Today, New York City based bassist, composer and educator Hannah Marks taps into her rock influences and teen angst with gritty track and video ‘(I Wanna Be Ur) 90s Dream Girl’ out everywhere now. Marks’ empowering debut album, Outsider, Outlier is due out October 20 via Out Of Your Head Records. The latest track out today digs into Marks’ teenage years and sees the artist transform from shy and introverted into a bold, punk-rock alter-ego.
‘(I Wanna Be Ur) 90s Dream Girl’ captures the essence of being a teenage girl, desperate to be seen and desired by her peers. When writing the song, Marks took a deep dive into her personal archive from high school–text messages, Facebook posts, diaries and concert photos to channel this phase of her life and get appropriately into character.
The track’s inspiration is pulled partly from the bustling 2000s DIY rock scene of Des Moines, IA–Marks’ hometown. Marks says, “I was always on the fringe of that scene, attending shows at the grungy yet legendary dive bar Vaudeville Mews, never able to work my way into playing with the young (mostly) men that made up the scene.” Making this track finally allowed her to lean into her early influences and let go of any internal or external judgement. Marks continues, “It transformative as it was truly the first time I allowed myself to embrace the rock influences that I set aside for years in order to further a career in jazz.”
The track’s accompanying video, directed by Bruce Bales, brings viewers straight to the very world the the track builds as it retraces her high school footsteps. It starts at her former high school and moves to local record store Zzz Records, and later, takes place outside the (now shuttered) Vaudeville Mews. Here, Marks becomes the desired subject as Marks explains, “The video documents my transformation from a shy girl into my punk-rock alter ego. Bales and I explored the concept of what would happen if I actually became the ’90s dreamgirl’–teepeeing a bathroom, writing on the walls in lipstick, and smoking cigarettes ensued.”
