Ninu Nina Artist Interviews

View Original

POSSIBLE STRANGER A SPECIAL COLLABORATION BETWEEN CREATIVES AND FRIENDS

Ninu Nina

Today I am very excited to present this exciting new collaboration between two fabulous British creatives, for the release of a pop single, POSSIBLE STRANGER. This is the third film project these two friends and artists have collaborated on, fusing their independent talents in cinema and music to enhance the power and meaning behind their work. SAMFIRE is a singer, songwriter, and producer, LARA MARKS, is an actor-filmmaker and recent graduate of the American Film Institute. Their bond, which began at age 11, is evident from the nuanced ways their art interacts and it is exciting to think what might come next.

SAMFIRE:

Hello, hello! I am Samfire, an alt-pop, synth-obsessed singer, songwriter, and producer based in London. My relationship with music has spanned my whole life, thanks to my mum who works in classical music and had me playing violin from the age of 4. Then followed choir, where I fell in love with singing, harmony, and the different textures and layers within music. Whilst playing and singing were a constant in my early years, developing my own form of expression through music took much longer. With every project that I put out, I can see my development, pushing myself to write with more honesty and personality every time. And I have learned so much through the whole process. My highlights are always the moments that I am on stage. and working with Lara to develop the visual story on this EP has brought colour and character to each song, transforming my relationship with them and my performance.

LARA MARKS:

Hi! I’m Lara Marks - an actor and filmmaker from London, now living in LA. My creative journey began at a young age. I fell in love with stories as a child and acted all through my school years. At age 11, I toured with the London Children’s Ballet, performing in a production of ‘The Secret Garden’ at elderly homes and children’s hospitals. On this tour, I witnessed first-hand the incredible power of art to elevate spirits and enliven souls. It was at Oxford that I discovered the joy of creating, alongside performing. Tired of being cast as the female counterpart to the male protagonist; I took matters into my own hands, directing and starring in a production of Alan Ball’s, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress. This was the start of a riveting journey. I trained as an actor in London before heading across the pond to undertake my MFA in Film Producing at the American Film Institute. My experiences thus far have shaped my belief that art, representation, and social conscience can interact in powerful symbiosis and I hope to use my career as a creator to inspire, empower, and give.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR COLLABORATION

SAMFIRE

Lara and I have known each other from the age of 11 and our collaborations have been simmering away for many years. What at first was partnering up in a drama class, or rehearsing lines for a play has become a constant back and forth, sharing our ideas and being inspired by each other’s projects. Lara is the first person to hear the fragments in my head that will develop into something more, in this case an EP. She is also so often a significant part of the story. In this case, it was a trip to visit her in LA that inspired the whole concept of my EP. ‘Possible Stranger’ is the first single of 5 which, together, recount stories from this trip to LA and some of the strangers I encountered along the way. The key, more than anything, has been our friendship. With the safety to express ourselves fully with one another and an unprompted understanding of what the other means we are natural partners.

LARA MARKS

We are and always have been, first and foremost, the best of friends - and it was from this thread that our creative partnership was spun. Samfire has played a vital role in every production I’ve done and has been a constant source of inspiration. Whilst at drama school, I worked with my close friend, actor Charly Faye, on a short filmic project exploring the female gaze. When we approached Samfire to write a song for the film, she came back to us 12 hours later with an exquisitely-articulated poem, expressing all the sentiments that we had not yet been able to voice. A year on, I was producing and starring in my own short film at AFI and with the ferocity of the conservatory environment, I was terrified. Not only did Samfire write a dramatically captivating musical score, but she also flew out to LA to help on production and it was her unwavering support that gave me the strength to see it through. Possible Stranger has been a fundamental next step in our partnership - and we are already plotting exciting ventures to come.

Tell us about your creative process

SAMFIRE

My creative process always begins with a scribbled poem. Sometimes there’s a melody in mind, other times its not until I get in front of a piano that it becomes music. With this EP, I wrote all the song lyrics over the course of my 10-day visit and didn’t have access to a piano until I returned home. I worked on the production in London with my co-producer QTorra who has a shared love of synthesisers and a much more versatile instrumental skill set. We designed it very much with live music in mind. My guitarist Chet Jogia also hopped in to record guitar at the very end.

LARA MARKS

My creative process usually begins with wine and a brainstorm. In the case of Possible Strangers, I went with Paige Schaeffer, our phenomenal production designer, to Venice beach where we lay with print-outs of the EP lyrics, a speaker, and a pen. As we listened to Samfire’s music, we began mind-mapping every idea or image that the EP conjured in us. Once I have a fully formed concept, I create a pitch deck - I find this to be not only the best way to give voice and clarity to my vision, but also to communicate it effectively to my collaborators. Working with such amazing creatives on Possible Stranger meant a whole world of vibrant and varied potential - without this magical richness of artistic minds colliding, I think it is difficult for a project to truly thrive.

TELL US ABOUT THE VIDEO

LARA MARKS

Set on an 11-hour flight from London to Los Angeles, Possible Strangers explores the liminal space between an anticipatory present of waiting and an imagined future. The music video takes place between these two worlds. The world of the present is an abstract representation of an airport gate, a waiting room. A numb, sterile purgatory of 'blank spaces', 'soulless rooms' and strangers who are dead behind the eyes, like statues. The bare canvas of an uncertain future. When Samfire passes through the archway, she enters the world of her imagination. The world of hallucinatory Hollywood and all it might offer. A mystical space of possibilities. Of wild encounters with vibrant strangers all cloaked in the surreal dreamlike haze of the hellish paradise that is L.A. Crucial to my vision was that Samfire played all three strangers in the music video - a symbol of how these characters are fundamentally projections of her imagination. It is also intended to evoke the notion that such encounters with strangers come to reveal new facets of our identity - parts we’ve repressed, or parts that we may not even have known existed. All of these come to the surface when we enter an unfamiliar space and we are forced to confront the ‘possible strangers’ within ourselves.

GREATEST INSPIRATIONS OR INFLUENCE?

SAMFIRE - The women of alt-synth arcadia like Kate Bush, Lana Del Rey and FKA Twigs are at the top, and, sitting alongside Tame Impala and MGMT, they are probably my most consistent inspiration. But I could easily throw 50 more names into that list.

LARA MARKS -

Greta Gerwig, Issa Rae, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Emerald Fennell, Brit Marling….. The list goes on. Bold, daring, and intelligent women who have taken their fate into their own hands and become actor-creators. Women who, fed up with conforming to the standards of an industry rooted in entrenched patriarchal standards and female passivity, have shaken up the system, defying the pigeon-holes of ‘actor’ or ‘producer’ in favour of simply being storytellers who want to tell their own tales in their own unique way. At the end of Gerwig’s recent epic movie, Barbie, Margot Robbie (as Barbie) declares: ‘I want to do the imagining, not be the idea. I want to be a part of the people that make meaning, not the thing that is made.’ I couldn’t have said it better if I tried.

WHAT DOES WELL-BEING MEAN TO YOU?

SAMFIRE - I’m definitely still figuring this out. I think for me creating at least a semblance of some structure really helps. Otherwise, the chaos can feel a little overwhelming. I am definitely purpose-driven and tend to think big, so setting some milestones helps me to stay focused. The structure also enables me to take time to be with the people I love and, as they are the people who inspire me most, it ended up helping me creatively too!

LARA MARKS - This is the eternal question! For me, it’s about taking each project step by step. Even when ignited by an artistic vision, I try not to let myself get overwhelmed by the enormity of the road ahead and instead seek to focus on each individual hurdle along the way. (Often easier said than done!) When it all gets overwhelming - I find journaling helps to ground me and reset my mentality and approach. I also strive to surround myself with artists who lift one another up - I believe that competition or comparison is the death of any good collaboration. (Aaaand finally…I’m always one for a bath and a candle when I’m feeling particularly erratic!)

FOLLOW