Catching The Wave With Dad Bod
What started as a joke for the name of a workgroup chat eventually became the title of the fledged group, dad bod. They’re now hoping to infiltrate the subconscious of our minds to associate the name with their music, rather than the meme that it usually is. The band is made up of brothers Michael, Marcus and Mathew Marinos, as well as their more recent recruit, Ben Ostler. Together, they’re hoping to make a dent in Utah’s music scene that will one day cause people to say new and upcoming bands sound like dad bod, as they are currently said to sound like artists like Mac DeMarco and Loving. I sat down with the group to go over what they’ve accomplished over the past few years, and where they see themselves headed.
Q: I know that three of the four of you are brothers, but how did you meet Ben?
Marcus: We all met Ben in different ways, actually
Ben: I met Mathew first in Idaho.
Mathew: It was in Lewiston, Idaho. Not a great place. I wouldn’t recommend. [laughs]
Michael: I met ben at Orem skatepark. It was love at first sight.
Ben: I met Marcus on Grindr. [laughs]
Ben: I think the first time I actually met [Marcus] was at Michael’s bachelor party.
Michael: Yeah. It was bowling … So it was all different ways. But we didn’t start playing music together… well, us three [brothers] were playing music, but then when Ben came in it was a year ago.
Ben: Yeah, it was last January.
Michael: Ben started coming over and playing. We knew Ben was a good guitarist.
How far along in the band were you three before Ben showed up?
Michael: We were pretty deep. We actually had another bandmate that was playing keyboards, synth. But it wasn’t working out with schedules with him, and we just liked Ben’s sound … and then that’s when we started doing a lot more, like playing up in [SLC]. We played [Urban Lounge] and [Kilby Court] a few times. We released our album in September, so we were recording a ton throughout the summer.
How do you characterize your sound and how do you go about creating it?
Mathew: Honestly, so many people ask us that and I still don’t really know how to answer. Usually, the default is just like indie-psychedelic pop.
Sure, the easy words to use.
Mathew: And usually I try and compare our sound to different bands and people we take inspiration [from].
And who are those?
Mathew: Homeshake, Men I trust, Mac DeMarco. I don’t know. Who else?
Michael: Even smaller bands like Loving.
Mathew: We’re hoping to create our own sound.
Michael: Yeah, by using that influence.
That’s how you know you made it.
[laughs]
Michael: For sure
Ben: We like experimenting a lot, like blending a bunch of different genres together [and] kind of seeing what comes out of it and seeing if we like something, and then we’ll keep working with it.
Is there a mastermind behind the songs or is it a group effort?
Ben: We do a collab, but Michael is definitely the driving force of the band. He is the one who comes up with many of the songs and then we kind of take that and then work with it and see what we wanna change.
Mathew: Michael creates the skeleton and then we try and add the meat. A lot of times he sends us demos at like 2 am. He’s like, “Hey guys I just made this” … and then we come together and do something like, “What if did this for the chorus?” or “What type of bridge do we want?” Michael is definitely the engine that propels our creative process.
Michael: It’s nice to send something to them and then they create something that I would not have seen, you know? Like I’ll have a good little bass melody or something and then I send it over to them and they’re like, “Oh yeah, I really like this. It’d be cool if we did this to the song, or add this bridge or something”. And then that’s how it becomes a full song, which is really fun.
Marcus: I think Ben is definitely a big part of it as well because I feel like a lot of our songs have just come out of jam sessions, where Ben will show a riff that he is messing with and then we’ll all play and kinda build something around it. Sometimes really good stuff has come out of that.
Michael: “You Never Say Hi” was written like that.
Are you always the lyricist though, Michael?
Michael: Not really … I think that I come up with the little hook but then they’re really good at writing more creative lyrics, creative ways to say things.
Mathew: It’s funny, a lot of our songs, the way they get the titles specifically, is that we just have to name [the demos] a lot of different things in the voice memos. We have to separate them, and that sometimes evolves into what the song becomes. A lot of times there’s a more thoughtful process … but I think that’s a funny process that can [become a song].
What went into making your album, ‘After Thought’?
Ben: I sometimes forget about it, but we did kinda try to make it a concept album as far as the flow of it. So there’s a lot of hidden deep tracks inside the album that aren’t very long that transition in between the [title songs] … That was a fun way to do an album.
Mathew: I don’t know if this was the intent of the album, but for me, what I really took it personally - for me it’s about progression.
What do you mean by “progression”?
Ben: I feel like over the past couple of years there have been a lot of changes in our lives and a lot of big decisions that have had to be made… With change, I think comes a lot of growth. I guess “progression” is that sense of the word. And I feel like a lot of the songs were written about that.
Michael: Yes … There’s a nostalgia kinda feel in some of it, and then there’s also a more thoughtful commentary on the world that we live in right now. The one that I’m thinking about is [our song] “Enough”. It really spawned from thinking… I can buy a new guitar, but then I’ll want another guitar. Like, it’s not enough. It was about you wanting to feel it is enough. That’s just one song, but I think [the album] was a commentary on our own lives as well as the world around us.
Do you feel like you have a big enough landscape as a rock band in northern Utah?
Ben: I think the music scene here is really good… I’ll talk to people out of state and they’ll say it’s nothing compared to Salt Lake, or Provo even, just ‘cause it everybody is so united about passionate about local music, it’s kind of like a trend to be in tune … It helps artists organically rather than trying to hustle, you know?
Mathew: I think the music scene in Utah is still evolving. We’re at a really good place to keep picking up more and more listeners and fans… I mean, Imagine Dragons came out of Utah. The Aces came out of Utah. All these big bands and I feel like there were remnants of that style, and it’s slowly fading away from that to our style of music. And luckily we’re catching that wave at a really good time.
What are some of your favorite bands in that wave?
Mathew: Definitely Adult Prom. Brother. They’re wonderful
Ben: Backseat Lovers.
Do you think the band will relocate outside of Utah?
Ben: Yeah, relocating for sure, within the next five years.
Any idea where that would be?
Ben: One of the coasts.
Mathew: I think the default is California, just ‘cause it’s warm.
Michael: We wanna experience life, and figure it out with our music, as well. We’ll play no matter what. It doesn’t matter how huge we get or anything. I know that all four of us would find days to jam for fun anyways. [But] if we can experience a different part of the country and play music, I mean, that sounds great.
dad bod’s album After Thought is out now. Keep an ear open for these guys as they plan to have a big, busy year in 2020. And if you’re curious other groups they are listening to and are influencing the band, they’ve begun curating a playlist on Spotify of their collective tastes
