Attending Happy Mondays at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park on July 16 will give you the chance to see Bone and Marrow perform a spirited set that will leave your senses feeling electrified—in the best way possible.
Composed of Daimon and Jenny Santa Maria, this duo’s alternative folk rock music features well-balanced vocal harmonies, spacey synth textures and vibes, otherworldly flute solos as well as build-ups and breakdowns and big choruses. Bone and Marrow is a duo you won’t forget.
In honor of hosting the Happy Mondays show on July 16 at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, The Pop Break interviewed Bone and Marrow about the themes explored in their songs, perfecting their live performance, musical inspirations and new upcoming music. Read on to discover more!
I know you’ve probably answered this plenty of times before, but how did Bone and Marrow come to be? (I feel like you’re such a unique duo—something I haven’t ever seen before) Bone and Marrow is a duo that formed out of the Asbury Park 6 piece “Elevator Art” between 2009 and 2012. Daimon sang and played flute, guitar, and occasional piano while Jenny played bass and sang. After the disbanding we kept writing music as a duet but tried to re-invent ourselves and the social construct of a “band” seeing how much sound two people could make in a live setting.
What is the meaning behind your band name? How does your name reflect who you are as a band? Originally we were calling ouselves Bow and Arrow because it implies two things working together to reach a common target. Bone and Marrow was the byproduct of that when our music started to become a more electric. There is something slightly Frankenstein or skeletal about the way we build our songs and bring them to life.
From the spacey synth vibes to otherworldly flute solos and well-balanced vocal harmonies, what elements make up the sound of Bone and Marrow? What do you think makes your music so distinct for your listeners? We’ve experimented over the years with different equipment that would best suite the type of sound we imagined for Bone and Marrow. The acoustic duet may be charming and effective from time to time but for the most part we enjoy the electric setting of our music so we discovered a loop pedal for our prerecorded drums and textures. Once we manually prerecord them we can trigger these parts with our feet to free up our hands for flute and guitar. Jenny plays a Kaossilator with her feet to add those space textures that define the Bone and Marrow sound. But as for the vocal end of the music, Daimon naturally has a high register and Jenny takes the lower harmony. We always find that works best but it makes the harmonies very recognizable. All this aside, Jenny’s influences are more 80’s and 90s and Daimon’s derive from 60’s and 70’s, so somehow all those decades just find themselves into the music.
Ever since I saw you open for Brick and Mortar a month ago, I’ve been so curious to ask this question: Right before the end of your live performance, what is the significance of donning the feathered headdresses— and for Daimon, the light-up jacket? (It’s like you’re gearing up to launch into space or something, it was pretty exciting!) Haha! Yeah costumes and theatrics play an important role in our performance and we are working on more costumes for the future. The last song we usually play for our shows is “Signals” which is where the electric head dresses and light-up coat come in.The lights go on in a very strategic spot in the song to symbolize this transformation we are going through. The song is about how our culture uses technology almost ritualisticaly and how these technologies are replacing our true human connections. So we try to make that song as electric as possible to really drive the point home.
Is there any song of yours that you find yourself connecting to the most now? If so, what one is it and what makes it so relatable lately? Jenny says “Tiny Mirrors” and Daimon says “Building the Nerve.” They are different songs entirely but the common thread between them is that they both touch on coexisting and communication. Their are times of the year where we love living in New Jersey and others when we hate it. This is a time of the year where our region of New Jersey sees a lot more people than usual and sometimes we think of just leaving this state and all the crowds. Our music video for “Building the Nerve” is footage that we took from an entire year of traveling the country and we made the video as kind of a video diary that reminds us of the great things that exist outside of our little bubble.
From everyday experiences to what seems like lyrics inspired by fantasy, psychology and even philosophy, what acts as inspiration for your music? Lately we find that our music is inspired by the idea of the future or at least what me imagine it to be. We’re in sociatal puberty; who knows what advancements we’ll see in our culture, and effects of our current actions in later years. The song” Tiny Mirrors” was inspired by a performance art presentation of a woman named Coco Fusco who dressed as Dr. Zira from planet of the apes and presented her perspective on humans at Monmouth University. We left pretty inspired from that.
Along the same lines as the previous question, what themes or ideas do you tend to explore in your songs? Not sure if this is an accident or not but most of our songs talk about having a fear of change or serve as a prediction or social commentary. I guess that ties into us thinking about the future a lot when we write.
Have you been working on new music lately? What can you tell listeners about upcoming music and/or shows? Yes. New music is being written as we speak! We have songs we are preparing for an EP release we plan for the late fall or early winter. The other piece of Bone and Marrow news we are leaking here is that we are collaborating with musician and arranger Cody Mccorry of “Thank You Scientist,” ” Homeless Apians,” and “Karmic Juggernaut” to develop an orchestrated version of our song “Fake Funeral” complete with violins, violas, stand up bass and many other orchestral instrumentation. A music video has been discussed for the release of this beautiful rendition of one our more listened to songs. No release date for that just yet. Shows are in the works but more writing and studio planning is being scheduled for now as priority.
What is the best part about creating and performing music as Bone and Marrow? The two of us are involved in several creative projects but Bone and Marrow is the one project that we get to do together. Writing music in our upstairs apartment has had its challenges but somehow we find a way to overcome this limitation and make it available in a live setting. That’s where our sexy folk rock song “Let ’em Look” comes from. It has duel meanings for sure but kind of remarks on us being in the public eye and ear when we write in our apartment.
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