Mark Gane On Echo Beach by Martha & The Muffins

(Editor’s Note: Given an opportunity to interview Mark Gane about his solo release, Garden Music, for a feature segment of the acclaimed NPR program, the Great Lakes Odyssey Radio Hour, I later asked Mark about Echo Beach, the iconic hit single he penned for his band, Martha & The Muffins. This is that chat.)

Mark Gane, songwriter, musician and artist, makes music with his partner, Martha Johnson of the band, Martha & The Muffins. On their debut album, Metro Music, released in early 1980, they had their song Echo Beach reach first in the U.K., Europe and Australia, and eventually in their home country of Canada. The album, along with the single, went gold before the end of that year, and then winning a 1981 JUNO award for Single of the Year.

Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame: cshf.ca/2023-blog-mark-gane-echo-beach
Music: marthaandthemuffins.bandcamp.com/marthology-in-and-outtakes

(Editor’s Note: The following excerpt is from the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame website. For the full transcript visit the link above.)

You had written songs before “Echo Beach” and have written songs since. Did you feel something special about that song when you finished it?
No, I wouldn’t say when I wrote it. I thought the guitar riff was pretty cool. But it was so early on in the history of the band. I had other songs, but it always got a good reaction, even back in the very early days of Queen Street at the Beverley Tavern, that was all full of our art student friends and teachers and artists. But because we never started the band with the idea that it was ever going to go anywhere, and we didn’t really see ourselves as real musicians, we thought, “Well, we’ll do this ‘til it runs out and then we’ll go back to what we thought we were going to do.” And then, the extraordinary series of events that got us signed by Virgin Records UK. We got plucked out of this little scene and thrown into the London music scene, which was quite an eyeopener. So, in context of all the other songs, it certainly got a great reaction, but we were getting good reactions anyway. There was a semi-special feeling that was more unconscious, perhaps.

Why do you think it resonated with people?
I don’t know that I ever really thought about it that hard until my dad and I were having a conversation about it years ago and he said, “Why had that song done so well?” I said, “Well, it’s catchy, I guess.” And he said, “It’s because it’s nostalgic.” And I think he was actually quite right. When I think of some of my favorite songs of all time that have really lasted, like ‘Moon River’ and ‘Over The Rainbow,” they all have a very nostalgic but not cornball approach to the feeling of the song. It’s not cliched, but it has a very heavy feeling of yearning. And, I think, that just resonates.

Plus, I was just thinking about a beach, but I’ve never been a beach bum, so it was just another idea, but it resonated, particularly in places like Australia and Bali, and there’s a hotel in Zanzibar named after it [since closed]. So, all these beach locations have grabbed onto it. And then all these other weird things, like a short science fiction story and an online dystopian game show (laughs).

Described by UK critics as “one of the most innovative of their era” and that “even to this day they sound brave and fresh”. Echo Beach was a top 10 single around the world in 1980 and earned them a Juno for Single of the Year. Since then, the band has released 7 studio albums, 3 of which they co-produced with Daniel Lanois.