{"id":18246,"date":"2020-03-13T05:30:24","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T09:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=18246"},"modified":"2020-02-17T08:54:51","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T13:54:51","slug":"marinhos-emotional-openness-is-on-display-on-tilde-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/03\/13\/marinhos-emotional-openness-is-on-display-on-tilde-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Marinho’s Emotional Openness is on Display on ’tilde’ (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a> \u2026 <\/i><\/p>\n

Even with herds of creative artists endeavoring to make music, those cities have at least some sort of infrastructure for all of it. \u201cWhereas in Portugal, sometimes it can be a little bit stressful,\u201d she says. \u201cYou know you have the talent and you know that people are going to enjoy your music, but you also know that there’s not a lot of money going around to support your growth as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

She’s not complaining, though. For her part, Pipa Marinho has plans beyond local performances in support of her debut album. If the many details can be sorted out, there are hopes for a North American tour. And in the meantime, she’s putting together a radio show designed specifically to celebrate women songwriters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And over the last few years, Marinho has been building a solid base of fans in Portugal. But she points out that her home country’s music scene exists as a sort of two-tier system. She mentions ZDB, a Lisbon club where she has performed a number of times (the venue is also a favorite of American singer-songwriter Angel Olsen).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens in Portugal is that there\u2019s not a lot of mid-tier level [music] industry,\u201d she says. \u201cEither you’re small, indie and niche and you play a venue like ZDB, which is cool. Or you\u2019re extra big and you play a coliseum for 4,000 people.\u201d Making clear that she’s exaggerating to make a larger point, she emphasizes, \u201cThere are a few in the middle, but not a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what thrilled her about Los Angeles was a thriving middle tier. \u201cWhat inspired me there was to see so many artists that are unknown to almost everyone in Europe, but they make a living out of playing,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re making ends meet, and even more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With her background in the business side of music, Marinho understands more than most about what it takes to succeed. Talent \u2013 a quality she has in ample supply \u2013 can only get an artist so far. The shifting industry paradigm that came with the demise of major labels (and their big budgets) can work in favor of an independent-minded artist like Marinho.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the \u201880s and \u201890s, it wasn’t [always] good for the artist,\u201d she observes. \u201cBecause they handed everything over to the labels and to the companies. I think it\u2019s good that the artists are more hands-on now.\u201d Her method of working with Street Mission Records is much more collaborative, she says. \u201cAnd I like that. I like that we\u2019re doing this together and it\u2019s not like, ‘You make me big.’ Dani’s not saying, ‘You work on your followers, and I\u2019ll collect the money.’ I’ve been lucky that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, though, Pipa Marinho’s success comes from more than mere luck. She engages with those who appreciate her music, but in a way that places value on being genuine. \u201cI just try to be myself,\u201d she says. \u201cSpeaking of social media, for example, I try not to post anything just for the sake of posting.\u201d If she feels she has something relevant to say, however, she’ll share it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I try to make it as honest and as transparent as I can,\u201d she says, providing an example. \u201cWhen I post about a new single, I\u2019m probably going to talk about what kind of emotions I\u2019m feeling about posting about that. And what kind of feelings originated when making that song.\u201d She has learned that her followers appreciate that approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time that I get a comment or a message from someone, it\u2019s usually something very emotional, something [along] the lines of, ‘Thank you for talking about these things in ways that I feel the same,’\u201d she says. That kind of emotional connecting is doubly important for an artist who makes what she calls \u201cemotional folk\u201d music. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other way of promoting yourself or of communicating with others,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how I think you should cultivate a following: aim to have a sense of community and a sense of belonging with the people that follow you, and don’t aim to have a lot more followers.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sense of connectedness feeds Marinho as an artist, too. \u201cEven just to have someone listen to my music or be at my shows is a very big validation,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t mean validation in terms of ‘You\u2019ve made it because someone cares about your music.’ My music is very vulnerable, and when I\u2019m on stage, singing those lyrics, and even just playing those guitar riffs, people are there<\/i>. They\u2019re there because they\u2019re listening to me. And they\u2019re there because they want<\/i> to be there. For me that\u2019s the same as them saying, ‘I see you. I hear you. I\u2019m here.’\u201d<\/p>\n

And it’s not necessary that her audience experiences the exact same set of emotions at the same time. \u201cFor myself \u2013 and, from what I understand, for a lot of artists \u2013 a lot of the need to make art also comes from an emotional difficulty, or trauma, or whatever you want to call it,\u201d she says. \u201cOf not having felt seen and heard before. Sometimes you have to write it; you have to externalize it that way, because you didn\u2019t feel like you had [another way to] share it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At their core, the eight songs on Marinho’s tilde<\/i> are about the sharing of those emotions. \u201cThe lack<\/i> of human connection is what sometimes gave me the spark to write the songs,\u201d she says. \u201cThe songs were a tool for me to get that human connection, which I am getting in different ways. And I\u2019m very happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few weeks before our meeting, Marinho took the stage at the aforementioned ZDB. Her performance of \u201cJoni\u201d \u2013 a song on tilde<\/i> that’s a tribute to Joni Mitchell \u2013 was captured with professional video equipment. The ZDB clip illustrates the ease with which the artist combines folk-based songwriting with a solid indie rock sensibility; the music \u2013 even when it’s gentle \u2013 has teeth<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Also on YouTube, viewers can enjoy a series of Marinho’s entrancing music videos. \u201cI Give Up and It’s OK,\u201d \u201cGhost Notes\u201d and \u201cWindow Pain\u201d all explore fertile emotional territory within the context of catchy folk-rock arrangements. Even when the themes are weighty, they’re delivered in a way that makes them accessible. \u201cI wrote ‘Freckles’ after I started therapy,\u201d Pipa says. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot more raw [than many of the other tracks], and it comes from a place of disappointment. But it\u2019s also beautiful because of that. It\u2019s my favorite track on the record. And I think it\u2019s the most vulnerable one, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One \u2026 Even with herds of creative artists endeavoring to make music, those cities have at least some sort of infrastructure for all of it. \u201cWhereas in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,41,49,62],"tags":[4106],"class_list":["post-18246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folk","category-interview","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-marinho","cat-30-id","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18246"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18365,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18246\/revisions\/18365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}