In a world where pop stars such as Rihanna and Lady Gaga appear to live in airbrushed fantasy realms beyond regular social anxieties, Marina Diamandis is an anomaly. She’s just hit number one in the UK with Electra Heart, a messed up contradiction of honesty and fraudulence, beauty and misery, inhibited admissions and a narcissistic lunge for fame.
Taking a panoramic jump up from her 2010 debut The Family Jewels, Electra Heartis a beautiful paradox made all the more gorgeous by Diamandis’ flawed confessions. In an unsubtle crack at taking her confessional pop to a global audience, Electra Heart sees the solo artist collaborating with proven hit-makers including Greg Kurstin, Dr Luke and Diplo. The production sheen of the resulting tracks merely acts as a Trojan horse for an album filled with dark revelations at odds with Diamandis’ latest frivolous pastel imagery. By writing as blonde, confident siren ‘Electra Heart’, Diamandis was able to purge herself of a bad break-up.
“I could have just done it as Marina Diamandis, but for some reason at the time it was a relationship that had really hurt me and it was comforting to turn it into a fantasy, if that makes sense. This is a record about being fucked over.”
Diamandis has insisted in most Electra Heart interviews that the album is about a boy, but there’s far more to it than that. When her offhand reference to bulimia onTeen Idle is raised, the 26-year-old evades elaborating on the other personal issuesElectra Heart finds her working through.
“Well I suppose…” she hesitates, before changing tack. “I would say the record is split into three things: one is love, two is dealing with your identity and three is feeling like you haven’t lived your life. The ages of 16 to 20 were blacked out years for me in that I didn’t feel like I had enjoyed my youth, for various reasons. Teen Idle was about that, I’m talking about real things.”
Whether a subconscious attempt to deal with an eating disorder or not, Teen Idletakes Diamandis’ tally of songs mentioning vomiting to at least four (after Hollywood,Philosopher My Arse and Homewrecker).
“No offence, but I don’t really want to discuss that,” Diamandis giggles awkwardly. “I’m not going to discuss my problems in an interview, but what you put in a song has got to come from somewhere.”
Teen Idle is just one of many Electra songs masking a dark heart. The dangerous allure of death creeps into songs including Living Dead and Valley Of The Dolls. Does Diamandis truly have romantic visions of her own demise?
“I’d say only when I’m feeling depressed, when it’s natural to think about death,” the singer answers with alarming candour. “The last time I felt like that was around eight months ago – so I don’t really relate to it now. Until it happens again and I just want to take sleeping pills and sleep…”
Diamandis admits her depressive state isn’t new. Her pre-teen diaries from the 1990s reveals the Haberdashers’ Monmouth School For Girls student was already detailing episodes of fear and loathing.
“I have three diaries from around the ages of nine to 11 and it’s really interesting to see that I was Morrissey-style miserable from that age,” Diamandis laughs. “It was all ‘I want to die! I hate my face!’ stuff. My childhood was really happy in many respects, but here was a diary saying I hated myself and wanted to die.”
It seems not even legions of devoted Marina & The Diamonds fans – many whom travel across Europe and the UK to catch multiple performances – can prevent Diamandis from black days. As she wrapped up touring The Family Jewels in Australia in late 2010, the gorgeous Welsh/Grecian beauty told Rip It Up “no one is ever truly happy”.
“Oh did I? Oh my God!” she gasps. “If you look at all the videos of me around the time of my Australian tour I look like I’m on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. I was so desperately unhappy I wanted to stop the whole campaign actually, and lucky old Australia was the last leg of it where I started saying my album was a failure, I hated pop and shitty American music. I think it’s not that hard to understand that sometimes artists rally against what they secretly want – and I wanted to be a pop artist. That was very clear from the beginning. I was a really unhappy person and it took a few months of not touring to see things with some perspective, which is when I wrote Fear And Loathing.”
It’s surprising to hear the Electra Heart concept, where imperfect archetypes dwell in a deluded pop dominion, was rapidly realised. When Diamandis was last in Australia she told Rip It Up, “I can’t be arsed with the pretentious bullshit and illusion aspect of the pop world. It’s just not in me and I don’t want to create some character that people can be in awe of.” The singer cackles loudly at her lack of vision.
“Well look what happened!”
I can’t believe a word you say, Ms Diamandis.
“I’m lying right now…”
Now that she’s enjoyed her first UK number one, there must be a certain compulsion to repeat the feat with her third album. Diamandis seems far too creative to go down that route, instead using this success to hopefully bring to fruition an experimental release that melds her Greek heritage with Kate Bush levels of melodic intricacy.
“It’s hard to change and make a jump and be quietly ambitious about that, but I think I am one of those artists who does that. It’s a shame to not explore your artistry and interest in music, so for me every album will sonically explore another part of my musical identity in some way. I have ideas, but I don’t want to talk about them now. We’ll see – I’ve got some stuff…”
In a world where pop stars such as Rihanna and Lady Gaga appear to live in airbrushed fantasy realms beyond regular social anxieties, Marina Diamandis is an anomaly. She’s just hit number one in the UK with Electra Heart, a messed up contradiction of honesty and fraudulence, beauty and misery, inhibited admissions and a narcissistic lunge for fame.
Taking a panoramic jump up from her 2010 debut The Family Jewels, Electra Heartis a beautiful paradox made all the more gorgeous by Diamandis’ flawed confessions. In an unsubtle crack at taking her confessional pop to a global audience, Electra Heart sees the solo artist collaborating with proven hit-makers including Greg Kurstin, Dr Luke and Diplo. The production sheen of the resulting tracks merely acts as a Trojan horse for an album filled with dark revelations at odds with Diamandis’ latest frivolous pastel imagery. By writing as blonde, confident siren ‘Electra Heart’, Diamandis was able to purge herself of a bad break-up.
“I could have just done it as Marina Diamandis, but for some reason at the time it was a relationship that had really hurt me and it was comforting to turn it into a fantasy, if that makes sense. This is a record about being fucked over.”
Diamandis has insisted in most Electra Heart interviews that the album is about a boy, but there’s far more to it than that. When her offhand reference to bulimia onTeen Idle is raised, the 26-year-old evades elaborating on the other personal issuesElectra Heart finds her working through.
“Well I suppose…” she hesitates, before changing tack. “I would say the record is split into three things: one is love, two is dealing with your identity and three is feeling like you haven’t lived your life. The ages of 16 to 20 were blacked out years for me in that I didn’t feel like I had enjoyed my youth, for various reasons. Teen Idle was about that, I’m talking about real things.”
Whether a subconscious attempt to deal with an eating disorder or not, Teen Idletakes Diamandis’ tally of songs mentioning vomiting to at least four (after Hollywood,Philosopher My Arse and Homewrecker).
“No offence, but I don’t really want to discuss that,” Diamandis giggles awkwardly. “I’m not going to discuss my problems in an interview, but what you put in a song has got to come from somewhere.”
Teen Idle is just one of many Electra songs masking a dark heart. The dangerous allure of death creeps into songs including Living Dead and Valley Of The Dolls. Does Diamandis truly have romantic visions of her own demise?
“I’d say only when I’m feeling depressed, when it’s natural to think about death,” the singer answers with alarming candour. “The last time I felt like that was around eight months ago – so I don’t really relate to it now. Until it happens again and I just want to take sleeping pills and sleep…”
Diamandis admits her depressive state isn’t new. Her pre-teen diaries from the 1990s reveals the Haberdashers’ Monmouth School For Girls student was already detailing episodes of fear and loathing.
“I have three diaries from around the ages of nine to 11 and it’s really interesting to see that I was Morrissey-style miserable from that age,” Diamandis laughs. “It was all ‘I want to die! I hate my face!’ stuff. My childhood was really happy in many respects, but here was a diary saying I hated myself and wanted to die.”
It seems not even legions of devoted Marina & The Diamonds fans – many whom travel across Europe and the UK to catch multiple performances – can prevent Diamandis from black days. As she wrapped up touring The Family Jewels in Australia in late 2010, the gorgeous Welsh/Grecian beauty told Rip It Up “no one is ever truly happy”.
“Oh did I? Oh my God!” she gasps. “If you look at all the videos of me around the time of my Australian tour I look like I’m on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. I was so desperately unhappy I wanted to stop the whole campaign actually, and lucky old Australia was the last leg of it where I started saying my album was a failure, I hated pop and shitty American music. I think it’s not that hard to understand that sometimes artists rally against what they secretly want – and I wanted to be a pop artist. That was very clear from the beginning. I was a really unhappy person and it took a few months of not touring to see things with some perspective, which is when I wrote Fear And Loathing.”
It’s surprising to hear the Electra Heart concept, where imperfect archetypes dwell in a deluded pop dominion, was rapidly realised. When Diamandis was last in Australia she told Rip It Up, “I can’t be arsed with the pretentious bullshit and illusion aspect of the pop world. It’s just not in me and I don’t want to create some character that people can be in awe of.” The singer cackles loudly at her lack of vision.
“Well look what happened!”
I can’t believe a word you say, Ms Diamandis.
“I’m lying right now…”
Now that she’s enjoyed her first UK number one, there must be a certain compulsion to repeat the feat with her third album. Diamandis seems far too creative to go down that route, instead using this success to hopefully bring to fruition an experimental release that melds her Greek heritage with Kate Bush levels of melodic intricacy.
“It’s hard to change and make a jump and be quietly ambitious about that, but I think I am one of those artists who does that. It’s a shame to not explore your artistry and interest in music, so for me every album will sonically explore another part of my musical identity in some way. I have ideas, but I don’t want to talk about them now. We’ll see – I’ve got some stuff…”
A new hand embroidered Diamond patch shirt is available in Marina’s UK store! Each Diamond is hand made and is unique to every other shirt! Click here to purchase this or here to purchase other Merch including a Marilyn Diamonds carnation pink ring, a Marilyn Diamonds Cherry Blossom pink brooch and a frosted blue Diamond necklace with a gold chain.
