The British producer took to social media to open up all things Marsh.
On Wednesday afternoon, we had Tom Marshall, also known as Marsh, host a Reddit session of Ask Me Anything on r/electronicmusic. The man, who’s had quite the year, gave its fans a 2-hour window to ask about his career, his cats, and more.
This comes in the middle of Tom’s busiest year. Touring the world and releasing an original album plus a remixed one are only a few of the things he’s been up to during 2023. From everything he talked about during his Reddit journey, here are eight things that really caught our eye. Read on, little reader.
1. ‘Touch The Sky’ was a Simon Doty original — and wasn’t even going to be signed to Anjuna
Tom says the original track was called ‘High‘, and it was a 100% Simon Doty track he was using in sets. Upon hearing Anjuna wouldn’t sign the track, Marsh took matters on his own and decided to collaborate on a track he saw a lot of potential on. Boy, was he right!
“The original was by Simon. It was called ‘High’ at the time and I’d be playing it in my sets. Simon mentioned Anjuna didn’t seem interested in the record and I remember being on a call with them like ‘are you guys not hearing what I’m hearing!?’… Anyway! I messaged Simon to see if he’d be open to sending the project stems to see if I could have a play and the rest was history! I didn’t change it drastically but in Simon’s words, I ‘Marshified’ the track! And I think it was the change that pushed it over the line with Anjuna who fell in love with it! Still one of my favourites to play out in my sets!”
2. His ‘Sirens Of The Sea’ remix will see the light of day
Wherever it is that you heard it, it sure slapped. Tom got to remix the classic track ‘Sirens Of The Sea‘, crafted by Above & Beyond‘s side project OceanLab with Justine Suissa. It’s a lovely update to a lovely tune. Take my hand, take my hand, yeah, take my hand…
“No release date just yet but I did send it to Anjuna for mastering a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully it’s later this year…! I wish I had the date!”
3. The ‘Everything’ ID might be just around the corner
One of the most requested Marsh IDs as of today is a track he wrote alongside Jodie Knight. One which fans call ‘Everything‘. Here’s what he has to say about it:
“It’s so exciting to see the reaction the track has been getting when I play it out. I believe it has a release date set in October!!”
4. Touring has been tough for him
Missing his cats, getting little rest, and living onboard planes have all been a part of the busy year Marsh has had. He says he’ll balance things in a more pleasant way for upcoming years.
“Yeah, the schedule has definitely taken it’s toll. I will be looking to cut back in 2024 to hopefully better balance this career with friends, family and personal life. I’m living my dream but I’d like to live it for the long run and I think the amount of touring I have been doing has got unhealthy / unsustainable.”
“Sadly, I’ve overdone it on the tour schedule the last two years. It’s completely my fault, saying yes to everything. Balance has not been achieved and the scales have been unhealthily outweighed on the touring side which has meant my studio time, friendships and personal life has taken a bit of a hit. SO, I will be adjusting for 2024 to hopefully figure out a healthy balance. (I’m always open to tips if anyone has suggestions!)”
5. His ‘Nothing’ remix is apparently staying as a bootleg
Friends and fans alike have praised Tom’s rethink of James Holden‘s ‘Nothing‘, featuring Julie Thompson on the vocals. From what he leaked, though, this remix is, for now, staying as an unofficial one.
“It’s killing me not to be able to release my remix of ‘Nothing’. I think sadly James Holden isn’t feeling it, to be brutally honest! So it will have to remain a bootleg. Maybe Julie Thompson might be able to convince him…”
6. Airports, airplanes, and air-things make up quite the portion of an artist’s schedule
When asked what’s one unexpected, not-so-fun thing he’s discovered being an artist, Tom said:
“I wouldn’t change it for the world but the things I think are tough about this career is: a crazy majority of time is spent on airplanes, waiting in airports, in and out of countless hotel rooms. It also gets a bit tiring playing your biggest tunes at every show!”
7. Tom believes having mastering knowledge is key to an artist’s success — and applies it
Pretty heavy nerdy stuff here, but for all producers out there, below you’ll find Marsh’s approach to mastering.
“I master all my drafts and then send out to a studio in London for the final master.
I get pretty close before and it’s an essential skill to learn how to do to inform you how to mix your music. I have a super super simple mastering chain. It’s basically an EQ to roll off freqs under 30. A compressor which probably gain reduces by 2db and then a limiter which pushes up the loudness. I aim for about -8dB to -7.5dB RMS (Logic’s metering plugin) which is comparable to other releases in this style. Then I check what the low, mids and highs look like in SPAN and compare these frequencies with other released music of mine and others! Usually it’s super revealing about changes that need to be made in the mixdown. My goal is when I send off my track for mastering, the engineer won’t have to EQ at all and will basically just make the track punchier with all their bougie analog gear and push the loudness up to the numbers I mentioned above!
I’ve been doing this since very very early on!”
8. ‘Forgiveness’ was released because of fans’ friendly pressure
One of Tom’s tracks featured in the Endless album is ‘Forgiveness’, alongside Wassu and Mariel Beausejour. Tom explains neither of them were really sure if the track should be released, but then, upon requests, they decided to make a spot for it on the album.
“(Hopefully I get recall this story right so Weston doesn’t bite my ear off.) ‘Forgiveness’ started out as a beautiful track by Wassu that I wanted to collaborate on. Initially, I didn’t drastically change the idea but updated the production a bit and got Mariel Beausejour over for vocals. We sort of wrote the vocal together in my old studio room in Cincinnati. The idea was built around the freedom that comes from being able to forgive someone and let go. I played the track out a few times in 2019 but never knew whether to release it or not. Wassu and I would play it on our Twitch streams, people began to love it and request it so I thought I’d blow the dust off the project and get it ready for my album ‘Endless’!”
Those are only a handful of things Marsh took to Reddit this time. Thanks, Tom, for the AMA. Be sure to follow EDMTunes to stay up to date with everything regarding the genre of music we love most!