We Catch Up With Marvin’s Revenge Following the Release of Their New EP 'VR Porn'

Marvin’s Revenge’s new music highlights another evolution of a band constantly honing their songwriting and identity, emerging now with a tighter but noisier, gnarlier sound. "Collectively we get a lot of inspiration from early Pixies and bands like The Jesus Lizard and Sonic Youth. We are fans of that high energy punk infused sound with a darker twist that goes back to acts like the Dead Kennedy’s,” they tell us.

"That being said we are still really into the obvious artists such as the Beatles and Bowie who are always a good point of call when looking for inspiration for writing. Individually our more recent influences have been Elizabeth Cotten (said Job), Tom Waits (said Ollie) and Massive Attack (said Luke). Lyrically, Luke just tends to make mumbling noises until words form."

While their sound provides hints of these artists, this is more than a simple nostalgia trip. The myriad sonic influences are matched by abstract, riddle-laden lyrics packed with multiple meanings. For example, lead single Jack (Let Go of the Door), which is based on a bad experience with drugs, collides Pixies surf-punk with the vitriolic crunch of Idles, with dark edges.

Opener Arnold, meanwhile, is the band’s take on the classic grunge aesthetic, packing a scuzz-filled punch that sets up the rest of the EP, while title track VR Porn treads the distorted soul of Sonic Youth before exploding with stoner rock riffs, all while philosophising about the concept of a virtual reality dystopia.

"The name for the EP comes from the title track,” they explain. “I think it just came up in one of those strange topic conversations and we thought it would be a cool name. It's our favourite song on the EP.”

Final track Wealth is an angry blast of noise and by far the band’s most dense and experimental use of guitars, full of distorted layers, feedback and random noises that packs shoegaze into psych-rock with a punk attitude. Sounding like it was written when all the band were having a bad day, it feels like a release from a band that wants to put anger to good use.

"We don’t know if there’s anything particularly special,” they say of their sound, “but it definitely helps us that we’ve know each other most of our lives, we can predict each other pretty well which helps with writing and we are very comfortable together. Most of the time at least."

The band formed in Derbyshire and have recently operated out of Nottingham, where they feel their music has become “more natural and freer flowing." Their last EP was written over a long period of growing pains and was a big learning curve for them, "but I think that consequently helped in making this EP a much easier process from start to finish," they say.

Their next gig, while not a hometown one, will take place in Leeds on 10 November at Royal Park Cellars. Despite being further from home, they’re taking another Nottingham band, Bloodworm, with them – "who everyone should check out, by the way." After that, they have a headline gig at Dubrek studios in Derby on 22 November with two more great Nottingham bands: PASTE. And Skitz Wizards.

"We’ve got some very exciting shows to announce going into the new year and over the next six months we will be announcing another tour in early 2024, which will probably be accompanied by some more new music, too,” they add.

VR Porn by Marvin’s Revenge is out now and you can listen to it on Spotify

@marvins_revong