Artist Of The Week #314 - Marti Perramon
This week's Artist Of The Week is Marti Perramon - who has just released his new EP 'Boy From Barcelona, Baby' via Polydor Label Group.
The five-track project features previously released singles ‘All My Life’, ‘Sugar (Honey Ice Tea),‘Peace Sign’, as well as two new tracks ‘Cellotape’, which explores being a hopeless romantic even against the impossibility of someone living on the other side of the world, and ‘Mutual’, a slow-jam about closure that collides a rap verse with an anthemic, upbeat chorus.
Marti says about the project, “It’s the highs and the lows of me as a human, but an accurate representation of how I view and react to the world around me. I moved to the UK when I was 9 years old from Barcelona. I have always felt like an outsider in some sense and it was music that was my saving grace and my confidence in times where I didn’t even know the language. This project means a lot to me because it helped me finally gain ownership of who I am, in a world I felt I always sat outside of.”
Marti Perramon’s charismatic, confessional take on coming-of-age took shape after an unorthodox assimilation to British life. He moved to London from Barcelona when he was 9, and started school without being able to speak a word of English, giving rise to the name of the EP. “Being the foreign kid in my class meant I always had this need to prove myself or be liked,” he explains. “Music was my way of being able to do that and express myself.” Now aged 21, Marti marries that hyper-sensitivity of his outsider-upbringing with borderless musicality. A feel-good but often in-your-feels mix, his sound traverses elements of alt-pop, R&B, and hip-hop - self-described as ‘wonky pop’.
He took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey there Marti, how are you? So your EP is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?
So good ! I love this music and I’ve been spam listening privately for the past year. It feels so good to finally share my story in this way.
It is called ‘Boy From Barcelona, Baby' – what is the meaning behind that?
You can take it literally. I am a boy from Barcelona, baby. But looking a little further in, this EP really is about me coming to terms with who I am and writing it down with pride and acceptance.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
This was all recorded in Eddie’s studio. A little place in Peckham. Very small, but cosy. It was the perfect room to create an EP that felt so true and honest to me. Backseat producing is my favourite thing to do also, so a small room allows us to try all the ideas easily.
A little behind the scenes is that sometimes during this process we’d go into the room and listen to the music and just jump around like we were hypemen on stage. That’s the energy that I want my live show to feel too.
What are the key influences behind the EP?
I think for me it was listening to the artists that really try their hardest to be themselves. To me, pop music has the privilege to be able to tell new stories and that’s what I want to do. The artists that sing in their own freaky way and say things in their own way are the ones I look up to. And the ones I want to be like.
Prince, the 1975, Audrey Hobert, Rosalia, the list goes on. It’s all over the place. I just want to hear the truth.
If the EP could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
Some sort of revolutionary coming of age high school film that no one ever thought would become a classic. I’m not sure what that is but whatever film pops into your brain when I say that lolz.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
"I’m just a little boy from Barcelona baby”
Cause that’s THE TRUTH ! I owe everything I write to my own personal experience. Moving to the UK when I was 9 affected me in so many ways. This is the first time I’ve even mentioned it cause for so long I wanted to refuse the certain parts of me that made me unique. It’s scary putting the truth out there in case people don’t like it.
But also I saw an IG meme yesterday that said “show your true self always so that people looking for you can find you” and that hit.
Now the EP is out there – what next for you?
It’s a long way to the top, so I’m just gonna keep trying to make things that feel unique and interesting. HEADLINE tour in February is going to be awesome and I can’t wait to start rehearsing and spending time deciding how I wanna do the show. It’s gonna be SO FUN!
