The emerging Grand Rapids artist plays a Valentine’s show at Tip Top Deluxe, the same night she joins producer-husband TechTonic for ‘Heart Beat’ at The Intersection. The Local Spins Artist Spotlight.
Huge Visions of the Visual and Musical World She Aims to Create: Mar in Color (Courtesy Photo)
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Inside a cozy coffee-serving thrift store downtown, Marissa Postler is dressed in an array of vibrant hues that seem to brighten the room around her anywhere within a five-foot radius.
She wears a bright yellow beanie over aqua-colored hair that falls to rest on a fuzzy green cardigan. But this is tame.
When it comes to Mar in Color – her whimsical, colorful, flourishing, songwriting alter ego – creating a visual world is equally as important as creating an audible one.
On stage, Postler sports shimmery vintage sequence jackets. Sparkling skirts. Lavender sunglasses. At times there are flowy hats. Her keyboard is occasionally covered in floral arrangements.
“I mean, I feel like the two, music and visual arts are, and I’m counting fashion as visual arts, are just inextricably connected. They’re one in the same. Music is just filling time with sound and visual art is filling visual space, but it’s the same thing. I feel like I’m using the full palette of colors to paint my sound, and I’m using the full palette of colors to paint myself, my house, whatever it is,” say Postler, while sipping tea among racks of vintage clothes.
On Stage: Mar in Color (Courtesy Photo)
“I have such huge visions of the visual world I want to create, but also I have the budget of an indie artist, so that’s just where I’m at. But then it forces additional creativity. The outfit that I wore to the ‘Technicolor’ (release) show, it was this crazy sequin, vintage jacket from, I don’t even know, the ’80s or whatever. But it was my grandma’s. So it was really special that I got to wear that. And I altered it. I cut it up and made a little top that goes under it.”
Mar in Color performs next at Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill on Saturday (Feb. 14) as part of a special Valentine’s Day bill titled, “They’re All Love Songs.” The lineup for the night includes Erin Monroe, Tony Halchak, Rebekah Jon, Alex Austin and Nicholas James Thomasma. Show details online via Facebook; tickets are $12.25 in advance available here.
The same night, Postler will join her husband, Aaron Schwallier, a producer and EDM artist who performs under the moniker TechTonic at The Intersection’s Stache as part of a “three-room takeover” by electronic music star Mersiv, with more than 10 acts performing on three stages during the “Heart Beat” event. Advance tickets — $35.40-$51.40 — available here.
Following that, Mar in Color will perform an album-release show in support of her previously released 2022 album “Jesus Issues,” at The Lit in downtown Grand Rapids on April 10, marking the first proper live rendition of the album, performed top to bottom with a 13-piece band. Details here.
This comes on the heels of the recently celebrated release of the song “Technicolor,” a kaleidoscope of candy-coated synths, layered harmonies and deep grooves.
LISTEN: “Technicolor,” Mar in Color
HONING HER CRAFT AT OPEN MICS, COLLABORATING WITH TECHTONIC
In its current incarnation, Mar in Color includes a full backing band: Postler, who sings and plays keyboards, Matt Keeseler on drums, Zac Gregory on drums, Jordan Good on bass, Rebekah Jon on electric guitar and Aaron Schwallier on saxophone and keys.
The backing band, the captivating stage persona and the wardrobe that gleams off the spotlight have been evolutions of Postler’s craft and her grander vision. She began by playing open mics in Grand Rapids, most often as a frequent performer at the since-closed Turnstiles on the city’s West Michigan. She also made appearances at Monarch’s Club and Founders Brewery while honing her craft.
Postler recalls those formative open-mic slots. Hauling her 88-key keyboard through the doors of a dive bar. Empty rooms. Crowded ones. She remembers her foot shaking on top of the sustain pedal during those early performances.
“I could barely play the damn piano. It feels so different now. I mean, I don’t want to say that I don’t get nervous, because I do, but not in the same way that I used to. Now, if it’s an important gig, maybe an hour before, I’ll suddenly get the tummy butterflies. But it doesn’t take over my entire body the way it used to, which is really nice. It feels a lot more safe and comfortable,” Postler says.
Marissa Postler & Aaron Schwallier: Sharing milestones and the ups and downs of a music career. (Courtesy Photo)
In addition to being the songwriting force and performative visionary steering Mar in Color, Postler collaborates often with Schwallier. Postler’s vocals have appeared on Schwallier’s sets and songs, and Schwallier brings his mixing and producing experience to the table, as well as the addition of live saxophone. The duo recently released a collaborative EP titled “Darkness In Me,” a haunting EDM deep dive that rumbles the earth.
“I think that if we were a duo and we were trying to share creative control, that would be really hard. But because it’s his project that I’m part of or it’s my project that he’s part of, there’s a clear hierarchy,” Postler says about collaborating with her partner.
“I get to call the shots when it’s my band and he gets to call the shots when it’s his project. So we are able to sort of be each other’s best supporting actor without clashing too much.”
The pair have performed at large, national-scale electronic music festivals such as Electric Forest, New Wave Music Art & Mystics Festival and Big Fam Festival. TechTonic delivers waves of synths and pulsing bass lines, while Postler lends her gleaming voice to the tracks. Postler and Schwallier have also started attending production retreats.
They’ve made it a ritual to sample different sounds around their environment ahead of those retreats. It could be as simple as a lightswitch or as silly as a toilet flushing. Postler mentions camouflaging her voice into a synthesizer by employing a few overlaying effects. There’s the song “waterfall,” which features a household mug as a crucial component to the song’s beat. (Listen to “waterfall” here.)
Experimenting With Sounds: Mar in Color (Courtesy Photo)
“It literally started with this travel tea mug that’s made of metal. The microphone bumped into the tea mug and I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds interesting.’ And then I tuned it to a different pitch, added reverb, flipped it backwards and did all these things to get the final sound. Producing has just been a fun sort of ADHD rabbit hole for me to follow, “ says Postler.
Postler is chipping away at a self-produced, experimental electronic album, “way through the dark,” which will contain the recently released singles “way through the dark” and “waterfall.”
She also hopes to begin recording her sophomore record this year, “Violets Bloom,” which will dive into indie-rock territory. Another passion of hers is protest songs, which Postler steadily wrote and accumulated throughout much of last year and performed at protest events. She plans to eventually record an album of protest songs.
As for the nearing Valentine’s Day show at Tip Top, Postler looks forward to performing back to back shows with Schwallier.
“We get to share all of our huge milestones and all the ups and downs that come with pursuing a career in the music industry. We never have to choose between our dreams or each other; we get to do all of it with our person instead of alone and that is so grounding,” Postler says.
“It also feels really important and powerful to just be grossly in love out loud and put that kind of energy out into the world right now.”
VIDEO: Mar in Color, “Feel It In My Bones” (Live at Eastown Streetfair)
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