Alternative duo MRCH have shared their new single Stars Align accompanied by an official video as they open a new era.
The new track serves as a hint of what is to come from their new EP TV Bliss which lands in the autumn.
Stars Align finds MRCH blending alt-rock and synth-pop as they deliver a track filled with joy and escapeism but with an edgy dark undertone as they look at the process of responding to situations. “You can’t control much more than how you respond to a situation. A lesson I’ve been learning” explains vocalist and guitarist Mickey Pangburn. “Stars Align is about still regaining a sense of agency in the midst of it all and not awaiting rescue.”
Mickey Pangburn also directed the official video, made courtesy of special effects and many hours of green screening.
MRCH’s upcoming EP TV Bliss is due to land at the end of September. It comes after Mickey and bandmate Jesse Pangburn (drums/production) collaborated with Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World, with mixing from Grammy-nominated Tony Hoffer and mastering from Dave Wooley. The EP draws on a childhood passion for television and the discovery of new artists from soundtracks. “As she explains, “‘TV Bliss’ is documentary deja vu. I grew up in Bagdad, Arizona. It’s a copper mine that even in its boomtown heyday was never home to more than three thousand people. Daytime reruns and ‘90s made-for-TV-movies were my escapism. They were a portal to the outside world, where things weren’t necessarily any better, but they were beautiful – imperfectly cinematic. When I started writing music, it matched these aesthetics, grainy, unpolished, but still vivid and romantic. It really wasn’t until the last couple years, dealing with the pandemic and then with back to back health scares with my parents, that I found myself revisiting that escapism – stepping back through the silver screen.”
image of MRCH courtesy David Blakeman