Hopefully you’re all sitting comfortably right now. Perhaps bedtime isn’t too far ahead or behind you, or maybe you’re about to embark on a non-committal woodland stroll. These and other dreamy experiences are often enhanced by the right kind of soundtrack, and there are few more fitting than the light, yet substantial soundscapes of Eerie Wanda.
Eerie Wanda is the musical pseudonym of Netherlands-based composer Marina Tadic. Her music is a highly pleasant fusion of melodic rockabilly dream-pop, kind of like the happy antithesis to a David Lynch soundtrack; her recent album Pet Town is a mastery of these themes, and echoes adventurously in a bubble of contemplation. Marina cites some of Pet Town‘s themes to be isolation, spiritual growth, and healing a broken heart. In spite of the intensity of these emotions, the music remains a consistently upbeat fix to any negative feelings the listener may be having at the time.
Marina also explained to Everything Is Noise some of her inspirations, and how she found her musical calling in the first place:
‘I started writing songs pretty much as soon as I got my first guitar and learned my first chords. I was 14 then, I believe. Performing came much later when a friend asked me to join his band. I was way too shy and insecure to start performing by myself, so I’m glad he asked me, so I could build up some experience.‘
This experience truly shines through in Eerie Wanda‘s fantastically produced recordings. She took influence from lots of different places, including Connie Converse, Velvet Underground, Young Marble Giants, Broadcast, Daniel Johnston, and a wealth of 50s rockabilly. The dream-poppy element is consistently abundant, and is a natural result of Marina’s style of songwriting and recording:
‘I experience the writing of songs as a very intuitive process that you should be critical of, but not forceful. To me, creating music should come naturally and without the ego getting involved. So it’s not as if I have consciously chosen to write the dreamy songs that I write. The songs came to me when I picked up my guitar.
‘I suppose that dreamy, poppy, laid-back vibe is a reflection of my personality, I’m definitely a dreamer who loves catchy little tunes. That doesn’t mean that I only listen to that type of music though, I love loud, and noisy, and dark, and abstract music as well.‘
She is no stranger to the live stage, either, having played a wealth of shows in the past few years. As with the recording, the performing is relatively intuitive, with Marina and her band preferring an up-close and personal experience with the audiences. In terms of technical challenge, the rig is adapted to favor a larger amount of percussion, as there are no actual drums on Pet Town.
‘We have a set up now with partly real drums and partly electronic drums and that seems to be the right balance. Also, the songs are quite intimate and fragile, so I prefer to play in small places with an attentive audience.‘
Eerie Wanda is also a project with plenty of scope and longevity ahead of it. Pet Town and 2016’s Hum have similar themes and emotional content, but their remarkably simple formula could easily continue freshly into the future. This hazily positive and uplifting music provides a great service to listeners, and is an addition to the musical plethora which should not be ignored. So what happens next? What is there planned for the future, and how will Marina expand on her already great catalog? As with everything else in the world of Eerie Wanda, it’s all about intuition:
‘I don’t think too far into the future. I will write a song when I feel inspired and will keep doing that, probably forever. An album shouldn’t be a planned thing in my opinion. When the songs are there, they are there. When there are no songs, you just have to live life and stay open for ideas.
But I will say, that I’m currently working on a secret new project that includes fuzz pedals.‘
A nice teaser, which we hopefully won’t have to wait too long for. Pet Town and Hum are currently available to hear on Eerie Wanda‘s Spotify and Bandcamp pages; for all news and other info, visit her Facebook and website.
