Transport Yourself To MARS

9 June 2003

Free Friday Lunchtime Concert, Friday June 13th, 12.15pm to 1.15pm, Cathedral Square.

MARS were formed in 200 when Stephen McIntyre returned from Japan and a regular busking gig where he often earned more than one thousand dollars a night in the country ’s most crowded subway stations.

McIntyre is no stranger to the kiwi music scene. As bass player for seminal Flying Nun art rock band Ballon D’essai and guitarist/vocalist in All Fall Down, he released three records before living and travelling in Asia.

“ My best songs are like mini-spiritual journeys,” he says. ‘Everything about them has meaning and design, and it feels like I’m creating them from a divine source. You can dance and groove to the upbeat ones, and then you can chill out and meditate on the slower, quieter numbers.”

MARS music - with it’s attendant harmonies, hooks, melodies and structure - has all the hallmarks of timeless pop. McIntyre has taken the best aspects of classic songwriters and blended them with his own unique words and voice, forming a style he calls ‘trip-pop’.

Temporarily transport yourself to another world this Friday lunchtime in Cathedral Square with MARS, playing from 12.15pm to 1.15pm.

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