Having a name like Marina Rocks, audiences might already suspect that she takes her guitar playing seriously. “Every gig I have to try to live up to it but that’s okay,” laughs Rocks.
The Austin native has deep roots in Houston where she led the rock trio The Guppies for over a decade. She even has her personal studio here, Two Fisted Pixie, where she works on her albums calling the studio her “Batcave.”
“I love Houston,” says Rocks of her long ties to the city where people often assume she still lives. Marina Rocks will be celebrating the vinyl release of her latest album S.O.S. Texas with a free happy hour show on Friday, September 25 at Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top Lounge. She will later host an in-store performance at Cactus Music on Saturday, October 3.
“I really enjoyed making that album,” she says of S.O.S. Texas, released last year. She decided to put it out on vinyl at the suggestion of a friend, a process she calls “not cheap” but ultimately worth it.
S.O.S. Texas shows Rocks stepping further into her role as a songwriter, telling real stories without losing the quick, steady guitar playing that has become part of her signature sound, a direction she moved toward after her time with The Guppies.
The album begins with “It’s All Messed Up” where Rocks tells the story given to her by a friend who answered a call for help from his ex-girlfriend only to end up with her jumping out of the car on Highway 225 with a squirrel in her purse.
“He says that she survived but the squirrel didn’t make it,” says Rocks who used the story to write a fast-paced rock and roll song that received the best possible review from Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard who called it “rude, crude and jail tattooed.”
Rocks’ guitar playing style incorporates a wide variety of influences and emotion as she often uses the body as a drum. Her style plays perfectly off her laid-back vocals that allow her to weave her stories so well in the tradition of great Texas songwriters.
“There’s just so many songs about beer and trucks that I can write,” she laughs. “I’m just not very good at manufacturing stuff. You probably have to be more creative. I mostly write stuff that’s happened to me or folks I know.”
“S.O.S. is kind of a critique of what’s happening to some radio and formula-written songs,” she says about the song which asks the soulless artists what they will do when their money is all gone. “Can you write another song about a bar room fight, tequila love song,” asks Rocks sarcastically.
For Rocks, the transition from her fast Strat playing with The Guppies to her more introspective solo work on acoustic guitar was a welcome move. “I had been writing and some of the songs that I was writing just didn’t fit into a rock band,” she says.
One day on a fateful trip to Houston’s Rockin’ Robin guitar shop, an employee there recommended that she explore Godin Guitars as an acoustic option. At the suggestion of the employee she sent some of her original music to Godin and was offered an endorsement deal.
“Godin guitars have been my main instrument,” says Rocks. “I’ve worn holes into the face of that guitar. I use the face sometimes as a drum and not to mention a lot of shows.” Rocks has filled some of the holes with turquoise as a sort of tribute to her mother.
“My mom bought me my first little guitar and she wanted me to play,” says Rocks. “She just instilled in me hard work so I’ve tried to do that. I just felt like maybe I’d get better if I kept working hard at it and maybe things would fall into place. If I just stayed at it, got better and did that work, maybe things would work out okay.”
It was her new acoustic guitar and a visit to Galveston’s Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe’s open mic night that helped further cement her shift into a solo artist.
“I walked in one night and I signed up for their open mic. I was running late that night and I was down the list and this man walks over towards me and says, ‘Do I know you?’ and I said, ‘Do I owe you money?’ and told me to get up there and so I got up and played.”
She did not, in fact, owe the man money. Instead, she was offered a gig by Rex Bell, the owner of the cafe who was immortalized by Townes Van Zandt in the song “Rex’s Blues.” Rocks became close friends with Rex and his wife, Janet.
Bell passed away a year ago and Rocks, like many others in that orbit, still feels the void. “I can’t tell you how many times I’d like to pick up the phone and tell Rex and it’s just hard so now I bug Janet,” she says.
Her evolution from rocker to solo artist has borne the fruit, resulting in three albums and an EP. In a world of cheap thrills, Rocks has found steady grounding as a hard-working independent artist.
“I was born and raised in Austin and I started working in the Houston area over 20 years ago. I joke that I’m a commuter, one of my albums is called Austin to Houston. I worked with The Guppies for 15 years and we did a lot of hard work there,” says Rocks, expressing endless gratitude for this city and all it has provided her.
“I’m glad I walked into Rockin’ Robin and discovered my Godin guitar. Playing that guitar helps give me independence and it helped me write some of my life story and some other folk’s stories but being able to be a soloist helped give me freedom.”
Marina Rocks will perform on Friday, September 25 at 6:30 p.m. at Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top Lounge, 3714 Main and at 1 p.m. Saturday, October 3 at Cactus Music, 2110 Portsmouth.Both events are free. For more information visit marinarocks.com
