Q&A: Newcomer Marianna Frenzel is Redefining Pop Music
POP MUSIC IS A GENRE CARRIED BY INCREDIBLE WOMEN — and LA-based pop singer-songwriter Marianna Frenzel is a key component to the pop takeover. Pulling inspiration from the pop women of the early 2000s, Frenzel says that the genre she’s creating is a modernized version of that.
Her first and latest single, “YOU KNOW WHERE I’LL BE,” is reminiscent of that classic 2000s pop, but this time with a fresh burst of energy. She shares a message within the song of not letting the circumstances or people around you hold you back from your true calling, all under an umbrella of pop music that makes you feel like the main character in a movie. This single is just the first of an amazing catalog yet to come, with promises of blending pop with R&B and rock in the future.
Already, Frenzel played the iconic Troubadour venue in LA last year, without having any music released. Now, she's already on a roll with only one released single behind her, and there’s no doubt that this momentum will continue.
Luna sat down with Frenzel to talk about her experience as a new artist, the message behind her new single, and more. Read the full interview below.
LUNA: As a newer artist, what has your experience been like since moving to LA?
FRENZEL: I feel that it's taken me a long time to get to this moment working as an independent artist in LA — I feel like I've had to do everything by myself. I still am doing everything by myself, and just in regards to making sure everything I'm working on moves forward and gets done. I don't have a team pushing for me. So I think that a lot has been building up to this moment, and I'm so excited that the song is finally out.
Since it's taken so long, I feel like there's been a lot of suspense and excitement behind releasing this song, and I'm just so excited for people to hear it. I feel like I had always wanted to move to LA since I was a kid, and it feels kind of surreal to actually be able to say that a goal I had when I was younger is actually accomplished now. I'm just so grateful.
LUNA: Your single, “YOU KNOW WHERE I’LL BE,” was released in the beginning of August. Can you share the meaning behind those words?
FRENZEL: This song is about not letting circumstances, people around you, or the environment around you hold you back from choosing what's best for you and accomplishing what you're trying to do. I really tried to write this song in a way where people could take it and kind of relate it to themselves, depending on where they're at and what they're going through. I really hope that translates. For me specifically, it was a combination of a relationship that I had gotten out of and roadblocks that I’ve encountered in the industry as a female. Just because somebody isn’t ready for what you have to offer doesn't mean that you should try to convince them.
Sometimes it's better to let an opportunity or someone go knowing that if it's meant to be for you, it'll come back. But at the core of it, if somebody's not choosing you and you're choosing them, that's a sign that you need to stop and choose yourself. If the timing aligns later on, I'll be chasing my dreams. I will be trying to be the best version of myself.
LUNA: Beautifully said. What are you most proud of within this song? Whether that be in your lyricism, the production behind it, anything like that?
FRENZEL: I'm really proud of myself for pushing to make the song the best that it can be regardless of how much time it took until it was ready. I think there's a lot of instruments and elements in this song and layers. There's acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, some synth violins and real drums. There's also just so many vocal layers, and that's something that takes time to create. I'm really glad that I was able to see my vision to the end because I really wanted to create a song that felt big enough to hold the meaning of what I was trying to portray as well.
I really wanted it to almost feel like a rom-com movie, sonically. That self-realization of finding your power and your worth and not putting your worth into a relationship or someone else, but finding it in yourself is really the epitome of finding how to properly give yourself love.
LUNA: Genres can, of course, change and blend over time, but as of right now, how would you define your genre of pop music?
FRENZEL: I'm heavily influenced by early 2000s pop — my genre of music that I'm creating is like a modernized version of that. I think what I really enjoy doing is creating pop music that also has elements of genre blending in it. For this song, I feel like there's a little bit of rock undertone in it. For the songs that I have coming out in the future, I kind of toy back and forth between a little more R&B undertones, and another one is a little bit more big synth, Britney Spears pop feeling.
I'm really inspired by the Max Martin era of music of the early 2000s and I feel like that's something I've noticed that he did — no matter what artist he worked with and what elements and inspirations he drew from, it still sounded like him and pop at its core, but with influences drawing from other genres and places, and that's kind of what I I want to do. I really want to have a larger than life pop sounding song.
LUNA: You’ve already been making great progress as an artist. Last year, you played The Troubadour in LA while having no music released yet. What was that experience like for you?
FRENZEL: It was crazy because it was the biggest venue that I’ve played so far, and when we performed there it was basically an unreleased show. All of my friends got to come and see me perform all the songs that I'm going to be releasing in the next year. So it felt really special because it was the first time I got to perform, not only in front of all my friends, but music I'd been working on for so long in a place that I had been wanting to play for so long, that so many of the people that I admire, have played there.
I still think back on it and I'm like, “Wow, I can't believe I played there.” I just kept having moments where I was blacking out because it was just so surreal. I don't remember half of it. I was like, “Oh my gosh, Stevie Nicks was standing here. Oh my gosh, Harry Styles was standing here.”
LUNA: That’s so wholesome. Do you have a favorite line in the song and can you share some insight as to why?
FRENZEL: I would probably say my favorite line is in the pre chorus. It says, “It's all spinning around, but you know where I'll be, deep inside the light above the white, you'll find me.” it exudes the message that I portrayed in such optimism, in such a concise way. I think that it can be hard sometimes when you have moments where life continuously beats you down, but if you choose to direct your attention continuously towards the light and your purpose and your goals and what's important to you, and try to keep having hope and remembering what's important to you and what your purpose is, it doesn't matter what's spinning around you in the chaos because those will eventually resolve, and something new will happen. If you focus on your purpose and the positive, that's what will help you get through anything despite what may be spinning around you.
LUNA: Your visual teaser for the new song shows you in a beautiful spiral lawn area. Can you give Luna a little sneak peek that you're able to share?
FRENZEL: We shot in eight different locations. I really wanted the themes running through it to visually and emotionally exemplify what I explained the meaning behind the song is. There's themes of Earth and the water running through it, kind of symbolizing washing yourself clean and breaking free and running away from what's holding you back. It kind of builds up this tension of transforming into what is the best version of myself throughout the song — washing myself clean from what was holding me back, or who was holding me back.
