You know you’re doing something right when you’re offered to play alongside the biggest icons of the long-bygone scene you’re paying homage to in your music. Back in May, Mareux was invited to perform alongside coldwave and gothic-rock greats like New Order, OMD, and Death Cult at Pasadena’s Cruel World Festival, where Aryan Ashtiani’s icy, cavernous synthpop fit right in among the weekend’s ’80s-centric sounds. Even beyond his viral cover of The Cure’s “The Perfect Girl,” Mareux’s gloomy post-punk electronics feel firmly rooted in the foggy past.
It’s no surprise, then, that when walking us through the biggest non-musical influences on his newly released second album, Nonstop Romance, it quickly becomes evident that most of the items he discusses are equally nostalgic, artifacts of a gone-but-far-from-forgotten era that have earned a new appeal for younger generations. For Mareux, that includes the warmly imperfect imagery of cassette-era media and dated memorabilia that invokes the casinos and barrooms of yesteryear. Also, the masculine fantasy space that is Home Depot, where even just being there makes it seem like you know how to handle the domestic construction project that’s currently making your life a living hell.
With the record out now via Revolution/Warner, stream it below and read through each of Mareux’s picks. You can also catch him live in December, with a pair of mid-month dates recently announced for SoCal—find tickets here.
Tape artifacts
Maybe I overdid this on Nonstop Romance, but I cant get enough of this effect. What I’m referring to are the subtle warbles and tempo changes that happen when you record music on tape. The more you re-record something, the more pronounced the effects are. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go watch an old beaten up VHS tape. Today, there are a bunch of plugins to replicate this, so you don’t have to buy a roach-infested tape player or VCR. To me, it just adds this nice bit of modulation and hiss that feels very warm and fuzzy.
Gin martinis
These are what life’s all about. Nothing beats sipping on a gin martini and smoking a cig. When I think of what was going through my head when I made “Wild at Heart,” it was exactly this picture. My favorite has to be a Monkey 47 dirty martini from Musso and Frank in Hollywood. Wow, what a place.
Home Depot
They mostly sell absolute bottom-of-the-barrel junk here, but somehow the shopping experience is so awesome. When I’m in a Home Depot I feel important. I feel like a guy who doesn’t just make silly tunes, hunched over a computer all day. No, I feel like a man. For 25 minutes I can live out this fantasy, and nod at the unlicensed contractors ripping off their clients. I feel like one of them.
eBay
I’ve been an eBay user since 2004 when I sold my Sega Dreamcast for $20, much to the anger of my mom. eBay is a total obsession of mine. I spend tens of hours each week scouring for artifacts and rare items. It’s like a museum where everything is for sale. It’s hard not to be inspired by the cool shit you’ll find. My latest obsession has been vintage gambling and tobacco memorabilia. I love buying ash trays, T-shirts, coin buckets, lighters—you name it. Also, I steal a lot of designs from these things.
My 2001 Mazda Miata
It’s cringe to enjoy cars. Car guys are the worst, and unfortunately, I am one of them. Of course I like the most uncool segment of this hobby. I love ’90s Japanese cars. The simplicity in engineering and design language was really unique to this period of time, and it’s something I will continually long for. This year I bought an ’01 Miata in British racing green, tan interior, and a hard top. It’s very slow and the clutch hurts my knee, but it’s very pretty. I just like staring at it in the garage. Also, I think it’s haunted, because weird stuff has started happening since I bought it.
