MAVI PHOENIX
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SHE IS JUST 22 YEARS OLD AND COMES FROM THE SMALL TOWN OF LINZ IN AUSTRIA. HER NAME IS MARLENE AKA MAVI PHOENIX (FROM A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE BROTHERS JOAQUIN AND RIVER PHOENIX 'BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO TAKE A NAME THAT SOUNDS A BIT LIKE A SUPER HEROINE’, SHE SAYS) AND MEDIA CELEBRATE HER AS THE NEW RAISING STAR OF ‘URBAN-POP’. DISCOVER THIS NEW TALENT THROUGH OUR INTERVIEW AND BE READY FOR HER FIRST GIG IN MILAN THIS NOVEMBER TO PRESENT 'YOUNG PROPHET'!
Hello Mavi, welcome to Milan, we are glad to meet you during your first visit in town.
Yes, I’m excited, first time here and a day full of interview and shootings. Wow. I’ll be back for the show on November 17th and can’t wait to be on stage. But first I’ll perform at Pitchfork festival in Paris and I’m really looking forward it.
Tell us all about you.
Well, I’m 22 years old and I come from Link in Austria. I live now in Vienna since two years. It’s a beautiful, multicultural city but i imagine myself also somewhere else. I have always made songs since i was very young and that was actually the key. I always wanted to make music.
Are you coming from a family of musicians or what?
Well, not at all. Like my parents listen to music but none of them play and instruments. My mom is a very bad singer (laughs). But they are both very passionate about music so they showed me a lot during the years. I don’t know where it originally comes from but music has always been big part of my life, something to define myself in a way. At first i did not really know which one was my style, I listened to a lot of pop music and when I was 16 years old i discovered hip pop so all of a sudden all i did was rap. And now it’s a mix of genre, very urban.
Yes, you name has been often associate to ‘urban-pop’. What does it mean to you?
I actually don’t know. They always mentioned this word urban-pop but it’s not easy to define. I think it’s very linked to my street style and maybe to the fact that I have always experimented a lot also with my voice. For example the album “Blonde” from Frank Ocean or the new album from Kendrick Lamar were the things that really grabbed me and gave inspiration for this.
And what’s your street style? Also in terms of fashion.
When people ask me about my style I precise that i don’t have a defined one, not yet at least; but I like to go to vintage shops because I really like the iconic ’80 and ’90 styles.
So when you have been asked to collaborate with Desigual as a brand how do you reacted?
It’s not at all my style as you can imagine and it’s not a brand that I support in that way but when they ask me to collaborate I was really pleased. They invited us to Barcelona and the team was really amazing, young and very professional. I really like the spot and the idea so I was happy to give them the song but i did not wanted to become ambassador of the brand or something like that. I didn’t want to sound fake, I am very genuine as you can see. (2017 has marked the breakthrough for Desigual since its radical choice of brand re-styling: the Exotic Jeans Campaign ’17 saw the collaboration of Mavi Phoenix with her song ‘Aventura’).
It only took you a digital EP (“My Fault”) and 2 singles (“Quiet” & “Love Longtime”) to create a stir far beyond the music scene. Are you the “young prophet” of the EP homonymous? And what can we expect from the gig in Milan?
It gonna be a lot of new songs and ‘m just tryng to have a good time when I play live! I am shy but when on stage I have such an energy that it’s almost unbelievable! Before the EP I had a song called Young Prophet. It was supposed to be my first single but I decided differently. Nevertheless, I have always loved this title. It is both majestic and very “self-confident”, I think it’s great for an emerging artist like me.
Good Luck Mavi.
MAVI will perform in Milan on Friday 17th November at Rocket Club.
More info on www.radarconcerti.com
Special thanks to Nina Selvini
Photography Fabrizio Consoli @fabconsoli