Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: Hi! I’m Marlee, a singer/songwriter from the Isle of Wight now based in London.
I used to be one of those slightly annoying theatre kids when I was younger, but started to get a bit bored of all that around 14 and started messing around on a ukulele. My dad then got me my first guitar for my 15th birthday and pretty soon afterwards I was out gigging around the island and loved it so much, I knew that’s what I primarily wanted to do with my life.
Q: And what other artists have you found yourself listening to lately?
A: I’ve been loving Genevieve Artadi’s latest album ‘Forever Forever’, her voice is so gorgeous. Pedro Martins is phenomenal too, he’s a true master of guitar and listening to his solos blows my mind.
Little Simz and Self Esteem are absolute queens too, I aspire to write lyrics as brilliantly as they do!
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences?
A: David Bowie was the strongest for sure – and still is! My mum played him a lot around the house growing up, then when I first started playing guitar I found myself saving up pocket money to buy his CDs from HMV and would listen to him on a daily basis for years. I became obsessed with Joni Mitchell and Stevie Nicks in the same way, playing their CDs on repeat.
I have to give KT Tunstall a nod too, her style of guitar playing was so inspiring to me that I think my own playing style stemmed from watching loads of clips on YouTube of her laying down these great rhythmic guitar parts on her loop pedal.
Q: You have just released your new single, ‘One Day (You’ll Wish)’. Is there a story behind it?
A: There certainly is. It’s essentially about my music career thus far and how stagnant I was feeling in it coming out of the covid pandemic. Funnily enough the verses and chorus are written about two separate people I’ve encountered! I love this about songwriting – you can take several moments/interactions in your life and combine them to create an entirely new narrative.
When writing the lyrics I wanted people to be able to relate to it in some way, so gave it this sort of double-entendre that it could be seen as the sort of song to inspire someone after a rough patch in a relationship or even a break up.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: More music for sure, but in EP/Album form maybe not just yet (even though I’d love to make one!). As we’re living in such a fast-paced society I don’t think many of us have much of an attention span anymore – so it seems regularly releasing singles are the way to go for emerging artists at the moment.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: I find this quite a hard question to answer as I’m still trying to figure this out myself!
I think most of my music is quite ‘loud and proud’ and a bit ‘in your face’ in general, I like pop music that has a bit of grit so I’d describe my sound so far as ‘Alternative Pop’.
I’m still navigating my 20s and figuring out who I am, so hopefully there are people out there regardless of age who resonate with that too.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: Fulfilment for sure. It almost feels like journaling a bit – I look back on the songs I’ve written the past couple of years that are yet to be released and remember exactly how I was feeling when writing them. Then especially with ‘One Day (You’ll Wish)’, it felt very cathartic to release it into the world. I think it will be for the next few too!
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: I normally start with the music first, like a guitar riff or a synth melody. Then start building some drums and bass around it and going from there. Most times I find lyric writing quite difficult – I sing several lines of gibberish and listen back to see if any of it sounded like actual words and start to build sentences from that. That’s when it feels exciting, you can have an idea for the sort of song you want to write but you could get swept in an entirely different direction when you’re in the moment writing!
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: Not necessarily difficult, but slightly frustrating at times – my brilliant dad is a successful musician, and being his daughter and pursuing the same career there’s a bit of a misconception that it’s automatically easy for me to do or that he does everything for me. But I’m here writing the songs myself with my own image, having a go at producing, making all the artwork and videos for it and now making silly little videos for TikTok (which is difficult in itself!) as an independent artist.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: Honestly, I think putting out music in general and having my own Spotify ‘verified artist’ page was a big step for me. I’d wanted that for so long when I had just moved to London, but felt like I needed to find a manager/agent/band/producer/mixer etc and build this big team around me before getting to any of that. But putting those first 5 songs of mine out in 2020 without any sort of team was a proud moment for sure. Listening back to them now they sound a bit rough and demo-ey, but comparing them with the songs I have now I can see growth in my writing and myself. That makes me excited for what’s to come!
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