Interview: Marika Hackman

Sitting down on a wobbly stool at an upturned barrel in the neon-dim glow of Brighton's Green Door Store, I can hear 22 year old Marika Hackman and her live band running through their sound check some 20 meters away behind a thick, black curtain. The eerie psychedelia of her songs lend themselves perfectly to this two room venue as promoters, tour hands and one intrepid barman buzz around in preparation for the finale of Marika's headline UK tour.

As the sound check begins to wind up and the barman turns on some ambient music for the various industry folk now circling him, a diminutive figure emerges from behind the black curtain and approaches my barrel, cheerfully introducing herself as Marika before perching atop her own precarious seat. We begin to chat about her day and her return to Brighton but being the professional that I am, I forget to start recording our conversation. Realising my rookie error, we pick up halfway through Marika energetically talking about her time at Uni here.

Marika Hackman: ...I did an Art Foundation, erm, three years ago at City College and I lived down here for a year, It was probably the most fun year I've ever had. I had such a good time just, moving down here, moving away from home for the first time was part of it I guess. My house was right in the center of town so everyone always just used to come to mine. It was just really, really fun cause people were always round and the course was so much fun as well - it was nice just to be doing art every day and painting.

Stereofox: So then you decided that you wanted to switch over to doing music?

MH: Yeah, well I did the odd gig when I was down here and I was obviously still writing and making demo's and stuff like that; but when it came to actually having to shell out for a Uni degree I just thought, actually I might have a crack at the whole music thing.

SF: Well it turned out pretty well... It could be going a lot worse! So anyway, how has the tour been? You started off in Edinburgh...

MH: Yeah so we started off in Edinburgh and it's been really great. [She stops and motions towards a guy who walks past us headed for the stage] That's our drummer who just walked past, he had tonsillitis for the first week. He was hospitalised and wasn't with us, so me and my multi- instrumentalist Paul did a stripped back set without any key samples or anything, we just did it in the first sound check in Edinburgh and worked on it every night. After that week we got [her drummer] George back and we've just been having loads of fun. The shows have all been great, very varied; different types of venue, different audience sizes, very different stage setups as well. Some of the smaller venues were done acoustic as a threesome or twosome, and then full band in clubbier venues and cafes.

SF: If you had to pick one, what has your highlight been of the tour?

MH: Highlights... Well, Bristol was a really special show. That was in a cafe [The Birdcage] which meant we couldn't have the keys and the drum kit, so the three of us just did a stripped down session. Amazingly the show sold out as well which is always extremely exciting. [we joke about the Brighton show being rumoured to have also sold out] Yeah I've been told, I need to go check actually but, word on the street... But yeah, the place was just rammed and it's a sweet venue. It's loads of armchairs, sofas and lamps but there were just people everywhere, on every surface or standing there and we played this intimate, quiet show and the atmosphere was just amazing; that was a real highlight. Also the London show [at XOYO] was a blast!

SF: So your album We Slept At Last is due out in February and you've released the first track, "Drown". What's the reaction been like?

MH: I think we play about seven songs off the album which is really fun, we want to play the new material and show everyone. The response has been really good, people have picked up on that and tweeted about it like, "oh, the new stuff sounded great" which is always nice to hear when you've got a record coming out.

SF: You've got twelve tracks on the new album, how much of that is new material? Have you dusted off any old demos to rework them?

MH: It was all pretty much brand new. There's one song on there, "Skin", I did as a duet with Sivu which we released on tape a year ago and "Here I Lie" is on there but it's been changed up a bit. Those are the only older ones, everything else I wrote earlier this year.

SF: Talking of changing songs up, you've been working with Charlie Andrew (producer of Alt-J's albums), has he been an influence in getting a grander sound from your songs and throwing ideas into the mix?

MH: He's very experimental and so am I. We have very similar ideas about things but we also know when to stop. We both had a clear idea of what we wanted to do, what we like and what we don't like, it's very lucky. We're never telling each other "no that's a terrible idea", one of us will suggest something and the other will be like... "let's do it let's just try it!" We were keen to try stuff out when it came to the record, playing and exploring new instruments that neither of us can really play and just trying to play them.

SF: So have you discovered any instruments or techniques that you normally wouldn't have used?

MH: We've been using pretty much the same setup we always use, like the pedal I have on my live setup. I've got a vintage pod pedal which has got nice de-tuned octaves on it and we went out and bought some instruments like a sarangi and a dilruba that we used on one track. The sarangi sounds like a whale or like a human voice howling cause it's got these gut strings and sympathetic strings underneath - you slide your finger up and down it rather than using a fret. You hold your nail against it and because you're sliding it, it's got the really eerie echo. But generally we have 'go to' instruments in the studio that we wanted to use. There's a whole load of instruments in that room and I bring my own. Taxi drivers hate me when I'm like, "Hi!" and there's ten different boxes that are all really heavy!

 

SF: You've said in the past that you're a big fan of the confessional poet Sylvia Plath, do you think that kind of darkness inspires you when you write songs or is it all straight out of your head?

MH: It is all straight out of the head but when I read stuff like that and watch films or whatever that are kind of dark, I get a kind of sick enjoyment out of it; I'm drawn to that. I'll never consiously think I'm gonna write something in this vein or I'm gonna use this as inspiration, It just comes out and I go with it. It's like a venting. Letting that darkness out without it getting to me too much.

SF: So your album. Is it all recorded or are there some finishing touches needing to be made?

MH: It's all mastered, everything. The machinery has been made to press the vinyl, we're just getting the final images done for the artwork and then it'll go into production. I'm so excited, it'll be a relief to get it out there. I'm really happy with it and it's been really enjoyable the whole way through. I can't wait for people to hear it.

SF: You said a while back that Green Door was one of your favourite places to play, how does it stack up to other venues now you've had the chance to play around the world?

MH: Well I liked to come and hang out here when I lived here, so I'm really excited to play tonight. I've got to say abroad, Europe is always a real treat, especially in Germany the crowds are really lovely, though I've only really done support stuff. Going out there to support, you kind of expect to be talked over but they all come early to see the support acts and you don't get that so much in other places. During the songs they'll be like, really quiet then in between they'll be like "YEEEAAH!" and going crazy and you're just like, "oh my god... you love me". Then you stage dive. Me and an acoustic guitar. In a quiet set...

Listen to the audio below to hear us asking Marika some quickfire questions. We talk poetry, monopoly and sleeping in a Sunday roast.

Marika's debut album We Slept At Last will release February 2015 on Dirty Hit Records and you can pre-order it via the link at the top of the page.