In Conversation With Colin: Thee Holy Brothers

Los Angeles based power-folk duo, Thee Holy Brothers comprise Marvin Etzioni and Willie Aron, both of whom have an illustrious musical pedigree. 

Marvin is a Grammy nominated songwriter and producer and founding member of country-punk band Lone Justice. As a producer, he has worked with acts such as Counting Crows, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Stephen Stills with Judy Collins, and many more. 

Willie is an award winning film and television composer and songwriter and multi- instrumentalist playing keyboards with psychedelic supergroup The Third Mind.

Thee Holy Brothers’ debut album, My Name Is Sparkle, was the inaugural release on Etzioni’s own Regional Records label. The song cycle revolves around a fictitious character named Sparkle, who endures a series of hardships on an existential search for the divine. Etzioni wrote all the songs on the album and when released MOJO magazine likened the album to ‘Tommy as if directed by Leonard Cohen.’
Colin Palmer spoke to Marvin and Willie for Newport City Radio, parts of this interview were broadcast on The Rock Vault.

“Willie and I have been friends for over forty years,” says Marvin. “We were at a temple service and coincidentally we were both wearing black suits, white shirts and black fedoras and there’s a moment right before the service where the Rabbi says hello to everybody and he saw the two of us standing next to each other and said, “Oh, It’s The Holy Brothers.” We laughed, and I said to Willie now that we have a name for the band, why don’t we do an album, and that’s how it started. So that’s what we did but not before changing The to Thee.” Willie adds, “At that service a member of our synagogue was Leonard Cohen. We were good friends with him, he was a very early supporter of ours too.”

During early recording sessions Etzioni was diagnosed with cancer, while Aron’s wife passed away from the disease. The resilient pair turned to music and each other during this difficult time, which strengthened their collaborative partnership and friendship. High In My Balloon is the second instalment in a proposed trilogy of Sparkle’s adventures.

“In 2019 I was diagnosed with leukemia,” explains Marvin. “I went through treatment and chemotherapy and before I started treatment I asked my doctor if he minded if I waited a few weeks before we start because there’s a few songs I want to record with my friend Willie.” Marvin pauses, and then laughs: “He told me if I wait half a year I’m going to be in trouble. The first song I wrote when I heard I was diagnosed was ‘I Am Time’, so we recorded that song and ‘I Can See Through My Window Now’ was written prior.”

Etzioni was eventually given the all clear after treatment and the new album’s title is an acknowledgement to his reaction on hearing the news. “I was so elated I felt like I was levitating, like I was high as a balloon so I did what I always do, I wrote a song about it.” Not just one song however, Etzioni takes Sparkle on a ten track journey from doubt and eventual elation while dealing with the very same disease.

Willie explains further, “My wife passed away from cancer in November 2018, and we had already started compiling songs to record. Some people would retreat and shrink and not want to pursue something creatively when dealing with grief. Both of us sinking into the creative process not only strengthened our commitment to the music it also strengthened our commitment to each other as life-long friends. We dealt with it by serving the music and that was our therapy.”

The recently released album High In My Balloon again features the central character named Sparkle, Marvin explains the concept, “Sparkle’s on a journey and a spiritual quest, he’s looking for God and goes to Jerusalem but instead of finding God he finds Elvis. Then he gets discouraged and he wants to take his own life but then he’s okay.”
Paralleling Marvin’s difficult journey through cancer treatment, and despite its harrowing themes, the album is uplifting and at times almost ecstatic. None more so than on the song ‘Sunshine In My Veins’, an upbeat account of the chemotherapy that courses through Sparkle’s body.
The duo’s vocals are synchronous harmonies sharing the same ground as illustrious acts such as The Everly Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel and The Beach Boys on several of the songs.
“We are trying to deliver something that is emotionally intimate and true and vulnerable, but when we make records we like to have a unique point of view in terms of how we arrange our music and how we approach it from a production standpoint,” says Willie

Listen to Colin talking with Thee Holy Brothers on The Rock Vault here: https://player.autopod.xyz/911518

Written by Colin Palmer