Dominican-Brazilian singer Jarina De Marco is known for her trip-hop beats and strong political commentary in her lyrics. After falling in love she decided to change her sound and start making what she calls ‘baby-making’ music. Her new album set to come out in 2021, _Caribbean All-inclusive Luxury_ will follow themes of love, romance, and intimacy.
During De Marco’s new wave of romantic music she released “Electrico,’”on September 28, a song with Diego Raposo, which was released alongside a video with the theme of Jello and Sex.
However, she didn’t forget her roots, her latest song released with Dylan Brady called “Ilegales” on October 28 is about immigration and the incarceration of children. All proceeds will go to raise money for [Street Watch Los Angeles](https://streetwatchla.com/), a coalition of organizers concerned about tenant rights.
In addition to her musical accomplishments, De Marco recently worked with photographer Julian Buchan on a photoshoot to capture her during her pregnancy.
Flaunt had the opportunity to speak to De Marco about her roots, new sound, her photoshoot with Buchan, and upcoming projects.
**Tell me a little bit about your sound and how you’ve gone about creating such a unique blend of styles?**
I’m Dominican and Brazilian and I was raised in the Dominican Republic, Brazil, and Montreal. My parents are both musicians so that’s why we moved so much, because of music and also my parents had a band for 15 years and they were very politically active, so we had to move for political reasons as well. They pissed off the Dominican government by singing songs against them and so we were refugees in Montreal. So I got to experience the three Americas; South, Central, and North America before the age of 6. I picked up all those languages on the way and all those musical sounds; bossanova and samba from Brazil and the Dominican folkloric music. My mom is a musical anthropologist so I got to go with her to the countryside and experience all that music and then when we got to Montreal they were like a super hot ticket in town for Brazilian jazz Dominican fusion music so I got to be in all these jazz festivals and pop festivals. I got to hear all of this music so I would say I’m very much a blend of all these three Americas, plus electronic music which I came into in my teens.
**How have your different identities influenced you musically, specifically Brazil and the Dominican Republic?**
I definitely take from the rhythmic side of the Dominican Republic and the rapidity of how I sing at times, it’s very percussive, and then from the Brazilian side, the harmonics are what I lean towards. My dad and I used to do these exercises when he was walking me to school where he would sing a song and I would harmonize with him. He’s an incredible harmonizer so I got to learn so much about Brazilian harmonization that I implement in my music.
**Do you think your sound and lyrics have changed from the beginning of your career?**
100%. I think it always changes, it’s not like that for everyone, but for me, I don’t think I’m able to stay put with one style of clothing let alone music. But I started with jazz, blues, and bossanova and then I was in a disco funk hip-hop band for many years and after that, I got into trip-hop and it was super trippy, smooth vocals. Then all of a sudden I was like fuck that I’m gonna chant rap and be weird so I did all the stuff from “Tigre” on which came out on Broad city and that’s a very specific style I’m still well known for and very sought-after especially for series, movies, and commercials. And now funny enough, I fell in love a year and a half ago and I hadn’t written a song about love in like ten years. It’s always about empowerment or like fuck you or political stuff and then all of a sudden I just wanted to make baby-making music, and then I got pregnant. So it worked!
**It seems that you use music as a tool for political commentary and that it’s very prominent in your lyrics, can you talk a little bit about why you think that’s important?**
I have a very long line of political hotheads in my family. My grandfather fought for the removal of the dictator in the Dominican Republic in the ’60s, who was eventually assassinated and he was part of the youth movement organizing his removal. He had to go into hiding for like 6 months after he was assassinated. My mom sang a song against the dictator because he built this giant monument in honor of Columbus that shot up light that would cost like 70 million dollars. He built this giant wall around it because there were slums there so he didn’t want people visiting, like the tourists to see, which they never came actually. So she sang this song questioning why are we building this thing for Columbus because he was a genocidal maniac. This was in the ’90s before anyone was saying this shit, people were like calm down he did discover America, and my mom was like ‘no he didn’t it was already here.’ And also why are we wasting all this money on this thing that shoots up light, the city already has rolling blackouts every single day and that thing is always on. She sang that at the opening of a festival and it was like international and she sang it in front of all this military and government people. All the cops that were there, I was there too, approached the stage with their guns because they wanted her to stop singing so we had to leave very soon after that. I’ve always been taught to speak on injustices and, Bob Marley taught me this, you make something that feels like a dance party and you slip in the really important message.
**How does it feel to now have your songs in shows like _Broad City_ and _Euphoria_?**
It’s amazing, it brings a whole new audience into your universe. It’s really cool when music supervisors can identify a song that feels like it speaks to a character or a moment, it gives it even more meaning, even a meaning you hadn’t originally thought of. I got to work closely with show creator Tanya Saracho from _Vida_ and I got to actually score it. Basically, I would look at the scene and I would write the song especially for the scene. That was amazing and I would love to keep doing that.
**What was the inspiration and idea behind "Electrico"?**
That was the beginning of me saying, I’m gonna make some baby-making music. Everything I had done up to that point was super hype up there and I wanted to go back to my more mellow trip-hop, electronic, reggae roots. Also, I had fallen in love so it was time for me to lay down this love song and I really missed singing because I’d been rapping and chanting for so long. I also wrote all of the parts for the horn and it was a really wonderful kind of diving into a more focused, less erratic kind of music. Then I made a really fun video with jello, where I kind of molest jello.
**This next project is supposed to be the first in which you emphasize love, romance, and intimacy, why did you decide to make that the focus?**
I feel in love with what it seems to be the right man. Can you believe it! Right before I was like mom I don’t think it’s gonna happen for me. I like to molest jello, who’s going to want to hang out with me, I’m a lot. But Alex was a perfect blend for me because he’s Venezuelan and American and he’s lived all over the world. He’s very international and he doesn’t feel like that he belongs to one country, same with me, and he has the ability to calm me down in like .2 seconds and I’ve never met anyone like that before. He’s also a musician, ambient music for fucks sakes. When I started falling in love with him it felt different, nothing like I had ever experienced before, and I was married before for a long time and had very significant relationships in my life but he just fit the bill. It just inspired all of this music and it felt very fluid.
**How was working with Julian Buchan during the photoshoot?**
I love Julian Buchan. He is an incredible photographer. It was a joy to work with him.
**Tell me about your album coming out 2021!**
The whole album is inspired by love but it’s like in a tropical setting. Everything I like to do I like to have a theme, like with the jello thing, the music video for ‘Electrico’ the theme was sex and jello. So with this, it was like what’s the ultimate romantic place, some people think Paris or whatever but for me its the Caribbean. It's where I spend most of my time on the beach and stuff, and the water, it’s just the most sensuous place for me. I love swimming but ass naked in the water and it feels like I’m a mermaid and I just wanted it to be in this place. So the entire album has undercurrents, literal undercurrents, water sounds throughout every track. They all flow into each other, you can play it from beginning to end and that's how it feels and they relate to each other and all of them are about love but it's a lot about food and love. My co-writer and I have a problem with writing about food and love and mixing the two. You would think we have a food kink. Kind of I guess because of the jello thing. It’s mostly In Spanish, which is rare because I’ve mostly written in English and Spanglish. I guess I just wanted to go back to that place, the last time I felt this in love was being a teenager, and that pure love that you feel when you’re a teenager happened in the Dominican Republic. So it’s kind of a regression I think, Spanish psychologically fits the profile of this first love, but later in life.
**What is something that you wish for the Latinx community?**
After this election I feel like there’s been a lot of talk of the Latin community as this monolith, we come from so many different backgrounds, languages, political backgrounds, different traumas, different generations, different points of views. But with that being said even though we’re all so different I think that there is room for a lot more empathy from different factions of latinidad_,_ meaning if you say you’re Venezuelan from Miami and then there’s a lot of Mexican people over in California. I think there should be a natural dialogue about what it's like to be someone that comes from Venezuela who’s been traumatized by communism and also to understand them, and why they are leaning towards the right and for them to understand the Mexican experience and central American of being an immigrant and had to get here illegally because it's impossible for them to get here otherwise. To be able to have empathy for each other so we can be a more cohesive community that in the end kind of loves each other more and really understands what we’re going against, because truly I believe in the end they don’t give a crap if you’re from Venezuela, Cuba or whatever they don’t give a shit, we’re all brown to them, we’re not white people. I think there’s a misconception that some are better than others and that shit has to stop.
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