Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
MĀRA band was established in early 2018 with a release of first single and music video for “Sell Your Soul”. Although we are fairly new band, all of our members are with at least 10 year musical and performance experience and have played in numerous bands and projects before.
How would you describe your style? Which bands influenced your music?
Our style is death/thrash/groove metal and influences are different for each band member: guitarist Denis Melnik loves oldschool thrash, bassist Dmitry Lisenko is adding his alternative and groove metal influences, singer Māra is drawn towards more extreme end of metal, particularly death, drummer Alberts prefers black metal and grindcore.
Why should a metalhead buy your demos/albums?
Because each and every support at this early stage of band development is critically important. If people buy our current albums, it means we’ll be able to record more in the future. A lot of times ideas are left undone simply because of lack of finances. Although it’s difficult for listener to fully realize that, since there’s a temptation to download or listen to album online for free, I guess only music industry related people can understand the high expenses for making music and touring nowadays. The support keeps underground metal bands alive- as simple as that.
What have you released so far and how were your releases received by the public/media?
We have released a debut EP titled “Therapy For An Empath”, reviews for this album have been very good, album also won nomination “Album Of The Year” in Latvian Metal Music Awards 2018.
From this EP we have filmed 3 music videos for: Label Me Insane, Blameshifter and Sell Your Soul. Label Me Insane so far has been the most favorite of all our songs.
Do you play live as well? How's your live activity so far?
Yes, we have done 20 gigs in first active year in MĀRA’s life, we’ve visited following countries: Latvia, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, United Kingdom.
What should labels/zines/promoters know about your band? Why should they be interested in it?
We bring the essence of metal- the rawness and true passion for it, insane and energetic stage performances. We do this for the love of music, we are true and honest with our listeners. Always! We hope that there still there are a lot of people out there who can still appreciate that in this era of vanity, overproduction and commerce.
What plans do you have for the near future as a band?
We are working on a new single and plan to shoot a music video this fall. Also we plan to make a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for our full length album which we could release in spring 2020.
Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Our EP “Therapy For An Empath” can be purchased here: http://marametal.bandcamp.com/album/therapy-for-an-empath
You can watch all our music videos, tour diaries and many more on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPHwJd1YBSy7AQ5cho6oJOw
Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mara.metal/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marametal/
August 2019