If you’ve lived in the city of Sonoma for any length of time, you’ve perhaps heard the music of Tyler Meloan and Aaron Marcus-Willers. Lifelong friends, the duo first came together musically at various Rhoten Summer Camps and School of Rock Camps. That led to performances at their K-8 school talent shows, and then the formation of a four-piece band with local friends, Ryan Abshear and Benjamin Koler. That rock quartet played multiple Sonoma Farmers Markets, Fourth of July parades, the Vintage Festival, and went on to win the Sonoma Country Fair battle of the bands at the age of 14 (with a cash prize of $1500). Later teen era gigs included headlining at the Phoenix Theatre in Petaluma, playing the Big Easy, and even the DNA Lounge in San Francisco. Along the way, they recorded multiple albums of studio-quality original music under various band incarnations, with radio airplay at over 100 college stations across the US.
But the true test of an artistic pursuit is perseverance and evolution. And there too, Meloan and Marcus-Willers have cut a distinctive path. There have been many garage bands or gimmicky one-hit-wonders in the history of popular music. But rarer are those that stay at their craft and evolve in ways that surprise and delight both listeners and the artists themselves. Meloan and Marcus-Willers cut their teeth as young teens on the musical greats of the ‘60s, then explored the Pop-Punk genres of their own generation, and ultimately brought those diverse influences back home to their current musical partnership (under the name of Aquamarine)—building on traditions of Psychedelia, Americana, Folk, and Bluegrass, while weaving introspective, dreamlike narratives and lyrical explorations.
Their latest album, “Two Perched,” is a testament to that perseverance and indomitable creative spirit. With Marcus-Willers attending NYU’s satellite campus in the Middle East, and Meloan at Sonoma State, technology proved an essential element in the planning and development of the album’s 14-songs—with months of preparatory emails, texts, shared audio demos, and late-night Zoom sessions.
That lengthy development process came together last August with the duo finally graduated and together again in Sonoma—culminating in a mammoth eight-hours-a-day, ten-day recording session at a local home studio. The two played all instruments on the album’s songs—including guitar, drums, bass, piano, keyboard, and mandolin. And to great result. The release quickly caught the ear of bestselling San Francisco writer and musicologist Steve Silberman—”If you like dreamy, folk-influenced, garage-psychedelia-influenced rock with poignant lyrics and lovely acoustic guitars (think early Byrds), Tyler Meloan and his buddy Aaron Marcus-Willers, as the band Aquamarine, came out with an album today on most streaming services called ‘Two Perched.’ It’s lovely.”
Staying true to an artistic path takes both vision and courage, particularly in an era of streaming music and dwindling revenue for recording artists. But as has been seen with current era independent artists like Mapache, Mikaela Davis, Mac DeMarco, William Tyler, and Phoebe Bridgers, it is still possible to find and maintain an audience that believes in the old school artistic paradigm of evolving and blossoming over the long haul. And Aquamarine is clearly in that same fold.
“Two Perched” (for streaming and download) can be heard on the Aquamarine Bandcamp page: aquamarineband.bandcamp.com
Aquamarine’s music can also be heard on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon.
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