By Matt bPusatory
mpusator@mscd.edu

MarchFourth Marching Band is more of an all-around party than a straightforward band. With 13 musicians, burlesque dancers, stilt walkers and maybe even fire dancers, MarchFourth is bringing their traveling circus to the Gothic Theatre (and The Fox Theatre in Boulder) in advance of their new release Magnificent Beast.

The Metropolitan talked to one of the group’s trumpet players, Katie Presley, about the band’s live show, the new album and how the two come together.

MP: How would you describe your live show?

KP: Wild, exciting and sweaty.

MP: How many people are onstage at one time?

KP: Let’s see, we have 13 musicians and five dancers. That’s kind of a rough estimate, but the numbers can fluctuate depending on whether we have special guests. Which we may have. We have a lot of friends all around the United States, so someone may join us for a fire dance or some other surprising event.

MP: Are there going to be fire dancers in Denver?

KP: You never know, man. There could be. We have friends in the area. It really depends on the venue and what their fire code is.

MP: How does the live show experience translate to a studio album?

KP: We record a lot of things together at the same time. We’ll have the drums separate in a different room than the saxes and the brass who are totally separated as well. We’re all able to hear each other and, in some cases, see each other, which is really important. Being in such a large band you want to be able to look out for cues and stuff. It’s a little different being in a studio and maybe not being able to see one guy that you’re looking for [to give] a cue.

But we wanted to keep the energy up, so that’s why we recorded it that way, with everyone together.

MP: And you have a new album coming out soon?

KP: Magnificent Beast! Also the name of our fall tour.

MP: How do you think this album stacks up against previous albums?

KP: I think it’s different. It’s totally cool because we have a lot of new material that was rehearsed over January and then we toured [with] it right away. Then we did our anniversary show, went on tour and then we recorded the album. So it’s super fresh. It’s really exciting because our [baritone] sax player Taylor [Aglipay] plays a lot of guitar on the album. So that’s a somewhat new direction for us.

MP: Do you think live shows or albums are more important to the band?

KP: I don’t think anyone can harness a live show, no matter who’s playing it. It’s just one of those magical things that you have to turn up and be a part of because one live show is gonna [sic] be totally different than the next.

The album is important because we’re capturing this moment in time that we’re all here together and writing music specifically for individual players, for each other, but getting to perform it live is a whole new dimension. It’s pretty awesome.

MP: How did this band get started?

KP: I played the first gig and then took a really long hiatus. It really started with Daniel [Lamb], one of the trombone players. He called me up and was like, ‘Hey, what are you doing Tuesday night?’ No musician is doing anything Tuesday night, so I said, ‘Playing a show with you I guess.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s this Mardi Gras thing.’ We played a Fela Kuti song, a Fleetwood Mac tune and something else. Then someone asked what we were going to name the band and someone said, ‘Well that date is March 4. How about that?’ And MarchFourth was born.

MP: Then did you just keep adding people until the stage was full?

KP: We did start out with a lot of people, because, when you have a marching band, you have to have a drum line. So we started out with quite a few drummers, and then in order to play some arrangements we had to have several horn players to cover the parts. Then a lot of people would improvise new parts. At one point — I think our last CD release party — we might have had 35 to 40 people on stage.

MP: Do you have a leader? When there’s that many people on stage, how do you keep everything in order?

KP: We have section leaders. Or we designate one person to start a song. John [Averill], our bass player, is really the leader of this band, the music director. He’s the man for that department.

MP: What’s the future hold for the band?

KP: We actually just started a foundation for kids. We just want to show kids that music can be a lot of fun, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a traditional band. So we’ve definitely started giving back to the community in addition to playing shows. Hopefully we can continue to interest people in playing live music. It’s just not cultivated in public schools right now. So bringing it out and showing kids and their parents that horns are cool, playing the drums is cool. Getting people excited about live music is the main goal.