"I think every song is a story, big or small." MarMar Talks New Single, Creative Process, and Collaboration with arnii

As a C-Heads reader, you may already be familiar with MarMar. The young artist is busy releasing atmospheric, indie-electronic music that invites you to dream. His new single, “Stay,” is a versatile and emotionally rich track featuring a collaboration with Australian artist arnii. As MarMar shares, “The thing that always seems to drive the creation process is emotion.” And the new release has much to offer in this regard.

arnii adds: “Stay is a song about the process of falling out of love and missing someone even though you know they’re no good for you. It’s about all the pieces that make up a person and the strange parts that you miss when you’re not together anymore.” We wanted to know more about the inspiration behind this new release and the creative process that brought it to life.

photography by Juliette Tarnus

It’s great to have you back with us, MarMar! Last time we spoke, you were excited about the release of your “Feel Okay EP.” Now, with your new single “Stay” featuring arnii, it’s a step outside your recent work. In what ways does this single differ from your previous releases?

Hey guys! Great to be talking with you again! The creative process for this one was super different for me. I had tons of fun with the sound design. It was also great to break away from the structure of the EP and be totally free to take any direction I wanted to following it. Like a blank canvas.

My friend Tom aka Britto introduced me to his friend arnii and we have been making music together for a few months now. Something really stuck with “Stay” for both of us. It was so cool to have so many songs in the works but to just know that this one was special.

You mentioned that “Stay” is one of your favorite instrumentals you’ve made recently. What aspects of the instrumental do you feel particularly proud of?

I have been super inspired by this sort of detuned monochord idea I’ve been hearing a lot recently, and gave it a go with “Stay.” It’s a weird instrumental for me, super minimal and emotional, and I quite liked the process of just finding new unique sounds for it.

“The thing that always seems to drive the creation process is emotion.”

What message or feeling do you hope listeners take away from “Stay,” especially those who might be dealing with the process of falling out of love and missing someone?

I am so thankful to be with the love of my life now, but am quite familiar with this feeling of falling out of love. The path to get here was quite difficult and that feeling was a nightmare to go through. You can be sad about losing someone and hate things that that person did at the same time. It’s quite a complicated feeling. So I just hope people feel like “Stay” is theirs. Like they can relate to the lyrics and know other people have been going through that same thing.

How do you decide which themes to explore in your music?

It depends truly. The thing that always seems to drive the creation process is emotion. So often the theme is the emotion I am feeling when I write music.

You are producing a lot of new music lately. How do you stay inspired when working on new projects?

I think it’s like a snowball thing for me. When I get momentum with a bunch of new stuff, it inspires me to keep creating. It’s exciting to me to have a ton of new songs in the works at once, so I will just write and write and write until I get those songs out.

“I am so thankful to be with the love of my life now, but am quite familiar with this feeling of falling out of love.”

What is your favorite part of the production process?

I get into this sort of trance when writing sometimes. Like I know where everything needs to go in the song and how it should sound, even though it hasn’t been done yet. There is always this time in that process where I stop and walk around my room where I make music and just blast the tune on my monitors. If I make it to that point where I am lost in thought and lost in creation for a few hours, then I know a song is special. That whole process is my favorite. It feels like a song has been sent to me and that I am lucky to uncover it.

How important is storytelling in your music?

Crucial. I think every song is a story, big or small.