ATP! Interview: Maro (Emily Moore and Nate Harold of fun.)

If you've ever seen the multi-platinum pop-rock band fun. in concert, you may very well recognize the members of Maro.

Emily Moore and Nate Harold are both part of the group's touring line up, and despite meeting six years ago, they've only recently decided to start writing music together. The pair have already released a handful of songs online and have no intention of slowing down anytime soon.

We recently spoke with Emily about Maro's origin, influences and more.


Tell us about the origins of Maro.

Nate and I have always wanted to work together and, with the time off, we felt both very inspired. We’ve had tons of ideas in our heads for a while and now we're finally able to make it happen.

It happened about three months ago where I had all these ideas but I'm just so happy to be working with him. He's such a creative person.

Did the two of you meet through fun.?

Yeah, we both came on at the second full band tour ever. It was maybe six years ago. We did that tour together and have been friends since.

How do the two of you usually write together? On the road or whenever you get downtime?

We both live on separate sides of the country. He will sometimes send me three or four ideas a day. They are usually a minute or thirty seconds long - sometimes things work and sometimes they don't and then I'll send something back later that day. It's pretty cool how we can do that with technology now.

It's mostly in the last three months that we've been writing a lot. The important part now is writing and creating.

Is the goal to release an EP/LP or just putting out songs, one at a time?

I think we'll want that eventually but right now, I think we're just going to see how it goes.

Is Maro a side-project while being off the road with fun.?

Right now, since we have a lot of time off, it's our main focus.

Were there any artists or style in particular you were influenced by when writing these songs?

For me, the project started to get rolling when I started listening to Massive Attack and Portishead a lot. It's been a very longtime since I've written music and it's kind of exciting to explore new artists.

Have you any plans for shows anytime soon?

I've been daydreaming about it for a long time. I don't know, writing is just a big thing at the moment. I think it'll be so much fun to play a show. It's just the two of us writing and putting a band together would be one thing.

What's planned next for Maro?

There are so many songs and ideas in my head that people can expect quite a bit. I think at some point we will release an EP like I said earlier. Right now, keep checking out Soundcloud because as we finish things, we're going to keep posting them up there.