The Marietta is a five piece pop/rock/country band from Flint Michigan consisting of Dennis Berger - vocals and guitar, Jason Considine – guitar and vocals, Alistair “The President of Music” Dickinson – keys, guitar and vocals, Ryan Cardneau – bass and vocals and “Big Bad Chad” Drumhiller - drums.  The Marietta sound can be linked to bands from Saves the Day to American Football to The Beatles with elements of country, bluegrass, and blues.  The Marietta has played with national recording artist Ryan Cabrera as well as international acts Kiros from Canada and VICTORI4 from France.  The Marietta is a part of the Rushour Scenes label started by Jason Considine in 2004.

Background

Dennis, Jason and Ryan became friends back in high school and during this time they played their way through the local Flint, MI scene in the early 2000’s.  Chad also went to the same high school and was in drum line with Jason.  Al being a British gentleman and a man of the world spent some time overseas until his family settled in MI.  In 2010 after going separate ways to college Dennis, Jason and Ryan found themselves living together in Ypsilanti MI and decided to form The Marietta; originally a trio with Dennis and Jason playing guitar and Ryan on bass.  We booked time to write/record 6 songs which became our Ep Melodic.  After the recording Alistair came along and we spent the summer of 2011 playing around Michigan.  In the winter we played more shows, wrote some new songs and added Big Bad Chad.

The recording of Melodic

Melodic was recorded on weekends during the months of January through March of 2011.  It was recorded by Brian Thomas at his luxurious home studio in Brighton Michigan; with a little help from Brian’s family and giant dogs.  Dennis and Jason had first worked with Brian a couple months prior in their old band The Guard.   At the time we went by the name of Marietta Melodic and halfway through the recording we decided to drop the Melodic and make that the name of the album.  Without a drummer for the project Jason laid down the drum tracks for the sessions.  After two and a half months of trial and error recording the songs were ready for mixing and mastering.  For the next month mixes were sent back and forth online and then it was time to release Melodic. 

The first “summer of Marietta”

When Melodic was finished we leased a practice studio in Ypsilanti and went looking for a drummer.  Alistair Dickinson The President of Music came to practice with a prospective drummer and played some keys.  The President laid it down and shortly after he was added to play keys/guitar and Jason went to drums full time.  With Alistair thrown into the mix and place to play we spent a month of rehearsing and reworking with the new lineup.  We booked two and a half months of shows all over Michigan; Grand Rapids, Detroit, Hamtramck, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Pontiac and Mt. Pleasant.  Locally we’ve played The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor and The Dream Theatre, 734 and Woodruffs in Ypsilanti, as well as many house parties in the Ypsi/Arbor area. 

Where we are now

                After the summer we cooled the shows down to just local gigs for a little bit to focus on writing new songs and looking for a drummer.  We had spent a year looking for a drummer with Jason filling in on drums for live shows.  Finally we came to Big Bad Chad because we knew he was living in Ypsilanti and had played in drum line with Jason so it seemed like a good fit.  Luckily for us he decided to do it and the rest as they say is history.  With the lineup completed we’ve been working hard for this spring.  We will be heading down to Nashville to record our next EP.  This is something that we hope will be a big foot in the door for us.  More information about the new recordings will be coming up as we get all the plans together.