Interviews

El Toro

Interview with Marcus Mercury on May 15, 2005 by Archive Bot

El Toro is a fantastically charming rock group from Philadelphia who are currently signed to Undecided Records, home of Poison The Well and Breaking Pangaea. Their debut album, “May and Marielle” can be found in almost any place where music is sold. After a failed first attempt at communicating due to head injuries and sleep deprivation, Punkbands.com’s Katie Ellsweig was able to talk with bassmaster Marcus Mercury while he was driving down a highway and she was battling allergies and bad reception. Marcus gave insight into the group’s debut album, spirituality, humanity and literature all within thirty minutes.
 
 
Katie: I guess we’ll talk about May and Marielle first. Where did the concept for this album come from and how was it transformed into an album?
 
Marcus: Our original lead singer who left the band had a girlfriend that he had been seeing for a number of years on and off. She lives in Ohio and then moved to Georgia after she graduated college. He ultimately left the band and moved to Georgia and is now married to her. After he left, Matthew started playing for us. During our first tour, we were in Georgia and he met a girl named Jessica. It was funny how it sort of mirrored the same thing. The concept of the album is about that; about finding the right person and the other people that come and go in between.
 
Katie: What’s the story behind the characters of May and Marielle, and what kind of message do they and the image of “paper dolls” intend to send?
 
Marcus: May and Marielle symbolize the right and wrong girl. Marielle was obviously the right girl [in the end of the album, the narrator chooses Marielle over may], like Jessica was for Matthew, but there have been other females in all our lives that were like May, not really the right girl but maybe the most convenient at that time. Marielle symbolizes waiting for what God has chosen for us. The paper dolls are like the image of what the “right girl” would be for us and being able to dress up paper dolls is like saying what the characteristics are of the “right girl” and what she would look like.
 
Katie: Being signed to Undecided Records after such a short amount of time was obviously a huge deal. What kinds of things have changed from being an independent band to being signed to a label with huge names like Poison The Well, Shindig and Breaking Pangaea?
 
Marcus: It was certainly a huge blessing for us, and kind of unexpected because we had only been a band for eight months by the time we were signed. Our album just came out a couple months ago so it’s kind of neat to see our CD in magazines and in stories. It’s working our great so far even though it hasn’t been that long.
 
Katie: A lot of people would say that Rock is a dying art. If you’re not hardcore, nu-metal or screamo, you’re not going anywhere. I don’t know about where you come from, but where I live, rock just doesn’t sell anymore. How do you fight to keep it alive?
 
Marcus: We want people to like our music and to love it was much as we do, but we can’t cater to what different people want in music. We write songs as we know and we’ve all kind of grown up listening to different things. If you ask what we listen to, it’s a huge array of musicians and I think that’s what creates our sound. Ultimately, we’re a rock n’ roll band. A lot of people want to hear the hardcore and screamo and we can play those shows, I think we appeal to different tastes, but we just hope people love our music as much as we do.
 
Katie: Does the thought of one of your songs becoming radio a hit ever cross your mind? Is it something that you have planned on?
 
Marcus: We’ve had a couple songs on the radio, like college radio and stuff like that. Some of our friends say our songs would be great on the radio and that’s awesome to hear, but our main goal as a band is not to reach that. If it were to happen, it would be a wonderful thing. We just want people to come to our shows and not just go home saying they saw some band, but also to really see us, talk to us and meet us and go home really liking our music. Making music is our passion and we want to make other people our passion.
 
Katie: How have indie rock veterans like bright eyes and gratitude set the stage for El Toro and do you ever feel like there are expectations to be met now that indie is growing to be more than just a huge underground.
 
Marcus: I was just talking to my friend about how indie is like a bomb just waiting to be dropped on the mainstream. I can see how people would want to compare us to bands like Death Cab [For Cutie] or Radiohead or what have you, but if they like those bands and they think we sound like them that’s cool. But as far as expectations, we don’t write songs to cater to what other people want to hear to even to the indie rock genre.  We write songs that sound like El Toro and if people think we fall under something than that’s fine. I think that when you label something, it really constricts the songs and if you keep writing to fit a genre, you’re going to be holding back from what you can really do.
 
Katie: I noticed that in your “thank you” section on the album, you said “we are all in the grips of grace.” How important is spirituality in your music?
 
Marcus: All of us in the band are Christians, but we don’t call ourselves a Christian rock band. We write songs about life and about our lives. We don’t write songs to appeal only to Christians, we just write about our lives and search for meaning in life…something we’re all looking for, at least I hope we’re all looking for. What we want to do is encourage people not to seek our Christ, although I would love for people to find what we have found, but to really take truth however they go about it.
 
Katie: How old were you when you first got into music and what were the artists that really sealed your future?
 
Marcus: The first band I was in was back in 1999, and it was a Ska band. Back in the day I listened to a lot of punk rock like Operation Ivy, NOFX and Minor Threat. When I started going to shows, I was a high school kid with funny colored hair and I got made fun of. I started going to these places to have fun and dance. The theme of these shows back then was about unity and everyone was searching for unity, to be together and love one another. In recent times, it’s more about fashion and our culture seems so out of whack it’s almost something I don’t want to be a part of. I don’t listen to much music that’s made today with the exception of a few bands.  I listen to a lot of The Police; I’ve always listened to them. Also, Bjork, Radiohead, Coldplay and The Mars Volta.
 
Katie: Your lyrics are obviously driven by intelligence, which you obviously have. In what little spare time you’ve got, do you find yourself engrossed in any literature, and if so, what are some of your favorites?
 
Marcus: I think we all read different things. One of my favorites is JD Salinger. I think he does something wonderful in hi writing. In song writing, you always have a lot to say but not a whole lot of space to say it in and I think he does that in his books. I like all those books that you were made to read in high school.
 
Katie: Do you ever get sick of El Toro and wish you were doing something else? What would you be doing?
 
Marcus: I’ve thought of a few different things. If I wasn’t in music, I thought about teaching. I was in school but I took a break from it for the band. I’ve also thought about maybe even leaving the country and doing work in a third world nation where there’s a lot of poverty. I don’t think there’s a whole lot of use here in America for someone who really wants to help, like me, and I think I can really be used elsewhere. I plan on going to Mexico during the summer to work at a Rehabilitation Center.
 
Katie: What’s up next for El Toro? Now that the album has dropped and some of the pressure is relieved, what will you be up to this summer?
 
Marcus: We’re leaving for tour in a couple weeks. We’re going to play as much as we can, and then we plan on writing more for our next album because it’s never too early to start writing. For bands to write whole albums in the studio is kind of a mistake. We can’t really afford to write an entire album in the studio, but we’re always writing individually anyway. We haven’t had much time to write together.
 
Katie: Finally, the question I try to ask every band: name five CD’s currently on loop in your stereo.
 
Marcus: The Police. The Jazz June’s “The Medicine,” which is a great album…nothing too ground breaking but I love it. The Mars Volta’s “Frances The Mute,” which just blows my mind every time I listen to it. Radiohead and James Brown’s greatest hits. I love James Brown, he’s just great. In a lot of hip-hop and R&B music, you can really hear a huge influence from him.