From Geneva, Mara is one of those artists who crosses musical boundaries, too curious, too thirsty for sounds to be content with a single genre, adhering to a single aesthetic. Even as a teenager, the Swiss musician went to every concert. She wanted to learn, to understand, to find material to feed her first mixes and, little by little, to compose her own tracks, “very club-oriented”.
It has to be said that Mara was fed on house, hip-hop and then, in her teens, dancehall, reggae, dubstep and drum&bass, all of which end up setting her DJ sets apart, with the same idea in mind: to get the body going.
Also a singer and producer, she explains: “Initially, I’d take the opportunity to slip in a few of my tracks without saying that I’d written them, just to see how people reacted. When I saw the audience enjoying my songs, I realised that I wasn’t alone any more, that people other than myself could appreciate my music. ”
From Geneva, Mara is one of those artists who crosses musical boundaries, too curious, too thirsty for sounds to be content with a single genre, adhering to a single aesthetic. Even as a teenager, the Swiss musician went to every concert. She wanted to learn, to understand, to find material to feed her first mixes and, little by little, to compose her own tracks, “very club-oriented”.
It has to be said that Mara was fed on house, hip-hop and then, in her teens, dancehall, reggae, dubstep and drum&bass, all of which end up setting her DJ sets apart, with the same idea in mind: to get the body going.
Since 2018, Mara’s CV has been piled high with DJ sets all over the French-speaking world (Brussels, Marseille, Geneva, Paris, Montreal) and her residency with Mouv’, where for four years she mixed an hour of Caribbean and Afro music every week. All these experiences have been life-saving: they have given Mara the confidence to operate completely independently (from the creation of her label to graphic design), encouraged her to create without worrying about clearly defined categories, and encouraged her to take responsibility for her own choices. Starting with her constant quest for efficiency: “I know that I need to favour spontaneity, to trust in the simplicity and immediacy of a production, a sound or a text,” she says, her voice full of certainty. After all, at parties, everyone wants to get down to basics and dance to catchy gimmicks.
Mara’s success quickly spread beyond the clubs and nightclubs to the Internet, where “Foufoune” racked up over a million views, prompting Angèle to cover this ode to cunnilingus, while “Point cue” ended up trending on TikTok. Because the toplines and instrumental are catchy.
Today, Mara is concentrating on her new project scheduled for 2025 and her “Foulamerde” evenings, which are due to tour in September 2024. Her positive energy behind the decks is infectious and gets you moving, whether you like it or not!
