Q&A: Finland-based Artist Marie Noël Makes Her Debut With Long-Awaited Track “Housewife Pearls”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY STARLY LOU RIGGS ☆
Photo by Maiju Voutilainen
FINLAND-BASED ARTIST MARIE NOËL BRINGS NEW MEANING TO BEDROOM POP — dusting off this 12-year old track, setting “Housewife Pearls” free into the world for all to hear. Raised in a world of sound, Noël eventually found other creative avenues, even landing in the world of business before circling back to the medium on which she was raised. This track serves not only as the artist’s debut piece, but also as reclamation of self with the hope to resonate with other queer youth who may need to hear what it means to shatter other’s expectations of them.
Dissecting gender-roles, “Housewife Pearls” is about embracing what clicks and rejecting what doesn’t. In a way, it’s like unearthing an old journal entry, catching glimpses of thoughts explored in the privacy of one's own bedroom and mind, only to find lasting and poignant truths. This piece has lived in the back of Noël’s mind for years, but it was a queer TikTok community that finally inspired its release. Contemplative and catchy, this song emulates the feeling of swirling with its electronic swells and emphatic vocals.
We had a chance to talk about Noël’s musical process and what the track means to her after all this time. Read on for more.
Photo by Maiju Voutilainen
LUNA: I see you’re a very multifaceted artist: an actor, model, and musician. Were you classically trained in music? How has this influenced you?
MARIE NOËL: And a full-time philosophy student, but I feel like it gets too long with these titles. I usually go by artist [or] creative. The medium varies from one day to the next. I've trained in classical music, majoring in classical piano and singing. I've sung in choirs ever since I was six years old. I was lucky to grow up in a family that encouraged creativity, so when I [was] singing and fidgeting, my parents put me in a choir. We didn’t just sing your regular Christmas carols, [it was] led by an awesome conductor travelling the world collecting songs, so I got a super healthy and happy foundation for music and self-expression. There were moments when I dreamt of becoming an opera diva. But I seem to have an innate need to do things my way, so I never truly gravitated towards continuing that path. “Housewife Pearls” is a lot about that search too. It’s the first song that I intentionally wrote taking my artist dream seriously and choosing to go looking for myself through the freedom of pop music.
LUNA: This track was written 12 years ago in your teenage bedroom. What made you circle back to it after all this time? How does it feel to connect with your past self in this way?
MARIE NOËL: It's been on the back of my mind all this time, but different things have grown the momentum. One thing was my dad getting sick. I'm not sure if the timing is escapism or [if] I need to show my dad that I did it. Music has always been our thing. Another was that a Finnish artist named Asla Jo published a queer song that grew virality in our tiny Finnish queer-TikTok-community. Someone left a comment on Asla Jo’s video saying that they [wished] they’d had the song when they were 16. I understood that “Housewife Pearls” wasn’t just for me. I felt bad about not having released it sooner. In 2016, when I quit music, I said, “I’ll probably go and learn everything about business [only] to then return to music in ten years.” Funny how that happened. I’m continuing from where I left off, now [with] the emotional capacity and maturity to handle the emotions and pressure that I couldn’t when I quit. I’m very proud, feeling content and happy.
LUNA: This track is a queer fantasy and a reclamation of once hidden desires. The song starts with the lines “My housewife pearls, shattered,” amid other things shattering, like your “own values” and “good manners” and ends with “your hands on my hips / my hands on your hips.” What does it mean to shatter something in order to step into your own? What does it mean to break something in order to rebuild?
MARIE NOËL: Well, in the business and startup world, you hear the word “disruptor” all the time. It’s kind of a good word to explain the energy of rethinking something old. [When] I'm rethinking the old, I think it's important to be curious and not assume everything has gone in the best direction. I like to think that there's a path that we're all on and that we sometimes stray away from it, finding alignment again through chaos and disaster. I think it's universal law to disrupt and let the elements fall back in another order, perhaps and hopefully better than they were before.
LUNA: What does the title “Housewife Pearls” mean to you? In what way is it playing with gendered expectations and normativity in society?
MARIE NOËL: I grew up with my motherly figures wearing pearls, and to me it’s such a strong symbol. I remember getting a pearl necklace when I was pretty small. Pearls are very pretty. Pearls, girls, gendered expectations to be a pretty girl wearing pearls was and is something that I simultaneously am and want to be—and want to see redone. Again, bowing to the old and classy but letting the pearls shatter and find a new order. Freedom for the pearls!
LUNA: What about this track has changed over time?
MARIE NOËL: Physically it [almost] hasn’t changed at all. When I was playing with the idea of releasing it with the TikTok [community], I asked if someone could help me master it—and a producer named Januar reached out. I [wanted] to add a soft baseline to it, perhaps a new preference. I asked him to do it, giving it a bit of a “foundation” and that was that.
Emotionally, “Housewife Pearls’” significance is evolving and growing for me personally. I must say that I am totally a fan of the 18 year-old me that felt so free and freed themselves to become themselves. It's an honor to be who I wanted to be today and finally release “Housewife Pearls.”
LUNA: Can you tell me a little bit about the production process? I love that it was created in a bedroom, and it definitely has a bedroom pop sound. Was this final track produced in your house, or a studio?
MARIE NOËL: It's done initially on GarageBand, partly with the microphone of my wired iPhone headphones. I did get some tools for music, like my dad's old compressor microphone (not intended for singing) from his band times, and a midi keyboard from my grandparents as a Christmas present. I’ve always thought that being creative is not about the tools you have, but about how creative you can get with the tools [you have]. For me, I wasn’t very technically advanced, which then led me to use my voice for everything. I’ve actually done many versions of “Housewife Pearls” with other producers during the years, but [was] never as fond of them as I am of this original version, with its pulse and rawness. So yes, the one I’m releasing was born in my teenage bedroom and is pretty much untouched from those nightly sessions.
LUNA: Is there more on the horizon? Can we expect some new releases in the near future?
MARIE NOËL: Well, you can't stop once you've finally started, right? I think it's always the most difficult to get the ball rolling. I'm also hoping for this release to bring about collaborations with other artists. Now that I've done this once, I’m familiar with the process. To me, I think part of the magic is to just release when I'm ready, release when I'm inspired and when the stars align. So yes definitely. Stay tuned and on the channel and expect the unexpected.
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