A Q&A WITH GALAXIANS VOCALIST AND MARRA BECCY YOUNG.
Areet! Tell us about your musical roots. What was it like in your household growing up?
Growing up, my dad was always playing music in the house, mostly ZZ Top, The Beatles, Madness and George Michael. We had VHS greatest hits video compilations of ZZ Top and Madness, so I used to sit and watch downtrodden boys getting the keys to the Eliminator and think that made them God’s gift! My dad was a hobby guitarist when I was younger, although started a function band with some work friends when I was in my teens. He used to sit with me in the bathroom making sure I didn’t drown in the bath on a Sunday night, his guitar in hand and The Beatles Complete Songbook perched on the corner of the sink and we would sing their songs together.
Can you talk a little bit about the first bands / artists who really meant something to you?
I am a child of the 90s and I absolutely love pop music. I would religiously watch Top of the Pops on a Friday night, using the settee in the living room as my stage, trying to recreate the choreography I’d see on screen. My first love was probably the Spice Girls! Strong female characters with their own identities was something that sparked something in me. As I got a bit older, I remember seeing Avril Lavigne on MTV for the first time and thinking I wanted to be like her and she is why I started playing guitar. You might not think the Spice Girls or Avril Lavigne are very cool, but they are part of my musical tapestry! Once I started playing guitar, The Who became a special interest of mine and I could play most of their songs on guitar, practising Pete Townsend’s solos and rhythm style.
What kind of musical trajectory have you had? You played bass guitar in bands?
I started out reluctantly singing solos in school concerts. I was deafeningly shy in primary school and the thought of performing mortified me. Once I realised I enjoyed performing and entertaining people, I started entering local talent shows, singing and dancing – the highest prize I won was third place (twice) and I won a CD Walkmen (twice). When I started playing guitar and getting into classic rock/pop punk around 13, I joined a ‘rock bands project’ at one of my local youth clubs. It was here that I met other freaks that didn’t feel like they fit in at school (I say this with the upmost respect for my peers) and it was a space where we could hone our skills, have a sense of belonging and learn to play with others in a band. This progressed to joining a band outside the project with one of the group members called ‘Small Screen Light Show’ where I started playing bass and singing backing vocals. We did pretty well for a bunch of indie obsessed teens from Seaham, touring extensively around the UK (driven by my dad!) and even touring Sweden when I was 18. Mattie the singer moved to London to make it big (which he did, getting signed to Parlophone) and I stayed in the Northeast feeling a little lost about my place in the scene. I started a solo acoustic project called This Little Bird, which still exists to this day, yet I haven’t officially released any music under this moniker. I’ve played bass in for The Lake Poets, accompanying Marty on tours of the UK and Germany and in 2023 formed Chat with musician/producer Jordan Miller. We formed the band after watching Galaxians at Waves festival in Sunderland… it’s funny how the world works sometimes.
When did you first start singing?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t sing. I’ve been singing since I was tiny, thought have only ever had two singing lessons in my life. My mam is a big fan of musical theatre and we would often sing along to Cher and Andrew Lloyd Webber cassettes together on our way home from my gran’s house on a Saturday afternoon.
Your singing on the new Galaxians album really elevates the music so much, especially in the use of phrasing. Do you have a method for creating vocals for a song? Is it more of an intuitive feeling?
Phrasing and annunciation is something really important to me when it comes to lyrics. When I listen to music, I like to understand the lyrics and get a deeper understanding of what the song might be about. This was pivotal for the tracks on the Feel In Motion as the rhythms between Matt and Jed are so syncopated and flow so effortlessly, I wanted the vocals to fit into that. I’ve always been a rhythm player be that on guitar or bass and I that definitely feeds into how I write a vocal line/melody. It can sometimes feel intuitive, but I can get stuck trying to fit everything I want to say into a line or verse (Matt and Jed will assure you I have a lot to say! haha!) and working in Galaxians has made me a better lyricist as I’ve allowed myself to create space between the vocals and the music.
Tell us about the work you do for YMP and other stuff you do (DJing etc)
So, I started out going to a youth music group and now I help to run one! Young Musician’s Project (led by We Make Culture) is at its core a songwriting group for 13-19 year-olds and I often think about how important that space is for them and that I feel so fortunate that I had that space to grow as a young musician when I was a teenager too. I use the skills I’ve honed over the last 25 years of performing/playing music to mentor all of these incredibly talented, amazing young people to take their first steps on their musical journeys and it is very fulfilling. I also DJ in Sunderland around the locals bars/restaurants, playing vinyl from my collection which has mostly consists of 80s pop hand me downs from my parents, charity shop finds ands car boot bargains. I have started to look for deeper cuts on my record buying trips and being a part of Galaxians is a constant inspiration and education for me with regards to subgenres of music from the 80s/early 90s.
What was life like in Sunderland growing up, and how has it changed?
Growing up in Sunderland as a young musician – especially a female young musician – wasn’t always easy. I did find it difficult to be heard, making myself fit in with ‘the lads’ and the struggle of having other female singer-songwriters seemingly pitted against one another as though we were some kind of rare commodity that could be seen together on a bill. This made for some strange relationships between my female musical peers, of which we didn’t seem to have any control. As I’ve grown, I’m now friends with these other incredible women and we speak openly about how our youth experiences as women were detrimental to our progression in the scene and how it has effected our self esteem since. Other aspects of being from Sunderland are that it is a post-industrial town, left to be seen as the underdog city to Newcastle and left out of funding opportunities, tour schedules and events. Sunderland had its own incredible music scene; when I hit my teens I would go to gigs two or three times a week from saved up ‘lunch money’.
Getting to have those experiences of a DIY scene was so inspiring and motivating, and yet it seemed to die out for a good while as guitar bands weren’t in vogue for a long time. Sunderland’s music scene is thriving again now and we have a great choice of venues with different capacities, lots of genres coming through and most importantly a substantial amount of young women fronting bands, performing solo or even performing with their tribes of other female musicians!
How did you first connect with Galaxians?
I first became aware of Galaxians at Waves Festival in Sunderland in 2022. Emma was on vocals then and I had performed that day singing backing vocals for Vandebilt with Galaxians set time being the sort of ‘after party’ for the festival. I remember it just being such a great end to the day, the vibe of the music got me dancing straight away and I wanted to know more about the band. Every aspect of the band were just incredible, obviously Emma is no longer with Galaxians, but she had such an incredible stage presence and voice that sat incredibly amongst Matt and Jed’s wizard level playing. I have to be honest in that I don’t think I’d watched a band performing that genre of music live before and the fact that there were only three people on the stage and it to sound larger than life was something I immediately got behind. Everyone was having fun, dancing and feeling the energy in the room. Quite frankly, it was absolutely class! Me and my friend Jordan Miller watched the set and said it made us want to make music like that and so we formed Chat off the back of Waves Festival 2022. Then, the next year Matt and Jed were back performing as an instrumental duo and Jordan had sent them some of our demos. The lads said they really liked my voice and asked whether I might be up for doing some vocals on their latest album with me jumping at the opportunity! Two tracks led to seven and that feature on the album became me being the current vocalist for Galaxians!
How are you feeling about your first album as a Galaxian?
I’m just over the moon to be honest. It’s been a real pleasure getting to know Matt and Jed (and Ross!) and writing in a different way to what I’ve been used to. It’s really comforting to know that my ideas and suggestions are heard and respected, which hasn’t always been my experience. It’s very refreshing to work with a group of people who are so consumed by the genres they play and the knowledge they have is just ridiculous. I’ve learned a lot since being a part of Galaxians and I feel able to be myself completely. I’ve never had my lead vocals committed to wax before, so having Feel in Motion pressed to vinyl and having a physical item to hold that contains the work is a massive milestone and achievement for me personally and I love that I get to share that with such incredibly talented humans! It’s been really exciting to work with a label for the first time too and the remixes of the tracks are amazing. The whole process has been a very validating experience for me and I often down play my successes!
Tell us about other musical projects you’re involved with.
As mentioned before, I have my solo acoustic project This Little Bird, which is pretty alt-folky and inspired by the great female singer-songwriters (Joni, Kate, Dolly, Joan) and that side of my musical output is a very cathartic experience. I use This Little Bird almost as a journal, writing songs to help me process all of the mad shit that happens to me and to help me understand my feelings a bit better… like a kind of therapy I guess?
I’m also in a synthpop duo with Jordan Miller called Chat, which has been on the back burner while I’ve been working on ‘Feel In Motion’ with Galaxians, but we are hoping to get back to writing and performing in the next few months. It’s a really fun project and although sits in the ’80s sonically, is very different to Galaxians, taking inspiration from 80s duos like Pet Shop Boys, Yazoo, Tears For Fears and mainstream pop production squad SAW.
Tell us a bit about the lyrics on Feel in Motion.
Writing the lyrics/melodies for Feel In Motion came at a transitional period of my life, a long term relationship was ending, I was living back at my mams at 34 and wondering what I was doing with my life. The themes of the songs I have written the lyrics to on the album explore burnout (Make Time), breakups (Movin’ On, Holdin’ Out (For Love)) and the thrill of exploring new romances (Worlds Apart, From Red To Blue, Never Say Never Will). I struggle to write fictional lyrics and all of the lyrics on the album come from experiences I’ve had and people I’ve had connections with.
For me, although I do absolutely love how instrumentation and rhythm can make you feel physically, considering how I might dance on move to a song sit different with me to the lyrics of a song. Writing lyrics is a sort of journal for me – one that I’m cracking the lock on and opening up to others. Things that have happened to me, experiences good and bad are then shared with the world openly in a hope that the listener can relate to and feel less alone. Feel In Motion is not just about how we respond to music physically, but also how we feel a variety of emotions through music.
Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk!