Traveling around from the age of 2, Marion Raw emigrated from Mexico to the U.S. with her beauty queen mother, moving nearly two dozen times. This transient upbringing led Raw to fantasize about her own world and life from a very young age, something the singer, songwriter, and visual artist explores on debut solo album Deep Cuts, out April 9.
“There is a certain freedom growing up as a tourist and foreigner in so many different places, in that you can try different cultures and customs on for size, without ever really identifying with those masks,” says the LA-based Raw. “You learn to observe and listen to peoples stories as an outsider looking in.”
Spending a lot of time in airports and hotels as a little girl, all the accents and stories a young Raw (Marión Sosa) overheard were embedded in her mind, ultimately shaping the moving pictures around each song on Deep Cuts. “I was always fascinated by adults talking about their lives, and I feel that has strongly colored a lot of my writing,” shares Raw, also the singer/songwriter in Mexican rock band Love La Femme “The melodic accents I was exposed to frequently visit me when I write—from the southern Texan twang to London’s melodic swagger—it’s all very present within my histrionic Mexican roots.”
Mostly recorded in one-take at home during the pandemic—with help from AJ Davila of Davila 666, who assisted as engineer and co-producer—Deep Cuts is a mergence of stored and archive recordings and improvised pieces, all pieced together on a four-track Tascam cassette recorder in 2020. “There was no planning, polishing, or budget for that matter,” says Raw of the DIY production of Deep Cuts, “just some left over blank tapes, an old four-track Tascam, and the imminent sense of doom that accompanied the first lockdown of 2020.”
Tina Eves 