Ida Maria Releases New Single 'I'm Busy'
Maria also announces her forthcoming EP, Dirty Money, which also includes the raucous tracks “California,” “Celebration,” and the introspective “Dirty Money.”
By: Sarah Jae Leiber Apr. 16, 2021
Norwegian punk rocker Ida Maria returned in a big way earlier this year with "Sick of You," a definitive kiss-off to her recent past and to 2020 in general. Now, she follows that single with "I'm Busy," on which Ida Maria tackles issues of misogyny in music by approaching the song like a rap record and reversing the gender roles. Maria describes it as an "experiment with trying to write a hip hop song, and using a woman as objectifying the man. Larger than life with my bling." Co-produced with Mark Ronson, and co-written with Oscar-winner Anthony Rossomando (who wrote "Shallow" for Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper). The two songwriters had a good dynamic and felt they had learned a lot from each other in the process.
Today, Ida Maria also announces her forthcoming EP, Dirty Money, which also includes the raucous tracks "California," "Celebration," and the introspective "Dirty Money." Taken all together, the EP showcases a remarkable growth in Ida Maria's songwriting skills over the past few years. The EP is being released independently via Altitude Music and was recorded between Ryan Spraker's studio in Los Angeles and Norway over the past two years.
On Dirty Money the EP, Ida Maria tackles issues from her past and finds inspiration in a variety of sources. "I don't want your heart and soul/I don't care about gender roles/I just wanna have a lot of sex with you/In a pool of blow," Ida Maria howls on "I'm Busy," highlighting the excesses of the music industry and her experience with it. Elsewhere on the EP, Maria comments on her experience in Los Angeles, namely on "California" in which she sings, "I love you but I need to get the f home." On "Dirty Money" she reflects on her own position within the current global warming crisis, turning a sharp eye to how she benefited from oil money and other "dirty money" sources during her time with the major labels.
Through it all, Ida Maria remains defiant and recharged, channeling her frustrations through the five songs on the EP, which succinctly summarizes where she's been for the past few years and thrillingly hints at where she's headed.
Having established herself early in her life as a major label rock n roll artists with hits like 2007's "Oh My God," and 2008's "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" from her debut album Fortress 'Round My Heart, Ida Maria returned to Norway in 2013 after becoming disillusioned with the music industry and the major label system. An iconoclast by nature, Ida Maria struggled to fit the industry's perception of her, at one point literally smashing an award she received. "A girl can't put out music on a major platform without going through some twisted insane beauty ideal that doesn't correspond with my own ideals of what a woman can be. A woman is a complex creature. There are not enough complex female role voices out there," she states. Despite the struggle to work within the system, Maria managed to release her third album, Accidental Happiness. Her fourth album Scandalize My Name followed in 2016.
Those familiar with Ida will recall the massive global critical acclaim she received starting with her debut album Fortress Round My Heart. While overseas she was coined as the "Indie Rocker It Girl," stateside comparisons were flowing: Pitchfork pointed out her "commanding presence and sexual authority," calling her debut "An awesome Joplin-meets-the-Hold-Steady LP," NPR compared her "garage pop" to a "Spunkier Beth Orton fronting The Strokes," while Rolling Stone claimed she's akin to "Nico-meets-Chrissie Hynde," and along with Elle they called her "Norway's hottest Punk-Rock export." Comparisons aside, one thing for sure is that her voice demands attention.
Since then, she has been devoting herself to farming, building a studio, making music on her own terms, and looking inward for self-growth.
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