The Marika Christine Interview
Born and raised in the Netherlands, Christine and her family relocated to San Francisco at just the age of three and was surround by music at a very early age. Studying classical voice during her elementary years, Christine eventually began playing guitar and covering the likes of the late Elliott Smith and the rest is history! This month is very exciting for Christine as her new record “Soft Like An Apricot” releases this Friday the 26th! In this interview we explore Christine’s past, future and present, her formative influences, learning to play guitar and eventually writing her own songs, writing and recording process and much more.
Are you originally from San Fran, CA? What was your childhood like growing up? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Was this something that was relevant around your household growing up?
I spent my toddler years in the Netherlands, but my family moved to San Francisco when I was three. We lived in a small foggy neighborhood on the top of Mount Davidson (which is the highest elevation point in the city, though it’s commonly assumed that Twin Peaks is). I grew up walking, and taking the bus to the public schools I attended, and spent a lot of time in the city’s numerous parks. I was very lucky to be surrounded by music at an early age. My elementary school had an afterschool guitar club where I learned some basic chords. What I really loved was singing along, which led to an exploration of musical theater. Eventually at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, I studied classical voice. I learned vocal technique, some music theory and ear training before circling back to strumming the guitar and singing along. My family is very musical too - my brother Janis Stuurman plays trumpet, piano, and guitar and my mom studied and played flute professionally.
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where was your first concert and when did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing and creating music?
As a teenager my best friend, Sadie Alan, and I learned covers of songs by artists like Elliot Smith. We also workshopped the songs that we were writing together. It was really encouraging to have a friend to share the songwriting process with. It’s very scary to share an original, especially when I was first learning how to do it, so seeing Sadie’s courage in performing her music was very inspiring. Other than working on musical ideas, my friends and I did what most teenagers probably do - go to the mall, the movies, smoke weed in public places and wander around the city. My first big concert was seeing Justin Beieber in the “baby” era. He was only a few years older than me and flew around the Warriors basketball arena in a giant heart. It was honestly pretty impressive, I remember him playing almost every instrument on stage throughout the show. He even brought a lucky girl on stage and gave her flowers, but, looking back, that was probably the worst part. The experiences that made me want to play music forever really came from attending local all ages shows as a 16 - 20 year old. I fell in love with the music and the people who participated in the scene.
Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to being a solo artist? When and where did you play your very first gig and what was that experience for you? Tell me about writing and recording your debut album “Puzzle World” in 2021. When and where did recording begin and what was the overall approach?
When I was 17 my friend's band called Clumsy asked me to sing backup vocals on their EP Love Pop. A few years later I joined a band called Dream Haste with Fabrizio Incerti who was the drummer of Clumsy. We released one album called Less Blue, and played shows together for a few years. My first show was very memorable. It was in a cave at Land’s End known locally for being a renegade venue. We hauled all our gear down the hill and played a few songs before the cops showed up and we had to pack up and go home. Since we were still under 21, we frequented a DIY spot called the Honey Hive Gallery. It was a tiny art space near Ocean Beach, about a 45 minute Muni train ride away from the center of SF. It was a gem for letting us play our first shows without caring about the ticket sales. Dream Haste was my first real band, and I look back at it with a lot of love, and admiration for my growth since then. I went on to form an all girl band called Secret Secret with my highschool friend Sadie Alan and music colleague Maria Donjacour. We are still very active and have been together for six years. In 2022 I joined as a touring member of Spacemoth’s live band which has been an incredible experience.
“Puzzle World” was a collection of the songs I wrote from ages 17 to 22. I decided to record all these songs right after graduating college. I told myself that I would only be a barista for one year post-graduation and I’d focus on creating an album. Sounded like a good plan until the pandemic hit a few months after my final fall semester. I enlisted the help of my longtime friends and collaborators Maria Donjacour, Fabrizio Incerti, and Adam Wilson to record the songs (all while wearing a mask) at Tiny Telephone in Oakland, California. We were a little pod of bandmates and also enjoyed playing cards outside where we felt safer before the vaccines were developed. We recorded drums, bass, and guitar live on to tape and then had a lot of fun with overdubs. Since we had never performed the songs live, we got very creative with the recording, not worrying about how they would translate to a live performance.
This month is your very anticipated follow up album release of “Soft Like An Apricot”. What was the overall approach to this record that differs from your other releases including singles? Tell me about writing and recording this record as well as some background to songs such as “Bird Talk”, “Buckle Up Baby”, “Apricot”, “Music and Heart” and ‘Someone Else”?
The production approach to “Soft Like and Apricot” is similar to “Puzzle World”. There is a mix of songs recorded with the band and by myself layer by layer. The biggest difference is that “Soft Like an Apricot” was written all within 6 months to a year. Lyrically the songs are more cohesive while sonically I explore many different genres. I wrote most of the songs as a way to help me process my first really big breakup. “Buckle Up Baby” was written during the first few weeks of moving out of the place I shared with that partner. It was a turbulent time for me, and I wrote a lot of songs. Buckle Up has more of a 70’s classic feeling, and was recorded with the whole band while some others that I did layer by layer have a different mood. “Bird Talk” was intended to be an interlude for the album. I ended up using a small section of a song that I wrote for Dream Haste in 2017, and making a new reprised version. I recorded this one at Wiggle World Wide in LA by myself during a solo road trip down the coast. While I love working with a band, it’s a good challenge to really trust my decisions, and push myself to work on production ideas. “Mourning Seeds” was another that I did without the band. “Apricot'', which is the title track of the record, was a full band jam that we had a lot of fun with. It’s in ⅞ which gives it a weird almost prog rock feel that is really electric to play live. Every member of the band contributed immensely to the production of this track. Fabrizio thought of the syncopated vocal intro, Maria made up such a cool bass line, and Adam made all the synth sounds. It would not be the same without them!
What else have you got planned for the summer? Any gigs, or tours in the works? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
There will be a record release show at Rickshaw Stop on June 1st. I’m going on a California tour from June 14-18th, and then I hope to take a breather and work on new songs. I am also very excited to share my music on vinyl for the first time ever! It’s being released by Ghost Mountain Records, a sweet Seattle based tape, and vinyl label. All the art was done by the amazing Madalyn Stefanak. I am very grateful to both of them who helped me immensely during this release process.
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