Ben Marthey spends his days assisting in open-heart surgeries as a cardiac surgery nurse.
Outside of the hospital operating room, he becomes Van Arlo in the recording studio to process the emotional weight of his work.
The Medina-based singer-songwriter鈥檚 new EP, 鈥淭he Weight of Waiting,鈥� was released in the spring and captures the heavy burden he carried the last five years.
The toll of the global pandemic as a performing musician and healthcare worker inspired the raw, roots-driven tracks.
鈥淥ur environment kind of shakes you a little bit,鈥� Marthey said. 鈥淚 was like, 鈥業 need to put this energy into something or it's gonna destroy me.鈥欌��
Discovering his calling
Marthey鈥檚 roots in music go back to his teenage years in Wooster, where he played in country bands and soaked up the sounds of small-town Ohio. After college, he fronted Rosella, a rock band that gained traction with local releases 鈥� even landing a gig opening for Creed at Blossom Music Center. But Marthey says that band fizzled when life started pulling its members in different directions.
鈥淚t was kind of heartbreaking, because we were catching some momentum,鈥� he said.
Several years later, he got married and started a family. He needed stability, and eventually he found his second calling in medicine.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a highly skilled, fast-paced adrenaline rush,鈥� he said.
Marthey said he has a 鈥渓ove-hate鈥� relationship with his work in cardiac surgery.
鈥淚 do love doing it, but sometimes things aren't going well, or the patient's super sick, and there's a whole emotional burden to it too,鈥� he said.
That emotional burden only grew during the peak of COVID-19.
With the world in crisis and his workplace overwhelmed, Marthey began carrying pressures that couldn鈥檛 be measured in vitals or charts.
鈥淚 work with some of the smartest people in the country, if not the world, and seeing them not know or being unsure about things, like, and how to handle it 鈥� that's where music really comes back for me because it's a place to put all that, he said.
In the silent moments after work, Marthey would write.
鈥淚 started writing some of those songs, kind of, in 2020. I started formulating them enough to where I was, like, I need to like put these on record and make it like a snapshot of that time in my life,鈥� he said.
Capturing the feeling of pandemic isolation
What began as a private outlet soon grew into something more: Van Arlo.
Marthey started collaborating with his friend, Jesse Hernandez, performing acoustic songs as Mother鈥檚 Attic.
鈥淭hen we got into the world of Googling and trying to find if that name is out there anywhere else. And of course it was. So we had to go back to the drawing board,鈥� Marthey said.
Van Arlo came from an online name generator.
鈥淚 wish it was a cooler story than what it actually is,鈥� Marthey said. 鈥淚 really equate it to, like, naming a child. It鈥檚 hard to do, because, you know, I'd be like, 鈥楬ey, what about this?鈥� And [Jesse鈥檚] like, 鈥極h my God, no.鈥欌��
As the project evolved, Marthey took the lead, leaning into the songwriting process with urgency and intention.
In 2025, Van Arlo released an EP born out of pandemic isolation, hospital hallways and the catharsis of finally making something after years of holding it all in.
鈥橳he Weight of Waiting鈥� is like just the emotional burden and the weight of having something that you want to formulate and put out,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f I kept waiting, it was just going to keep dragging me down in a spiral.
鈥淭here's no better therapy than going and screaming into a microphone for three hours.Ben Marthey
Marthey recorded the entire EP on Mondays 鈥� his only day off each week 鈥� turning what could have been a moment of rest into a space for healing.
鈥橫onday Sessions,鈥� it could have been called,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here's no better therapy than going and screaming into a microphone for three hours.
One of the EP鈥檚 most personal tracks, 鈥淏ury Me,鈥� captures the uncertainty of those early pandemic days, when every moment felt like a risk.
鈥淚 remember coming home in the very beginning, stripping naked in the garage because I didn't want to bring it in the house and then taking a shower right away,鈥� Marthey said. 鈥淵ou know, having to do surgery on someone who's had COVID ... and having to be completely gowned up and the whole garb and wearing the N95s. It seemed like the world was burning down and kind of made me 鈥� depressed.
To match the gravity of the song鈥檚 themes, Marthey brought in a live string quartet, with help from Cleveland State University professor Jeremy Poparad.
The result is sweeping and cinematic, a sonic mirror to the heavy moments that inspired it.
Finding his way back to music
Other tracks on the EP continue that emotional arc.
鈥淐an鈥檛 Go Home鈥� echoes the timeless ache of trying to return to something that no longer exists 鈥� a nod to the writer Thomas Wolfe鈥檚 quote that you can鈥檛 ever truly go back.
鈥淟ast Night,鈥� a jam-heavy track with Fleetwood Mac energy, features Marthey鈥檚 cousin, Ed, on piano.
The EP鈥檚 closing track, 鈥淕oing Down Swingin鈥�,鈥� makes it clear that music isn鈥檛 something Marthey is willing to give up again.
Even as he continues working full-time in the operating room 鈥� licensed to harvest veins and arteries during open-heart surgeries 鈥� Marthey said he鈥檚 committed to carving out space for his creative life.
Music is no longer just a hobby or an old passion, it鈥檚 part of his survival.
Van Arlo plays the Medina County Fair July 30, with a special live concert taping scheduled for Oct. 25 at the Jenks Building in Cuyahoga Falls.
Marthey also plans to return to the studio after his live shows wrap up.
I'm gonna keep doing it, hell or high water,鈥� Marthey said. 鈥淚 don't care about the outcome. I'm just making the music, and I'm going to keep doing it.
