Life in Color with Jarina de Marco
Read below for office’s exclusive interview with Jarina de Marco, where we discuss multiculturalism, the journey that is motherhood, strip clubs, and more.
You are such a multifaceted artist because not only are you a talented singer, but you also take on all of your own songwriting, visual design, and video direction. When you first pursued music, did you always know you wanted to delve into other areas of the creative process?
As far as writing is concerned, I write for myself, but I also work with collaborators. I think that where I didn't think I was going to be so heavy-handed was in the visuals — even though, as a Virgo, I'm not surprised. Everything in art, in my opinion and my experience, has been collaborative. I think that's where the trick lies, in picking the right collaborators and having the instincts and the taste to be able to hone in. [It's about] having an amazing photographer that you can, together, with his or her or their creativity, be able to springboard into creating a beautiful world together. So I would say that I do have a hand on everything, but it's always with the help of very talented people too.
Since you sing in many different languages, your music is not constricted by cultural boundaries, because there are so many people who can identify with the things that you're putting out there. Did you grow up speaking a bunch of different languages?
I did. So I'm Dominican; I was born in the Dominican Republic to a Dominican mother and a Brazilian father. We moved to Brazil when I was about five or so. My parents are musicians as well and they had a band together for about 15 years. It was a Dominican-Brazilian jazz fusion band. So I got to travel with them as a tour baby, essentially. We lived in Brazil for a period of time because I wanted to explore Brazilian music and spend some time in the Amazon, because my mother was doing musical investigative work with tribes there and learning about their music. We ended up moving back to the Dominican Republic; my parents were very vocal in politics and are very politically leaning with their lyrics at times. They sang a song against the dictator of my country — who was a president — but he was really a dictator, and they sang it at a museum opening, in front of most of his government. We had to leave the country very soon after that because we were blacklisted and we were in danger. We were political refugees in Montreal for six years, which is how I learned French. I was about six by then. So I was Dominican, then all of a sudden I was Brazilian, and then I was from Montreal and French-Canadian. So I had already had the knack of adapting very quickly to my surroundings, and languages. By that point I already spoke Spanish, English, and Portuguese — because I went to an American kindergarten school. So I picked up French later on, had a huge identity crisis, because I felt like, 'Who am I? Where am I? What country do I belong to?' After the dictator passed away, my mother and father moved back to the Dominican Republic where we kind of resumed life. And I had another huge cultural shock where I rediscovered what it was to be Dominican, and Dominican music, and Dominican culture in general because I was at that point, French-Canadian. So that's how I picked up all my languages and I've weaved them in and out of my music. Portuguese, not as much, I use a lot more Portuguese harmonies and rhythms. I throw [in] a little French sometimes when I'm feeling sexy.
I’m sure growing up in many different cultural backgrounds could be a bit confusing at times. Do you feel that your personal identity has become strengthened through your music, as you can use it to show many different sides of yourself and your background?
Yeah, I mean, it also reminds me of the experience of the third or second-generation Latinx person living in America, or first-generation, who has been embedded in American culture. You've lived this dual life of being American and also being Latinx, or whatever other ethnicity you've come from. Anyone who has two places where they can draw culture from can kind of feel like 'in-betweeners.' But also what I've come to understand, later on in life, is that you kind of get to take from two very large fountains of culture. It's really an incredible position to be in. I honestly think multiculturalism is going to be the future in general. We're all going to be mixed up and hopefully, we'll create a better world because of it. Who knows what else we'll fight about, but that's another conversation. Multiculturalism in the end is just enriching and creating new culture by its biculturalism.
I feel like I identify with that on a deeper level. I come from a mixed background too, and you definitely feel caught in the middle sometimes. I think that with your music though, people can connect on that basis. Your sound gives me strong 70s disco vibes — very electric and infectious. Was that sort of electro-pop the natural sound you gravitated towards when you started making music?
When I first started making music, I was in love with Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, and Louis Armstrong. I'm talking about when I was seven years old. My parents were showing me all kinds of music, like world music and jazz, and I gravitated towards Billie and Chet specifically. That's kind of how I started digging into learning English. It was through music, through thinking 'What the hell are they saying?' So I really kept up my English because of jazz. From there I evolved, when I became a teenager, into liking disco-funk. I was in a band with seven boys called The Santo Domingo Funk Crew, which was so much fun and all of them were hot and I was in love with all of them. Anyway, I dabbled with that and then pop, and I think disco-funk and disco will always be a part of me. The music that I've done before these last few singles that I've put out has been very electronic and drum-driven. I have an album coming next year that is way softer; it's about love, which I haven't written about in years. I've been writing about self-assertion, being strong, and protest music. Never about a boy. So these last few singles, I started talking about love, sex, desire, being afraid of being in a relationship. The last single that I put out with Empress Of, called 'Vacío,' is about that fear you have right before something starts because you're putting all of your vulnerability on the table and it feels really uncomfortable, but then you take the plunge and you're in a relationship. I've done all of this music that has nothing to do with love, and all of a sudden I fell in love and I'm writing songs about love.
‘Vacío’ was recently released with Empress Of, and you two are good friends, right? How was it to collaborate on a song with a friend?
It was great! Lorely is a professional and she's such a beautiful writer and singer. I'm so impressed by her vocals. I wrote that song right before the pandemic hit last year, with AJ, who is an incredible producer. I kind of sat there forever without a second verse and throughout the pandemic, I kept thinking about it. I kept listening to that song over and over again, thinking, 'God, this needs someone else in it.' I wanted another flavor. So I asked Lorely, 'Girl, can you throw down some vocals in this?' She said, 'Hell yeah, I can,' and she loved the song. I'm really happy with how it turned out. She's a joy to work with. I'm a huge fan of hers too. So part of me was geeking out.
I want to talk about your music videos too. They’re all so colorful and full of life, but I love the ‘Knockout’ video because I just think it's so badass and empowering for womxn. Did you play a big role in the video direction with that video as well?
Well, that whole video is based on a true story. It was directed by Myrna Perez and she's also a good friend. She directed another video of mine, the 'Identity Crisis' one. I just gave her the story and she ran with it. I can tell you the story if you want?
I'd love to hear the story!
So years and years ago, when I lived in New York, my first husband and I, who we're still friends; he's a darling. We were in a recording studio somewhere in Midtown, and I got a text message. A very random one from a friend from high school that I hadn't seen since then. I hadn't seen this kid since we were 16. He wrote to me out of nowhere. It said something like, 'Hey, Jarina, I'm at Scores. I would love to see you, come hang out where we have a table.' And, you know, Scores is a famous strip club in New York. So I wrapped up my session and I was like, 'Let's just go down and say hi to my friend,' even though it was sort of random. So we went and when we got there, there was a table full of these Wall Street bros with popped collars and pink polos. It was disgusting. My friend had become a broker. So he's there with his work people; they're clearly coked out of their minds. I sit down and I'm like, 'Whoa, I feel like I just walked into a movie.' I turn around and there's a stripper who was walking around, probably looking for clients for a lap dance. I don't know if you've ever been to a strip club, but I feel like women that go to strip clubs — they talk to the women as if they're just women. I think we talked about her nails. It was just a normal conversation to deescalate whatever else was going on. One of the guys who was with my friend looked over to the stripper and said, 'Hey, fuckstick, come here.' I turned around to him and I said, 'What did you just call her?' And then he looked at me — he said, 'I'm not talking to you, sweetheart.' I was about to lose my shit on him. I looked over at him and said, 'I don't think it's necessary for you to speak to her that way.' He looked over to my husband and said something along the lines of 'Control your woman.' The waitress brought another cocktail to my husband, and the same guy grabbed it, chugged it, and then slammed it on the table as some weird macho move. Things escalated a bit after that; everything turned into slow motion. All the bouncers, all of a sudden, were just on top of us. My chair went backwards. My shoe flew onto the stage. Everyone was fighting like some sort of Western brawl. I'm on all fours crawling on the floor while everyone is fighting above me and punching each other. I get onto the stage where all the strippers had gathered; they handed me back my shoe. And as I'm looking up, I see that the bouncer has taken out the guy who was a problem and they ended up giving us a bottle of champagne because apparently, he had been harassing the women the entire time. So that's what the story of that song, and what the video was about.
Wow — talk about a story that wrote itself. What is your favorite video you've made so far?
I mean, they're all my little babies. I made one with a director named Maddie Deutch. I try to work with women. All of my videos have been with women pretty much. But we did this video where we baptized people in the church of No Fucks Given, which was the concept of the video. I was the priestess of the church of No Fucks Given — it's about just not giving a fuck anymore. The people who were in the church, they got baptized in this huge lavender pond. So the water was lavender and everyone was wearing lavender. That was a lot of fun. I loved making that video.
What is one message, if you could pinpoint something, that you want your listeners to take away from your music?
The upcoming music, for me, was just about being comfortable with the idea of being loved because I've been so fiercely independent. I haven't been single this entire time before I met my husband, but I have been trucking along in life and doing the thing and focusing on success and my career. When I met Alex, who now is the father of my child, it was a moment of softness. A moment of allowing someone to come in and be a part of your life and bring something to your life and not be taken over by a person, but share a life with someone that's a healthy, wonderful kind of love that I hadn't felt in a very, very long time. So yeah, that whole album was me making baby-making music — and then I actually made a baby. It worked! So if you don't want to get pregnant, don't listen to my songs. Or if you do, make sure that you wrap it up.
We talked about your upcoming album and you are also releasing a new single called, 'Pare De Sufrir', with Esty, but what is on your plate for the future?
More collaborations are coming up and that's super exciting. They're with two incredibly talented, very successful women and I'm so honored to be a part of it. I do a lot of music for soundtracks and movies — I just did a song for 'Fast and Furious.' So I feel like my life will always bring me these opportunities, hopefully. Obviously I'm directing my own videos, other people's videos, creative directing. I also have a series that I've developed about being pregnant, 'I'm Freaking Pregnant.' So I'm doing a second part of that, which is called, 'I Had a Freaking Baby Y'all,' because navigating motherhood and being an artist is a whole crazy thing. I wanted to deliver that information in a funny, relatable, super real way. I'm going to continue to do those things because I love doing them. So there's a lot in the future; I'm very happy about it.
"Vacío" is now available on all streaming platforms and "Pare de Sufrir" will be released on October 22nd.
