About Marianas Trench
Marianas Trench is a Canadian pop rock band from Vancouver. They have released six studio albums: Fix Me , Masterpiece Theatre , Ever After , Astoria , Phantoms , and Haven . The band has been nominated for seven Juno Awards and won Group of the Year in 2013. They have received praise for their showmanship, vocal harmonies, and genre-blending music. Their albums Masterpiece Theatre and Ever After have reached double-platinum status, while their singles "Haven't Had Enough", "Desperate Measures", "Fallout", "Stutter", and "All to Myself" are certified 3× platinum in Canada.
Marianas Trench was formed in 1999 by Josh Ramsay and guitarist Steve Marshall, with Ramsay's sister Sara on keyboards and vocals, Erik Scott on drums, and Trev Spilchen on bass. Originally called Ramsay Fiction, Marshall suggested a name change when Ramsay's high school friend Matt Webb, drummer Ian Casselman, and bassist Morgan Hempstead replaced Scott, Spilchen, and Sara Ramsay. The band recorded and released a self-titled EP in 2002. It contained songs that would later appear on their debut album, Fix Me. The group performed at the NewMusicWest festival in May 2002 as well as shows in Toronto at Tequila Lounge in June. They soon attracted the interest of several record labels, before eventually signing with Chad Kroeger's 604 Records in January 2003. Mike Ayley, a longtime friend of Casselman, took up bass responsibilities when Hempstead and Marshall left the band in 2004, taking the five-piece down to four.
Marianas Trench released their debut, full-length studio album, Fix Me, on October 3, 2006, with the first single, "Say Anything", coming out on June 13, 2006. The song reached number three on the Canadian Singles Chart. Their second single, "Decided to Break It", was released on October 3, 2006, and found some radio success, peaking at number 14 on the Canadian Singles Chart. "Shake Tramp" was released in September 2007 as the third single and peaked at number 65 on the Canadian Hot 100. The song also earned a Juno nomination for Video of the Year in 2008. Fix Me was engineered and mixed by Mike Fraser, with recording taking place at Factory Studios and Mushroom Studios in Vancouver and at the Umbrella Factory in Richmond, BC. Despite its lack of chart success, the album sold 35,000 copies and was certified Gold in Canada.
Masterpiece Theatre, the band's follow-up album, was released on February 24, 2009. It debuted at No. 4 on the Canadian Albums Chart and sold 5,000 copies in its first week. The first single, "Cross My Heart" came out on November 24, 2008, peaking at number 15 on the Canadian Hot 100. The song was nominated for four MMVAs in 2009 and was certified triple platinum in Canada. "All to Myself" was released in May 2009 as the second single and peaked at number 11 on the Canadian Hot 100; it was also certified triple platinum in Canada. In 2009, the band went on the Beside You tour with Carly Rae Jepsen.
Marianas Trench performed several free concerts during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, at the LiveCity Yaletown stage and Richmond O Zone. Their first US show took place on September 23, 2010, at The Bowery Electric in Manhattan, New York. On November 30, 2010, a director's cut of Masterpiece Theatre was released and included bonus acoustic tracks of the songs "Celebrity Status" and "Cross My Heart", an alternate version of the song "Good to You" , as well as a cover of "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel. "Beside You" was first released as a digital promotional single on February 24, 2009, before it was issued for radio airplay on August 17, 2009, as the third single from the album. The song reached number 28 on the Canadian Hot 100 and was certified double platinum. "Celebrity Status" came out on February 12, 2010, as the fourth single and peaked at number 24 on the Canadian Hot 100. In 2010, the band held a contest for fans to send in a video of them singing "Good to You", where the winner would perform with them on stage at Massey Hall in Toronto. The eventual winner was Jessica Lee, who was included in the single version of the song, whereas the album version features Kate Voegele. The track was released on September 21, 2010, as the fifth and final single from Masterpiece Theatre. The song peaked at number 38 on the Canadian Hot 100. Masterpiece Theatre was certified double platinum in Canada.
Josh Ramsay also took part in a project called Young Artists for Haiti to raise funds to support the victims of the 2010 earthquake. Marianas Trench participated in UBC's Lip dub event on March 26, 2011. The video featured approximately 1,000 students and community members lip-syncing to the band's song "Celebrity Status" and "Raise Your Glass" by Pink.
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