Mark Lombardo and long-time friend Derek Rogers make up the indie-pop dream wave duo better known as Titanics. With fuzzy, distorted vocals from Mark atop warm melodic lines brimming with ambient sounds, Titanics is seeking to re-appropriate indie rock. While their music is tinged with sentimentality and nods to predecessors, they still add a modern twist to a genre which has been overlooked by heavily experimental electronic music. Having recently toured with acts like Portugal, The Man and MS MR the pair are gaining heavier traction in the scene.
Their latest singles, ‘Stepping Out’ and ‘Into’ mix indie rock with electronic ambient elements creating a fresh move forward by the pair. Mark Lombardo was kind enough to answer a few questions for LYFSTYL which you can read below.
RJ: Tell us a little bit about yourselves.
Mark: Mark Lombardo (vocals, keys) and Derek Rogers (guitar, graphic design). Derek and I have been playing music together since we were about 14 years old. I started making some electronic demos in a shed on my parent’s property during the summer of 2012 and asked Derek to play some guitar parts for the album which became our debut ‘Soft Treasure’. We’ve been known as Titanics ever since.
RJ: What do you see changing in the indie-pop-rock sphere? Your music traverses ambient, lush and electronic sounds but still retains an indie-rock feel – does this affect how you produce?
Mark: There are all types of music available now which is nice and chaotic. I strive to create rich music – songs that pull the listener in as soon as it starts playing, giving the listener an immediate sense of relief, or travel or a subconscious feeling. If it doesn’t create a visual image in my head or spark a feeling it just becomes sound or noise to me. I can’t write anything without a visual image in my head; it’s all a mental association really.
RJ: Your new singles, ‘Stepping Out’ and ‘Into’ are more mature sounding than your releases from a year ago, but still retain a sense of nostalgic pop – what caused this new shift or what were the circumstances behind it?
Mark: We change as people and our music changes as well. We want to go richer, bigger and more beautiful with our band. The music can’t help but reflect what’s going on around it – it’s nice being a duo not having to bounce ideas off of a lot of people. The newer songs show a more revealing side of our band, a deeper side. We’re always experimenting with sounds and finding a balance between making a song which is luscious and grand but also accessible as a pop song.
RJ: What can we expect from you in the future?
Mark: I’ve become more and more interested in production. Our first album was produced on an 8 track recorder which was easy to use but sound wise became a bit limiting. More recently I’ve been experimenting with sounds and mixing and layering more freely to be able to express our band exactly the way we want to. Music is a language, and like words, it’s important to choose sounds that convey the meaning of the song as a whole.
