To Laura von Mari, making music is not about putting influences and artists in a blender but instead breeding, cultivating and harvesting an entirely new fruit from the soil of her experience. Daughter of a classical pianist who, as a teen, grew to love Britney Spears, von Mari is not trying to make pop music “like” anyone — she’s making it from scratch. I sat down with her to chat about her new EP, “Forevermore,” and two maxed-out Zoom sessions later, learned all there was to know about her creation process, her values as an artist and the idea of true success in a streaming industry —with sprinkles of discussion about Kaytraminé and Bad Bunny in there.
Von Mari often woke to the sounds of piano. Melodies were her first and strongest connection to music; she doesn’t even really remember listening to music with lyrics until she was seven. Then, it was Steely Dan and Green Day, until her sister brought home a Britney Spears album. “I was like ‘this is amazing, what is this?’ I didn’t know that music could have a groove, that music could be sexy. Like classical music is awesome, but it’s not sexy or fun. Maybe if you were born at that time, Debussy was a little sexy.”
These artists all inspired her, but it’s wrong to say she makes music in the likes of them. “I never sit down and am like, OK, I’m going to make a Mac DeMarco style thing … I try to just follow my impulses as truly as possible.” From a young age, von Mari felt a “compulsion to form melody” and knew her future was in music.
Self-described as “just a little studio rat,” von Mari first released house music in 2019 under the name of Kirsi, despite formally studying Popular Music at Goldsmiths College within the University of London. Her self-titled EP was a culmination of her experience in London, where she fell into the dance community and spent time learning from shadow producers for artists like Mark Ronson and Diplo, “the people that do the ones and twos to make sure those records really shine.”
Watching them work inspired her: “I was in the background foaming at the mouth … I had to try my hand at making it.” She made dance tracks instead of doing her homework, which felt a bit rebellious and easier than her coursework. “[School] was like being told ‘go write good music, right now,’ and that made me want to do anything but. I was like ‘screw you, I’m gonna go write house music, house music all night long what whaaat!’” Originally serving as the pressure-release valve for the tension she felt around creating pop music, Kirsi is now a separate artist persona for her, one under which she’ll be releasing more music later this year.
Eventually, von Mari learned to bring the same attitude to her pop music-making, although “I did have a little bit of a complex about it there for a second,” she admits. The artist Laura von Mari was born when she was finally ready to share her pop music, beginning with her first single “F*ck You” released earlier this year. She’s released two more singles “Different Road” and “Forevermore”, in anticipation for her first pop EP, “Forevermore,” out September 8th.
The songs on “Forevermore” are united less by theme or emotion but more by their essences and criteria. “They all have an undeniable feeling of groove to them,” von Mari says. “I’m not even sure I could define ‘groove’ but listen to any song by the Bee Gees and you’ll get it (she then gave her stellar impression of “Stayin Alive”).” Each song is thematically and linguistically a little more complex than your average pop, drawing on biblical, Greek and fine literature themes to get the point across. Von Mari loves using a good metaphor or analogy to infuse both wit and feeling. Each song is also compositionally sound, so much so that von Mari can sing them all with just her voice and a piano “and they would still be compelling, because they’re built on a compositional principle that I stand by.” She sets rules for herself: “I don’t even allow myself to write songs that don’t have at least one key change in them, or mostly 7th chords or some form of a half diminished chord.”
Which brings me to what makes her so different — von Mari has a singular approach to making her music that comes from an unparalleled attention to composition and production. She makes one plus one equal three by combining her rigorous ear for music theory with her innate pop sensibilities. Above all, she gives her music a high bar to clear before she releases it. She has hard drives full of music, but has selected only five for this EP. “The promise I made to myself was, if you can stand by it, and you think it stands the test of time, you are allowed to release it.”
For von Mari, creating music is like finding the single correct solution to a problem. “I am obsessed with finding the right answer- is that a good melody, and does that lyric go with this music? I’m extremely picky, to the point where I can’t even enjoy it.” Her friends and family joke that no one hates music more than her, because “when that’s all you grew up around, no one else knows how much there is to hate about it as much as you do. I would also say it’s equally true that no one loves music as much as I do.” At the same time, she’s always challenging herself by switching up her creation process, avoiding formulaic writing at all costs. In a display of her analogy skills, she muses, “I really am the old lady with the hand-stitched mittens at your local high school bazaar like, ‘I made these with my bare hands. I learned a new pattern just to make these.’”
Her exacting creation process means that it’s hard to know when a song is fully cooked. For that, she says, “I have a guy. I have a mix artist because I’ll just keep tweaking and tweaking.” As an aforementioned studio rat, she does a large part of the production herself, but “it’s hard to make stuff on a deserted island … I just know when I’m running around like a chicken without my head, I’ll send it to him and be like ‘this is where I am, and I AM going to explode if I don’t send this to you.’”
All of this results in Laura von Mari’s elevated pop, with the steel bones of melody and theory supporting catchy lyrics and that undeniable groove. Even more a part of von Mari than her empirical approach to pop, however, is her unyielding values around achieving success through art. “I truly believe that if I am to become successful, it is not because I pandered, or compromised, or copied. It was because I was uncomfortable the whole time I was doing it, pushing myself and trying things that people said wouldn’t work, and following my instincts. That may also very well be the reason I die at a very early age. Of an embolism or stress aneurysm or something.”
Earlier in our conversation, we had gotten to talking about how streaming algorithms push listeners into holes of endlessly similar music, rewarding artists who make “copies of copies of copies.” To make a living making art in the likeness of someone else’s is to be “like smooth Spongebob. You’ll look and feel the mold, and there will be no friction, but friction makes fire.” In an age where the tools to create are more accessible than ever, it’s essential to be bringing something different to the table. To bring back her winning analogy: “We’ve all gone to the bazaar and held those mittens, and those are nice quality mittens, she’s not making a fortune selling them on Amazon cause she can’t just crank ‘em out, but they’re made well.”
Quality, authenticity, challenging oneself — these are the things von Mari is about. “If you define your life as one well lived, in the pursuit of absolute excellence, where you are nourishing your creative soul, I would say, fuck what everyone thinks, and do what you think is good … if it sounds good, it is good.”
As for what’s next for her, she’ll still be quietly releasing music, as she is decidedly not a fan of self-promotion on social media. She has two dance tracks ready to be released later this fall under her artist name Kirsi, along with more pop tracks. I’m sure her exceptional work will speak for itself.
If you want to keep up with her music, you can follow her on Spotify, Instagram, and Youtube. “Forevermore” EP is out now on Spotify.