Americana indie rock duo Marfa wrap everyday devotion in radiant harmonies and rosy guitar on “If It Ain’t You,” a wistful, sun-drenched love song born in a late-night burst of inspiration. With their debut EP ‘We’ll All Be Okay’ on the horizon, the Nashville-based duo talk about building an old-school sound with a new twist, why the best songs sometimes seem to fall out of the sky, and making music to soundtrack listeners’ love stories.
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Stream: “If It Ain’t You” – Marfa
Love becomes a life through repetition – the coffee poured without asking, the bottle of wine opened at night, the same streets driven together, the songs forever welded to a first kiss.
Wistful, heartfelt, and tenderly sun-drenched, Marfa’s “If It Ain’t You” aches for exactly that kind of intimacy, tracing the space one person leaves behind when they’ve become inseparable from the rituals of everyday life. “I’m still getting used to all the songs we would kiss to / I don’t think I want it, baby, if it ain’t you,” Bryce Menchaca and Kellen Wall sing, their voices melting together in breathtaking harmony. Sweet, sentimental, and steeped in longing, the duo’s dreamy indie folk reverie carries the golden warmth of ’70s Americana through radiant vocal stacks and rosy, glistening lead guitar work that curls around every edge. The music practically blushes even as their words look backward, creating an enchanting soundtrack to devotion, desire, and the heartache of realizing that home can sometimes be a person.
Wake up it’s a new morning
Every day’s the same to me
Another day without your love
Chin up
Gotta keep going
Someday God will help you see
You don’t always have to run
If it ain’t you that
I’m taking home each night
Looking in your eyes
Getting in my bed drinking
all my red and white wine
If it ain’t you babe
If it ain’t you that I’m waking up
next to pouring your coffee
Getting out of bed knowing
that you’re sweet on me
If it ain’t you baby
I’m still getting used to
all the songs we would kiss to
I don’t think I want it
baby if it ain’t you
Released in late March via Ascend Music / Big Machine Label Group as Marfa’s second release of the year, “If It Ain’t You” captures the Texas-raised, Colorado-forged duo at their most unabashedly romantic. Menchaca and Wall recently relocated to Nashville after building their name on harmony-rich Americana and indie rock shaped by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Glen Campbell, J.J. Cale, and the lush, golden lineage of Laurel Canyon.
Their music carries the worn comfort of another era without becoming trapped inside it: Old-school songcraft meets a contemporary instinct for texture, melody, and emotional immediacy. Already veterans of the road alongside The Head and The Heart and Wild Rivers, Marfa are now pushing deeper into what they call “abstract harmony stacks and more personable lyrics” – and “If It Ain’t You” makes both ambitions unmistakable.
The song itself arrived almost before they had time to second-guess it.
Facing a Nashville studio session the following morning, Marfa wanted to walk in with an idea rather than build one from scratch. They began writing around 11:30 p.m.; by midnight, the voice memo was finished.
“We wanted a song that hit similar to the ‘70s love ballads of Glen Campbell, in the sense that the production was fuller and the chord progression that was more clever than a typical pop song,” the duo explain. “We had written and released a number of songs that were about Kellen’s ex-girlfriend who cheated on him, and [we] needed to make some love songs. Around 11:30pm, we got going on this song, and around midnight, we had a voice memo and were ready to go.”
That spontaneity survives intact in the finished recording. “If It Ain’t You” never sounds labored over; it drifts with the natural ease of a memory resurfacing, its harmonies feathering outward while the guitar gleams through the arrangement like late-afternoon light. The lyrics work the same way. Marfa resist grand romantic gestures and instead build their declaration from domestic details: “If it ain’t you that I’m taking home each night / looking in your eyes, gettin’ in my bed / drinkin’ all my red and white wine… If it ain’t you that I’m waking up next to, pouring your coffee.” Wine gives way to morning coffee; one night folds into the next day. Those small acts accumulate until they become the clearest possible definition of devotion. Even the song’s hurt lives in ordinary geography: “Slow down, see you / when I walk the streets that look the same / they change the name to memory lane.” Once love has colored the world, absence cannot simply bleach it clean.
“I think in that chorus, we wanted the melody to have a motific and dreamy feel to it, and the lyrics to do the heavy lifting,” Marfa share. “The idea that you can pour someone a glass of wine and a cup of coffee over the course of a day or so speaks to the notion that you’d do anything for someone, even the little things.”
Those little things are precisely why “If It Ain’t You” lands so deeply.
Marfa have written a love song about certainty without mistaking certainty for spectacle; the promise lives in showing up again tomorrow morning. And because the arrangement surrounds that sentiment in luminous harmonies and honeyed guitar lines, longing itself takes on a strange sweetness – memory stings, but it also preserves. The duo hope listeners might fall in love to this song, walk down the aisle to it, or attach it forever to one person and one season of their lives. That possibility completes the song’s emotional circle: Marfa begin with memories already encoded in music, singing about all the songs we would kiss to, then release another song capable of becoming somebody else’s.
“The moment we release a song, it becomes an object to people, and it will remind them of specific times in their life or remind them of specific people,” they reflect. “We all have those songs that mean the world to us, and it definitely helps the songwriting process to think this could be someone’s special song for a first dance at a wedding or a song that reminds someone of a love that’s passed them by.”
“If It Ain’t You” is ready for exactly that life beyond its makers. Rosy, harmony-soaked, and impossibly sweet without losing the bruise underneath, Marfa’s latest captures love in the places where it actually lives: In beds and kitchens, bottles and coffee cups, city streets and old songs, and the person whose presence gives all of those ordinary things their meaning.
“If It Ain’t You” won’t appear on Marfa’s forthcoming debut EP We’ll All Be Okay, but the record offers a glimpse of where Menchaca and Wall are headed next. Out October 23 via Big Machine Records / ASCEND Music, the six-song project stretches their coming-of-age storytelling across the unstable terrain of early adulthood – new romance, toxic relationships, and the disorientation of watching your life change shape while you’re still trying to keep up with it. Written or co-written entirely by Menchaca and Wall, We’ll All Be Okay captures the duo at a particularly inspired point in their evolution, pushing their hazy Americana and indie rock further outward without losing the intimacy at the center of their songwriting.
“We recorded this EP in the span of five days in a small studio in Los Angeles alongside Ryan Marrone,” Marfa share. “Hiring little to no outside musicians, these songs were created in our brains, and recorded with our hands and hearts.”
This intentional, hands-on spirit runs through the music already finding its way into the world. Newly released opener “Freak Show” looks back on Marfa’s move from Denver to Nashville, grounding the growing pains of leaving one life behind in the simple mantra “breathe in and breathe out”; “Remedy” circles the maddening pull of a toxic relationship neither side can quite quit, its hypnotic guitar figure mirroring the cycle itself. Meanwhile, the collector’s-edition vinyl brings earlier favorites such as “Daisy,” “Run For My Money,” “American Lonely,” and “Last Time Last” into the fold. We’ll All Be Okay may belong to a different chapter than “If It Ain’t You,” but both reveal a band increasingly sure of what they do best: Pairing old-school warmth with sharply observed lives still very much in progress.
Before that next chapter arrives, “If It Ain’t You” deserves its own moment in the sun. Atwood Magazine caught up with Marfa to talk about the love song that seemed to fall out of the sky in half an hour, the old classics still shaping their sound, and what it means to send a song into the world knowing it may become part of somebody else’s life. Read our conversation below, and don’t be surprised if you come away with a new favorite band.
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:: stream/purchase If It Ain’t You here ::
:: connect with Marfa here ::
:: stream/purchase We’ll All Be Okay here ::
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A CONVERSATION WITH MARFA
Atwood Magazine: Bryce and Kellen, for those who are just discovering Marfa today through this writeup, what do you want them to know about you and your music?
Marfa: We’re an Americana indie rock band recently based out of Nashville, Tennessee. We’re a duo that focuses on harmonies and an old school sound with a new twist. We’re like that old record in your dads collection that you dust off and then discover your new favorite band.
Who are some of your musical north stars, and what are you most excited about the music you're making today?
Marfa: Our foundation for inspiration comes from ‘60s and ‘70s bands like The Beatles, Beach Boys, J.J. Cale, and Glen Campbell. Although, we listen to many different types of genres and more modern sounds. You’ll hear hints and scents of these influences throughout our songs. Some of these newer or modern acts include: Djo, The Strokes and Leon Bridges. We’re most excited for the audience to hear our growth sonically and lyrically. We have been pushing ourselves in our creative space to produce abstract harmony stacks and more personable lyrics.
Marfa’s sound feels rooted in classic Americana, Laurel Canyon warmth, and ’70s-inspired songwriting, but it still feels fresh and present. How do you think about honoring those influences while making sure the music feels distinctly your own?
Marfa: Adding all of our influences in that creative space results in a sound that is unique in and of itself. As we grow artistically, we feel the sound develops but we keep those foundational influences as our backbone. Writing songs like Lennon and McCartney is not an easy feat, but the longer you shoot for the stars, the more likely something is bound to hit.
I love the warmth and softness of “If It Ain’t You.” What’s the story behind this song?
Marfa: That song came about the night before a session here in Nashville. We wanted to bring a song in instead of writing one on the spot in the studio, so we felt more prepared going into the session. We wanted a song that hit similar to the ‘70s love ballads of Glen Campbell, in the sense that the production was fuller and the chord progression that was more clever than a typical pop song. We had written and released a number of songs that were about Kellen’s ex-girlfriend who cheated on him and needed to make some love songs. Around 11:30 PM, we got going on this song, and around midnight, we had a voice memo and were ready to go.
You’ve mentioned that this song came together in only about twenty minutes, and maybe that’s why all the references – “drinkin' all my red and white wine,” “waking up next to, pouring your coffee” – feel so natural and unforced. What was it about that moment or headspace that let the song flow so freely, and what was it about these moments that you were hoping to capture?
Marfa: We usually write just us two, and within that, it creates a very comfortable space, leaving everything on the table. We believe the best songs fall out of the sky and, in a way, write themselves. We really wanted to capture a love song that explains beautiful moments in a relationship.
“If it ain't you that I'm taking home each night, looking in your eyes, gettin' in my bed, drinkin' all my red and white wine, if it ain’t you babe…” you sing in the chorus. There’s something so simple and steadfast in that sentiment – what does that kind of certainty in love mean to you, and why was it important to center the song around that feeling?
Marfa: I think in that chorus, we wanted the melody to have a motific and dreamy feel to it, and the lyrics to do the heavy lifting. The idea that you can pour someone a glass of wine and a cup of coffee over the course of a day or so speaks to the notion that you’d do anything for someone, even the little things.
You’ve said this is the kind of song you hope people fall in love to – maybe even walk down the aisle to. What does it mean to you to write something that could become part of someone else’s life in that way?
Marfa: The moment we release a song, it becomes an object to people, and it will remind them of specific times in their life or remind them of specific people. We all have those songs that mean the world to us, and it definitely helps the songwriting process to think this could be someone’s special song for a first dance at a wedding or a song that reminds someone of a love that’s passed them by.
What do you hope listeners take away from “If It Ain’t You,” and what have you taken away from creating it and now putting it out?
Marfa: We hope that people can apply it in their own life, whether that be someone they’re in a relationship with or creating an idea of what love is like. Creating this song communicated how we feel about love in our own life, after putting it out it’s fun to see how the audience applies it to their own life.
In the spirit of paying it forward, who are you listening to these days that you would recommend to our readers?
Kellen: Recently, I’ve been listening to Ken Yates’ Total Cinema record, Winyah, ABBA, Geese’s 3D Country, Pinegrove, and Dolly Parton’s Heartbreaker record, which I believe is incredibly underrated.
Bryce: These days I’ve been listening to a lot of The Strokes, Sombr, Wilderado, The Everly Brothers and Harry Styles’ new album. If you’re new to The Strokes, listen to their albums The New Abnormal or Room on Fire. Check out Wilderado’s Talker record; it’s phenomenal. The last band I’ve been into lately is a Korean band called HOA. They’re heavily inspired by The Beatles and other ‘60s bands, but they do a great job of it, and their songwriting is beautiful.
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:: stream/purchase If It Ain’t You here ::
:: connect with Marfa here ::
:: stream/purchase We’ll All Be Okay here ::
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Stream: “If It Ain’t You” – Marfa
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