Electro pop princess, Marina and the Diamonds will play Lincoln’s Engine Shed, on Sunday October 14th, as part of her new Lonely Hearts Club UK tour.
Marina spoke to The Linc about her album, “Electra Heart,” bad hair days, and playing Lincoln for the first time.
It’s been a busy few weeks for the Welsh songstress. At the end of September, Marina revealed she spent nine months in a blonde wig after a hair disaster in an LA salon, although she laughs as she explains: “It was weird because no one knew I wasn’t really blonde.
“I’d been wearing this wig for nine months because my hair snapped off! It’s a girl’s worst nightmare! He [the hairdresser] was so blasé about it. He went: ‘You’ve got a bit of breakage’ and eight inches of hair fell to the ground.”
Just days before admitting her hairdressing incident, the release date for the “How To Be A Heartbreaker” video was pushed back. Marina explained: “It’s just one of those things with record labels. They give you a budget, they get the video back and you’re like one minute from posting it, then they’re like ‘actually, we don’t like it,‘ or ‘we don’t think you look nice.’ It hadn’t happened to me before so I tweeted about it in a very blunt way!”
Marina Lambrini Diamandis has come a long way from her small village upbringing in Wales. Debut album, “The Family Jewels” reached number five in the UK charts in 2010, and second album Electra Heart hit number one on its release back in April of this year – a long way away from her very first EP “Mermaid vs. Sailor” on handmade CDs.
Marina says she feels grateful to have made it: “I don’t feel like I’m in a different place, but it’s when you compare 2008 to 2012 and think it actually happened to me. A lot of my dreams came true. When you look at really good people not finding success, you think how easy it can be to slip through!”
“Diamonds” is both the Greek translation of her suname and a reference to her fans – who she says are much more varied thanks to album, Electra Heart: “It’s much more coherent. It’s an obvious electronic pop record, whereas ‘The Family Jewels’ was all over the place. I had lots of pop fans but also alternative fans, and all ages.”
Marina burst into laughter talking about having ‘older’ fans as well as younger audiences. She said: “The last UK tour I did was mainly teenage girls and either gay or older guys. It shouldn’t really be specified to one type of person or one age group!”
When it comes to image, it seems as though Marina has certain obsessions. Well known for her individualism and cute-kitsch sense of style, she creates a pop-couture persona that ties in with her music– inspired by everything from girly stereotypes to American culture.
However, Marina says she also has strong ideas behind the music itself: “Really, I wanted the whole album to be a rulebook for how you avoid getting hurt in love. I guess that translated into the image.
“I wanted to create a villainous character to live the album through. Electra Heart started out with pastel, hyper girly imagery but now it’s gone darker. I quite enjoy moulding the image to whatever song is out.”
At a time where the pop music industry seems self-obsessed with boy bands and reality TV style singing competitions, the strong vocals from Marina and the Diamonds, along with startlingly honest lyrics, seem like a breath of fresh air.
Marina says she feels pop music is in a good place: “I think the pendulum has swung back. There was a time when it was really generic. Now, you’ve got people like Florence and the Machine, Ellie Goulding, and La Roux – girls who didn’t really fit the prototype of what we thought a pop star was.”
Pop music culture is something Marina explored with album Electra Heart. She continues: “I feel like I kind of have conformed, ‘Primadonna’, ‘Heartbreaker’, and ‘Power and Control’ are the more synthetic songs production-wise. I was more interested in testing that pop formula and seeing how I could apply it to myself as a writer and an artist.
“I’m done with it now. I’ve explored it and been inspired to a certain degree. I think the next album will be different.”
Even the set for the new tour reflects Marina’s influences. She said: “It’s called ‘The Lonely Hearts Club,’ surrounding the fear of love and kind of a screwing people over theme.
“It’s like a cross between a sleazy hotel and a teen girls’ bedroom. There’s a tinge of a wedding feel about it.”
Now on her second full UK tour and having played to hundreds of thousands of people, Marina still enjoys travelling: “I don’t like being home for long periods of time. I’m quite a home body, but I think I’m not ready for that yet in my life. I feel like if I’m at home, I should be on the road!”
Playing Lincoln on Sunday October 14th, her tour touches on cities outside of the usual tour circuit. Marina says she is looking forward to seeing new places: “That’s what nice about this tour. Growing up I lived in a really tiny village in a tiny town, and no one ever really came there. Not that Lincoln’s like that!”
Marina gave a final message to her fans before the Lincoln date: “I just want you all to have fun. I want people to attach themselves to the character for an hour and 20 minutes, but that’s what pop should be.”
Tickets for Marina and the Diamonds’ Lonely Hearts Club tour are available on the Marina and the Diamonds website or via the Engine Shed box office.