J: Everything Sam said (except horses), memories, the specifics of human behaviour, emotions, other forms of art (stories, theatre, visual art, and I’m absolutely obsessed with television dramas…there’s a lot of ‘The Affair’ in some of our recent songs haha), and perhaps most of all, music – I’m always looking for new artists to inspire me and spark me creatively.
complicated ones), life, disappointments, sex, colour, music, dance, jazz, New York, Hollywood, cities, travel, love, The Great Gatsby, 20s, happiness, horses and a plethora of other things. Oh and I used to want to play in the NBA when I grew up. J: I’ve certainly gotten a lot more confident. As you get older, I think confidence learns to run with you instead of behind you. As anyone would, I would say that we’ve both matured (if only slightly) since our middle school days. The story of how you formed is like a musical fairytale, how would you describe how you’ve changed (or not) since those days in middle school?
Jeremy was Harold Hill and Sam was Marian Paroo. J+S: For the past year and a half we’ve been coy about the origins of our name, but we’re finally telling people! We met in a production of the ‘Music Man’ in eighth grade. ‘Lips’, the more recent release is fresher and cleaner but no less exciting, with a staccato squeak of synth punctuating the track. The duo take some time to tell us about what inspires them, what they think about the other and what they enjoy most about being musicians.
WHAT'S THE MEANING OF DOWN BY MARIAN HILL FULL
The pair met in middle school after getting into musical theatre, they went their separate ways when Jeremy headed to college and Samantha learnt more about songwriting in New York, then came full circle and formed a band. ‘Got It’, one side of their double A release, exhibits a rather more sultry and seductive side to Samantha’s layered vocals, whilst the infectious melody flickers back and forth hypnotically marked by a soft bass synth. Samantha is responsible for the sweet howling and Jeremy for the flawless production.
WHAT'S THE MEANING OF DOWN BY MARIAN HILL TV
Samantha Gongol and Jeremy Lloyd aka Marian Hill, a duo from Philadelphia, talk to us about TV dramas, feminism and Olympic horse back riding.