Interview with Skyrocketing Writer and Song Scribbler, Brandon Marlo

Rian: Hey Brandon, thanks for coming back to speak with us! Papers Publishing featured your poetry collection a few months back, and I understand this was the first time your work has ever been published. How did that feel for you, and what pushed you to finally get your poetry out to the public?

BM: Honestly I had mixed emotions when I got the email saying Papers was going to publish my work. I was ecstatic at first. I must’ve read that email a dozen times before doing that thing golfers do when they sink a putt. You know that goofy little fist thrusting motion? I hate golf by the way. I’m pretty convinced it’s just an excuse for guys to get out of the house for like 6 hours. It literally takes HOURS to knock a ball into 18 holes. Isn’t that crazy? Anyways, I was thrilled to be published but there’s always that little voice in the back of your head telling you that there must be a mistake. Like maybe they got the wrong guy or something. Thankfully I have a couple people in my life who told me, and continue to tell me, that it wasn’t a mistake. I guess they’re the reason I sought publication in the first place. I owe them and the good people at Papers the world for keeping the dream alive.

Rian: That’s so sweet! It’s incredible to have support like that, and we feel very lucky those people had your back. When it comes to your poetry, it’s heavily centered around New York, is that where you grew up? Do you feel your upbringing helped form your writing at all?

BM: I was born and raised in the lower Hudson Valley and I’m still here. I actually work in the same building I was born in and the more I think about that the weirder I feel. It’s kind of existential really. It’s no longer a hospital for the record. I wish it was though, I’d be making a lot more money. New York is such a huge part of my life and it’s all I know really. There’s a certain way New Yorkers carry themselves and that started to bleed through into my writing. I think you guys worded it best in the write up when you published my stuff. There’s a certain arrogance to the way we move and it’s unintentional for the most part. It’s just the way it had to be. It’s a really honest way to live if you ask me. And it’s that brutal honesty that carries me from one word to the next.

Rian: You sum up New York pretty accurately right there, and not just the the city either. So, now we know a bit of what went into the writing, could you tell us what the day in the life of Brandon Marlo looks like? And how those daily activities have transferred over into your creativity?

BM: You know, I’ve actually been playing guitar since middle school but I still can’t play a Hendrix song. I’ll start strumming the chords to a Nirvana tune and an hour later I’ve written my own riff. I grew up playing in garage bands and we almost always jammed with no rhyme or reason. There was never any structure to it and that really rubbed off on me. You’d be hard pressed to find any intentional structure in my work. I probably wrote a thousand shitty, unstructured songs before I even thought about writing poetry. I also used to freestyle rap with friends for hours on end in the car. We never drove anywhere though, we’d just sit in the car and spit over beats all night. There’s an obvious connection between the two and if you ask me some of the greatest poetry can be found in old hip hop records. So that’s what my day looks like. Sandwiched between working, sleeping, eating and writing I still find the time to pluck out a terrible tune.

Rian: That sounds like an awesome car ride if you ask me. Speaking of connections, I was wondering was there a reason why you submitted ‘Sympathy,’ ‘Wednesday in New York’ and ‘click click’ together? Do they work together as a larger piece or do they have a similar thread you liked? Or were they picked at random?

BM: The common theme between these 3 poems would be that brutal honesty I mentioned earlier. They’re all topics of conversation you probably wouldn’t have at a dinner party with people you wanted to impress. Imagine I walked in to your party and started talking about being groped by a stranger, how our political system is failing us and when dessert is being served I start mumbling things like “God’s a dick and porn is great”. If that sounds like a fun time to you then I think we would get along well. But at the end of the day they’re just my benign musings and nobody should take them seriously. I’m just glad you like reading them.

Rian: We really did. So, now that we’ve clocked over to the new year, what can we hope to see from you? Do you feel more poetry might be out there for us in 2023?

BM: I just received word that one of my poems called “zero” got picked up over at Mantis and is slated for publication sometime in February. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to work with Papers again too, as long as this interview doesn’t piss anyone off. The ultimate goal for 2023 is to finish a collection of poetry and sell my soul to get it published. Wish me luck! I’ll need all the help I can get. But, before I go I’d also like to formally apologize for any triggering information, gross ideas, or blatant blasphemy I’ve subjected the readers to along the way. If you have any problems with that I’m sure Rian and the gang can handle it. They’re cool people.