The moment I enter the Union I realise that Marina Lambrini Diamandis, better known as Marina & the Diamonds, is quite literally two steps ahead of me. Having exited the chamber, I hear laughter as she bounds up the stairs enthusiastically. I catch a flash of short, dark curls and sleek blue velvet before she disappears through the imposing archway of the Gladstone Room. I hurriedly follow her in and Marina’s eyes settle on me in delight: “You must be the student press!” The notion, clearly, is an exciting one. And with such a unique reaction to my arrival, it takes no less than an instant to warm to this energetic and engaging woman who, it becomes quickly apparent, is fully deserving of the international recognition she has received.
It is easy to assume that Marina, so animated and well-styled as an indie pop-star, has always lived a life similar to the fast-paced environment that she finds herself in now. But Marina’s international fame and widespread musical influence did not come to her instantly or without a lot of hard work and effort. “It’s funny when you’re going through it, it doesn’t feel like there are any sacrifices, or that it is all particularly hard.” Marina settles into her chair and her expression grows grave. “But looking back at it, I definitely knew that there were some terrible periods. It wasn’t quite that I was depressed because I always knew I was going to make it. But life in general was, well, hard.” She shakes her head as she recollects her post-school years. “Coming to a new city and not knowing a single person there is actually pretty tough. I was on my own in London to start with.” She gestures to her surroundings. “Being a part of a university is so important to make those kinds of connections. Without being connected to a university, I didn’t have that social environment.”
I find it hard to imagine that this openly friendly woman was on her own for too long, however. Her carefree demeanour is highly charismatic and there is a noticeable awareness of her presence from all the members in the room. “Honestly, it took me so long to find people who I really liked”, she tells me. “It can take a while to find people who are like-minded individuals. I actually really felt that the creation of Marina & the Diamonds was a way that attracted certain individuals into my life and that is how I saw music. It was very much a way of uniting people and doing the whole likes-attract.”
Success, when it did inevitably happen to Marina, didn’t come as much of a surprise. “When I got signed I simply wasn’t that jubilant. It solved my financial problems pretty much instantly.” She smiles at me coyly. “But I didn’t celebrate or anything. It was more of a case of, well now that that’s done, I’m able to do this and that. And of course, I’m able to create an album. So there was never much pause for thought. It’s actually only really been in the last years, especially with Froot, that I’ve been able to enjoy everything. I can see what I have been able to do and I know that that’s not ‘the norm’. Whereas at the time it felt like I was just really blinkered.” She laughs at her own words and the gaiety of her expression returns.
We fall onto the topic of her highly original 2012 album Electra Heart, famously known for its conceptual caricatures of American archetypes. Despite its purpose to imitate, I ask her whether she feels that she can personally identify with any of the themes that her album approaches. She throws her head back and laughs aloud – “Absolutely!” she cries, “Absolutely! The aesthetic side of it was driven by the fact that the sound that I had acquired for that album wasn’t really true to me, but it was a result of working with a lot of ‘big-name’ producers. I was being encouraged to take that pop route and to come out as a pop star. Yet I didn’t feel that was really ‘me’ so adopting a different guise was my way of dealing with it. Lyrically, it was different. That was totally authentic; songs like ‘Primadonna’ and ‘Heartbreaker’ are really just me mirroring what I saw in terms of female archetypes in our society. It’s like the Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton effect. That’s what pop is for; it’s a mirror. It’s telling you about a certain moment that you’re living in, be that bad or good. But then there were songs like ‘Teen Idle’ and ‘Starring Role’ that were more simple and not at all multi-layered.” ‘Starring Role’ is one of a string of songs that lament love and reflect on emotionally damaging relationships, adding to the complexity of the album’s fictional alter-ego duality. “There has been a lot of heartache” Marina adds, “But it’s not necessarily because of boys or love. I think one of the main themes throughout all three albums is to do with identity. In my first album, The Family Jewels, it was me figuring out my identity. Electra Heart was questioning it, and then Froot confirming it. Identity is definitely one of the central themes. Questioning who you are and why you are that way, I suppose.” She pauses. “Everyone will have events in their life that will influence the things that they do. For me – well, I can’t think of anything precisely. There was a lot of stuff from my upbringing, it was happy but also it wasn’t. I guess like everybody, there are things that will mark you for the rest of your life, and definitely form your story. Everybody has their story in life, don’t they? I don’t know what mine is. I guess you probably know better than I do.”
We laugh as I point out that the more I listen to her music, the less I understand her. The lyrics from her songs sometimes cover intertwined topics and as a result present conflicting stories. It is perhaps this complex layering of personalities and experiences that make Marina’s music so elusive and unique to the music industry. Marina’s music is encouraging in its self-acceptance as her confidence in herself also embraces a range of themes that are not classifiably black and white.
She tells me how now she feels that she can explore other things, specifically particular social concerns of hers, her song ‘Savages’ being demonstrative of this. “A lot of it is actually just me being curious, asking why human beings are the way that they are. We are so complex, and I don’t like approaching something from a role of condemning it, it’s not me having to reinforce that war and rape are bad because they obviously are, it’s more of a question of ‘why?’. You know; why is that ingrained in us? And acknowledging the fact that we have an animalistic side and that yet we still think that we are civilised human beings.”
Leaving these dark topics behind, the conversation turns to synaesthesia. I ask Marina if and how her personal experience of synaesthesia ever manifests itself, be it lyrically or visually within her work. “I’ve heard a lot of varying accounts from other people who have synaesthesia,” she tells me, “Accounts where people smell colour, or they actually see it, but for me it’s not that at all. It sounds weird to everyone else, but I associate colours with days of the week, and numbers and musical notes. It’s not something I actually see, it’s more of a colour sensitivity. And that definitely affects the way that I have worked visually. Each album creates a world in which fans can immerse themselves. It’s not just an MP3. I have a huge role in the direction of the music videos.”
As the interview draws to a close, Marina leans in towards me. “It’s such a pleasure to be asked real questions by you.” Her eyes shine playfully. “Really, I’ve been so impressed by everyone in Oxford. There was even a little nine-year-old girl in the chamber who asked me about how I could help her to be a heart breaker and why I wrote the song.” She does an imitation of the girl’s voice and chuckles in amusement to herself. But doesn’t she live by that? “Not any more, but at the time I ferociously did!” Poor men in London! She grins, “But it didn’t last long though.” Oh we know, Marina, we know.
