Exclusive Interview with 'MARY IN THE MIRROR'

Mary in the Mirror is an alternative artist from Bristol who was born in London. Her music blends exquisite, pop-inspired vocals with current urban beats like hip-hop, trap, and drill. Her vocals have been compared to singers of the caliber of Kate Bush and Beth Gibbons. Her most recent body of work seamlessly incorporates influences from artists like Bjork, Goldfrapp, and Massive Attack. The lyrical content contains evocative storylines with themes that are direct, unvarnished, and honest. Written when she was going through a very difficult time. In order to explore her difficult and occasionally painful life experiences, Mary has drawn inspiration from them and turned them into a number of captivating songs.

With a superb hook that will send chills down your spine, Mary’s most recent release, “Pain,” is full of powerful yet ethereal vocals set against a background of heavy bass and trap music. Pain, in her words, “embodies exploring bold sexuality, pushing the limits of control, and going beyond our limits.”

Mary was unable to walk in 2016 due to a serious health issue. She battled using crutches for years before learning to manage these physical challenges by getting stronger and fitter. After overcoming her own obstacles and demons, she believes that sharing her journey will empower others. Her music embodies these concepts of strength and perseverance to overcome obstacles. With her most recent release, Mary is reborn as a seasoned vocalist exploring the new music scene. Check out her latest single “Pain” and the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you all come from and how it all got started?

MARY IN THE MIRROR: I am originally from London but I now live in Bristol. I started working with producer Marcel Atteen, also from London about 5 years ago. At the time I was struggling with a health issue that had left me unable to walk. Marcel was sending me beats to work on, and I was inspired by his music to start pouring out my soul into the songs, I was going through a lot and so it became a cathartic process. I didn’t have any particular plans to release the songs, as I was still figuring out my life from this new perspective and was just enjoying doing the music as it was something to take my mind off my situation. But after a couple of years of working together we realised we had something worth sharing. We were just about to start releasing the tracks when my mum died, and then the pandemic hit us so we ended up waiting another 2 years but during that time we wrote loads more music, so we have plenty of stuff lined up to share. A third member of our team is our mix engineer Chris Devine, based in Bucks, he’s an integral part of this project that we couldn’t do without!

2. Did you guys have any formal training or are you self-taught?

MARY IN THE MIRROR: I grew up in a musical household, my dad is a multi-instrumentalist and singer / songwriter so I was singing and writing my own songs from a really young age. I have had some singing and production training and continue to engage in learning on an ongoing basis. The other two are both completely self taught. Marcel is also a rapper with over 20 years experience in the business, Chris has been honing his mixing skills from home for at least 10 years.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘MARY IN THE MIRROR’?

MARY IN THE MIRROR: There’s literally just so many, it is hard to say, and I think what makes our music interesting is our wide range of tastes that we bring to the music. That said, our biggest influences for this particular project were initially bands like Massive Attack and Portishead, we set out to pay homage to those artists that formed the Bristol sound, since then our sound has evolved considerably though!

The name Mary in the Mirror came about for 2 reasons. First of all, there was a certain amount of darkness in my lyrical content, and the idea of having a project that explored the shadow self was born. Secondly, I have always been enchanted by the idea that we can become heroes of our own life story, and triumph over adversity by finding strength inside ourselves. Mary in the Mirror is my own personal alter ego that I can step into which gives me strength and power and the ability to stand up and deliver my performances. It’s like a cloak that I wear that gives me special abilities, when I am really quite a shy person underneath.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

MARY IN THE MIRROR: The lyrical content is certainly going to resonate with a lot of our listeners, it is edgy and gnarly at times, and for some people it will be cathartic to listen to our songs and have us bear witness to their pain. I also think our music will resonate with people who are looking for something new and original sounding, our beats are inspired by hip hop, trap and drill and then we have combined them with vocals that adapt to suit the song, with influences ranging from pop, jazz, soul, folk, and even classical music. It has thus been quite tricky to classify our music but the closest I can come up with is alternative pop, and we will appeal to listeners who like to be challenged with sounds that are new and different.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as POP?
**MARY IN THE MIRROR**:
Yes, as I mentioned earlier we were originally inspired by the Bristol sound, and I personally by singers like Kate Bush, Alison Goldfrapp, and Elizabeth Fraser. To develop my own style, I spent a lot of time experimenting with different ways of singing and building up my own personal vocal palette. I deliberately tried to sound as different as possible, going against trends and trying stuff out that was challenging to listen to. Later on I adapted my sound to bring in some cultural influences, like my Irish heritage and eventually struck upon a singing style that felt uniquely me. The key to our overall sound has been constant experimenting, I have learned a lot from Marcel, as he has had a lot of song writing experience, and it has always been his aim to create music that was as original sounding as possible and finding ways to put a twist on what we are doing to make it unique.

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative and entertainment?

MARY IN THE MIRROR:

I think music has always been a way of expressing our feelings about what is going on in the world, and some of the most interesting music out there has been born out of challenging times. For me, the most exciting music comes when people have really got something to say, especially when that is a poignant reflection of what is going on in the world. Personally, I don’t aim to reflect on current events or spirituality in my music, the songs kind of come about in their own way and for me it is a story telling art, I can’t say I specifically sit down and plan to write about a particular topic, the music literally flows through me as it were and what comes out is what comes out. It is usually themed around personal experiences, life, death, joy and sorrow, and for me it is a poetic expression of the things I have seen and experienced, and I use my process like therapy to work through what is going on inside my psyche.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfilment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

MARY IN THE MIRROR:

Music can be a labour of love for many, and I definitely find it deeply fulfilling actually making the music. It’s been almost a year since I have started releasing the songs and I am still building the project, so it involves a lot of work on a daily basis doing the marketing and reaching out to radio stations, play listers, etc. I really enjoy all the creative aspects of the process though, I love doing the photoshoots, videos and artwork, and even the marketing itself is a hugely creative process, so I do really get fulfilment from it all. My plan is that next year we will see the project really take off with some big gigs, and get revenue coming in from ticket sales as well as merchandise and radio play.

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

MARY IN THE MIRROR:

It is always different. Sometimes a song idea will come to me in an instant – one of my songs I heard myself singing in a dream and I woke up and recorded myself singing it straight away to capture it! Marcel and I do a lot of jamming in the studio with his beats and I record it all to capture the best ideas, and spend a lot of time actually listening through them all, and I notice that the best ideas are the ones that get stuck in my head for days on end. The best songs seem to come when I am not trying at all, I am at my most relaxed and I get into a kind of zone where I seem to channel the music from a place deep inside. Sometimes though, it takes a lot of work to finish a song off, sometimes you have to wait months for the hook to come, it can get really frustrating trying to nail that hook. I don’t usually come up with the lyrical ideas first, the melody tends to come first and the lyrics later. Other times though, the lyrics come first, it really just depends! I see the song writing process as a type of magic, as the harder I try the more inspiration eludes me. But when I stop and relax into it it becomes really easy and fun and the songs seem to write themselves!

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

MARY IN THE MIRROR: Losing my mum 2.5 years ago was the hardest time in my life so far. She was only 67 years old and was diagnosed with dementia cause by Alzheimers disease just 4 years earlier and her demise was unexpectedly fast. Around the time of her diagnosis I was struggling with my health and was having to use crutches to get around. I was studying music production at college at the time and with all the life stuff going on I fell massively behind and ended up having to drop out which was hugely frustrating and demoralising! It was a big series of life events which left me really miserable and depressed and hence I started pouring out my anger, frustration and despair into my music.

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far? MARY IN THE MIRROR: I am hugely proud of what we have achieved so far with this project. To date we have had over 60,000 views on our music videos, and been play listed on radio stations around the world, in places like Croatia, Poland, and the USA with our latest track, and have had some fantastic reviews. Our music video for the latest song is yet to come so I am really looking forward to seeing how that goes!