5 questions with Madame Marlowe’s Krista Ritz ahead of Noble Creature show on Saturday
Madame Marlowe, a local rock band, just released their first official EP called Mother Mother in December.
Catch Madame Marlowe’s show at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Noble Creature Wild Ales and Lager in Youngstown.
This four-piece blues and rock band was founded by Youngstown State University graduates. They’ll be performing original music from their EP and cover songs.
Mahoning Matters got the chance to chat with Krista Ritz, lead singer of the band Madame Marlowe who’s also a songwriter and guitarist.
She first started performing with Madame Marlowe in 2021 at local venues like Westside Bowl, Penguin City Brewing Company and festivals like Federal Frenzy.
They’ve been expanding to perform at venues outside the Mahoning Valley, like House of Blues in Cleveland and the Millvale Music Festival in Pennsylvania.
Getting to know Krista Ritz and Madame Marlowe
Question: Can you tell me about your journey as a musician and when you joined Madame Marlowe?
Answer: I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t singing. I performed in choir programs in high school, and in plays and productions. I had my very first like garage band when I was in the eighth grade. Even though I’d been doing all that stuff, I’ve always had a little bit of stage fright ever since I was younger. I wasn’t really comfortable completely with singing until junior year of high school, basically by my high school graduation. I was finally comfortable to do my own thing, and I was a part of a duo where my guitar teacher and I would go to wineries and perform cover shows and that taught me a lot about performing and it got me out of my shell a lot more.
In 2019 I was in a band called No Funk, No Justice. I was in that band for probably three years and I played so many gigs. I never thought I would play gigs like that with a group of great guys. And that got me out of my shell even more. Then around 2021, I had a bandmate in No Funk No Justice who said something about starting an original band. That was when I ended up joining Madden Marlowe in 2021.
Q: Can you tell me about the band and how the four of you came together?
A: So there’s Eric Thompson [guitar], Stephen Dorbish [drums] and then Devin Zerjav [bass guitar]. Eric Thompson, he was one of the founding members, so he’s one of the people who recruited me into the band. Him and Steven Dorbish. Steve was there from the start as well. And originally the band was called Escaping Jane. We actually all went to school together. The guys all went to the Dana School of Music. I was like the only one who didn’t, I went for journalism. The guys met Devin in school, so in the spring of 2021, we dove into playing a cover show. Our first show at Susie’s Dogs and Drafts downtown. We got Devin to play on the bill with us there; then he started playing bass for us that summer. December of 2022 is when we started gigging regularly, so we’ve kind of been the core four from December of 2022 up to now.
I never really knew how I was going to get original music out there, and playing with Madame Marlowe has taught me so much in the last few years about the music business, but also just about being an original musician, you know? So it’s been awesome.
Q: What was it like to release an EP and perform original music in and outside of the Mahoning Valley?
A: We recorded our single Mother Mother back in July, mixed and mastered it and had it done within a few weeks. But then we waited to release it; it was our baby. We worked on the music for a pretty long time, just polishing it and making sure that everything was exactly how we wanted it. Then we made our debut Dec. 1, 2023. We’ve been creating original music along the way, which has been really cool. It’s just kind of amazing that we’ve gotten the opportunities we have without really releasing an album yet. We’ve only had one song released. So it’s been really, really cool.
We had a party for Mother Mother at Westside Bowl. They’ve been so kind to us; we were like, hey, we want to throw a song release party for Mother Mother, and they said it’s no problem. It’s been really cool ever since. We released Mother Mother on Spotify and Apple Music, and it’s just been so crazy to see that it’s into the world now, not just in our heads.
Show at Noble Creature this Saturday
Q: What can people expect to see at your show at Noble Creature? Will this be your first show at the venue?
A: We have a show coming up on Noble Creature this Saturday. We’ve actually never played an official show at Noble Creature before. It’s funny, we’ve attended so many jam nights there already. They put jam nights on throughout the year. Whenever me and the guys have been there, we’d just jam with local musicians in the area. I personally I love doing that stuff. I love connecting with other musicians like that. People you don’t even know and you literally just start playing a song together. It’s so much fun, I love it. So I’m more comfortable with Noble Creature already just having played jam nights there. We’re super excited for Saturday. It’s going to be 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., and we’re going to do originals and covers.
Q: Can you tell me what’s coming up in the future for the band? Any new music to keep an eye out for?
A: We’re getting back into the studio and working on another song right now. We hope to release it sometime in February, actually. It’s coming up quick. But it’s been great and honestly, there’s no other way I’d rather spend my time, you know, recording our new music and playing these gigs.
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