Change can be good. And for A New Face For Marley, change came in all shapes and sizes through a series of drummers, wrapped up in one final swoop of a cross-Pacific move to western Canada.

Oh, and don’t forget the name change that followed shortly after bassist David Blume and guitarist Jared Hansen gave up the sunshine and surfboards of Australia for the seemingly yearlong winters that Calgary has to offer.

“When the band first got together, we were called Music, The Real Killer,” Hansen explains. “But, we were watching TV one night and saw this show about a young girl named Marley who was born with this huge tumor – or something – on her face. The show was all about raising funds to get the surgery that the girl needed in order to remove the growth. Someone in the show mentioned ‘a new face for Marley’ and it just stuck.”

First formed in New South Wales in 2006, original vocalist Luke Debono decided to relocate back down under. Nic Herzog, who was originally recruited as a second guitarist, was promoted to lead vocals.

Now, with a few of songs recorded – and Pat Southgate keeping time on the drums – A New Face For Marley is ready to greet the world in EP format. Recorded at Slaughterhouse Studios, the guys are practically giving this beaut away. Actually, they are giving it away. It’s free. No, seriously.

You’ve recorded an EP and you’re giving away for free. What’s that about?

Nic Herzog: We just want to give everyone a chance to share our music. All of us are full-blown music addicts, and it only seems right to hook up anyone who cares to listen. Right now we’re in the process of hand-folding hundreds of copies of the EP so we can just hand it to anyone we know, or who comes out to a show.

How did you approach recording the EP?

Herzog: First off, let me tell you that Nate [Reno at Slaughterhouse Studios] did a great job on the recordings. He absolutely nailed every quality that we love about our sound: the raw “meat and potatoes.” No auto-tune, no cutting and pasting. We wanted to record exactly what you’d hear – so you could visualize what you’d SEE at one of our shows – and Nate nailed it.

On your MySpace, your musical genre is listed as rock, but it’s so much angrier than that. Genres aside, how would you really describe ANFFM’s sound?

Herzog: Well, I think it basically boils down to the fact that we are four guys that don’t really share a common taste in music. Each of us is influenced by many bands and genres that the other members may not particularly be into. We’re all over the map as individuals, but we found we all share the same love for dirty, gritty rock ‘n roll, and it just comes out heavy. I hate blender-referencing, but so you can paint a picture, a few of our bigger influences are bands the likes of Every Time I Die, The Chariot, Maylene & The Sons of Disaster, Fight Paris, He Is Legend. We love southern rock and metal, and we play it loud and aggressive.

Rumour has it you’re planning to record a full-length in Vancouver this month.

Dave Blume: For a few different reasons, no. At first, we just weren’t sure who we wanted to produce the record, so we kind of put things on hold until we could find the perfect studio. Then, in January-ish Nate approached us with an opportunity to record at his studio for the upcoming Slaughterhouse compilation. We agreed, and then we just thought it might be a good idea to release those two songs to test the waters a bit. We’re still planning to record a full-length sometime this year, we just need the time and the funds.

Thinking of heading to another province to record is one thing, but you’re planning a tour for the summer.

Blume: Yeah, we’ve been pretty lucky with the support we’ve been getting from bands and promoters around the province. We’re doing a bit of a mini-tour with Stab.Twist.Pull that will take us into June. From there, we have a few more dates booked until the end of June, and the rest of the summer is still up in the air. For now, we’re just basically branching out to different areas of Alberta to try and establish a bit of a fan base before we take the plunge into the Canada-wide scene. We don’t have a full-time tour schedule planned at this point, but we’re trying to get something in the works for August or September.

What kinds of logistics have gone into planning the trips?

Hansen: Most of the shows came our way from Mike [Hoogaars of Stab.Twist.Pull] because he knows people everywhere. We don’t really have a lot of contacts around the province yet, and he’s hooking us up to the nines. Most of the hard work comes from the promoters though. We basically swap a few e-mails, and they get it done.

Have any of the band members toured before?

Herzog: We’ve all done a fair bit of traveling and performing. It’s one in the same to us. You drive to a new town, you play a show. We’ve all been part of music for so long that we feel pretty confident about hitting the road together. Having said that, we know touring is going to be full of ups and downs. You get to see all kinds of different places, you meet tons of new people, and you get to play every night; however, there are always those shows when the only people watching are the other bands, you run into lame promoters and lame people in general. Nothing gets handed to you out on the road and you might break even if you’re lucky at the end of it all. We all understand that. But, as they say, them’s the breaks.

How are you going to haul your gear?

Herzog: We have a Suburban, and we rent U-hauls trailers. We’re working on buying ourselves a trailer, but they aren’t cheap.

How do you plan on combating “road blocks,” so to speak… things like vehicle breakdowns, food shortages, canceled shows, chronic snorers, etc.

Hansen: Like every other band, we just hope we don’t run into those things. But, things happen and I suppose we’ll burn those bridges when we get to them. Touring with Stab.Twist.Pull, we’re sure to be helping each other along the way. That’s just what you gotta do when you’re on the road. Selling merch is huge on tour, as well. That extra cash comes in handy, so merch is an important investment.

Are you going to take a lot of those free EPs out on the road with you – which, by the way, do you have a title for that yet?

Herzog: We’re going to hand out our EP along the way. I think it’s good to be getting it out because it just makes us more accessible to people who have never heard us before. Our set consists of eight or nine of the songs that will be featured on our full-length so people can get hyped on it when we actually record and release it. We haven’t decided on what the album is going to be titled, although we have definitely been throwing around a lot of ideas. It’ll probably be something either ridiculous, dirty, or both.