Biography
Marsha are a four-piece post-punk band from Ōtautahi Christchurch, formed in 2018 within the University of Canterbury music scene. Three founding members — Sam Williams (guitar/vocals), Felix Mendonça (guitar), and Evan Oijordsbakken (bass/backing vocals) — had played together in bands during their school years in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, before all three coincidentally relocated to Christchurch to study at UC. They met drummer Jack Nolan at university halls; Nolan departed after a couple of years and was replaced by Milan Raxworthy in 2020, completing the lineup that has held together since. The band’s name is drawn from the Blam Blam Blam song “Don’t Fight It Marsha, It’s Bigger Than Both of Us” — a direct nod to the New Zealand music that preceded them.
Marsha’s music sits in a lineage of post-punk and indie rock shaped by the angular dynamics of The Smiths and Black Country, New Road, and the layered atmospheric density of Spirit of the Beehive. Their songs span unconventional time signatures, detailed guitar interplay, and a dynamic range that moves between quiet introspection and full-force noise. “Hollow,” from their pre-album run of singles, reached number one on RDU 98.5FM’s Te Ahi Top 10. Their 2025 single “Pemmican” opens its verse in 7/4 — the band describing it as “bright and poppy by our standards, but it also stays true to Marsha’s tendency to play with time signatures.”
The debut album In Circles was released on 7 June 2024, developed from late 2021 and produced by Jack Lanham and Kabyn Walley of Moonbase Record Collective — a Christchurch collective based in the same central city building as venue Darkroom and gallery Art Hole. The album was preceded by a run of singles including “Wide Eyed & Dumb,” “Iris,” “In Circles,” and “Breville,” and followed by a national tour across Lyttelton, Dunedin, Wellington, and Auckland. Sam Williams reflected on the band’s development in NZ Musician: “I like to think our music has evolved alongside how we have evolved personally. When Marsha started we were all 18 years old or so. Now that we are well into our mid twenties, I think our music reflects how we have matured and become more comfortable with our personal music tastes which comes through in our songwriting.”
Marsha released the Wideo EP in April 2020 — a collection of early recordings — but a planned national tour to celebrate the release was cancelled. The standalone single “Last Night” followed in March 2021. In early 2026, Marsha toured Aotearoa with Velveteen — with whom members Felix Mendonça and Evan Oijordsbakken also play — supported by Cruelly across Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin. “detailed and noisy songs touched by atmospheric darkness” was how Undertheradar described their sound at the time of the debut album release.
In Circles is a brilliant album, and I expect to see it taking them places.
Peter K Malthus, Muzic.nz, 2024
Members
- Felix Mendonça (guitar, Velveteen, Palo Alto)
- Evan Oijordsbakken (bass/vocals, Velveteen, Abandoned Carparks)
- Milan Raxworthy (drums, Cruelly)
- Sam Williams (guitar/vocals, Grift Horse)
Discography
- Wideo EP (2020, self-released)
- In Circles LP (2024, self-released)