The Marvelous Liars rock on

March 20, 2015 12:00 am • Last Updated: March 23, 2015 12:08 pm

By Rick Koster
Day Arts/Features writer

The Marvelous Liars, from left, Eric Riotte, Nicholas Johns and Shane O'Connell

Sometimes, when Nicholas Johns enters the second-floor rehearsal room in his Groton home, he straps on a guitar and spends a few pre-chord moments looking at the posters on the soundproofed walls. The Doors. Queens of the Stone Age. The Beatles and Stones. Jerry Lee Lewis. Nirvana. Weezer. Cheap Trick.

And he wonders: Does anyone actually play rock 'n' roll anymore?

As a longtime presence on the local music scene, Johns grew up intoxicated by the joys and stylistic variety of guitar-based rock music. But he never imagined a time when contemporary pop music would morph into something totally alien to, well, the whole Marshall amp-power on which so much of the sound is predicated.

"I love rock 'n roll," he says, "and it's not really happening anymore. Whether it's Imagine Dragons or Taylor Swift, there's this consistent sound in modern pop music that has very little to do with rock."

But Johns is hardly the sort of artist who refuses to pull his eyes, so to speak, from a rear-view mirror aimed at the glorious past. With his new band, Marvelous Liars, which features bassist Eric Riotte and drummer Shane O'Connell, Johns determinedly aims for the future. Whether he'll help recharge the batteries of rock 'n' roll or simply forge ahead by carving a new niche, he's already moving forward.

"I've been doing this a long time and I've never wavered," Johns says. "For a while, with The Strokes and The Vines, I thought, 'Okay, it's happening again.' But it disappeared. Maybe I'm just a dinosaur, but I'm not impressed by what's happening in the music industry today."

Johns does feel like the fertile New London scene - associated with indie rock and Americana but bursting with talent and creativity - has some like-minded spirits.

"This is a great area for music, but sometimes I ask if we're the only ones doing what we're doing. I always thought the Royale Brothers were a great rock band. Fatal Film is indie and so are Motion Radio - but they're both awesome and rock-infused. My thought is, with Marvelous Liars, we're going to do our part to keep the torch lit and passed forward."

A sparkling, roaring indication of this type of commitment is "Another Castaway," the band's debut album, which the band celebrates tonight with a performance and release party at the Oasis Pub in New London. Fatal Film and Motion Radio appear in support.

Clustered with power- and suspended chords, structures that cut and bob like Barry Sanders, and stand-on-the-dance-floor-and-scream-along choruses, the dozen tunes on "Another Castaway" comprise a brisk blast of timeless rock as well as sprinkles of melodic balladry. And, like the Stones - or the Strokes or Trapeze or Foo Fighters - the songs and attitude and hooks embody the idea that rock is at once timeless and always moving forward. On the album - and in life itself - this idea is perhaps best exemplified by the song "Highway Skies," which is examined here in The Day's latest "Song Spinner" episode.

"Castaway" was beautifully recorded in a now-vacated New London rehearsal space. Johns produced with the album's engineer, Jason Banta, and the album was mixed by Eddie Shea.

"Jason did a ton of work and captured our sound and energy beautifully," Johns says. "And Eddie - who's been on the road with everyone from Joe Cocker to Neil Finn - did a tremendous job."

For their parts, O'Connell and Riotte definitely share Johns' vision. Having played jazz most of his life, O'Connell was delighted the first time he heard Marvelous Liars demos, and, at once, his brain started spinning out ways he could add to the sound.

He says, "I put it in my car stereo and just thought, 'Wow, this is great.' It was everything that I had sort of envisioned as music that I really enjoy. It had loud drums, fuzzy guitars, Nick's voice ... this is just perfect.'"

As for Riotte, the possibilities of Marvelous Liars were marinating in his brain long before he even auditioned for the band. He'd known Johns for several years, but the two had never actually played together. Then Riotte took his girlfriend to a show by an early version of the Liars - really, more of a Johns solo show with a guest rhythm section.

Riotte laughs when he thinks about that night.

"It was the loudest show my girlfriend ever heard and I loved it and bought her earplugs the next day. It was an awesome show. Even then, I thought in my head that maybe there's a chance I could be in this band," he says.

Johns says the original idea was to do a solo project. His previous band, Gone For Good, was immensely popular in the region. But after the death of drummer Josh Lecce in a car accident, Johns' emotional and creative impetus wavered. There were starts and stops and ideas, but nothing gelled.

"I decided I was going to do this project all completely alone," he says. "It was an intriguing and self-sufficient idea."

He bought recording equipment, polished his drum skills and set about recording six new tunes from scratch. He thought maybe he'd play out with a revolving musicians concept, borrowing pals, on a gig-by-gig basis, from other bands.

"I realized two things," Johns says. "I missed playing out in front of crowds - a lot. And it also wasn't fair to keep asking players from other bands to help out; they have their own projects and priorities. And I decided I wanted to be in a band again. There's no feeling like it."

O'Connell and Riotte came through the audition process on the recommendations of mutual friends.

"As soon as we started playing, there was this tremendous feeling," he says. "THIS is a rock band!"

Johns says they're in it for the long haul. Last week, Marvelous Liars played their first New York City show and have already booked a return gig. With "Another Castaway" officially released - digital and physical copies are available - and the marvelousliars.com website up and running, it's now time to put efforts into promotion and social media.

"Really, we're just trying everything," Johns says. "Making the money back on the investment would be nice, but that's not the big idea. What we want is to make music that people want to listen to and enjoy."