Nicole Marxen
On August 9th, Dallas-based singer-songwriter and visual artist Nicole Marxen will release her new album Thorns digitally and on vinyl.
Nicole Marxen's 2021 solo debut Tether received acclaim from Post-punk.com, CVLT Nation, Audiofemme, and FLOOD Magazine, while earning a spot on Destroy//Exist’s EPs of the Year list. A meditation on the grieving process, Tether inhabits a realm “draped in shadow, full of cutting synths and gothy, ghostly vocal melodies” (Bandcamp).
Producer Alex Bhore (Halo Infinite Multiplayer and Meow Wolf Grapevine) returns to the helm for Marxen’s sophomore release, as the two weave a sonic tapestry spanning dreams, disorders, and our own failing attention amidst a crumbling, clawing patriarchy. Sung like a haunted confessional, the title track explores Marxen’s lived experience with lesser-known impulse disorder Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors. BFRBs involve acts of unconsciously harming the body and often serve as a trauma response to self-regulate. She equates these acts to sabotage, “like a rabid animal / my body betrays itself.”
Through a more collective lens, the song “The Executioner” witnesses the fallout in Marxen’s professional career of commercial production after the cancellation of the largest advertising agency in Dallas, The Richards Group. It begs the question - what happens to the rest of us when men of power fuck up? Is the patriarchy disarmed, or merely shapeshifting to satisfy us in the here and now?
“It was important for me to show up to this material imperfectly,” Marxen says. “As a songwriter, I can put a lot of pressure on myself, often feeling like I have to say something profound or reach a kind of resolve. I didn’t want to pretend to have answers here, but rather notice what was coming up for me during each song’s moment in time.” With Thorns, Marxen encourages us to no longer accept such tendencies to gnaw at the wounds of our human experience, but rather root into the wild garden of our flawed and beautiful being.
Nicole has toured throughout the U.S. and opened for William Basinski, Cold Cave, and Marissa Nadler. Her previous band, Midnight Opera, was awarded “Best Group Act” from Dallas Observer in 2018.