BandNation

Spotlight: Marion Raven
“There’s a taste in my mouth that I never had before/ To be a cheater, defeater, are things I won’t ignore” – “Heads Will Roll”

Like the pitch-black bird with which she shares a name, a nod to her Viking past, the songs on 22-year old Norwegian-born singer/songwriter Marion Raven “Heads Will Roll” EP are dark, vengeful, mysterious, dangerous, but ultimately uplifting and cathartic.

Many of the songs, all of them written by Raven who plays both electric and acoustic guitar as well as piano, some in collaboration with others, are about heartbreak and disappointment, the result of a real-life relationship gone bad. For example, “13 Days,” which she composed with Canadian singer/songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk and Our Lady Peace’s Raine Maida, is about a fling she had lasting just that long.

“My ex-boyfriend is not going to be happy when he hears this album,” says Raven about songs like “Spit You Out” and “Heads Will Roll,” which target infidelity with the raw venom of a woman scorned.

“Heads Will Roll,” features Marion playing atop a pile of 10 naked women. What the video lacks in clothes, it makes up in rock. Co-written with Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe, the video features Xavier Muriel from Buckcherry on drums and the talents The Exies (Scott Stevens backing vocals and guitar and Freddy Herrera on bass).

“We just hit it off and he asked if I wanted to write with him,” says Marion of the collaboration with the Mötley Crüe bassist. “And we came up with ‘Heads Will Roll.’”

Says Nikki Sixx “I’ve written with artists as diverse as Joey from Saliva to Meat Loaf and Vince Neil, but Marion is the f*cking most talented new artist I’ve worked with since I’ve been making music.”

“Marion Raven has the dark edge that Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson wish they had. I declare her the new Joan Jett of Rock and Roll,” states Scott Stevens of the Exies.

Already a huge success in Japan where her album, Here I Am, debuted at #6 on the charts and her single hit #1. US audiences can get a taste of Marion September 12th when her EP is released on the internet. Her full length will be released first quarter 2007.

I saw your video for your song "Heads will Roll." I'm sure its a video that's going to be talked about. Did you come up with the concept of that video? Were you nervous? What was it like filming it?