Written by Sophie Wyatt
Speaking from her home in Oslo, alternative jazz artist Marie Noreger uses her lyrics to invite people into her world. Using layers of jazz, R&B and pop to name a few, Marie’s music is unique and entrancing. We caught up with the emerging artist to discuss how she arrived at this current sound, and her latest project ‘DDVS: Disco Doll in the Velvet Suit’.
Growing up in Norway, Marie has had a different musical experience in her childhood than many of the artists we usually speak with at Haste. Not only for the fact of her location, but also the addition of her fathers love for music, Marie was not short of new and exciting music as a child.
‘I guess the first memories would be my father playing music at home. He was a DJ when I was born and he was DJing until I was maybe 4 or so. I remember him playing records quite vividly – walking into the living room and dancing when it was meant to be my bed time. Always singing even if it was just making noise.’
Merging the soulful sound of R&B and catchy jazz beats, it seems entirely impractical to label Marie’s music under simply one genre. So we asked the young artist to try and sum up what her music means to her.
‘I have no idea how to describe my music. I kind of get blind towards it, but I do know that I really enjoy entering this space of being completely at one with the music. I enter a world of sound escape and I want listeners to feel like that too. Exactly how I feel when I make the music.’
‘DDVS‘ is Marie’s latest release. The track really shows a new side to Marie and her music. Delving into a sense of freedom and exploration, the artist pleasantly surprised fans with her switch up of her musical sound. She went on to explain what the song meant to her and how she hopes it is received by listeners.
‘So DDVS stands for Disco Doll in the Velvet Suit. She’s kind of my alter-ego – a side of me that is more playful and free and not scared to be judged. During the process of making this project I really wanted to come back to that version of me. When I started making music I started to overthink what people thought of me and I became shy and uncomfortable. So it’s kind of been a process for me, to just let myself free. And that’s what the project is about. I think also as a society we do tend to overthink what people think of us because we have these platforms, we get taught to be perfect. So the songs are to cheer people up and encourage them to enjoy themselves.’
Marie then went on to explain that in the future she plans to prioritise developing her sound and musical knowledge to hopefully explore even more avenues of creativity. And we can’t wait to see it.
‘I would love to understand my sound even better, and to learn how to use music programmes properly. I think I will definitely discover more of the jazz side of my music as well. And it would be great o work with other artists; Frank Ocean is my dream’, she laughed. ‘I finally feel like I’m going the right direction and feel more comfortable in myself as an artist.’
Head over to Marie Noreger’s Spotify page to hear more of her latest projects.