Conversations with the Inspiring Marley Otto

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marley Otto.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Marley. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I moved to LA from Toronto in 2010 by myself without knowing anyone or having any semblance of a plan. I was a child actor in Canada and was still acting at the time and initially came out to pursue that. After about a year here, I realized I wasn’t as passionate about acting as I needed to be if I was going to be successful, so I took a “break” from it and haven’t gone back, eight years later. In 2012, I started singing backup in a band that Frank, JP, and Gerry were in. Frank, JP and I talked at the time about starting a side project of our own but nothing came of it. I was with that band less than a year(because I got kicked out. Twice. Long story.), and I spent the next three years doing all sorts of random things. Frank and JP got back in touch in July of 2016 and we got together and started writing. It flowed more easily and organically than any other creative endeavor I’ve pursued in my life. They called in Kevin, who they’d known from another project, and I found Theron through a jazz musician friend of mine, and The Colour Coast was born. We wrote eight songs in two months and played our first show in October 2016. This band has brought more drive, creativity, hard work and passion out of me than I’d even been aware I possessed. We’ve accomplished a lot in the two and a half years we’ve been together, playing shows at SXSW and around LA with incredible artists, playing and producing a month-long residency, releasing our first music video and putting out an EP. We have new music coming out March 22nd and a big show at The Hi Hat in Highland Park on the 23rd.

Has it been a smooth road?
I’m not sure that smooth roads are actually a thing. There are always struggles, challenges, obstacles. That’s what adds sweetness to every victory though. I think that as women there are always barriers that men don’t deal with. We’re often not given the benefit of being taken seriously off the bat, we have to do things to prove we deserve to be taken seriously. Being diminutive towards women is so deeply entrenched in our society that we often don’t even notice it. Adult women are referred to as girls regularly, doing anything “like a girl” is an insult, ascribing feminine qualities to a man is the worst way to insult him, making my entire gender an insult. I’ve been in countless situations in my life where I was shouted down, talked over, not listened to or taken seriously, treated as though my looks were the only thing valuable about me. It’s frustrating and enraging and humiliating. I think the way to counter all this is by being bold AF, which I’m getting better and better at as I age. Speaking our opinions clearly and loudly and not apologizing for taking up space. Working with ourselves on believing that we deserve to be doing what we’re doing, deserve to be heard, deserve to be taken seriously. Because we absolutely do. And lifting up other women. Not buying into this lie we’ve been fed our whole lives that we’re in some sort of competition with other women. Cancel that idea completely. And also acknowledging that while we, as women, face hardships that men never will, there are always less privileged people who face hardships that we may never have to, and we need to do the work to lift them up as well. Strength in community. I will add, I’m in a band with five dudes who have always taken my ideas, my talents and myself seriously, and I love them endlessly.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Colour Coast story. Tell us more about it.
We’ve struggled with genre labels in this band, so we made up our own; “Tropical Indie Rock.” We have a lot of influences of Latin music in our songs, as well as flavors from all of our unique backgrounds. Two of the guys have roots in Central America and one is from Argentina and they brought in this vast knowledge of Cumbia and other Latin music genres, that add so much to our sound. I was raised on a mix of reggae(I was named after Bob Marley), classical music, 70’s rock, Canadian folk music, classic jazz and music from all over Africa. As a teenager I fell hard for 90’s hip hop, early 2000’s R&B, 50’s and 60’s soul and R&B, early rock and roll and big band. All six of us have really distinct musical backgrounds and loves and I think that’s always a huge benefit to creating something interesting and unique. The more you know and can relate to, the wider your scope of creative possibilities. Our music is great to dance to, very high energy. It’s often joyful and uplifting, but also has a lot of darkness, sadness, desperation. All the feelings. I tend to write pretty dark lyrics on top of the beautiful melodies Frank brings in. We often refer to our vibe as, “Dark Tropical.”

Do you have a lesson or advice you’d like to share with young women just starting out?
Trust your gut. Always. In every situation. We’re the only animals that question our instincts, and we have those instincts for a reason. Be around people who encourage you and uplift you and cheer for you, and be that for others. Work really hard, do things that scare you, stay curious, live with integrity, be compassionate, and SPEAK UP.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thecolourcoast.com/
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecolourcoast/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecolourcoast/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecolourcoast
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1IkoOrll99FG9zK1db6CeJ

Image credit:
Black Jacket Michael Mendoza @countmichael
Red stage shot looking up is by Carlos Chavez @volpephoto
Group shot is by Eric Berry @thelifeoferic
Stage shot in black dress is by Fiona Cansino @fionacansino_photography
White background shot and pink background shot are by Will Branske @willbranske

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