A Quick Chat With Marshall Hamburger
Marshall Hamburger, this year’s Australian Idol winner, makes a radiant debut with Thought of You. Blending retro pop, soul, and yacht-rock polish, the track bursts with piano grooves, lush horns, and Marshall’s warm, magnetic vocals, channelling the timeless energy of Billy Joel and Elton John while carving his own space in today’s pop world. Written by Marshall himself, Thought of You is a love letter to the person who can brighten a day with just a thought, pairing joyful simplicity with irresistible groove. We caught up with Marshall to talk about the single, his Aus Idol experience, and more.
Can you tell us what this track means to you and what you want people to take away from it?
“Thought of You!” is a track written all about that one person who, just by thinking about them, can make your whole day! It’s a track of joy, love and laughter. I wrote it about 2-3 years ago, when I was still in high school, and I had a crush on a girl that I daydreamed about going to the park and eating ice cream with. Although I may not have actually gone through with talking to her, the “thought” of her did brighten my whole day, and that’s kind of where the whole concept for the song came from! I hope that this song does for people what the thought of my high school crush did for me.
Tell us a bit about your Australian Idol experience this year.
Well it was just absolutely bonkers to be honest, I can’t believe it was actually real. It was really such a massive growth experience for me, getting to work with professional session players, and having to perform consistently week after week in a busy TV schedule, really toughens you up quickly! The people who work/worked on the show are absolutely phenomenal, truly some of the country's best (but I suppose you wouldn’t expect any less!). I think I had to pinch myself on that stage after the grand finale, looking back it really feels like a dream, the big light shows, the confetti, and crowd of people that ran up to me on that stage was so much to take in, let alone the fact that the show we had all spent months filming was actually wrapping up!
What's the creative process for you, from writing through to recording?
My process really starts in my room on my laptop, I often have a million ideas in there every day, but every once in a while I listen to something back the next day and it sticks in my brain, that’s how I know I’ve written something that’s worth keeping. From there I continue to produce that version of the track, give it to dear old dad to have a listen and produce it a bit further, until we send it off to our producer. In this time of “demo producing” there are often TONS of lyric changes, melody changes, and little extra bits added to make the song pop. I remember one day, I was in the studio with dad and I had a key change in my demo but I wanted a smoother way to get to the key change. Dad and I were playing around with some chords for about half an hour until we just stumbled upon them and dad said “wait no go back!!”. It's often very chaotic during our sessions.
What do you think makes a great song?
I think the three things that make a great song are memorable hooks, interesting changes, and heart! I think all of my favourite artists have those three things in their music!
If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?
Well I think my top 2 are Aleksiah and Budjerah! They both are awesome musicians who write really catchy high production pop songs that I really love!
When not working on music, what other creative outlet/s do you have?
My other biggest creative outlet is film! I’ve been into film since I was really little, so I’ve been messing around with lots of editing software and camera gear for a long time now! I’ve found those skills actually very useful in the industry so far, especially when it comes to social media content and music videos. To this day I still write down little film ideas in case I ever want to get back into it. I like writing horror and horror/comedy films, I find them very fun to write and watch!
Who are some local bands we should check out?
I actually really like The Nouveau! They’re also from the Sunshine Coast, and I was on the bill with them at the BFF Festival at the Station. I loved their style, a super tight, almost pop/punk band with really awesome original songs! They sort of remind me of Simple Plan and The 1975, really cool band! And I know NZ isn’t local, but… definitely check out Borderline, I saw them at BIGSOUND this year and their set was awesome! Reminds me a lot of Daydreamers and that sort of pop sound. I really like their songs “When it’s raining” and “Jealous”.
Winter or summer and why?
Definitely winter! I love wearing coats/jackets so it’s the perfect time of year for it! That being said I do really love going to the beach too so I’m happy with either!
What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
I’ve got TONS of gigs planned! My family's spent a lot of time living in India and I might even head over there for some gigs which would be cool. I’ve also got some more music coming out soon! I’m planning to release one later this year to maybe tease an upcoming EP or album!! Very excited to show people what I have been up to over these past couple of months!