A record split into two eight-song collections, it’s as lush, vibrant and powerful as you’d expect. To coincide with its release, she’ll be taking to the road for a host of live shows across the world.
LOVE is filled with a longing to enjoy life (Handmade Heaven) and a desire for unity (To Be Human). FEAR explores subjects that have been a lot harder for me to work through and understand, such as purpose (Life is Strange), insecurity in love (Believe in Love and Soft to be Strong), and major shifts in our social conscience regarding the systematic misogyny and sexual abuse employed by powerful figures in the media (Karma). A companion to LOVE, these ideas cross to showcase and explore the polarising sides of human nature.
The psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross believed that “There are only two emotions: love and fear. All positive emotions come from love, all negative emotions from fear”. I can trace a lot of my behaviour back to these two emotions, particularly in relationships. When thinking about an album title to encapsulate the record, I played the 16 tracks and listened closely for sonic or lyrical themes that appeared to crop up again and again. I quickly sensed a very clear, concise divide of songs that came from a feeling of love and songs that stemmed from a feeling of fear. I also used this process to name my last album ‘FROOT’. It’s a simple way of decipher the main messages running through an album, as I often only recognise an album’s main message once it’s completed and I’m able to look at it from afar.
My song writing has always been inspired and shaped by traditional storytelling and social shifts in our culture. As a society we have experienced such major social change in the past three years - politically, digitally and psychologically. ‘LOVE + FEAR’ reflects this.
Changing my artist name to the single ‘MARINA’ is something that feels natural to me and helps me to feel more able to present myself authentically, as a multi-faceted individual as opposed to an artistic persona. It’s something I’ve struggled with in the past when so much of what defines an artist is tied up in their visual and musical identity. Sometimes the more nuanced aspects, or non-music related parts of a person, get lost within that. I was signed to Warner Records at 22 years old and much of my self-definition has been explored through my work. Marina and the Diamonds was my artist name for 10 years but as I’ve developed in my work it’s become important for me to present myself in a way that feels natural and human. Going under my first name is my way of achieving that.
