GET MASED
I always used to joke, 'I really should be a rocker, but I don't write music and I don’t sing. Oh well. Next life.’
Fast forward to 2007. I was having a hard time - my daughter was being ravaged by an eating disorder, my marriage was breaking up, the life I had built was crumbling. My anxiety went from the occasional panic attack to a year-long unrelenting one. 24/7. The only thing that gave me respite, I discovered, was singing. So I began to sing each morning, songs from The Sound of Music, Chicago, The Little Mermaid, The Kinks, The Clash, whatever moved me...and soon after that, my own songs started coming . I was deluged by them. One after the other. I started to incorporate the songs into my monologues/shows and began performing them live at clubs in NYC. Acapella!
It was all very healing and miraculous. However, I knew that if I wanted to grow, I needed to work with a musician.
I met the brilliant songwriter/producer/guitarist Tomás Doncker in 2009, who focused my ideas/songs (aka co-wrote) and did his Doncker magic on them. He got what I was about right from the get-go. He inspired and encouraged me to take advantage of the momentum I was building and to record an album with the songs from my rock opera A Brief Night Out.
And so, I put my fears aside, and did it.
I was hooked.
I began my second album SPEAK immediately afterwards and haven't stopped since.
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Marla's latest release "The Fine Art of Pissing in The Bushes, Vol 1" was rated the 4th best album of 2023 by Rocknyc.
TAKE A LISTEN.
“[Mase] combines the raw emotion of Patti Smith, the spoken-song brilliance of Lou Reed, the musical eclecticism of Frank Zappa, and the fearless performance style of Iggy Pop.” — CultureClash
DISCOGRAPHY
“Words are a big thing for Marla Mase. For her, music counterbalances and complements the vignettes that swirl around in her head. Marla is living in her own skin and wants those who listen to her music to be comfortable in theirs as well… The music is a little tribal, a little rock, a little jazzy, a little bluesy, a little funky, but most of all cathartic...with lyrics brilliantly backed by her backing band The True Groove All-Stars.” — Huffington Post
"Mase, a rising star and buzzed-about figure within New York’s underground rock ‘n’ roll scene, isn’t the kind of female artist we’ve gotten used to hearing in the post-millennial music circuit. In an age where two of the biggest stars on the planet are female artists who take inspiration from classic singer/songwriter traditions, Mase goes unapologetically in the other direction. Her songs are dark, atmospheric, and gritty, and littered with shades of punk rock history." — AbsolutePunk