedals. But it just modulates the volume, adding this fluttering effect to the guitar playing. It’s very sweet and makes this wavy effect to the chords. It’s real cool.
Ocean Child currently has one EP and six singles out on all streaming platforms. Watch out for some new material in the coming months. You can follow the band on Instagram @Oceanmarco.