A couple of months ago the lovely Marika Hackman released her debut mini-album That Iron Taste for the world to hear. The remarkably talented 21 year old champions a brooding and at times, dark style of folk music that is beautiful to say the least. Since the release she has been making waves overseas which we’re betting will be hitting our shores in the not-too-distant future. Her hauntingly beautiful voice coupled with some captivating guitar skills make for an enchanting sound that is stealing hearts both near and far. The record is a collection of heartfelt tracks that showcase the lyrical finesse, intricate storytelling and slightly off-kilter sounds she’s all about and if you’re yet to give it a spin -- we’d recommend getting to it STAT. 

Being relatively new to the Australian scene, we imagine that the future holds brilliantly bright things for the young English chanteuse and we can’t wait to watch the adventure unfold. On her recent whirlwind tour of the country, we spent a few moments with Marika to discuss the music of Led Zeppelin, bringing Kurt Cobain back to life for a day and that one time in Sydney when a fly made a point of getting up her nose. Read on. 

BM // Welcome to Australia -- is this the first time you’ve played alongside Laura? How did that come to be?

MH // Yes it is! The shows have been really really good, I’ve enjoyed them so much and the crowds have been great, I think with the venue’s which have all been big churches its a given that everyone will sit down, listen to you and be really into it. As well as the fact that they’re there to see Laura play, so its the type of audience that are into the music and really appreciate it. They’re been absolutely amazing and I’ve enjoyed every single one. This is the first time we’ve toured with her, I played a couple of shows with her in England when she did this kind of secret-cinema event where everyone had to dress up in 20s themed clothes. It was in this big, old school that was decked out like a hotel and the idea was for it to be an immersive experience. I played at one of those shows so we got talking and the next day I got a text from my manager asking me if I wanted to tour Australia with Laura Marling in a week.. So I said okay! 

BM // Your mini-album That Iron Taste was released a little earlier this year and I’ve got to say, it’s spectacular. Was it long in the making?

MH // Well I recorded it late last year and I only spent about a week in the studio. Two of the track’s I’d worked on earlier so that sped things up but it was still quite a quick thing. Some of the songs on their have been around for a while, like I wrote Bath is Black when I was about 17 and still at school and I’m 21 now so that’s been around for the last 4 years. Some of them were only written a few months before we took them into the studio so there’s quite a wide spread on there. I thought because its my first release and the songs all worked quite well together I’d show the kind of development throughout the record. It was also really fun to work on the ones that were four years old, I guess we just took them into the studio, forgot about the demo and re-did them to see what would happen. It was just a nice process to breathe some new life into them. 

BM // Do you have a favourite track from the record?

MH // That’s like asking if I have a favourite child..!

BM // Well how about one that stands out a little more than the rest....?

MH // I guess it goes in waves, I like to perform Plans because it makes my sound engineer cry.. And I suppose I like to make her cry. Bath is Black I’ve been performing for so long that its almost muscle memory, but that said I do really enjoy playing it. It really does vary, but I think Plans is one that I do look forward to a lot. 

BM // Can you tell me the story behind Plans then?

MH // Its sort of about feeling a bit weird and sad and a bit odd really, but to the extent where it feels quite oppressive and stopping you from doing a lot of things. I guess it is a very sad one, but it is I guess about getting some of that feeling out.

BM // How do you usually write your music? Is it the lyrics or the melody that come first -- or do they happen together? 

MH // I spend a lot of time sitting in my room with various guitars, I don’t really write on anything else and sort of fiddle around with it. I play old stuff, I play covers, just try different things and if nothing’s happening I’ll go and try to work on other stuff. Usually I’ll get a little idea, a bit of a melody and some chords, then I’ll start working on it and bits of lyric will pop in -- its all very organic. As much as I do sit down to work on songs, sometimes I can’t even really remember, (not in a cheesy and lame way,) but I can’t really remember what’s actually happened to get from A to B with a song. It just happens. Then other times I’ll be working on a song for months and months and it never seems to go anywhere and suddenly something will click and it’ll become my favourite song. 

BM // If you could write a song with any other musician in the world, dead or alive, who do you think that would be? 

MH // The first person that comes to mind would be Kurt Cobain. I don’t know if it would be fun, but it would just be really cool to work with him. I think it would be a really cool song too, it would be great to do a duet. I think we’d write something quite grungy together but it would err vaguely on a side of folk as well. I think in a way -- this is going to sound really weird -- but I think his writing already had a bit of folk in it. Some of his melodies just seem that way to me. So yes, I think I’d choose him.

BM // What sort of music did you listen to growing up? Do you think that has influenced what you create now?

MH // Load of different things. My parents have a very wide taste in music, I mean one of mum’s favourites is Led Zeppelin so I always used to have that on in the car on the way to school, or Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkle, Pink Floyd. I think just listening to a bed of amazing writers is going to sink in somehow and they’ve all got different kinds of writing styles so there’s a lot to be learnt. There are bits that have always stuck in my head and made me think about them. I mean, people don’t really link Led Zeppelin to my music but I think that sort of stuff has definitely influenced me in some ways. 

BM // Favourite musical moment thus far?

MH // Well I’m not a massive gig-goer, which is really bad, and I’m terrible at finding new music. But I remember when I was at college and someone was selling a couple of Warpaint tickets and I just thought fuck it -- I’ll go. So I bought those and at that point they weren’t really well known, but it was amazing. There were probably only about 150 people there so it was pretty special. I’m sure there’s been some really amazing times when I’ve played, but nothing comes to mind right away! Actually, in Sydney a couple of weeks ago I was on stage playing quite a sombre song and about half way through it I noticed there was, what I first thought was a piece of dust, floating around in front of me. I then noticed it was moving itself around and I realised it was a fly drifting towards me and I thought oh no -- I can see what’s going to happen, then sure enough as I inhaled to sing my next note this fly went straight up my nose. I had to stop mid song and apologise. So I just snorted it out, had a bit of a laugh and went straight back into the song.