It’s appropriate that Marcus Alan Ward hails from Cleveland, considering the comparisons the vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist receives to any number of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and HOF-worthy) artists. References to Prince, Jimi Hendrix, N.E.R.D., D’Angelo and Timbaland are strewn throughout Ward’s press kit like raw diamonds crowding a jeweler’s worktable, and every one of them is well earned and completely deserved.
As evidenced by the artists he’s yard-sticked against, Ward works in a wide variety of styles and directions, incorporating elements of Jazz, Electronica, Synth Pop, R&B, Psychedelia, Hip Hop, Soul and Rock into a sonic concoction he identifies as Progressive Pop. The self-taught musician and only child channeled his youthful energy and angst in a succession of Post Hardcore bands before expanding his listening and performing palette in college. Ward first recorded himself in a solo setting (he is a one-man outfit) under the pseudonym Freeze-Tag (his 2012 debut was titled WLDFLWR_HNY) before shifting to his own name for his sophomore EP, 2013’s Eskimo, and his well-received full-length bow, 2014’s Last Night I Grew Tentacles. Last October, Ward dropped a three-track EP, Marcus in Wonderland, featuring covers of Santana’s arrangement of Peter Green’s “Black Magic Woman,” Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” and Sade’s “Kiss of Life,” all translated in his unique Chillwave-Psych-Soul-and-beyond style.
In an interview with ImFromCleveland.com, Ward name-checked Björk, Led Zeppelin, Mars Volta, Rick Ross and Jack White as people he’d like to work with, and in a chat with the Brite Winter Festival website, he called out albums by Marvin Gaye, TV on the Radio, Miles Davis, Deftones and Caribou (among many others) as rotational favorites. That kind of passionate eclecticism isn’t taught, it’s an inherent trait of an inquisitively restless mind, and when it fuels the creatively expansive core of a fellow musician, nearly anything is possible. With Marcus Alan Ward, nearly everything is possible.
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This article appears in Jan 6-13, 2016.