On The Verge

Delicate Steve

Freeholm, N.J.
Strong Impressions
www.delicatesteve.com

While Steve Marion may not be a “polymath who plays over 40 instruments,” as he’s described in Delicate Steve’s fanciful Chuck Klosterman-penned press release, that doesn’t mean that the man isn’t passionate. “Before there was a record deal on the table, I had this feeling of ‘I’m going to be playing music no matter what,’” Marion says. “I’d be doing the same thing if no one was paying attention.” His sophomore release, Positive Force, is not only a fantastic and ecstatic summer-at-dawn album, but also an impressive piece of musicianship, with Marion performing and arranging the effects-laden guitars, synths and rhythm section all by his lonesome. It’s the kind of musicality that inspires great faith in an artist, from both audience and fellow performers alike. Indeed, while still in his running shorts, he sat in with Built to Spill last year at High Sierra. “[Doug Martsch] starts looking at me once he takes his guitar solo,” Marion recalls, “and realizes I’m watching him on the side of the stage. I pointed to myself like, ‘Are you talking to me?’ So I walked onstage, [and] he took the guitar off his shoulders and put it on mine. I played the end solo to ‘Broken Chairs.’ It was a total fairytale.”