Tuesday, 30 June 2009

DIAMOND JUMPS SHIP.



JEWEL ALERT!

I have moved my blog across to www.marinaandthediamonds.com. I want more space than my lil 'ole blogger.com can provide so asked my online team if we could create my own internet world. A fairy somewhere in the world clicked her fingers and all of my dreamz are coming true.

Hope you will follow me there. <3 
Marina

Thursday, 25 June 2009

WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU.

It's here!

My first ever music video, 'I am not a Robot', Directed by Rankin & Chris.


Monday, 22 June 2009

FREE IN FARRINGDON.


I am performing at Puregroove in Farringdon tomorrow night (Tuesday) for my launch of 'The Crown Jewels' 7" release!

The gig is FREE and we are also serving up free Pimms for all diamond fans.

Please come by and say hi. I can't reveal anything BUT ALL I CAN SAY is that there are gonna be loads of '2009 type synthz girl soundz', loadsa of 'kool drugz' & probz Mischa Barton .

YaY!!!!!!!!!*

On a serious note, it will be a chilled night in the best record shop in the uk, which now also functions as a BAR. Brilltown idea, hey?

Marina x

Go to puregroove.co.uk for maps and more info.

Saturday, 20 June 2009

IT'S SHITNEY, BITCH.


The Britney Obsession definitely correlates with your age and sex- i.e. if you were a 14 year old teen girl when she broke world wide, you  will probably find it hard not to love her. If you were a 44 year old man when she broke world wide, you will probably find it hard not to love her.
I mention her a lot when I'm asked about inspiration and I feel like people laugh a bit, like 'Oh you!'.  But she was a captivating performer, had a genuinely good singing voice when she was young and had worked SINCE SHE WAS 8. 

So my friend Cara and I trotted off to the 02 Arena filled with nervous glee 3 weeks ago. Place was filled with 3-50 yr old girls and women dressed in cheap Hen Night costumes- we took to our seats nervously, waiting for Brit Brit to come onstage. 
When she did, we both literally cried (or at least my face contorted a bit and my eyes welled with tears for a minute). She is our teenage idol, everyone. We could not react differently. I was shocked that I felt so intense seeing as she was a billion feet from me but its Britney Spears.

We both thought the show was great for a while but the cracks kinda started to show half way through. "Do these low end pole dancer moves count as actual performing? Does everything have to be so blatantly sexual that it doesnt actually feel very sexy? Why is she still feeling the need to dance in a bra and knickers?"

Britney is not really performing at the moment, yall. She is not singing, she is not relying on an out-of-this-world toned body- so I ask the question- What is she? Is she an artist anymore? Does she play an instrument? Does she write songs? Is she even real? Feel its a shame and feel its going to be a while until we see something that feels like real human gold again. I felt like she was a mannequin. She barely interacted with the crowd, the choreography was appalling and reminiscent of something you'd see in a strip joint. I was more surprised than disappointed. If your not busting out dance moves, please sing for me at least and show me some kind of reason for why I'm here..

 Feel like her and her camp are relying on her brand and name. I am having to question her strength as an artist: Madonna was a visionary and pioneer. Brit Brit can take still her clothes off, ten years down the line. Bravo. Sad.

(PLEASE LORD DO NOT SMITE ME FOR CRITICISING BRITNEY- ITS THE FIRST TIME I'VE EVER SAID SOMETHING BAD ABOUT OUR GIRL BUT I AM SO SCURRED SHE IS BECOMING A PREDICTABLE EMPTY DOLL)

Now don't get me wrong- I will follow her loyally for the rest of my life. I am convinced she's going through a bad patch. She had a nervous breakdown and shouldn't really be expected to be breaking out the dance moves. But I just find it weird that talent can disappear so obviously. Its like they have all the boxed ticked now: She looks great and all, is working, world tour etc but is there anything moving behind the eyes?!  Seems like she doesn't have the confidence to perform at the moment and that is why the show wasn't that good. Feel sad cause feel like she thinks she is only worth something if she is the pre-baby hot body Britney rocking the weird virginal image ad nauseum.

Point of this post: I was bummed that I didn't catch a glimpse of the Old Britney anywhere in the show.

Bottom line: Even if she bins pop and branches out in Bavarian Nose Flute Anthems 'R US when she's 68, I will still buy it and I will still be there front-centre gyrating around in the shitty £25 merch t-shirt I bought at the O2 Arena (''Cause it's a CLASSIC yall..'')

"YEAH, WE MET IN A CHAT ROOM IN 1992"


I had a writing block for two weeks ya'll and I thought about it and panicked and worried about it and felt like had nothing of interest to say. The more I stayed away from blogville tennessee, the harder it felt to go back- I think it is may a case of e.g. running: if you dont exercise go for two weeks, you will suffer on your first day back at it. 

It is kind of good I did not go on internet for two weeks as I felt my brain was going crazy/imploding and I was  being mean and angry to people. I felt depressed about 'things' but I turned a new leaf for first time in about 4 months on thursday. I usually note things down everyday- things that inspire me/ things I want to ask you guys/ topics of convo etc. But for days and days and then weeks and weeks, I started to feel like nothing was fun or exciting anymore and that nothing was worth anything, void of inspiration. I wanted to shut up. I wanted my brain to shut up. And so it did. 

Sometimes it is hard when you have wanted something for a very long time. Success can eat you alive and also lift you high. I have not tasted the kind of success that I crave yet but I suppose I am on 'this road' and have found  I have had to make some significant decisions the past 2 months that have made me question who I want to be/ How I want to live my life/ What kind of message I want to give out. I have been a Moaning Minnie in some blog posts. Sometimes I cringe and wish I had never written them. I cringe to think I may have been exposed as weak/ low self esteem/ lacking in self belief when in reality I can take quite a lot of bullshit and I believe in my abilities to the bitter end. I guess the internets became my 'friend' as I could confide and reveal everything that was in my head without getting tongue-tied and being embarrassed/ experiencing social discomfort.

This brings me onto my topic of the day: Internet dating. 

It is a tricky subject as even if any of you have done it, nobody will admit to doing it. Internet dating is preserved for freaks & loser only, right?  People seem really prejudiced about the topic but it seems a more logical/ admirable way of meeting 'compatible' people for friendship/ otherwise at times than snorting some kind of horse tranquilizer in a ''kool lundun hangout''/ translation: Shyte-hole of the East.
 
In the beginning, in 1997, we all knew that it was only geeks/ socially inept/ divorced + old people who went on 'AOL Chat Roomz' to find 'the love of their lives'. The idea of finding someone on the internet was slightly exotic but also creepy. But as the internet grew, so did Internet dating. Last year, I noticed a slew of adverts all over London Underground Transport about ''Match.com'' and other such sites. Around that time, I remember being in a vintage store in Brick Lane where I heard two middle aged ladies talking about some dating site where the men and women asked each other if they were 'homeowners' before agreeing to go on a date. How she had gone on a date with some idiot (sounded like he was gay tbh) who made her feel even more desperate about her singleton status. Are we all a bit work- money -success mad nowadays? Do women and men really have no time to meet anymore? What followed were statistics in newspapers about ''lonely londoners''  about how women were choosing careers over men and babies and had no time to find hot dudes and how apparently 30% of londoners used dating sites. Higher percentage than I would've thought.

 I can see the pros . I have seen the pros. It is hard enough to find one person you can 'love' in the whole of the UK, let alone London. I have only had 3 boyfs in 8 years so I am no expert but I have never found someone special 'normally' in a pub/ club / 'socialising hot spots' in London. 

When Myspace and Facebook came along, it started to become slightly more acceptable to get to know people in this way. I met one of my now best friends on Myspace. I think he is a bit embarrassed about the way we met but I am not. I remember telling everyone in such an excited way, as if this was the new way of making friends- assuming Myspace was a gold mine of compatible people, just waiting out there to befriend you (LOL- WAKE UP, MARINA). 
He changed everything and my life quite literally did a U-turn through knowing him. So Internet dating suddenly got opened up to hot people and was not just cornered off for freaks anymore and thanks to Myspace, 1 million emo guys + girls got it on, judgement-free, between 2004-2008 - R.I.P Myspace. 

Makes me wonder, yall. All these social networking sites.. are they ruining our friendships or opening up a new world where we can find people with similar interests much more easily? What is this culture of self-obsession-Twitter-status-thingy leading to? A life lived out on the internet? Cause that is totally possible.. all you need is to have your groceries delivered to your door each week  (go tesco.com to order). I dont even like Twatter but I have an account- I deleted the first one because I decided Twitter was bad for friendships/ the human race, only to cave and set up 'The Diamonds Club'' 2 weeks later. Now I can't delete the second one cause A) I will look like an unhinged moron B) It is now (correctly) considered a 'work tool' in the music industry. I am stuck with Twitter- I don't not like it but I don't actually like it. I don't know what to do. Seems like one more thing to worry about. Maybe life is full of those. Myspace dies, FaceyB is dying and Twitter is ruling now.

Wonder whether we will all bother going out for 'a coffee and a chat' in 30 yrs or have an emotional need for relationships past our husband/wife? Why bother when you can see what all your friends are doing every min of the day, what a great night they're having, how in love they, who did what 'crazy' thing at a partay?

To drive my point home, my best friend saw sites like Myspace as 'a filter'. You could tell whether you would get on with someone a lot more quickly through e-mails/ music tastes etc. 

What do you think yall?
-What is your fave way to meet people? 
-Do you use the internet for more than 2+ hours a day to 'keep in touch' with people?
-Is this weird/ unatural? Is just how our generation is evolving?
- Have you met someone on the internet before- boy or girl, friendly or otherwise?
- If not, would you?

Would love to know your thoughts.

Thursday, 18 June 2009

WAR IS OVER.




Hello everyone! 

We have brilliant sunshine in London this morning and the video for 'I am not a Robot' is almost ready.

It was directed by Rankin & Chris.
I hope that you will like it. 

All diamonds signed up to the mailing list will get the exclusive preview of it in their mailboxes along with (i know its hard to cope with the excitement of this...) biweekly newsletters from yours truly.

*You can sign up to the mailing list by going to my Myspace page.

I hope you're all okay.  
Marina x

Tuesday, 2 June 2009

I AM ACTUALLY NOT A ROBOT.


Have finally got to point where don't care about pop anymore. Don't mean pop music in general but rather the pressure to be pop and to have an album full of choruses. JUST. CHORUSES.

Love it that record labels are so obsessed with an act having 12 'POTENTIAL NO.1 SINGLES' on an album that they actually forget that there needs to be a tiny bit of soul in the music in order for 'the dumb masses' to swallow it. NEWS FLASH: It is not 1985 and people no longer buy shit cds.

Heard the other day that one particular major label is starting to look for acts again that have 3-4 hot single songs and 8 great album tracks. That is quite refreshing. I am very glad to be back in the realm of i-dont-care land again and think I shall stay here for a while. Not even bothered about when album is released-as long as the timing feels right and I am 100% confident that I am delivering a gem to whoever buys it (Hello again, Mother..).
Don't even find failure that scary when I imagine myself being 100% convinced that this record represents me and not 50,000 other people's sounds. Imagine if you compromised on an album because you thought it would make it successful, only for the album to fail. You would want to kick yourself in the cranium, wouldn't you. Imagine sitting in your fat-man sweat pants in front of 'My Super Sweet 16' for 7 days crying because you could have 'succeeded' if you'd done it your own way. Nobody likes a gal in sweatpants- Everybody likes 'My Super Sweet 16'.

Am open to the idea that my album may come out in January. Feel no need to rush now. Aware that these days the ''dumb masses'' move on quickly and everyone likes 'hit me hit me quick with the big fat chorus' tracks but I'm not really into that. One day I will post one of my old songs, before I even knew what a chorus really was, for comic value (this was only 18 months ago. I started late. I was no Britney.). Writing songs for the joy of writing and not because you are writing them so that you can be a Poop Star or get love on radio 1. My true dream is to become successful for what I do naturally, proving to people that you do not have to replicate other people's popular qualities in order to become popular.

I know and feel like I don't have the energy to do the whole 'I'm a perfect shiny pop star' act. And sometimes feel guilty for that. Obviously I sound cynical but that world does not satisfy me because it is hollow and shitty and fake. It feels almost sinful to contemplate spending my life on things like that. I dont think I can imagine trying to get into the celebrity magazine culture and making sure I was 'spotted' going shopping or whatever to stay 'current'. Find it kinda boring and the schmooze-factor of such worlds leaves me feeling angry that I just wasted 'x' hrs talking to a bunch of dick heads when I could have been thinking about something awesome on my own at home. That is why I prefer to talk to bloggers, because they are like me and don't care if I a spot on my face/ don't know or care what is the hottest new designer bag is. I feel like there is a time and a place for the shiny pop act and my time and place will come. But I think there is a lot more to life and a lot more to the 'dumb masses' than we give ourselves credit for.

Apologies for the subject of music tonight on the bog Have liked steering my blog away from it but we all slip up.

Back soon.