{"id":50430,"date":"2015-08-27T16:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=50430"},"modified":"2016-09-22T14:27:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T14:27:26","slug":"in-profile-tamaryn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2015\/08\/27\/in-profile-tamaryn\/","title":{"rendered":"In Profile: Tamaryn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When she isn’t working with Bret Easton Ellis or creative directing fashion shoots, New Zealand singer Tamaryn pens dark, drowned-out pop anthems that lurk in the mind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Red tracksuit top by KAPPA from BRIAN PROCELL.<\/em><\/p>\n

Taken from the Summer Fashion Issue of Wonderland.<\/em><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s impossible not to\u00a0get sucked in by Tamaryn\u2019s\u00a0doom-pop sound: her first\u00a0two albums The Waves and\u00a0Tender New Signs matched\u00a0Slowdive-esque shoe gazing\u00a0with Mazzy Star\u2019s wistfully\u00a0melodic lovelornness \u2013 all\u00a0wailing hysteria and darkly\u00a0urban prose.\u00a0Her yet to-be-titled\u00a0upcoming release, she\u00a0tells me from New York,\u00a0is notably lighter in tone.\u00a0The Queen of Darkness\u00a0acknowledges that although\u00a0there are more songs that\u00a0are \u201cupbeat\u201d than usual,\u00a0several \u201cgo darker than\u00a0anything I\u2019ve done before\u201d.\u00a0The album is a product\u00a0of her collaboration with\u00a0new band mate, Ariel Pink\u00a0collaborator Jorge Elbrecht\u00a0\u2013 a long-time hero of the\u00a0singer\u2019s. \u201cI got to work\u00a0with people who were\u00a0capable of channeling the\u00a0influences that I loved,\u201d she\u00a0says. \u201cThis is an album that\u00a0I\u2019ve wanted to make for a\u00a0very many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tamaryn, a New-Zealand native, grew up around the residents of a home for abused children, founded by her mother and godmother. Exiled from the country, she holed up in San Francisco before finding the flat she lives in today, in Queens. It\u2019s there where she writes most of her lyrics \u2013 fables on failed relationships and healing. \u201cI think that as a younger woman, writing about love you get a lot of repeating themes… unrequited love, disappointment, loss,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re the constant victim, you\u2019re the person that\u2019s perpetrating a lot of the negativity.\u201d It\u2019s this kind of nagging negative energy that Tamaryn feeds off when she\u2019s writing. She\u2019d be the first to admit it\u2019s what fuels her creative process, and that, even more broadly, \u201cit\u2019s good for rock and roll… you also have to look at yourself and realise how much pleasure you get out of feeling pain… there\u2019s a lot of that going on at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if anyone knows the lengthy, painstaking journey to personal artistic enlightenment, it\u2019s Tam. Since 2013, she\u2019s been the Creative Director at the helm of all the Dum Dum Girls\u2019 editorials, flyers and video output \u2013 a job she says has made her feel more in control at shoots, which are 100% self-styled. \u201cI look at Courtney Love and The Ramones, where a uniform can be a really strong thing,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you commit to one haircut for the whole of your career, you can become an icon.\u201d Her most recent shoot \u2013 the one here, for Wonderland \u2013 pays homage to an equally iconic early 90s England. \u201cThe styling for this was sort of a tribute to all things baggy and Manchester. Matt Irwin and I love the 90s \u2013 Kappa track suits, The KLF. I look like Ian Brown\u2019s twin!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tamaryn\u2019s Dum Dum Girls gig got her a job with Maybelline, who last year contacted her about directing a 30 second commercial. The video sees models walk broodily down a runway, their figures lit up in alien, luminescent green. \u201cIt also kind of looks like a couple of Chanel runways [a few seasons ago] \u2013 glow-y and such… otherworldly,\u201d she describes. \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of visual arts, Nick Knight [and] SHOWStudio. It\u2019s a big dream to be associated with them in a certain way and you can see that in the video.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her next collaborator was none other than American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis, who asked her to creative direct a short film starring the Dum Dums, the March-released noir, Are You Okay. \u201cLess Than Zero is one of my favourite movies and his outlook on fame and abuse of power really intrigues me,\u201d she says of the film adaptation of Ellis\u2019 debut novel. \u201cWorking with him was a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no real surprise that Tamaryn is a huge Lana Del Rey fan. In a similar way to the \u201cVideo Games\u201d singer, she plays on the Lynchian conceit of the doomed female pop star, that everything, no matter how hard she tries, turns to glorious misery. \u201cPeople will look back on Lana Del Rey and realise that she was one of the greatest artists of our time,\u201d she asserts. \u201cWhat is interesting about [her] is that she has vulnerability; she is kind of messy and weird. In fact, she\u2019s more authentic and it makes people believe she\u2019s the opposite.\u201d There\u2019s a lot to be said for that.<\/p>\n