MARY



"A Heavenly Voice"

Interview with with the great singer/songwriter Marie Ingerslev

By Sergio Vilar

Hello Marie, would like me you to talk us a little about your history. Please, count us about your beginnings, of your musical evolution... and of the most important thing: As you became vocalist…
I have been singing as long as I can remember. When I was 8 I had my first audition and got into a music school for singers. I remember rehearsing the song I should sing sitting under the grand piano in my home. I early knew what it meant to give the best I could. And back then I also had started writing my own songs on that piano. I met a guy living almost on my street and he played drums and had a father who was a jazz musician. So of course we made a duo playing my songs in the streets, and at schools + we invited people we accidentally met in the neighbourhood to come down with us in the basement to listen to our music... and they did, so we put up chairs like at a real concert. The drummerS father had much fun working with us in his studio, therefore early in my life I had the opportunity to record my songs. And you ask me about when I became a vocalist, - I really did a lot of singing there, and made improvised backing vocals to my own voice. Also, I come out of a very musical family, we always sang together while driving in the car - all kinds of improvised songs, both classical and rhythmical. Beside of this, I was a singer/lead singer in a local choir and we toured around in the world and made a few records. Back then it was still called 'records', I liked real records.

Who were the artists that have influenced you in your formative stage?
My parents got a record with Egberto Gismonti from Brazil, that music influenced me I'm sure. It was both complex, and went strait to the heart. My dad played The Beatles over and over again, explaining me the many layers to John Lennon lyrics. Today I love lyrics you can read or hear in different levels and dimensions. And I love long-term music, music you can hear again and again, because it teaches you something every time you listen from a different state of mind. I also heard a lot of Bach, my grandfather was a classical piano player and conductor, so the roots go back there.

At the moment who your relating ones are at artistic level?
I feel inspired by many different artist, doesn't have to be musicians, but the modern sound of Radiohead for example. I think they changed something in the music world and took most of us by surprise. And at the time I learned about them, there was very little that could surprise me. In general so much great music never sees the surface, because we are living in a money-world. So I always take a deep breath when I hear something good that have managed to be popular music, though it's not 'a pleaser' or trying to be something it is not. I like music with many layers, both lyrically and musically.

What are you attracted by but of your work like vocalist?
The voice is an amazing instrument, you - everybody - are carrying it around and just have to open up your mouth and sing ! And still, it can be so hard. You have to choose how to sing, and what you want to say. It is words with a melody. Or it is a melody without words, sometimes saying even more than words can say. When I sing I define the tones as if I was painting in the air. I love vocalists who speak from the heart. I feel that if you do that, you can't sing completely out of tune. Maybe I'm wrong. But is has something to do with the mussels in the belly. When you, for example, cry, something happens in the belly, and that is because you are true to what you feel. And the same goes for singing. But you have to believe it yourself, you have to believe IN yourself and that higher purpose of why you are doing what you are doing. I can often be very insecure before opening my mouth and singing. Feel like a wrack. But I know, that I can't 'kind of sing', I have to do it with all I have in me. And then there is a process of learning how 'not to give too much', so you won't be lying on the floor afterwards. It is a really difficult balance, still haven't quite got it. It is also for the sake of the audience, you have to give them some space as well. Space is important when it comes to singing, you have to let the air carry the tones too.  

Was my first contact with your music through the excellent one "In The Head Of A Dreamer". Which is the general idea of the album?
First of all the songs where chosen out of many, but chosen to fit each other, though the musical styles are a few. We recorded 13 songs, but took out 9 of them. Some people don't like when you mix up genres. But, growing up with The Beatles, it is not a totally wild thing to do. For me it is natural, and I don't like the idea of putting music in little boxes... yes if the songs fit. But if they don't, you should let them free. When I write songs I never think ' this has to be a rock song' for example. What comes naturally, feels like being right. So the CD is a mixture of genres, but still I feel it has much that binds it together. Maybe that is the way I write, the musicians I love to play with, the general feeling of a dreaming universe, the lyrics, the sensibility and strength I hope that it has. “In The Head Of A Dreamer” contains much passion, and deeper thoughts of life and death. Some has described it as being magic, and some haven't understood it at all. It is music you have to give time to listen to, and in this world we are in such a stressful vibe. I'm grateful to those who took the time, whether they came to love it or not.

Well, could you give us a brief impression about the songs and of the lyrics of the album? To what does it aim the message of your songs?
I'm hoping to met people in their hearts, instead of their brains. I think the heart is more intelligent. And I hope I tell stories of fantasy or real life that just came to me because they should. Some of the lyrics are more like questions, and some of the lyrics put it all upside down, and makes a ring of words. Like in “All the way around”: 'It all ends and it all begins, at the same place, somehow everything is looking round, the feeling of falling might be rising, the total of blindness, might be realising. The lost might be the found, after traveLing all the way around, anything is real, if only that is how you feel.'

That is probably a maintheme in my songs, that you can look at life from different angels. That is what is saving myself. It all depends on how you see things, what glasses you wear. I can only hope that someone will listen to what I try to say and can use it... that would be awesome.

The title song: 'All the things that never happen, happen anyway, in the head of a dreamer', is about those who might never take the step outside the dreams and visit reality. It is only a privilege if you never realize WHY you only managed to live as a dreamer. So the song is both a provoking and respectful hymNE to the dreamers we all can be.

Where do you find your inspiration? Which your reasons are to write and to compose music?
I think music is my channel. I can be so insecure if people will like what I do or not, but it never changes the need of singing and composing. And that need is bigger than all the insecure lack of selfconfidence. So I kind of overcome it all the time. It is like a big sign, and if I don't read what it says, my life is a mess. It has always been my way of communicating from a deeper level than a nice handshake.
Inspiration comes from all I go through emotionally, but also from nature. From all the amazingness about this world that is totally out of my hands.

Marie, how would you describe us your scenic acting? Do you consider that the reaction of the public to a feminine vocalist is different with relationship to that of a masculine vocalist?
Hmmm... that is a good question. I think we all are both masculine and feminine. Of course there is a difference between a man and a woman. But most of all it comes down to the power of the artist. I don't think that we, in this country, discriminate men from woman. But there is a huge difference between a sensitive singer/songwriter and a rapper-guy on stage. Of course. There is not much room for singer/songwriters over here. We are many!... but like I wrote earlier, it is a very stressed world.

What music type do you usually listen? Can you be that you have been listening lately?
I listen to the wind. Best music ever. Or the sea. But I mostly like calming music, something that gives me peace in mind. Lately I have been listening to many artist on 'MY SPACE', and think it is amazing to hear all kinds of different music and so many talentED people I've never heard of before.

When don't you make what a music you like to make?
I have not yet got in a situation where I had to make music I didn't like to make. Thank god. But I've been one of the frontfigures in an 80's discoband, for example, and that was not really my personal style, but I had so much fun singing those songs in front of huge audiences.

What do you tell me of the near future, do you have thought to publish a new CD this year?
I would love to record and publish a new CD. But I need money for making it, or a company that will support me... so people out there - look out for us!

www.marysongs.dk

 

Nucleus interview: 29/09/06