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Sunburnt Country Music
Chloe Marks on what’s ‘Cheaper Than Therapy’ in her big new single with band The Mayhem
Season 4, Ep. 101
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Before this year started, Brisbane outfit Chloe Marks & The Mayhem had not released any songs, although Marks herself has released music with duo Scotch & Cider, and as a solo artist. She also plays in other people’s bands as well as performing regularly with The Mayhem, as she’s been doing since 2023.
The band’s first single was ‘Carolina’, released at the end of February this year, and since then they’ve released ‘Skip September’ – for which Marks and I had a chat – and ‘Porch Light’. Now with the release of fourth single ‘Cheaper Than Therapy’, it emerges that these four songs form a story arc, with ‘Cheaper Than Therapy’ putting the full stop on that tale. Each song is different to the others, but the thread is there when you listen to them back to back.
In my previous interview with Marks I talked to her about her fascinating creative life, which includes photography and extreme sports, so you can head to that if you’d like to find out more. In this chat I concentrated on the brace of singles, with a focus on ‘Cheaper Than Therapy’, which has the refrain ‘When I get stoned I talk to God’. Marks and I talked about belief systems and what does and doesn’t get mentioned in public, or even to friends and family. As she says, the song has ‘opened up a strange but wonderful conversation within the band’.
All four songs were produced by Michael Muchow, and Marks has new material that will see her heading back into the studio in 2026. That studio time will be slotted in around her performance schedule, and that of The Mayhem, which includes dates at the 2026 Tamworth Country Music Festival (see below). They’re also playing on New Year’s Eve at Chattahoochee Joe’s, one of the homes of country music in Brisbane.
See Chloe Marks & The Mayhem live:
Wednesday Dec 31 – Chattahoochee Joes – Brisbane QLD
Friday Jan 16, 2026 – Tamworth CMF – Tudor
Hotel – Tamworth NSW
Saturday Jan 17, 2026 – Tamworth CMF –
Tudor Hotel – Tamworth NSW
Sunday Jan 18, 2026 – Tamworth CMF – Joe
Maguires – Tamworth NSW
Tuesday Jan 20, 2026 - Tamworth CMF – Joe
Maguires – Tamworth NSW
Listen to Chloe Marks & The Mayhem on Apple Music
Listen to Chloe Marks & The Mayhem on Spotify
Watch the official music video for ‘Cheaper Than Therapy’ on YouTube
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