Success can be measured in different ways.
Chart placings, sales figures, staying true to the sound you carry inside – all are suitable barometers of success in one way or another.
Norma Jean Martine has a rather more simple definition: “Success for me would be someone hearing my songs and feeling a little less alone.”
It's a powerful statement, but then Norma Jean has always been a songwriter imbued with ambition. New EP 'Animals' arrives on November 20th, and it's a fantastic statement of intent.
Clash is able to unveil the title track, a glistening piece of guitar pop that has a real bite in the vocal. Norma Jean explains it's "really a hedonistic, romantic, sexual pop song. I wrote it after attending Glastonbury two years ago and seeing The Rolling Stones for the first time. The song is heavily influenced by them, all the while keeping a musical tinge of modern day. I’m quite a musical chameleon and my references are pretty widely varied, so there were definitely times where I was channelling my inner Ryan Tedder for melody along with the Jagger attitude. Sonically, I wanted it to be as “Stones” as I could get in a modern day pop song, so that is why there are pretty trippy backing vocals, strong guitar riffs, peaky vocal sounds, and jungle drums."
Check it out now.
Catch Norma Jean Martine at London venue the Islington on November 16th.
Photo Credit: David Standish
