Marlo the Barbarian Releases New EP 'Blue Roses'

Up-and-coming artist Marlo The Barbarian has shared her newest EP, Blue Roses. Fortified by unfiltered honesty, the two-song EP blends pop, alternative, rock, neo-R&B and soul into a genre-fluid flair that simmers with the dramatism of her theatre background.

"The EP is titled Blue Roses, which is a reference to Laura's nickname in The Glass Menagerie," explains Marlo. "In the play, Laura has pleurisy and is nicknamed Blue Roses by a friend as a mispronunciation of her disease. She likes the nickname, admiring its uniqueness and allure, saying that blue is wrong for roses, but right for her. For me it symbolizes the same, stepping into my light and seeing my own uniqueness. Both tracks on this EP symbolize the beginning and end of a journey to self-acceptance and realization."

Fans can listen to Blue Roses now at https://ps.onerpm.com/blueroses.

Today's EP release is paired with the release of a music video for "Real Friends Fake Friends." On the track, Marlo says, "This was a hard song for me to write about stepping into my own life. It's been a long year of learning how to say no and realizing who my actual people are. I'm done people-pleasing and allowing others to use my kindness against me."

The "Real Friends Fake Friends" music video is available to watch now below.

Forged in the flames of tragedy and heartache, a simple word of encouragement changed Marlo's entire future.

While on vacation at age 8, her family's Jeep was hit at 125 miles per hour, resulting in devastating injuries to both her parents. Life following was a revolving door of hospital visits for the decade to come.

After the accident, Marlo dove into community theatre and music, finding comfort in the ability to disappear into the stories of other characters - and, at least briefly, escape the turbulence of what home life had become.

She parlayed her stage time into a stint at NYU studying acting, before many discouraging circumstances caused her to drop out and head west to Los Angeles, where she battled gatekeepers stonewalling her progress and the 40-some-song catalog she'd quickly amassed while working odd jobs.

That is, until an industry friend of a friend gave her the push she needed to keep going. "My producer's lawyer heard a bunch of the songs we did together," Marlo remembers. "He called me and told me, 'Please don't quit.'"

Now, under the management of Prim8 Music (Grandson, MOD SUN) and with a renewed sense of confidence, Marlo the Barbarian is finally ready for the world to see her soul.

A trio of 2020 EPs introduced her to audiences across the internet, quickly racking up more than 800,000 Spotify streams as songs like "Fake Yourself" turned heads. Now, she's poised to go even bigger with "Real Friends, Fake Friends." Written during the COVID lockdowns, the lead single from her 2021 EP Blue Roses is equal parts self-examination and an evisceration of toxic traits she's done excusing in others.

There's been enough negativity and struggle to last Marlo many lifetimes. But the struggle has made Marlo the Barbarian who she is today, and she hopes her relentless resolve can help others overcome whatever obstacles stand between them and their dreams: "Hearing 'please don't quit' was all it took for me to finally have the confidence to do this," she says proudly. "I want to be that person for someone else out there."

Listen here:

To post a comment, you must register and login.