Marco With Love: International Appeal, Local Roots

Marco With Love has been winning the hearts, minds and ears of listeners across the country—and now they’re coming for ours. Marco Argiro (guitar/vocals), Peter Landi (drums), Blaine O’Brien (pedal steel) and Subodh Samudre (bass) will be playing their unique brand of rock at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett on August 19—and it’s not their first time entertaining on the East End.

“One of my first gigs was at the Stephen Talkhouse, actually,” Argiro says nostalgically, recounting the first time he met Landi. “This was with a previous band in 2011—I absolutely loved his drumming style, and that was that.”

Next came O’Brien (“We met at an acoustics show in the city, and his performance blew my mind; I cherry-picked him right away.”) and Samudre (“Subodh and I became good friends after meeting at a ping-pong event and realizing our shared love for ’90s alt bands and punk rock”) and in the blink of an eye, Marco With Love was formed.

Landi is a true child of the East End—the Pierson graduate still lives in Sag Harbor, and his family comes from Amagansett. The other members all live in Brooklyn, and Landi commutes to the city for recording projects. When asked whether he remains in Sag Harbor because of his roots there, or because it inspires him creatively, Landi answers, “I think it’s a little bit of both…I definitely have deep roots here. The main thing that inspires me about living here is the difference between the winter and the summer. Whether it’s with Marco With Love or my own band, the winter inspires me to write and record a lot of music—mainly because I’m inside most of the time, and it’s quiet so I am able to focus on what I’m writing. The summer inspires me to go out on tour and get away from the craziness and all of the tourists that come out here!”

The group has played in other areas of Long Island as well—they played the Halloween show for Stony Brook University in 2012, which turned out to be a huge hit. They’re big fans of the general East End vibe—in fact, on the 19th they’re also booked at Inner Sleeve Records for an in-store meet-and-greet before the main event at Stephen Talkhouse. “We’re part of an indie label,” Argiro explains, “so we’re big supporters of indie stores, and we love Inner Sleeve. The tour in September is going to involve a lot of this as well.” The band begins touring in New York City (with a stop in Sag Harbor), then down along the East Coast, all the way to Miami and back.

Argiro laughs and rattles off a litany of names when describing his influences. “Superdrag, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, REM, The Beatles, Roy Orbison, it goes on and on,” he says. “Sort of that jangly, British-influenced ’60s-style rock’n’roll, and some ’70s hip stuff. It’s making a comeback now, but it never left for us.” Marco With Love is still promoting Argiro’s most recent album, Love, but has already recorded lots of new material, with a goal to release a radio single in late September and have their EP completed in October.

When the group makes it out to the East End, Landi says, they frequent a few local favorites for food and drink, such as La Superica, Jimmy Jim’s Deli, World Pie and Espresso (RIP), to name a few.

Marco With Love has had an extremely busy year, playing gigs in Canada, LA, and New York’s Irving Plaza (among many other venues)—and they show no signs of stopping. The band will be playing the Indie Week music festival in Toronto, the CMJ Music Marathon and even some gigs in Europe during the spring. “We set the bar high this year,” Argiro says. “We’re just trying to maintain that wave and continue the buzz.”

Marco With Love will play at the Stephen Talkhouse on Thursday, August 19 at 7:30 p.m. They can be found online at marcowithlove.com.

Watch Marco With Love’s video for “Will You Remember Poison Heart?” below!