Oliver Marson

Ahead of the release of his highly anticipated debut album this Friday, today, London based art-pop artist Oliver Marson has shared new single 'Death Of A Pornstar'. Of his new single, Marson says: 

“This was a difficult song to approach, because it might seem like I am just being gratuitous and provocative for the sake of it. However, I think art should really be about trying to address difficult topics. In this case, it really is about the oppression that exists within the porn industry. Many pornstars, male and female, die and many people consume pornography without knowing that. This is something I came across when listening to The Last Days of August podcast and also Pornocracy: The New Sex Multinationals. I think it's really reflective of the society we live in, we often consume without thinking. It's something that only gets worse as technology and inequality is exacerbated and we've reached a point where people are commodified digitally and people are largely expendable. In the song, I tried to create a scenario in the future, where the consciousness of the internet merges with AI so that these dead pornstars come back and take revenge on these multinationals and zombie w**kers.”

Praised by Anthony Fantano (The Needle Drop) as a "Funky Boy", Oliver Marson's music exists in the same vein as art rock bands like Sparks and Pulp as well as more contemporary artists like Alex Cameron, Kirin J Callinan and Connan Mockasin. His signature croon, energetic shows and satirical lyrics commenting on the grisly truths of 2020s Britain have earned him a cult following in the UK and on October 6th, Marson is set to release his keenly awaited debut album, Why Did I Choose This?

Marson began writing music following a serious illness that had left him hospitalised. “One of the things that I held onto was that when I got out of hospital I was going to make a lot of music. I think I felt that if I died then what a waste my life would have been. If anything, for me this period of writing wasn’t about receiving accolades, it was about the journey and the process of becoming something or someone else” he explains.

Why Did I Choose This? is a collection of quirky and eclectic songs that take unexpected turns while managing to remain accessible and catchy. Marson’s talent for combining over-the-top, extravagant 80s sounds with his timeless crooning vocal creates a cognitive dissonance that will resonate with those who feel out of place in today's world.

The album's title is a reference to the chorus of the opening track 'Blue Dreams', a fantasy about Marson burning down the building of his mundane office job. This sets the tone for an album about making mistakes and poor life choices. “It’s about reaching a point in your life where you ask yourself ‘how did I get here?’ A dull career, a dodgy tattoo or a horrible hair transplant. The album tries to offer a release and an escape from life in mundanity,” says Marson.

Why Did I Choose This? is, as Marson puts it, ‘ludicrous music for ludicrous times’, covering themes of sex, death, love, life in late-capitalism and the end of the world. “I think the album takes you on a journey of escapism, but comes back to the fact we are sort of stuck in the reality we are in. It is both a dream and a nightmare,” explains Marson. “It is about the confusion in our lives, the joy, the terror of it all. It is tasteless, glamorous, sexy, confusing, vulgar, fun and, well, it’s pop music!”