INTERVIEW: Marzz talks her debut EP 'Love Letterz': "I can be me and hopefully inspire other little girls to try to change the world for the better."
Rising American R&B star Marzz (real name Laria McCormick) released her debut EP Love Letterz last month. The EP is a six track collection of intimate and emotional R&B-soul tracks that recount her stories of heartbreak and growing into herself, held together with McCormick’s powerful yet gentle vocals which add a gravity and relatability to the often melancholic stories she conveys in her lyrics.
Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, McCormick’s mother and grandmother were ministers in the church and at age four she joined the church choir. Struggling with her queer identity which she suppressed due to her family’s involvement in religion, she found solace in the music of artists such as Beyoncé, Lauryn Hill and Mariah Carey. She initially considered following in her mother’s footsteps by going to bible college and become a pastor, but after coming out in high school and finding support from her friends, she found the confidence to take on music as a career. After uploading R&B covers online she caught the attention of producer Timbaland in late 2019 who reached out to her and they recorded together.
After signing with Keep Cool/RCA Records, her first single ‘Rain Freestyle’ was released last year which was followed by four more singles and now her debut EP. With the desire for her music ‘to teach others to embrace their uniqueness’ Marzz is a singular talent with an empowering message for us all. We recently caught up with her to find out more.
Hi Marzz! What an absolute encompassing treat you are. I honestly didn't realise how much I needed to hear your music and see your videos until I did. How are things with you? You've got your delicious debut EP Love Letterz out, how does that feel to have it circulating across the globe?
Oh my god, the nerves, the nerves, before everything drops! The anticipation up to it, I was super, super nervous because it's a definitely a vulnerable state for me. I'm opening myself up. I'm already an open book, but now the whole world gets gets to have a piece of me. I feel like I'm in a in a world that is crazy, but I know that it's all love. So I'm definitely excited. And I'm glad that people are enjoying it right now.
Speaking of books, you carry around a collection of colourful books where all your lyrics and prose and thoughts and feelings go into and they are all colour coded. Can you talk me through that?
So I have these notebooks that are all definitely different colours. Blue is for when I'm excited. purple is when I'm anxious, yellow’s when I'm sad, red is when I'm angry. I literally was such an angry child when I was little, I don't know why, [but] I know for a fact that my red notebook was definitely my favourite. I used to write in that and whenever I got mad - I was never a verbal person - I’d hold my notebook up and be like, ‘No, listen, this is why I'm mad!’. I literally shoved the notebook in their face and be like ‘read this!’ I take these notebooks with me, whether it be random thoughts, saying I don't feel good that day, I'll write in my sad notebook and put write my thoughts that I'm feeling. And I really just use those to express my feelings. I was never a verbal person. I never had the confidence to speak up. But it was always one of those things where I knew I had my notebooks. And if I needed to say something, that's where I ran to my pen, and my paper, that's where I felt most comfortable. That's where I felt most safest.
I think that's an actually beautiful sentiment and something that a lot of people need to have a takeaway from. Quite often when you write something down, you give yourself time to clarify. When you then create the song from that moment, do you feel that you pull from other colours and emotion? Let's talk about the latest track 'Countless Times' which I adore, you sing this shit out of that song. If you were to colour code that bad boy, what are they?
Definitely it would be red and purple. You're seeing a lot of anxiousness, a lot of worry. It was definitely a lot of draining emotion that definitely put a toll on me. But then again ‘Done Witcha’, that was the colour blue with the colour green with life. Lime green is my favourite colour and I feel like lime green and the colour green just represents life, newness, fresh. So 'Done Witcha' was definitely a green colour.
That’s a real rebirth as well, it's got shoots coming out of the ground. Another one of the EP's gems for me is 'Wizard' because it propels me back into the 90s while still dragging me single handedly right into the future, which is great. I love the lyric 'call me your wizard stay off my throne'. Can you talk me through the story behind this one?
It's definitely more about this movie called Cinderella with Brandy and Whitney Houston. I feel like Whitney Houston was like in her prime in that movie, and that was one of her and Brandy's last moments together. Just being able to witness such a magical moment, that was how I wanted to express myself. This girl was making me have a magical moment. It's weird that I related to that, but that's how I related to that and I kind of took that and ran with that inspiration behind that. Let me take control. Let me show you. I can love you.
The EP as a whole. We've got your inspiration, we've got your heartbreak, we've got life in new Do you feel like this is like a complete representation of where you've come from and where you're at now?
It's like one of those things where it's an old me, that's not me anymore. That's that was my mindset back then. But I'm a much stronger, more confident, more grounded, individual. I know what I want now. The way that I want to be treated. I'm putting in the love and respect that I would want in return. I definitely believe in karma, so I feel like the good energy you put out is the good energy that you receive. I’m making sure that I don't go back to that state of mind because I feel like mental health is such an issue for people our age right now and nobody wants to really talk about that because they're so scared of relapsing. Sometimes you may relapse, but know that you've already been here, you've done that. You have the the mindset to do what you've been there done that. Do it again, every time like how Aaliyah said - you try again. Just pick up, make that one phone call, get up and go do that. You know that you can do it. Go do it. Put your mind to it. You got to stay focused.
You’ve got some beautifully inspiring women to shout out about. Aaliyah, Whitney. Cinderella. That's some good sheros to be plastered on your wall. Where these some of the women that you pretended to be when you were singing in your bedroom when you were a kid?
All the time, literally! Brandy…you cannot tell me like I was not Brandy I ain't gonna lie! Another group, I never told anybody, but I used to listen to The Cheetah Girls all the time. And I used to think that I was Chanel, running around. I was literally just singing one of their songs like two hours ago. But Whitney and Brandy's definitely some of my influences that I definitely grew up listening to when I was trying to sing.
What an amazing squad and also very eclectic. You were also surrounded by music from an early age, with two very inspiring women in your life, your grandmother and your mum, both church ministers. So you were kind of surrounded by the power of music and how it moves people and the connection it makes. Can you tell me a little bit about your childhood?
I felt being in the church, it taught me how to connect with energy, connect to myself, activating my energy. That really grounded me and sculpted me into who I am today. Being in church, the music is definitely different from the music that I make now. And I feel sometimes you can be trapped inside of a box, not really knowing it, and I found my way out coming out of that box. And here I am today. Church is one of those judgmental places. But my mum is very open minded and she definitely is my best friend. I love her so much, I would do anything for that woman, she's the strongest woman I know. She used to listen to The Clark Sisters. Kiki Sheard, Yolanda Adams, I was one of those kids that was super observant and I absorb a lot of things and I just kind of interpreted that in my own way and built myself up listening to those songs and trying to express myself through that way. My mom raised me that it's okay to have an opinion, but just be respectful about it. So that's how I wrote my music.
The beautiful thing about your music is there's so much heart and integrity and you can hear the rage, but you sing it with such power and such softness. And I think that's a delicate line to walk, you're expressing rage, but you're expressing it in an almost lulling whisper and that way people listen. It's really beautiful. Tell me what was the moment for you when you just went, ‘Oh, this shit just got real.’
Definitely, seeing my team in person for the first time and just meeting everybody, even on Zoom. I'm a people's person and I really genuinely appreciate every single person that's on my team right now. This is literally a dream come true of mine to just be able to have the opportunity they’ve given me where I can be me and allow the world to see that. And hopefully inspire other little girls to try to change the world for the better. When you see me I'm always gonna try to leave you with some type of love and positivity. I appreciate everybody that I've met and continue to really support me and really cheer me on and see something in me that I didn't even see myself. This is crazy, it's such an amazing experience.
Beautiful! And lastly, before I have to leave you, obviously the EP is just out, that's a big release. The world is doing things, it's slowly opening up and peeling away - what is coming up for you?
I got a couple of maybe little singles I got in place, you feel me? Definitely popping out some live performances. But I ain't gonna speak too much on that, you’ll know more info about that soon. But definitely stay tuned. I got content. Oh my god, baby the content I'm about to be dropping for y'all, it’s going to be insane. Some stuff you ain't never seen before, so get ready for them. Just know that I'm gonna keep feeding your music, giving spreading the love and positivity.
Love Letterz is out now via Keep Cool/RCA Records. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things Marzz you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
