Marcia: Vulnerability as Strength

With Mlog, her debut EP, Marcia introduces a singular voice at the crossroads of alternative pop, sharp electronics and raw, almost punk energy. Across nine autobiographical tracks, the artist shapes an intimate, free and deeply contrasted world, where humour, pain, resilience and femininity coexist without ever cancelling each other out. Conceived as a spontaneous, unfiltered kind of musical journal, Mlog reveals an artist who turns the shocks of reality into something vivid, poetic and profoundly embodied.

Marcia: Vulnerability as Strength

With Mlog, her debut EP, Marcia introduces a singular voice at the crossroads of alternative pop, sharp electronics and raw, almost punk energy. Across nine autobiographical tracks, the artist shapes an intimate, free and deeply contrasted world, where humour, pain, resilience and femininity coexist without ever cancelling each other out. Conceived as a spontaneous, unfiltered kind of musical journal, Mlog reveals an artist who turns the shocks of reality into something vivid, poetic and profoundly embodied.

  • When someone discovers Marcia for the first time, what would you want them to understand about you right away?

    I don’t know, a thousand things — but maybe that vulnerability is a strength.

  • Through your words, you come across as both radiant and funny, yet also touched by darker places. How would you define yourself?

    Human!!!!

  • Were there any artists or sensibilities you connected with early on, and that helped you find your own voice?

    Not particularly. I think my artistic expression is the sum of everything I’ve listened to that truly resonated with me. But it’s true that all the artists who have deeply moved me have one thing in common: they have nothing in common. Their work is singular, authentic, unique, and fully realised.

  • Mlog is your first project: what state of mind was it born from?

    I’ve since deleted everything I had posted everywhere, because I feel those things no longer represent me, but in truth I did maaaany other things before this. And it was precisely after honing my craft from every possible angle for 15 years that I finally felt I had found myself — both discovered and built myself. I feel like I finally found my language, one that rings true within me every time I play it or listen to it, even though several tracks on this EP were already four years old by the time Mlog came out, and even though I still have everything left to build and discover, both in music and in myself. That search for accuracy and resonance is, to me, endless.

  • When someone discovers Marcia for the first time, what would you want them to understand about you right away?

    I don’t know, a thousand things — but maybe that vulnerability is a strength.

  • Through your words, you come across as both radiant and funny, yet also touched by darker places. How would you define yourself?

    Human!!!!

  • Were there any artists or sensibilities you connected with early on, and that helped you find your own voice?

    Not particularly. I think my artistic expression is the sum of everything I’ve listened to that truly resonated with me. But it’s true that all the artists who have deeply moved me have one thing in common: they have nothing in common. Their work is singular, authentic, unique, and fully realised.

  • Mlog is your first project: what state of mind was it born from?

    I’ve since deleted everything I had posted everywhere, because I feel those things no longer represent me, but in truth I did maaaany other things before this. And it was precisely after honing my craft from every possible angle for 15 years that I finally felt I had found myself — both discovered and built myself. I feel like I finally found my language, one that rings true within me every time I play it or listen to it, even though several tracks on this EP were already four years old by the time Mlog came out, and even though I still have everything left to build and discover, both in music and in myself. That search for accuracy and resonance is, to me, endless.

  • Why this title, Mlog? What does it say about the way you write and tell your story?

    I think, above all, it announces the project’s intimate and raw nature. If Mlog refers to a blog, or a vlog in musical form, it’s because it was made without filters, in a completely spontaneous way.

  • In your work, there’s a powerful way of making the violence of reality coexist with writing that feels both poetic and unexpected. Where does that kind of writing come from?

    From life, which is exactly like that. If my musicality and my writing reflect my experience on earth, then they have to be as dense, rich, complex, nuanced, contrasted, chaotic, and simple as life itself.

  • “Plus jamais bleu” opens the project with something very striking, somewhere between fragility and irony. Why was this track the right doorway into your world?

    It’s the most extreme track on the project, and I think it could only be understood properly as an opening. I found it so particular in its interpretation that it was hard to imagine it being preceded by something, or introduced, or sandwiched between two other tracks. And if it had been placed at the end of the project, I would have found it pretentious. Also, chronologically speaking, it’s a song I wrote in 2021, so it is literally the first one that was written — the one that gave Mlog its direction.

  • “Paris vie” tells the story of an ambivalent relationship with Paris. Has this city ultimately transformed you in spite of yourself?

    Yes, I deeply believe that everything is always transforming us, all the time. I find this city very harsh, but there are also many opportunities hidden within it. It’s teeming. Sometimes it’s fertile and teeming, sometimes it’s filthy and teeming.

  • There are also sharper songs on the EP, almost like ironic settling of scores. Does acidic humour help you reclaim power in certain situations?

    I sincerely think humour, like music, saved my life. Going through hardship with humour as a tool is an absolute gift from heaven — it allows you to take a step back, and to develop a rich emotional palette. A huge blessing.

  • Why this title, Mlog? What does it say about the way you write and tell your story?

    I think, above all, it announces the project’s intimate and raw nature. If Mlog refers to a blog, or a vlog in musical form, it’s because it was made without filters, in a completely spontaneous way.

  • In your work, there’s a powerful way of making the violence of reality coexist with writing that feels both poetic and unexpected. Where does that kind of writing come from?

    From life, which is exactly like that. If my musicality and my writing reflect my experience on earth, then they have to be as dense, rich, complex, nuanced, contrasted, chaotic, and simple as life itself.

  • “Plus jamais bleu” opens the project with something very striking, somewhere between fragility and irony. Why was this track the right doorway into your world?

    It’s the most extreme track on the project, and I think it could only be understood properly as an opening. I found it so particular in its interpretation that it was hard to imagine it being preceded by something, or introduced, or sandwiched between two other tracks. And if it had been placed at the end of the project, I would have found it pretentious. Also, chronologically speaking, it’s a song I wrote in 2021, so it is literally the first one that was written — the one that gave Mlog its direction.

  • “Paris vie” tells the story of an ambivalent relationship with Paris. Has this city ultimately transformed you in spite of yourself?

    Yes, I deeply believe that everything is always transforming us, all the time. I find this city very harsh, but there are also many opportunities hidden within it. It’s teeming. Sometimes it’s fertile and teeming, sometimes it’s filthy and teeming.

  • There are also sharper songs on the EP, almost like ironic settling of scores. Does acidic humour help you reclaim power in certain situations?

    I sincerely think humour, like music, saved my life. Going through hardship with humour as a tool is an absolute gift from heaven — it allows you to take a step back, and to develop a rich emotional palette. A huge blessing.

  • Musically, Mlog moves between alternative pop, tense electronics, orchestral surges and an almost punk energy. Did you have that hybridity in mind from the beginning?

    I was simply desperately trying to sound true. I didn’t know what form that would take and I wasn’t expecting anything, but that eclectic side doesn’t surprise me, because as a human being I’m eclectic — and my music resembles me.

  • The cover of Mlog shows you pole dancing inside a Paris metro carriage: it’s a very powerful, very free image. What does it say about you?

    Maybe that absolute quest for singularity. For freedom, yes.

  • There’s a real reclaiming of the body, femininity and public space in your project. Is that something you consciously carry through your work?

    No, it comes completely naturally to me. I have no taboos, and I naturally believe that my body, my appearance, my freedom, my sexuality and my sensuality have nothing to prove to anyone. I don’t even see it as reclaiming anything — I belong to myself, I have only ever belonged to myself, and I will only ever belong to myself. And the world belongs to me. Just as it belongs to everything that exists. That said, it’s true that sometimes I think about the message it can send, seeing a girl shooting her video on the ground in the street with her ass out — and I looove the concept. The world is ours.

  • At Narcisse, we love the way fashion expresses an attitude before it even expresses a garment. Is your style a direct extension of your music?

    Yes, because everything I do, everything I choose, everything I build is a direct extension of me. So my music and my style are direct extensions of me. They’re twins.

  • Your music is at once raw, theatrical, pop and restless: if Mlog were a silhouette or a fashion piece, what would it look like?

    The silhouette of a woman, naked, wearing pleasers.

  • What do you hope people will take away from Mlog?

    I don’t know, a thousand things — but maybe that vulnerability is a strength.

  • Musically, Mlog moves between alternative pop, tense electronics, orchestral surges and an almost punk energy. Did you have that hybridity in mind from the beginning?

    I was simply desperately trying to sound true. I didn’t know what form that would take and I wasn’t expecting anything, but that eclectic side doesn’t surprise me, because as a human being I’m eclectic — and my music resembles me.

  • The cover of Mlog shows you pole dancing inside a Paris metro carriage: it’s a very powerful, very free image. What does it say about you?

    Maybe that absolute quest for singularity. For freedom, yes.

  • There’s a real reclaiming of the body, femininity and public space in your project. Is that something you consciously carry through your work?

    No, it comes completely naturally to me. I have no taboos, and I naturally believe that my body, my appearance, my freedom, my sexuality and my sensuality have nothing to prove to anyone. I don’t even see it as reclaiming anything — I belong to myself, I have only ever belonged to myself, and I will only ever belong to myself. And the world belongs to me. Just as it belongs to everything that exists. That said, it’s true that sometimes I think about the message it can send, seeing a girl shooting her video on the ground in the street with her ass out — and I looove the concept. The world is ours.

  • At Narcisse, we love the way fashion expresses an attitude before it even expresses a garment. Is your style a direct extension of your music?

    Yes, because everything I do, everything I choose, everything I build is a direct extension of me. So my music and my style are direct extensions of me. They’re twins.

  • Your music is at once raw, theatrical, pop and restless: if Mlog were a silhouette or a fashion piece, what would it look like?

    The silhouette of a woman, naked, wearing pleasers.

  • What do you hope people will take away from Mlog?

    I don’t know, a thousand things — but maybe that vulnerability is a strength.

Photographers - ALEX BRUNET & OLGA VAROVA