Hey Marseilles is a musical group from Seattle, WA. Seattle Weekly

Seattle Weekly

Seattle Weekly is a freely distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as The Weekly...

has said that "the biggest reason Hey Marseilles stands out in Seattle's saturated pop scene is its innate knack for crafting sincere songs that rise with anticipation and recede gracefully."

Members

• Matt Bishop, lead vocals, guitar
• Nick Ward, guitar, drumbourine, mandolin
• Philip Kobernik, accordion, piano
• Patrick Brannon, trumpet, bass
• Samuel Anderson, cello
• Jacob Anderson, viola
• Colin Richey, drums

History

Hey Marseilles was founded in 2006 by Nick Ward and Matt Bishop. The duo played together as students at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

, and were eventually joined by Ward's roommate Philip Kobernik. The three "used to jam at Gasworks Park in the summer and eventually [they] made a few songs and started adding members from there." Hey Marseilles now includes seven members, "with the instruments in the mix outnumbering the players."

Hey Marseilles released their first album, To Travels & Trunks, independently on 13 December 2008. It was ranked one of the best Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

 albums of the year. Seattle music blog Three Imaginary Girls

Three Imaginary Girls

Three Imaginary Girls is a Seattle-based website that showcases the music of the Pacific Northwest. Self-described as "Seattle's sparkly indie-pop press", since its founding in 2002, the site has featured hundreds of reviews of albums, live music, film, theater, interviews, political commentary,...

 said that it was one of their favorite ("if not [their] number one favorite") albums of the year. In 2009, Hey Marseilles joined forces with the Fuzed Music subsidiary Onto Entertainment, a management company owned by Dave Meinert and Brent Stiefel, and managed by Christen Greene.

On September 5, 2009, Hey Marseilles was the opening act at the Bumbershoot

Bumbershoot

Bumbershoot is an annual international music and arts festival held in Seattle, Washington. One of North America's largest such festivals, it takes place every Labor Day weekend at the 74-acre Seattle Center, which was built for the 1962 World's Fair. Seattle Center includes indoor theaters,...

 Music Lounge. The band later played at the Broad Street Stage.

"To Travels and Trunks" was remastered and re-released nationally in the summer of 2010. A new track, "Gasworks," was added for the re-release. On August 10, 2010, "Rio" was featured as NPR Music

NPR Music

NPR Music launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music discovery. The Web site is a project of National Public Radio, a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to 797...

's "Song of the Day." The track was described as "a worldly chamber-pop gem marked by a full-to-bursting, jauntily percussive sound in which seven people politely clamor to be heard."

On October 17, 2010, Hey Marseilles performed on NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

's "Tiny Desk Concert" podcast. The band performed "Rio", "From a Terrace", and "To Travels and Trunks" off of the re-released "To Travels and Trunks." Seattle Weekly contributor Paige Richmond noted the podcast as evidence of NPR's "enduring love" for the band.

Discography

• 2008: To Travels & Trunks
• 2009: Live at KEXP
  KEXP
  KEXP-FM is a public radio station based in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys. Its broadcasting license is owned by the University of Washington, which operates the station in a partnership with Paul Allen's Experience Music Project...
  
  Vol.5 (track "From A Terrace")
• 2010: Starbucks Sweetheart 2010 (track "True Love Will Find You in the End")