London singer-songwriter Paul Garside turns a deeply personal struggle into something warm and uplifting with “Mariana Trench,” a contemporary folk-rock single about finding your way out of depression. What began as a simple acoustic guitar and vocal gradually expanded into an international collaboration, bringing together musicians from Scotland, Uganda, Finland, and Poland, with bodhrán, congas, Hammond B3, double bass, and backing vocals filling out the arrangement.
The song opens with chiming, churning guitar strums and catchy, jittery percussion lightly shaking underneath. Garside’s deep, relaxing voice sits gently over the instrumentation, giving the track an intimate quality even as the arrangement grows larger around him. The contrasting percussion styles of Scottish bodhrán player Jamie Jordan and Ugandan percussionist JJ Bugoma provide much of the song’s forward motion, while the Hammond and double bass add warmth and depth. There is a lovely organic quality to it all, as though the song is constantly breathing while it moves.
The title captures the emotional core perfectly. Garside uses the Mariana Trench as a metaphor for the depths of depression: isolation, darkness, and immense pressure, far from the surface and sunlight. Even the song’s ascending and descending chord progressions mirror those emotional rises and falls. But “Mariana Trench” is ultimately not interested in drowning. Its original title, “Swim Up,” reveals the simple message underneath everything: keep moving toward the surface, find the air again, and believe that you can make it.
That optimism becomes especially striking when the chorus opens up, delivering the musical equivalent of sunlight breaking through clouds. Recorded at RMS Studios in South London and built through remote collaborations, the production eventually settled on a spacious “big room” sound that allows each instrument to remain distinct.
At the end of the day, “Mariana Trench” takes a place associated with unimaginable depth and turns it into a journey upward.
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Review by: Naomi Joan