When I was thinking about the next batch of topics for A Little Thing Called… strand, it was initially set on being all about books and focused on all the books from different genres etc. However, from watching the video below my mind completely changed and realised I had to include one of my favourite songwriters, Josh Ramsey

There are many bands and musicians that are great songwriters and there are many that I could write loads about however there are specific reasons why I wanted to focus on Marianas Trench frontman.

I can’t really remember how I got into Marianas Trench, I think it was through Spotify Radio but not sure all I remember is the first video I ever saw of theirs was Stutter. I loved the style of it so much that I started looking into their other music and videos and entered this whole different world.

Whilst people like Tom Delonge who I have spoken about many a times are inspirations to me, this band is a whole different level of inspiration. I sometimes have to take a break from their music time to time as it’s like a drug, it’s so addictive that I can be ‘lost to the music’ completely. It’s one of the only few bands I refuse to listen to without headphones as listening to them is an experience not just another album. The music is extremely powerful that you don’t get the same feeling without headphones. I can completely zone out listening to one of their albums and sometimes if I listen in full I can walk away feeling like it has changed me as a person or made me look at life differently or even feel a weird sadness.

it’s a whole concoction of things – the lyrics, the music and the power of Josh Ramsey’s voice – some of the notes he can reach shouldn’t be possible for a man and not just reach them, but fueled so highly on emotion that it makes you want to know the backstory of the songs that he writes and when you do find out the stories behind them your heart slightly breaks, or your mind is completely stunned as to how phenomenal the whole concept is brought together with everything.

The one thing that completely and utterly amazes me about this band is the level of storytelling. Each album has a story that is delivered through every songand has a constant theme that develops to a huge finale at the end. It’s not just the lyrics and the music that brings it to life, its also the musical interludes and the videos.

They all have strong elements of storytelling- Especially if you look at the Case study – Ever After.

Ever After 

Before I discuss the videos, it’s important to first understand the album. As Wikipedia describes:

“Ever After also has a storyline told through the album’s songs as well as its digital booklet. The story tells of Josh Ramsay, who lands in Toyland and has an amazing adventure.

Josh Ramsay meets the ex king upon his waking up in a strange land in front of a toy factory. The King tells Josh that he was overthrown by the his wife Queen Carolina, after seducting him into a feeling of safety. She then stole the heart of his daughter, Princess Porcelain, which caused the king so much pain, that he let Carolina take the throne. Carolina locks Porcelain’s heart in a box atop a tower, which also holds various things she has also stolen; including Joshs way home. Carolina proceeded to steal the inhabitants hearts, and build her army of heartless toy soldiers. After hearing this tale, Josh sets of in search of Porcelain and his way home.

Carolina then comes to Josh in the night, and attempts to bribe him into ruling Toyland with her. This meant Josh would never be able to go home. So he turns her down. When Josh comes to, he finds Porcelain, who is human as well. She has the key to the box around her necks. When asked why she isn’t a toy like everyone else, she cannot remember. She couldn’t remember anything that happened before her heart had been stolen. She explains that Carolina’s soldiers have been stealing and locking away hearts without rebellion for some time. Josh and Porcelain then proceed to find the stuttering wise man, the one with the other half of the key.

Once they find the Stuttering Wise Man they discover that he is the brother of the Outcast King, and one of the few remaining inhabitants to have a heart. He explains that Porcelain showed up at the castle as a lost child and was adopted by the king. She is also from Josh’s homeland.

The Stuttering Wise Man then leads the two into the factory that creates the heartless toy soldiers. The trio then plead with the heartless soldiers to work together and overthrow the Queen. They soon convince the soldiers to go along with their plan. The Outcast King charges into battle with the rebel soldiers, outnumbered, as Porcelain, the Stuttering Wise Man, and Josh go up to the tower where the box is held.

The Queen sees Josh and tries to brutally attack him. Porcelain and the Prince then open the box as the Queen attempts to steal Josh’s heart. After a flash of light, Josh regains consciousness and hears joyful cheers from the courtyard below, and finds that they have defeated the Queen. However the Stuttering Prince is dead as the other half of the key had been his own heart. Porcelain throws Carolina off the tower to be swarmed by angry toy soldiers. The King retakes the throne and Porcelain and Josh go home, but find that after the adventure, it didn’t feel like home, so the two return to the kingdom and live happily ever after.”

The stories of the videos have a reflection of this story that is depicted throughout the album. I didn’t realise at first that the videos were connected, until I started seeing iconic objects in all of the videos. The one thing that I really like about some of the videos is that they are all very different and very random but once you have watched them in order to the tracklisting it starts to make sense. Reading items online about the videos as well also provide interesting reading for this video series. As iDoAirGuitar on YouTube states: