American singer-songwriter Norma Jean Martine is her own musician and co-writer for a list of pop stars around the world. Her most recent single, “Basketball,” is an upbeat Wankelmut remix and a song that’s sure to improve your mood, whatever the mood might be. Currently working on her next EP Visiting Hours’ Martine is on a mission to share her husky voice and strong writing skills with the world.

Quip: How has 2020 been for you?

Norma Jean Martine: 2020 started off with me staying in a little apartment in Kaiserslautern, Germany with my boyfriend at the time. His family lives there, so it’s a place that I’ve visited often. Experiencing New Year’s Eve there was a little anxiety-provoking for me because I’m afraid of fireworks, but also extremely beautiful. In the US fireworks are much more controlled, whereas in Germany it felt like anyone who wanted to could just set one-off, so they were literally EVERYWHERE. It’s something I will never forget, ringing in 2020.

Shortly after I moved back to London and was living in a warehouse in Manor House with 18 other people. That was a fun time, meeting other creatives, and feeling like a part of a community. That’s where I was when the world ended in March, and very quickly I had to make the decision to put everything I owned in London into a storage unit and fly back to New York to be with my family before the border closed. I bought my flight on a Friday, packed the storage unit on Saturday, flew on Sunday, and the border closed Monday night. I just made it! Since then I’ve been home, living in the house I grew up in, with my mom. That experience started with watching Governor Cuomo’s updates each morning over coffee and then sewing countless masks.

In a world where it feels like you can just buy a mask, hand sanitizer, and gloves anywhere at any given moments, it’s hard to remember that in March and April you couldn’t find a mask anywhere, and people were selling tiny bottles of hand sanitizer for £12 (or more!!). So I sewed A LOT. I sold a few to people who could afford them to compensate for my time and the materials, but I also donated hundreds to local hospitals and to friends who could then hand them out to people they knew. It was a pretty cool memory being in Walmart and seeing multiple people from my hometown wearing the masks I had made. It made me feel really proud and that I was doing a good thing in helping to protect my community. Sewing is a skill that I’ve had since I was a little girl, making my barbies their own clothes. When I was 18 I sewed my own prom dress. So coming home, and dusting off my old sewing machine, and using that skill for good was really awesome.

Everything shifted again with the George Floyd murder. I felt my social media was just absolutely flooded with information, and since I had so much time to myself, I took the opportunity to educate myself further on the issues. It’s something I’d been interested in and focused on for some time, but given the vast information at my fingertips, and the time to dive into all of it, I certainly came to terms with my own racial bias in a deeper way. I even went as far as digging into my family history, and my ancestral traumas in terms of race, and how those experiences have trickled down to my own understanding and bias. I feel like that deep work really needs to be done to unlearn what is absorbed almost by osmosis in this society.

Protesting in my hometown was so powerful, and I felt so proud of my community. The town I grew up in is 86% BIPOC, yet our police force is mostly white. To see hundreds, if not thousands of people come out, and shut down Route 211, which is our main road, was incredible. It was pretty cool marching past my father’s car garage. I don’t think anything like that had ever happened in Middletown before. Through the protesting I met some new friends and got involved in community work here. We did a school supply drive for kids in need, and we did a lot of work educating the community on the illegal and toxic fracked gas power plant that was built on the outskirts of our town. It’s literally in my back yard, so I see it every day, but for people who live more in the center of town, it’s not in their face, so many people in Middletown do not know the power-plant exists, let alone the health and environmental impacts of its emissions.

I’d always been interested in activism, and am an activist in my own small personal ways through my diet and spending habits, but getting involved on a community level was a new thing for me, and something I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to shut off now that I’m involved. It’s sort of like, once you know these issues exist, and you find a group of people who feel the same way, you can’t not help make it better. A few community members and I have started a group to create a more equitable education system in our town, so that’s where my focus is now.

At the end of summer, I went through a break-up which was tough. It’s still something I’m working through. I think many people can relate right now with the lockdown, that the space of quarantine really makes issues more apparent than they were before. During the breakup, I started an herbalism course. That’s been a really beautiful experience, and I recommend diving into herbalism for anyone who is looking for a deeper connection to self and nature.

In October, I really started getting back into zoom sessions, and I’ve learned to record and compose my own vocals. It’s been incredibly empowering for me because I can suddenly create without depending on a producer to record me. I’ve also been intentionally doing a lot more all-female sessions, and those are literally the BEST. I met two really cool artists called TOMI and Talltale during a virtual camp, and we are writing some really cool stuff together.

At Thanksgiving, my parents and I had COVID. We did okay, but there were some scary moments. The one good thing about getting it is the release of anxiety, and the ability to see people again knowing that you can’t catch it or spread it anymore, at least for a little while. So in a way, I’m grateful I had it. The anxiety was literally driving me crazy all year.

I guess the other huge thing that I almost forgot that happened in 2020 is the crazy success of “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes!” That song was written right before the lockdown, and released in May. I’m so grateful for this song because I’ve been able to have really happy moments and feel accomplished and earn money in a time when a lot of things are pretty awful. It’s also opened up new doors for me, so I have some pretty exciting things in the works as a result. Overall, 2020 hasn’t been so bad!

Q: Have you learned anything about yourself, your fans, or the industry?

NJM: I learned a TON about myself. I learned that living in a small town, even my hometown isn’t that bad. Finding such a cool and purposeful community here through the movement has been really awesome. I used to feel so disconnected living in London, even though there were literally millions of people living around me. Yet here, in the town I ran away from because I hated it so much, I’ve somehow come back and found these amazing people all with a common purpose. This realization is something I want to bring forward anywhere I end up. I’ve toyed with the idea of LA for a while, and this experience has made me realize that I need normalcy in my life. I can’t just be friends with other music people. I need to find something more grounded wherever I am.

I’ve learned to move on and let go through my break up, two things that I’ve always really struggled with. I’ve realized that I might be one person, but I can make a huge difference to the collective through my mask making, but also through anything, whether that’s spreading valuable life-changing information, or making people dance during a pandemic.

I’ve realized that one song can change your life. I’ve realized how strong, potent, and intuitive I am. In a ton of ways, I’ve been realizing and learning to firmly stand in my power. I’ve also learned that I am totally capable of anything I decide to do. If I want to learn logic, I can do it. If I want to learn to produce, I can do it. If I want to write a children’s book, I can do it. If I want to write songs that sound like radio hits, I can do it. I’ve struggled for years with feeling “not good enough”, and often that’s the emotion that makes me give up on my dreams and goals. But through therapy, I’ve really learned to sit with and feel that emotion and work past it so I can progress and finish projects, and manifest my dreams and goals.

Norma Jean Martine’s makeshift home studio setup

Q: What have you been missing most?

NJM: Just seeing people honestly. I’m home, but I rarely see anyone from my family but my mom and dad. I really miss my friends who are all over the globe. I also really miss traveling. Being still has been a wonderful spiritual exercise for me, since I’ve traveled so much in the past 10 years, but I have definitely come to terms with the fact that I am an adventurer at heart.

Q: What new music have you made?

NJM: I’ve been writing a lot over the past 2-3 months. I’m working on a lot of new dance tunes, but also working on a project called “songs to watch clouds to” which is more of a vanity project, but I’m honestly SO excited about it.

Q: Did you collaborate with anyone?

NJM: I’ve been working more with Hight and Quarterhead who I wrote “Head Shoulders” with, as well as Jonas Kroeper (Sam Feldt “Post Malone”), and Freedo (Chainsmokers “Takeaway”), among others on the dance/pop side. I wrote a really cool song with Alice Ivy from Australia that I can’t wait for everyone to hear.

As a writer for other artists, I’ve been working more with Girli, who is an artist that I’ve been helping to redevelop for over a year now with Max Mostley. She’s amazing, and her last single “Letter To My Ex” is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever been apart of. I’ve also loved working with TOMI and Talltale on the clouds project, as well as Brian West and Matthew Angus from Canadian indie band The Fast Romantics.

Q: Do you have any live streams coming up?

NJM: No I don’t, but I should do something like that sometime soon. I’m awful at social media. I honestly sometimes wish we could go back to the 90’s when it didn’t exist and we actually had to write physical letters to artists fan clubs.

Q: Anything you’d like to share with your fans?

NJM: Well, number one, COVID is real, please protect yourselves. Even if you don’t get it badly, you may pass it on to someone who will. Besides that, be kind and be vegan

* * *

Norma Jean Martine curated playlist, exclusively for Quip:

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Kateryna Topol: Let’s start at the “beginning” so to say, what inspired you to make music?

Topic: I owe it to my former music teacher that I became a producer at all. I knew that he was ahead of time and that he had planned a project where we could use music programs on computers. And as I was young of course I was drawn to media. That was it! I got stuck on that and also started producing at home as a hobby.

I actually worked in a business job for 5 years, but in 2014 music became a bigger and bigger part in my life and I finally decided to quit my job and only make music.

KT: What is your production and creative process like? 

T: Let me take you through my usual process of creating a track: before we start writing a song we get together as a group and everyone talks about what currently goes on in their lives and what moves them. These topics [laughs] are processed in songs.

However, a song itself is not always about a certain situation that has been experienced by yourself – but an emotion that many might know and could empathize with.

KT: Awesome! Do you play any instruments?

T: Yes I do. I play the guitar and the piano, which is quite essential for producing.

KT: And how do you choose who to collaborate with for vocals?

T: This is always different. Sometimes you get into the room with people in songwriting sessions and then end up doing the single with them. And other times you already have songs and pitch them to other artists, which you think could be suitable for that track.

KT: And with “Breaking Me” – how did this song and collaboration with A7S come about?

T:  A7S and I started working closely in 2018, since then we went on several songwriting trips to the US and Berlin. In one of those trips in Summer 2019 we made “Breaking Me”.

We came up with the initial idea in Berlin, but we got stuck so we decided to work on it on another day. We didn’t work on the track for almost 2 months then. Until we decided to work on it on a songwriting trip in Miami.

KT: You’re based in Germany, how would you describe the dance music scene there?

T: It is pretty diverse. We have a huge rap scene here with some great artists. Then we have some domestic pop artists as well. And then of course a huge DJ and dance scene, which also is pretty diverse. From commercial to super underground techno. What I like the most is there are no boundaries anymore, every genre can be turned into a dance track.

KT: How has it been coming up there as an artist?

T: I got to know a lot of different great musicians, songwriters, producers, artists etc. from many different genres.

KT: Nice, and what’s next for Topic, 2020 and beyond?

T:  I’ve spent a lot of time in my studio the past few months, so there is a lot coming up. My “ily” Surf Mesa Remix has come out now and there are also some more remixes coming. And a follow up single sometime this year!

I now also have a great international booking team on hand for the first time in my career, which is working on international gigs for 2021. So there is a lot to look forward to.

KT: Looking back, what are some of your favorite live performances from the last few years?

T: There have been so many to be honest. It’s impossible to choose. But all Parookavilles I played so far were great as well as Lollapalooza. I really like playing festivals as there is a very special vibe to them.

KT: What venues or festivals are you looking forward to playing again?

T: Parookaville is setting up a Mini-festival in July, which I’m very looking forward to, as I’ve been playing there over the past years. It will be in compliance with the guidelines so a much smaller crowd. Playing the big festivals globally is something I’d like to accomplish as soon as it’s safe again. Let’s hope for 2021!

KT: Social media had a big role to play in your music career, what were some of your favorite channels?

T: I’d say YouTube, as I kind of started my music career there. I love a good music video, it’s a great channel to show people what we created visually for the music.

KT: True true. What tips can you share for up-and-coming artists when it comes to becoming a social media success?

T: Me myself, I had quite a few setbacks when it comes to my music career. But consistency is key! That would be my tip for every life situation not only music or social media: don’t give up – stay consistent!

Photo Credit: Vien Tran Van

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The event brings together thousands of DJs from around the world to host a dance music marathon during which participants will be live-mixing simultaneously from their homes. The full list of participants is yet to be released but Mixcloud and Nightmares On Wax have been supporters form the start and in the first few hours the likes of Point Blank, Loopmasters, Loopcloud, Audiolock, Brighton Music Conference, Data Transmission, Funktion One, DanceTV, Izotope, and Mixmasters joined the initiative.

According to Jonny Lee, Founder of LNADJ “The idea for Set for Love Live Streams has been born out of the adversity our partners in developing countries are facing during these challenging and unprecedented times. We work with organizations helping the most vulnerable and they have been drastically affected by lockdown. In some of these communities, a day without work means a day without food.”

“In this current moment” Lee continues, “we were able to contemplate the most effective and simple way for LNADJ and the dance music community to come together and make an urgently needed difference in such a beautiful way. We’re calling on DJs of all levels, whether amateur or professional, to get involved. The same goes for promoters, record labels and all within the electronic music industry. Whether you’re streaming to thousands of fans or your friends and family, you really can make a difference. Just £20 can feed a family in Uganda for a month.”

The first event launched in Las Dalias in Ibiza 2019 and featured 30 artists donating their sets to charitable causes. That year all of the money raised from tickets went to building freshwater wells in India and Africa. Since than LNADJ has supported children in criss across the world by “creating positive change through harnessing the energy of the dance music” (and off course, fund-raising).

Live stream time: from 12am (GMT) on Friday 8th May until midnight (GMT) on Sunday 10th May.

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Colorado-based electro/hip-hop fusion duo Big Gigantic – made up of saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli and drummer Jeremy Salk – dropped their seventh studio album, Free Your Mind, this February. A collection of heart-thumping EDM, hip-hop and reggae beats, the 13-track album is laced with the duo’s signature funky basslines, sexy saxophone riffs, and sweet, soulful vocals. With a balanced mix of uptempo club bangers, hard-hitting beats and smooth jazz grooves, Free Your Mind is an electronic hybrid of musical genres that imaginatively blends styles to create a truly inventive sound.

Kicking off the record is the atmospheric and instrumental “Daybreak,” signifying the electronica dawning of their new album that bleeds into the funky jazz beats of “Let the Speakers Blow,” a hip-hop track bursting with energy and infused with the Lalli’s infamous sax riffs.

More hip-hop/funk tracks on the album include “Higher” featuring The Funk Haters. Starting with a solid funk guitar riff the track switches gears and turns into a bouncy raver tune, with heavy computerized beats that build the tension until it explodes into a cool disco groove with a blaring horns section. “Supergigantic,” a gritty rap track featuring Nigerian-Canadian rapper and singer TOBi, brings the swagger to the party. A more traditional hip-hop track with sleek rhymes, the pulsating beat is elevated by a smooth sax break that is pure ecstasy. Closing out the funk tracks is “Baad,” featuring Pell and Louis Futon. Starting off slow, the song kicks up the drums to an uptempo breakbeat and sprinkles it with more jazzy sax licks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phcvubBTQfA&list=PLVBt2St_ZHB4xZGJt5hwAzzWKlSEa3Z_z

“Burning Love” is a fun pop song with pretty R&B vocals that dance over an electrified calypso beat, and “Friends,” with sultry vocals by Ashe, is a hypnotic R&B love story with a vintage feel.  The laid back pop song “You’re the One”, featuring EDM vocalist Nevve, about a girl longing for someone to notice her, makes you feel like relaxing in front of a campfire on a beach, and “Where I Wanna Be” will lift you up with its booming vocals, infectious sax riffs and heavily produced beats – a true dance number that will pack any dance floor!

“St. Lucia” is a suave reggae song with slick lyrics by American rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer Felly, and the title track “Free Your Mind” is a beautiful soulful tune with powerful vocals by Jennifer Hartswick that transforms into a hardcore EDM track.

A fun dance album that incorporates multiple styles, voices and rhythms to create something truly unique, Big Gigantic’s Free Your Mind will change the way you hear musical genres as they break all the rules to create another hit record that will keep you dancing from start to finish.

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But it takes a village to put on a show, especially the memorable experiences that Maribou State create. For the latest tour, which closed out this Saturday at Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall, the duo has been touring with two singers, a drummer, and a percussionist/bass player, in addition to the a dedicated opener Sea Moya. However no band member just does one thing, the stage experience is visibly collaborative and deeply rooted in the tight-knit, family-like bond that the tour crew has developed.

Sea Moya, a German psychedelic electronica trio, were first on, two shiny silver banners framing the stage with the band’s name spelled out in feathery white boas. The band’s members, David Schnitzler (vocals), Elias Foerster (bass, keys, vocals), and Tilman Ruetz (drums), are all very energetic. From the first few drum beats the crowd knew they were in for a treat. Elias Foerster (kind of looking like a ’70s boy scout) after playing a spacey opening on the keyboards proceeded to dance with his guitar and it was the best thing I have seen in a very long time.

Sea Moya are inspired by a wide range of unexpected influences and play a mix of kraut beat, afrobeat, and electronic music. Their recent album, Falmenta, was recorded in complete isolation in the Italian Alps and is very much a collaborative effort. Live on stage, this unity is obvious through their performance as David and Elias take turns singing, telling stories, and commenting on how “beautiful” the audience is. As a part of their introduction, Schnitzler talked about being on tour with Maribou State and what an incredible experience it has been, this sentimental end of the tour feeling became a theme for the night.

“This next song is a sexy song,” David announced, pointing out the dark corners of the room which the listeners should take advantage of, “It’s called ‘Bedroom’.” The sexy song was followed by a new song, “Jungle,” and then came this incredibly odd monologue: “Touch your phone, wherever it is, just find it and touch it. How does it feel? Do you like it, do you like it, do you like it,” Elias’ voice faded briefly before he went on describing a somewhat psychedelic experience. On record Sea Moya’s music is reminiscent of Tame Impala or Toro Y Moi, but live, it is something else – it’s a much more engaging, fast-paced, interactive experience that travels you to the tie-dye colored corners of the universe.

At one point, Maribou State’s percussionist, barefoot and all, came out on stage to play a song with the band, a song that ended with everyone hugging, individually and as a group, the emotions shared between band members and the continuing conversation about how truly wonderful this tour has been, by Maribou State as well, created (I am certain not just for me) a desire to travel back in time, join the tour crew, wear matching sweaters, and be one of the tour-family members with this fantastically friendly group of people.

Shortly after 9 pm Maribou State casually strolled out on stage to the screeching cheers of the audience. On the second track, Liam invited out the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Obi Franky, who throughout the show performed all Holly Walker’s vocals. Chris and Liam were set up opposing each other, drawing on one another’s energy. For the better half of the show, Chris was playing guitar, while Liam was telling stories, reflecting back on the tour, and on occasion turning around to face the drummer and assisting him on percussions.

To quote Mixmag Maribou State have a way of “capturing the euphoric warmth of the dancefloor,” creating a textured, atmospheric musical experience that invites the audience in. Throughout the set, the duo went back-and-forth between tracks from Kingdoms In Colour and Portraits (2015) including songs like “Steal” and “Beginner’s Luck.” Obi Franky’s renditions of “Wallflower,” “Midas,” and “Nervous Tics” were a spectacular display of voice and stage presence that the front row of the room went crazy for. Another surprise for the evening was the North Downs, who joined Maribou State and Obi on stage for “Kingdom,” dancing and adding his own flavor of hand-held percussion to the track.

For the last song Obi, who has now shed her shiny stilettos, came out to sing “The Clown” (originally performed by Pedestrian). This highly energetic take on the song (see second video teaser) vividly brought to life by the entire stage collective, served as a precursor for the one track encore – “Turnmills” – which ended this very epic Maribou State tour.

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Now, back to our regular music programming.

The first highlight for ADE By Night this Friday evening is an intimate pre-dinner listening party at the Nes 118 mansion with Deezer, the French online music streaming service. For this evening, a.k.a. the Barbershop, Deezer’s global dance, electronic, and alternative music editor Robin Wilms selected a small collection of unreleased albums: “Jdid” by Acid Arab, “Thirst” by Sebastian (about time!), “Balance” by Armin van Buuren, “Yearnite for the Infinite” by Max Cooper, “Magdalene” by FKA Twigs, and a few others. This unique space has a bit of a steampunk vibe, with retro furnishings and grey/green undertones. As we sip on cocktails, unrushed, listening to these great unreleased tunes, some people are sitting back in barber chairs, getting styled by Amsterdam’s best.

A quick tram ride from Amsterdam Central Station is the main concert hall for contemporary classical music, called Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. Up a bridge that hangs over the water pass, around the corner, through the lower deck is the Sudbeat x The Soundgarden day party. Dutch DJ and producer Dimitri, the innovator of hi-tech-soul (Detroit sound-infused techno) who started spinning way back in 1987, is playing all day in the Bimhuis area, a round-shaped room with cascading low steps. Back down on the sunny indoor Deck with sweeping views on the water, is Amsterdam-based Miss Melera, playing her flavor of melodic techno to a packed room of dancers, basking in the sunlight.

The rooms and levels in Muziekgebouw are unusually situated across the mixed building levels, some can only be accessed by one staircase, others by another, and across the balcony, overlooking the Deck, is a small Chappel where Sudbeat X The Soundgarden artists from across the globe are taking turns. At around 5 pm Gustin, the resident DJ and promoter for Nick Warren’s The Soundgarden Ibiza, stepped up to the tables spreading his unique blend of pumping, tech-prog, funk-fuelled house music. Many of these producers have been around for decades, defining the electronic music genre and building the foundation for what we are listening to today, so it’s quite special to be here, watching the masters effortlessly do their thing.

Further inland and later into the night an obscenely large group of people are gathering in the Scheepsbouwloods’ warehouse space for a DGTL all-nighter. Known for throwing some of the best parties and festivals around the world Amsterdam-based DGTL is one of many organizations putting an effort into making a sustainable impact on the global festival landscape. When purchasing a drink an extra euro is charged for a reusable plastic cup which you can then commit to for the rest of the night, a system used during many events at ADE. Losing a cup would cost you a euro more per drink while ending the night with one will earn you a recycling token, what it could be used for, however, we never figured out.

The venue is split into two rooms: a smaller one that looked like an oversized shipping container, out of which jam-packed dancers are spilling all the way into the food court-type area, and the big room, which has its own bar, a perpetually sticky floor, cool lights, and TV’s hung under the sealing. The mid-programming treat is Orbital, an electronic dance music brother duo (Phil and Paul Hartnoll) from England (cover image). Orbital have been around since the 80s and have an extensively impressive resume. The duo is known for their memorable live shows which – much like today – feature a creative imagery showcase and live improvisation by the DJs. Fittingly to the day’s green motif Orbital begun the set with “There Will Come a Time” which opens with a monologue by professor Brian Cox (English physicist): ‘There are few certainties in science, but one fact of which we can all be certain is that one day we will die. Our atoms won’t disappear, they will return to the Earth.’ – one of many environmentally and politically-charged songs we hear tonight.

Just around the corner Amsterdam’s smallest festival, aptly named Festifest, teams up with Berlin’s Wilde Renate crew for a wild ADE dance party at the Noorderlicht Café. As we approach the venue its greenhouse-style shape greets us with warm lights and a casual outdoor sitting area, a few brave souls relaxing around a fire pit. The coat check is outside and the inside is hot like an Arabian desert, packed wall to wall on the main floor. The balcony has a much more relaxed vibe with a handful of people laying back on the couches, a couple quite literally napping, and a small group of people dancing in the circle.

“Beer please.” The bartender nods in acknowledgment as if he just scanned me for tasting notes and read my mind. I hand over my recycling token (given to me by security at the entrance), he hands over a pint of lager. Looking over the balcony ledge the energy around the DJ is infectious and you cannot help but dance as well. Taking us into the sunrise are Kornél Kovács, PEAK & SWIFT, Johannes Albert, Alison Swing, and SHMLSS, casually spinning a mix of house and techno, mixing in their particular takes on tracks like Wiley’s “Boasty,” Robin S’ “Show Me Love,” classics like Mr Fingers “Can You Feel It” and even “Ghostbusters.”

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The 33 year-old singer MARINA (formerly “& the diamonds,” née Marina Lambrini Diamandis) has come out with a more mature and thoughtful sequence of self-love and definition that shows someone increasingly armed with the ability to widen her conception of humanity, to use music, as Susan Sontag sought to do with literature, to make us aware “that other people, people different from us, really do exist.”    

The title of this fourth album, Love + Fear, comes from the Swiss psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who lay the groundwork for the five stages of grief in her 1969 seminal work “On Death and Dying,” and who conceived of each human action as being motivated by fear and love. “When You Don’t Choose Love You Choose Fear” goes one rephrasing of Kübler-Ross’ research into the psychology of death. The statement applies to MARINA’s entire career since her debut at 24 with The Family Jewels (2010). From the first track, “Are You Satisfied?,” charged a young woman determined to succeed on her own terms and put all of her problems to rest (not for nothing has Diamandis called that album “crazy”).

Her follow-ups Electra Heart (2012) and Froot (2015) were similarly energetic, hard-charging, and narcissistic, as only 20-somethings can be. Nearly a decade later, she seems at peace with life’s radical ambiguities with songs like “Life Is Strange” and “Enjoy Your Life.” Her interests continue to widen – fewer topics of personal betrayal and self-sabotage, more contemplations on human dignity, creation, and love.

On September 16 in Manhattan’s Central Park for the SummerStage Festival, Diamandis rocked a sheen cocktail dress and occasionally waved silver pom-poms. On the same stage of Stevie Wonder, Sia, Diana Ross, Nikki Minaj, MARINA – 5’4 but with caryatid’s regal presence – showed the result of a smart woman defining her own life.

A wide, white podium traversed the stage. Diamandis, as if winning a gold medal, climbed easily to the top slot, a refreshing image in a culture that prefers women to act shocked when they’re #1 at anything. The stage lighting was smart and succinct, showing images of beaches or MARINA’s past music videos, but mostly keeping with uniform yellows, blues, and reds, taut monochromes following Alex Katz and Barnett Newman, then occasionally flushed color-field violets.   

The audience was assertively queer. Indeed, the number of gay men likely crashed Grindr. (MARINA, well aware of her gay fan-based, changed her hit 2012 hit “Primadonna Girl” to “Primadonna Boy.”) This all begs the question, what about MARINA appeals to both gay women and gay men? For queer women, it may be her commitment to self-definition, her vim to remain a volcanic self in a world that would rather stylize gender on more clear-cut and tamable lines. Those reasons, of course, overlap with the appeal to gay men, but there’s a curious lack of camp; perhaps MARINA’s pull with the LaCroix crowd comes from her history of bangers (“Primadonna Girl”;  “How To Be A Heartbreaker”; “Oh No!”) and the recent hip-swaying hits like “Baby,” “No More Suckers,” and “Karma.

MARINA is sexy and gorgeous to all men and women. What’s interesting is that her identity rests on being above obsequiousness to lust or to the dictates of image, which may be why she cast out “and the diamonds” (diamonds being the nickname to her fans), caps-locked her own name, and continues to demure from disclosing any updates on her love life, which clearly influenced the peace and wisdom in Love + Fear.

Curmudgeons (often straight white guys) often say that pop songs won’t be remembered in 10 years. It was then with joy to see some 16-year-olds shout “Actually my name’s Marina,” to “Hollywood,” a song that would have come out when they were nine. (Generation Z has come to know MARINA mostly through TikTok). But it’s curious why MARINA is not quite as famous in The States as the equally talented Lana Del Rey. It could be her attitude; Diamandis’ lyrics are admittedly not as vicious or adventurous as Del Rey’s. Diamandis is more kind-fabulous; Lizzy Grant is cutting-cool. But one wonders if Americans simply prefer women who aestheticize their tears. MARINA is far too active for self-pity; when she looks pretty, it’s to bite, not to be consumed. Outside of queer people and the liberally-minded, this unmalleable cuteness discomforts most Americans. 

For the second half of the show, MARINA came back out in a white pug shirt. The chords of Love + Fear are by turns ebullient, tropical, house. “Orange Trees” blends all of these elements, the lead single ultimately sounds like 2011 Skrillex coming down from molly. Her performance of “Bubblegum Bitch” proved the song remains fun, one that people will reinterpret for quite some time, including this redo with Margaery Tyrell of Game of Thrones.

Like many talented artists who come out of a pop-induced rush to play acoustically, MARINA released an acoustic version of Love + Fear. But in this tour, she only played acoustic renditions of older songs. Her stripped-down take off “I Am Not Robot” was spectacular. She followed it with a powerful re-imagination of “Teen Idle,” distilling the regret and hope in a take that recalled The Animals’ “Good Times.”

A general highlight from the concert was a rare performance of the unreleased song “I Am Not Hungry.” A crowd favorite, it seems like a turning point for MARINA repeatedly declaring, “I’m not hungry for your love.” It’s a testament to her skill, presence, and the intelligence of her fans that Central Park became surreally silent in every second.

Her powerhouse anthem from the album is “To Be Human.” The song becomes the cornerstone of not only the album but MARINA’s career, which has grown from selfish impulses (are you satisfied?) to more universal knowledge (how to thrive within the uncertainty of being human). Along with being the most layered track, “To Be Human” is informed by politics without a stifling dogmatism. “All our cracks as a society were beginning to show,” Diamandis said of her impetus to write the song, “I’ve just wanted to create this feeling of bringing people together.”   

“Soft To Be Strong” follows this good-will vein. The track would be too much on the nose if it weren’t for Diamandis’ restrained voice and thoughtful piano harmonies. Politics clearly impacts all of Fear + Love, but fortunately, Diamandis never veers into the hapless camp-activist of Barbra Streisand’s “Don’t Lie to Me.”    

Another standout from Love + Fear is the penultimate “No More Suckers.” It’s basically a declaration to keep away from leaches in your life. As she wrote in one essay that coincided with the April release of Love + Fear: “We shouldn’t just teach young girls to “be nice” — we should teach them when to be nice. And, importantly, when not to.” This is a message Diamandis has been living since she was 24, when she negotiated with nearly 10 labels to pick the one that most closely aligned with her vision. 

MARINA closed with “Baby,” a forgettable banger with the Brit electronic trio Clean Bandit, and the more heart-felt “To The End of the Earth,” which coincidentally ends this keen, compassionate, and well-crafted album.   

Dates and tickets to the Love + Fear tour here. Further thoughts and soapboxes here. 

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by Jake Goldbas

Brooklyn Steel is a warehouse converted into a concert venue in the north part of East Williamsburg. An unassuming location and a short walk from the subway, Brooklyn Steel can be a host to nearly 2,000 people. The warehouse feel is something dance music fans are always drawn to so, it made sense that Hot Chip headlined and sold out Brooklyn Steel this Wednesday.

Hot Chip played one hell of a show, with a Buffalo stampede of sound rushing the audience. As expected, there was an average of four synthesizers on stage at any given time with a clear intention to make the audience dance to disco-infused beats. Listeners on Spotify or YouTube might have been pleasantly shocked because the bass one could never pick up in your headphones came to life with the power of a rocket ship.

The stage setup consisted of a range of hot lights, a smoke machine (of course), and even lasers. Hot Chip used laser pointers from automatically mounted cannons, which made triangles and danced while the band played. In at least two songs, four of the band members had their own choreography while rectangular boxes surrounding the band lit up with neon lights, and had strange Martian shadows. Finally, there were strobe lights above the band. The overall effect of the loud dance music and the lights was a sensory overload. 

The band followed their digital roots with complementary lyrics and vocals. On the band’s single, “Ready for the Floor,” the bridge sings, “You’re my number one guy!” like the AOL ping, “You’ve got mail!” And Hot Chip is de facto sisters with Brooklyn’s LCD Soundsystem with whom they share guitarist-keyboardist Al Doyle, who spent the concert twisting and jiving around the stage. Hot Chip differs from LCD with a more up-tempo attitude and has no anxious self-awareness. Listeners might notice a small kinship with 1980s band Devo, who dared to play bizarre sounds in praise of technology.

Midway through the set, Hot Chip played “Sabotage,” by the Beastie Boys and the crowd collectively went nuts. The homage recognized the Beastie Boys are from Brooklyn, and the song also has a lot of screaming, which was super fun.

Pleasing the crowd with new originals, the band played “Positive,” and “Bath Full of Ecstasy.” “Positive,” has a catchy recursive hook, where band members sang, “We used to get together and talk about how we used to get together,” in a call and answer. In fact, the band consistently had excellent vocal harmonies. The song, “Bath Full of Ecstasy,” has an oldies or soul chord progression, and is slower than most of the band’s songs, but not by much. The song had manic energy that couldn’t sit still, and the chord changes swung in weird ways.

Hot Chip’s live show illuminated the way book learning can be second to in-person classroom teaching. The band’s ideas for the music as propulsive dance fusion were better articulated in the immersive experience. Whereas the lyrics might have put off the casual listener as trivial, the live show made those lyrics seem much more important because the music was loud and beautiful. Indie rock’s angst was missing, and no one missed it.

Thus, the show is somewhat at odds with its recordings. The liabilities as recordings become assets in its live show. Repetitive bass lines and lyrics on a computer or cell phone can be tossed aside as trivial, however, in person they become central to the message of the band as a dance-pop experience. Idiosyncrasy seems obnoxious on recordings but becomes charming and unique at the live show.

At the end of the show, band members pointed their microphones to the crowd to amplify the crowd’s cheers. It was a cool trick and in a moment caught some of the ambitions of the band to capture the energy of the crowd and say the feelings were mutual. Likewise, sometimes people in the band say, “We love you too!” back to the audience in between songs. This was a loud, brilliant, mind-expanding show. Hot Chip is an electronic dance band, but last night they rocked.

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Chicago born, LA-based, Lee Foss drew a large and early crowd to the park for his 5 pm set. Wearing a retro zip up and short shorts, Lee immediately took us a little back into the past. Throughout his set Lee played tracks from his highly claimed release Alchemy, older releases, collaborations, and a series of fun remixes from MGMT to Destiny’s Child. His unique mix of sultry, druggy tech-house vibrations with a disco-inspired flare were welcomed by the crowd with enthusiastic dance moves.

On the smaller stage Detroit’s Nitin Kalyan, better known as just Nitin, took the stage for his 5:30 pm set. The stage area, while loose at the front, was packed quite tightly all the way to the walkway. Over the last decade or so Nitin made Toronto home so his fan base is rooted quite deeply in the Six and showed up to share the love this afternoon in high energy and Kalyan did not disappoint.

For unknown reasons Guti was unfortunately not able to perform so Toronto’s Demuir took his place. With a handful of solid collaborations behind his belt (Cassy, Carlo Lio, DJ Sneak) Demuir is also known for his “prolific DJ sets” and this evening’s set was a great example of that. Right after, the main stage welcomed UK duo Dusky to the stage at quarter to eight. The duo are very calm and collected behind the decks, not showing much emotion or movement, but the music rattled through the festival grounds with a bang.

Down the road George FitzGerald stepped up for his nearly two-hour-long set. The stage was repeatedly enveloped with thick fog (see our Instagram story) creating a surreal environment for a good half of the audience. Being completely blinded by the white cloud people were dancing with their eyes closed in psychedelic bliss, while George calmly worked his way through his playlist. The tracks from All That Must Be and Fading Love cross over well to dancefloor music while staying true to their deep, all-encompassing nature that makes you want to turn up the volume in your headphones while pounding life.

The event wrapped up on a high note when Hot Since 82 turned the party into the late-night house music party that is was craving to be. What RA called “visceral, grandstanding house music” comes to life in full color on stage. The night felt particularly dark and we all felt like guests on a live edition Pete Tong’s Essential Mixes episode, dancing, sweating, drinking cold beers, and hoping summer never ends.

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Untouched icing straight from the tub is the perfect way to describe Njomza vocals on her latest EP Vacation.

“Mania is Temporary,“ is the first scoop that takes you through a vibrational, medicinal experience that sets up an oasis for your mind to relax in for the rest of the album. Though Njomza’s range doesn’t kick in until the middle where the syrup meets the icing, it’s great to keep in your pocket when you are looking to assemble your own thoughts to a gentle beat.

 As you continue to press play, Vacation brings sound elements closely replicating the technology of MI.MU gloves founded by Imogen Heap and most used by pop princess Ariana Grande. The software is devoted to composing music by using gestures linked to a third party music program. Njomza features a similar grasp of control that beautifully decorates consistency.

It’s pretty evident Njomza is creative royalty, especially when it comes to diving into the lyrics of “One Foot In The Water,“ which is also her latest visual release. The track starts out with a meteoric rumble that appears to feel like a transition into the three pending songs and also pulls hints from Amy Winehouse’s vulnerability and openness that is so diverse in many life experiences. This track can give you both a sense of moving on but also allow you to check your morals before entering a situation that could set even H2O on fire. 

However, with all of the zen tunes in mind, don’t think Njomza doesn’t bring a little of her hometown Chicago sound. “Don’t Count the Daze“ and “Don’t Know Why” effortlessly gives you a vision of dancing down the street with your headphones, swaying in various directions. The only thing I wish is that these two tracks were the ending tracks instead of “Outro“ putting aside the tracks name, as it would have fit perfectly with the silent and soft melodies in the first half.

Overall, Njomza is no doubt a threefold threat and by instruction, it’s best to keep both feet in the water as Vacation will continue to be a serious wave in new music.

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Some time at the age of 7, while living in the South of France, Jeanne was walking by a music class in a school hallway when the sound of the drums caught her attention: “The idea of tapping on stuff to make sound sounded cool” to her so she began learning music through rhythm. Two years later, Jeanne’s family moved to Dubai, a drastic change to say the least, but she embraced the change and the culture through music and learned to play darbuka, an Arabic percussion instrument. This was very different from European music, it’s a binary rhythm, something new in her young repertoire. But it was not until Congo that she began to develop her personal style, where a few years later in Pointe-Noire she met a rapper in school who introduced her to his crew. She wasn’t doing rap (yet) and was mostly influenced by rumba and the traditional music of Congo. Soon enough, all of these rhythmic sounds and voices woke up a desire to “mix things up” with her own music.

Here, through the crew, she met a local producer, Mr Flash, who helped her build a home recording studio and taught Jeanne how to self-produce and share music on MySpace. The internet opened new doors for Jeanne and the team who discovered her at that time – producer and manager – is still her team today. But back then Jeanne was only 17 and uncertain about making music for a living. She’s already moved a lot and knew how tiering the life of an artist could be so she studied to be a graphic designer in Paris. A year into art school Jeanne had a realization: “I had no time left to make music so I was really sad about that.” She quit school and took up a life of music with the team that patiently waited for her to get to that decision.

The most recent album, Souldier, is an evolution of Jeanne as an artist. She discovered techno upon her return to Paris in her late teens and took up making her own beats but that’s not the only influence visible on the album. Souldier as an evolution took inspiration from soul, funk, reggae, rap and hip-hop, and as always, some influences from Congo and the Middle East. It may sound messy, and you may not notice the influences right away, but as you watch Jain perform and listen to the music, you will hear them all and how they work together in cohesive unison. Jeanne Galice is a sponge. Everywhere she goes, everything she hears, she learns from and makes it her own. And that’s kind of the point: “You can learn so much through music,” shares Jeanne, “from other people and other cultures, I’d like to keep learning about all the different styles and finding ways to make them my own.” I commented on the subtle bits of reggae sprinkled throughout the album wondering where that came from, “Don’t know” she wondered for a minute, “When I was a teenager I listened to a lot of reggae and it influenced me in a lot of ways because it’s really fun music, you know, and there is a lot of messaging about peace and I really like that, you can really feel relaxed.”

” You can learn so much through music, from other people and other cultures, I’d like to keep learning about all the different styles and finding ways to make them my own.

The bit about messaging caught my attention – nothing is an accident or an afterthought with Jeanne – she handpicks beliefs and bits of history that speak to her and weaves them into the music. The name, Jain, “comes from the Jain culture,” she points out, “I actually found this name when I was 16 and was searching the net for cool sentences, you know like peacefulness and stuff like that, and I saw this line it goes like ‘don’t be proud if you win, don’t be sorry if you lose’ and I thought it was quite beautiful and it was from the Jain religion in India so I liked the name and I kept it for myself,” she laughed. Messaging is everywhere: quite a few songs on Souldier speak to the unstable political situation in Europe while Zanaka is a Malagasy word for ‘child’ (Madagascar, where her mother is from) and documents her childhood in the AE and Republic of Congo. “All right” is a fun, cheeky song, I commented wondering where that story came from. The song was written for a friend, “who went through a really hard break up” she said, “I really wanted to cheer her up and to make a song about break up that can help her be independent as a woman and it actually worked, when she listened to it she felt stronger,” Jain pointed out with innocent joy.

The Toronto show at the Danforth Music Hall was sold out and as I was making my way out of the venue after the interview, an hour before the doors even opened a small line was beginning to gather outside despite the first frostbites. “We just released the album like a month and a half ago so we weren’t sure if the venues would fill,” shared Jain as we sat down in the green room, “but almost all of the venues were sold out, it was a great surprise.”

“Are you ready to dance tonight! Are you ready to party!” she pointed at the audience enthusiastically. I almost forgot she’s feeling a little under the weather.

Typically, as seen in a few of her music videos, Jain remains behind her soundboard, but standing still is not in her nature so for this tour she decided to break free: her jumpsuit covered a ‘sleeve’ of remote control buttons that talk over wifi to her soundboard. “I have six buttons,” she explained rotating her wrist and pointing at imaginary buttons, “I can send loops of drums and voice with them from wherever I am on stage,” she ends in excitement. The Danforth stage is quite large and at first, one little Jain seemed a little lost on this large stage but as she began to gain momentum, taking full advantage of the space, there was a lot more Jain than a stage in this room.

Halfway through the show she points to her sleeve and says: “I have new machines on stage, does it interest you how they work?” the audience goes crazy as Jeanne proceeds to explain the magic buttons shining through the suit sleeve. This entire time she has been sampling live from the stage, drawing energy from the audience and now they are invited to participate in the music-making: “Now do it with me,” she requests and the crowd begins to sing along and witness in a matter of moments how their voices become a part of their favorite song right in front of their eyes.

When talking about her dream show Jain surprised me once again by sharing that what she’d like to have is, “A big gospel choir” – I admit to myself I did not see that one coming – “It would be really cool to do all my harmonics with a choir because I really like the electronic aspect and you can make DJ sets in another way, in a more performance type of way with live voices” – Okay! I’ll come to this show! – “I really hope you get to do that!” I said, “I hope so too,” she laughed. Just behind her hangs the bright blue soldier jumpsuit, the one that became a signature outfit for the album, “You had a dress for Zanaka,” I point out, “And now this fun jumpsuit.” I look at her searching for a story: “It’s a kind of uniform but more weird and funky and I really wanted to impersonate a soldier, to have a kind of a jumpsuit that is a little strict but with fun colors,” she shares. The Souldier  jumpsuit is a custom piece, just like the Zanaka school dress, made by a French designer Agnès B, “She’s one of the pioneers of street art in Paris and she made stuff for David Bowie at the time and yeah, she’s a great person.” Jeanne worked closely with Agnès B’s team who shared her vision and passion for the outfit which was a collaborative piece, “the idea was a blue jumpsuit that is a little bit like a soldier but fits with a flower.” A hint of unintentional Banksy reference was appreciated by everyone.

“I just want to try stuff without thinking about being a start to anything, or something like that, I just want to mix things up in my own way,” and hope that people like it, she said in closing and like they do – from the moment Jeanne begun to sing so did the crowd and they did not stop until the last beats of the anchor. “Are you ready to jump! One, two, three!” she screamed “Let’s try to get higher!” and everyone in the room tried to get more air to match her enthusiasm.

photos by Paul & Martin, courtesy of the artist

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