An Evening With Marley Brown: Q&A

Photo by Morgan Loftus

Amassing a large following on social media since the young age of thirteen, Marley Brown understands fan culture—because she is a lifelong music fan herself. Drawing inspiration from pop legends like Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams, and Olivia Rodrigo, she has channeled her innermost feelings through her music. In an understandably chaotic pre-show greenroom at the Mercury Lounge on August 4th, I had the privilege of taking a deeper look into Brown’s past performances, community-building, and lyricism. 

Q: I loved seeing that you did an intimate acoustic set for your fans last year at Central Park— what have been your favorite shows you’ve performed thus far? 

A: My favorite show of all time is definitely the one we did in London—I was studying abroad in Italy for a couple of months, and I'm originally from the UK. I lived in London for eight years of my life, so it was really special to me. I flew there from Italy, and my band flew out from the United States. Not only did Griffin and Dan fly out, but one of Griffin's friends lives in London, and he found a drummer and a keyboardist. We had never practiced before, so we were all extremely nervous. But all of the musicians who played were excellent, and it came together perfectly. The fans were great; they knew every word to every song, even the unreleased ones. My elementary school principal came to that show and approached me after, crying, with flowers. 

Q: Like many people, I discovered you through Taylor Swift TikTok a few years back. After building an audience largely from being a fangirl yourself, how have you created a separate identity for yourself through your music? 

A: I used to be friends with a girl who went through a similar experience, and she told me, “People already have opinions about you, which is going to make it harder. People have already decided if they love or hate you, so it doesn't matter what kind of music you make. If they've hated you because of your social media presence or you being a Taylor Swift fan, they're going to hate you no matter what.” 

So in a way, it's been difficult because I haven't started from ground zero—it's kind of like I've started from ground negative. It's different when it's people sending death threats because I ranked their favorite album too low, versus people being like, “You suck, your music sucks.” After all, that's a part of me, my songs are my diary. It's been hard to create a kind of separate identity. I stopped posting my content that I used to, which was hard because I loved that, but I just felt myself evolving as a person. 

And I still love Taylor Swift—I went to the Eras Tour, I'm wearing a Taylor Swift t-shirt right now. But I just thought that, at this point in my life, this is something I've always wanted to do. It did make it a little easier in some ways. I already had a platform, and I'm so grateful that I had what I had built through the last five years of doing that, because a lot of people found me through that and related to me more deeply. I'm extremely grateful for that, but it's just been hard because I want to keep it separate. 

Q: In your song, “Undertow,” you say, “I can’t let anything go,” but would you say that your music does help you let things go? That is, do you find it easier to cope with hardships through your songwriting?

A: Yes and no at the same time. It helps me let go of the thoughts that run through my head and the emotions, but I relive those emotions when I perform them. In a way, though, that's cathartic, because I write about these situations, and actually, Taylor Swift said this at the Eras Tour. These songs used to be mine; it used to be about me. But now, they're yours, you know. You associate your memories with them, and in a way, that's what happens to me. So it's great to get things out there. And obviously, I have super personal songs that I'll never share, and then I have personal songs that I do share, and I'm just like, “Guys, please be nice! These songs are my entire life, thoughts, and feelings. Please treat them well.” 

Q: Your latest release, “bitter,” is arguably your strongest, lyrically, to date. One lyric that stood out to me was “I can’t be your savior if I can’t save myself,” and I truly resonate with that concept. Could you talk us through the meaning behind this line specifically?

A: Griffin and I actually wrote that song together. It was the only song I've ever cowritten that I've released. I came to Griffin with a five-minute song idea that was very slow and acoustic. I knew I wanted the result to have that kind of electronic vocoder vibe. Griffin suggested that we make the whole song sound more alternative and indie. We stayed up until 2 a.m. writing the lyrics and producing a demo over FaceTime, and then finished the song three days later when we were recording in Maine.

The lyric, “I can't be your savior if I can't save myself,” is kind of the idea that everybody experiences their own issues. You never know what somebody else is going through, but when you're having a tough time, it's hard to help somebody else, because if you’re both in a hole, it's hard to pull them out. When you're struggling in any kind of relationship, friendship, whatever, you need to work on yourself just as much as you're working on helping the other person.

If somebody's truly your friend, they'll understand that you can't give 100%. But if you don't have 100% to give, and you're giving 70% to them, that's still 100% to you. Good friends will realize that. 

Q: You’ve posted videos of you hosting late-night Zoom calls with your fans—a truly unique, community-building idea. How do you think your relationship with your fans, and your music in general, speaks to fellow fangirls who might want to pursue music or other creative aspirations themselves? What do you hope to portray to your audience?

A: I just kind of want my music to tell everybody that they’re not alone in feeling all these crappy things. My favorite kind of music is music that I listen to and think, “Damn. That's me.” You know, this person took what was in my brain and wrote it out on paper. It's difficult to find music that's so vulnerable because it's terrifying. I have two songs tonight that I might just close my eyes and not even look at anybody, because if I do, I’ll cry, you know? I just want people to know that every single person goes through these things. 

I've been writing songs since I was 12 years old, but I never expected to share them. Honestly, doing SwiftTok and influencing pushed me to share them, because I would go live at, like, 11 p.m. every night in high school when I had nothing to do. I would sing and play my guitar, because that's my hobby, that's what I love to do. I never expected to share it, I just did it because it was fun. I would get comments of people saying, “You read my diary, you know exactly how I'm feeling.” 

After that, I was like, you know what? Let's just put it out there. Every single person feels out of place. Every single person feels awkward. Everyone feels anxious. Everyone feels nervous, sad, and scared. And that's why I don't have a lot of happy songs, because there are so many happy songs out there in the world. Music should make you feel seen or make you feel something. I hope that people like, listen to my songs, and they're just like, “Wow, she gets me.” Like, “Somebody else feels the same way that I do.”

Q: What keeps you pursuing music, especially in a world where the market can be so oversaturated? 

A: Oh, my God, I just do it because it's fun. Period. I pursued music before anybody listened to it. I will keep making music even if nobody's listening to it. I make my music with my best friends. You know, we make music in my living room, Griffin's old college apartment, his childhood bedroom. Everybody who works on my music is my best friend. My team is my best friend. Belle, the girl who shoots all my photography, is absolutely awesome and one of the best people I've met in my entire life. My stylist is one of my excellent, great friends. Everybody I do it with makes it so fun, and so it's incredible to just do it. It makes me feel seen. I'll continue doing it even if nobody's listening, but it's great that people do listen.

Q: What’s next for Marley Brown?

A: There's a lot coming soon. I write songs every single day, and I have so many unreleased songs that we've produced. Some of them are coming out, some of them will not be, but I do have a very awesome project in the works. I'm actually playing 90% of those songs tonight, so it's very exciting. I am announcing a new song tonight, which I’m really excited about, because it's a song that I've played at every show I've performed for the last two and a half years, and everybody's been begging for it. 

Be sure to presave “Smells Like You,” releasing on August 22nd, and stay tuned for Marley’s upcoming projects!

You can follow Marley on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube!

Stream her music here: