Behind the Scenes of Marley Wildthing’s New Music Video “No Room”

Marley gets out of the 177 bus and we hug. “This way,” I point a finger at “my” panelák. It’s Sunday morning and we’re meeting to talk about her new music video and her music in general. “Have you had breakfast already?” Marley asks as she’s unpacking bags of pastries. “Actually, I did,” I resist the sight of a tasty looking šáteček, “but I could use one more cup of coffee. Would you like one too?” “Yes!” Marley exclaims.

Marley, hugging her cup, opens, “I’m a musician, singer, songwriter from Austria. And I do music for about four years now.” During her Erasmus studies in the Netherlands, Marley met her best friend, a Czech girl, who brought her to Prague. Marley fell in love with the city immediately. “There are all these bars with live music. And I met a lot of artists… that’s an environment that I didn’t have in Vienna when I studied there.” She praises the Prague music scene and then adds, “This is gonna sound cheesy, but I always wanted to do music. When I was a child, I took songs and I wrote new lyrics to them. But I would never sing them for anyone because I was too scared.”

The first thing any aspiring musician must figure out is:

“Okay, how are you gonna pay your bills?” Marely laughs and explains how it was for her. “I met some people I played with regularly, and I filled my summer with gigs in Irish pubs. I learned a lot, and I made a friend that helped me record my first song, The Man Who Became You. At the beginning, I knew nothing about music software. I knew how to acoustically write a song, but I didn’t know how to produce it at all. So he helped me a lot, and he made me sound good at a time when I wasn’t really that conscious about my voice yet. And from there, I got more playful with my songs and tried to colour them more for my taste.”

“I’ve never realized how much work all the practical things take. Like keeping a band together, working with other musicians. It’s natural that they all have their own plans and their own needs, but I never thought it’s that difficult to make it work for everyone,” she laughs. “And also to do all the organization stuff, like putting together live music events or making sure to have always pictures, texting venues, getting contacts and all this super boring stuff. Or – even worse, trying to get on Spotify playlists; this is the most horrible thing for me to do.” Marley rolls her eyes. 

“But by now, I also have things to show for myself, so it’s a little easier. When I started, I was like, ‘I don’t even have a recording of myself’. And then I tried to do some home recording, but it turned out horrible.” She laughs. “You really have to work a lot to have something to show for yourself, it makes it much easier to communicate with people then.”

The Inspiration and Style

“Where do you find your inspiration?” I ask, and Marley thinks about it for a second. “I… I spend a lot of time in the shower.” We both crack up. “Because in the shower, I start thinking. There is no distraction, and it’s also kind of a nice place,” she laughs. “So I start making plans for music videos, or for live shows or things I could do, and then I’m like, ‘Whoa, okay, I’ve been here for a really long time!’” 

“I would describe my music as acoustic and a little old school.” Marley thinks about it some more. “After Take someone told me that my songs sound like ‘old school girl-fronted bands’, or something like this. And I thought it was funny.” She grins. “I write about my life. Because I feel that we all experience the same things at the end of the day. We all have mental problems, relationship problems, problems with society. I’m a little too old to write songs about how we go wild at night, and how we just party, and ‘fuck the parents’ and stuff.” She chuckles. “I would like to have a little bit of a message in each of my songs. Like for example in Tunnelvision, which is a song about inner fights and inner demons.”

Introduction to No Room

Get a behind the scenes look at the music video for No Room and continue reading the interview below. 

“Recently, we shot a new music video for a new single, that is gonna be a part of a future album. The song is called No Room. And I initially wrote it at the beginning of a relationship,” Marley opens up. “I was kind of sleepless, and I felt like not getting any attention. And I was wondering if that guy, who is now my boyfriend,” she smiles, “if he actually likes me enough to make space in his life for me. Because I think that it’s not always about if you like someone, but it’s also about if they actually have space for you.” 

“The song itself is very short, just two minutes. But then it has an outro that is very long; like one and a half minutes. My sound engineer was like, ‘This is like mixing two songs,’” she laughs, “because they are super different.”

The Idea for the Music Video

“This video is – as the song is – a product of teamwork.” Marley teamed up for this project with director David Dougles, who previously collaborated with her on Tunnelvision. “David said that this time he would like to be more involved. He came up with an idea about a high school prom theme. And I was like, ‘Okay, okay; let’s see what we can do with that.’”

“The video is more about thinking back on the past loves we had. But not in a sentimental way, but more like having nice memories, and not feeling bad for them, and not even feeling bad that it didn’t work out.”

“So in the video, I’m coming into a room that’s full of decoration but empty of people. I’m all dressed up and I realize that I’m dressed up for no one, ‘cause I’m just with myself. So I’m getting rid of my shoes; I’m sitting down, having a drink and eating something. And I get used to the idea of being just with myself. Like how it is when you get out of a relationship, or in general in life; that you should enjoy the time with yourself. And also that you’re always gonna be confronted with the people that were in your life, so you’d better make peace with it.”

The Art and Outfits

Marley shot the video in the unique space of Emmaus Monastery. “The art team really made the room into something completely different. We had some discussions about our ideas. I sometimes don’t make the life of others easy.” She laughs. “In the first part of the video, I have a very big dress. And we tried a couple different dresses from a designer, and there was one dress that I liked more, and that my boyfriend liked more. But there was this other dress that was pink, and everyone from the art team was like, ‘This fits so much better to the whole surroundings that we’re gonna have there.’ So after a lot of discussions, I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll wear the pink one.’”

“And then we had to think about the outro outfit because – you saw it, it looks very naked, and… I really wanted to make sure that it’s shown in the right way. Not sexual, not super hot or too provocative, just showing yourself without all the covers. Being fragile, but not like a little girl, but fragile as a woman.” Marley looks up to check if I’m getting it, so I check back, “Vulnerable?”  “Yeah,” she confirms, “but also strong, you know? How everyone is. When you’re naked, you’re kind of vulnerable, but also you’re just yourself, just a person, not something for someone to look at. And I think we managed.”

The Organization and Execution

“It’s very tasteful. And sexy too,” I laugh, and ask, “But I assume there’s much more work than just outfits; so what else was involved?” “I got all the extras together, and make-up artists, and the sound guy, and things like this. Which sounds very simple, but you have to be all the time on your phone about things,” Marley stresses. 

“There are small things that you do days before that no one sees, but they take a lot of energy. Like for example, there was this table I was sitting at; this round, big table and getting it was like, at least one day’s worth of work. I had to pick it up from the other side of Prague, and I didn’t find a cheap way to transport it. So I was rolling it through trams, through the whole city,” Marley laughs. 

“And also finding the designer took really a long time, because I didn’t have anyone in mind.”

“So I had to scroll through a lot of pictures, text a lot of people… I got some ideas from people around me, luckily, and that’s how I found the designer of my dress and also the designer of the shirt that I’m wearing in the outro. It’s a lot of work; just sitting at the computer, googling stuff. No one sees it, but you have to do it.”

“You sit on many chairs. Among other things, you also have to act in the video; how do you feel in front of the camera?” I’m curious. “I really like acting, actually,” Marley doesn’t hesitate. “It’s fun. Obviously, it’s sometimes a little difficult to concentrate on the acting when you also have other things to take care of at the same time. But it’s the most fun part for me. I don’t think that I’m perfect in front of cameras but I like it.”

Next Steps

“I learned from my last videos that I should take more time for the whole process. Not stress myself so much with publishing them too fast. Same with songs. Because it’s always good when you have more time to listen to them again, change things, instead of following a strict schedule. Art just takes time, and sometimes something comes to you, and you’re like, ‘Whoa! Okay, I want to change this.’ It’s better to have the opportunity to still do it.”

“Right now I’m focusing on my next album. I released singles with videos, but at some point, I would like to put them all together. But this takes forever, and I want it to take forever, because I want to be really happy with it.” Marley smiles. “I remember that when I was studying, I talked to a writer, he was a little older, and he released his first book. He said that other writers wrote so many books already, because they started when they were young, but since he started late, he wanted the first book he releases to be really, really good. And I think this is what I would like as well. Some people have been doing music since they were  twelve; or they’ve played in teenage bands, and I haven’t. So I feel like I want to do it well right away.” 

“I think it’s all about how passionate you are about things, not about education, or when you start.”

“I like to work with people who maybe don’t do everything perfectly, but they really enjoy it, and they show it to people around them. And I think that in general, it would be good if we all more followed the things that we really like to do.” 

“Just yesterday, someone told me, ‘I have no talent for music, for instruments and stuff.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s not a god-given thing, it’s something you practise because you really want it.’ It’s nice when you do something that makes you feel alive, and you should not be scared of not being perfect right away, or not being talented, because I don’t think it exists,” Marley shrugs.

Finally! Check out Marley’s new music video No Room

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