Marina Merges the Past and Present on 'Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land'
The singer speaks with L'OFFICIEL about her new album, the "female gaze," and the Salem witch trials.
Born Marina Diamandis and formerly known as Marina and the Diamonds, Marina—as she is now mononymously known—has made a career of reimagining the electro-pop genre. Her new album Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, which is available today, brings a “female gaze” to her dance tracks with help from an unexpected source of inspiration.
When Diamandis was first thinking up names for the album, she initially thought of the title Pandora’s Box before changing her mind. She says, "I felt like Ancient Dreams was more unique. It kind of evoked this intangible mythical feel.”
The title was inspired by a 1988 Los Angeles Times review in the back of a book she was reading about Japan. “The writer was like trying to describe this magical feeling of, I suppose, observing elements of tradition still in history and the landscape whilst living in this technicolor world, and that's something that I always tried to encapsulate in my visuals anyway. So I thought, I love that! I wrote it down, and then ended up writing a song about it.”
Oddly enough, an ‘80s book review isn’t the most unorthodox place that the “Venus Fly Trap” artist found inspiration for her songs. Much of the album is dedicated to capturing the "female experience," specifically the oppression of women and the LGBTQ+ community throughout history. A particular moment in history she drew from? The Salem witch trials.
“I think there are parallels in how we treated women back then as strange, unconventional people who may not even have been practicing witchcraft. This is what this book I was reading had said anyway, and linking that to how women are still treated now, essentially, for not following the grain,” explains Diamandis. “I feel like men, and also to a degree women, are not still entirely comfortable with women having a public platform, let alone having an opinion and not being afraid to discuss it. It's still triggering for people.”
She references a line from her song “Man’s World” that sings, “You thought I was a witch centuries ago. Now you just call me a bitch.”
She continues, “Patriarchy has definitely pushed the concept forward [that] women are not to be trusted, particularly ones who are in touch with nature and are intuitive and are using home remedies, because I think that was part of the witchcraft itself. It was medicine women.”
As she unravels the concept further, it becomes clearer why she connected so heavily with this concept. At 35, the “Primadonna” artist has only just begun to take control over her sound and career. While writing “Man’s World,” she decided to employ an entirely female production team on the album, as well as female directors for her music videos. “I just thought, This is ridiculous. I'm writing about the female experience and I just can't continue to have fully male production teams anymore. Anyone with a platform should be trying their best to contribute to increasing equality for all women, or for all people—humans!”
However, she also remembers working on the “Man’s World” video with director Alexandra Gavillet as one of the first times she was able to offer her own creative input into the video. Diamandis recalls, “[Gavillet] was so open to collaboration and that is a very new thing for me as well with music videos—this feeling like I am able to contribute and to shift the ideas and the vision to my own accord.”
The video, rather paradoxically, offers a sarcastic, yet, at times, celebratory commentary on stereotypical notions of womanhood throughout history in a setting that seems to ponder what ancient Greece would have looked like during the age of Instagram. And according to Diamandis, having a female perspective behind the camera made all the difference. “There's literally a female gaze happening,” she explains.
“Female power has been intimidating or confusing for men and they've been taught to fear us as opposed to appreciating it because they've been taught to deny it in themselves for so long [because] femininity is something that is shameful. That's something that has really inspired the album itself. That's the theme that runs throughout a lot of the songs.”
To celebrate the album's launch, the singer has also announced her upcoming 2022 tour of the United States and Europe. Presales begin Monday, June 14, while the remaining tickets will be available on Friday, June 18.
