On June 20, BFF.fm hosted our first-ever monthly listening party with local artist Marika Christine. Marika played songs from her beautiful, bubbly new record, Soft Like an Apricot, while listeners surrounding our intimate studio stage munched on apricot-themed snacks and Alexi Belchere, aka BFF.fm DJ Nocean Beach, led a conversation about the inspiration and process behind the new songs.

“It's been really nice to hear how other people connect their own stories and emotions and lives to this story I’ve put out,” Marika said of the warm response to her second record. “It reminds me how beautiful the universal truth is in songs.”

Listen in to our lovely lil party and discover the inspiration behind individual tracks from Soft Like an Apricot:

Alexi interviews Marika Christine at our very first BFF.fm Listening Party.

“Familiar”

“I like playing that song solo because I wrote it just on guitar, so it’s nice to play it just on guitar. It’s about moving on from a relationship but still holding them really close because that person is really…familiar, ‘like the blankets you had as a child’ [laughs]. That image came to me because I still have this set of blankets that my babysitter gave me when I was a little kid that has this pattern with this moon–that I now have tattooed on me–and some stars, and I really cherish that item. I connect it with the feeling of comfort and familiarity.”

“Buckle Up Baby”

“I wrote this song after moving out of an apartment, and it was just like…I’m physically moving forward – I’m going – but emotionally, I was still kind of in the past and having a hard time adjusting to a new environment. I wrote it in my new room. All I had was a bed and some boxes…and my cat, who had a really hard time. He was really upset with the move, and I think I was projecting my emotions onto the cat…I don’t know [laughs]! We were both really sad about the move! But now he’s great. We have a backyard. He’s a happy cat now!”

“Mourning Seeds”

“This is the newest song on the album. I wrote it after I had recorded almost all of the record, actually. I just needed to get this on there. I think the recording isn’t as developed as it could be because it was really fresh when I recorded it, but it’s continued to grow, and I’m enjoying it. I recorded it completely on my own. I played all of the instruments, whereas for most of the rest of the record, I had my band play on the songs, and they’re all contributing a lot creatively, making their own parts. But this song I built up with a drum machine and the guitar part first, and then added bass and synths and vocals, and that was a really cool process. I’m kind of proud of that. But now that I’ve been playing it with the band, I feel like the song has taken on a different life.”

What's it like working and writing with your bandmates?

“It’s great, we’ve known each other for, like, ten years. They’re all amazing musicians: Adam Wilson, Fabrizio Incerti, and Maria Donjacour. Maria is my roommate and one of my best friends. We’re also in a band called Secret Secret – we got to play here at a Besties Bash pre-pandemic, and it was a lot of fun! She has another band called Medscool. I play bass in her band, and she plays bass in my band – it’s very sweet. Adam and Fabrizio were in a band called Clumsy, and in 2017, that was kind of my introduction to this whole world.”

“Music and Heart”

“A lot of the songs [on Soft Like an Apricot] are breakup songs. It’s kind of a breakup album. But I did an interview with MJ [of BFF.fm’s West of Twin Peaks Radio - listen to it here!] and she pointed out that a lot of the songs were related to coming out of the pandemic, and the more that I think about that, the more that really resonates. I wrote all of these songs in the last two years, so I think I was subconsciously influenced by that experience. It’s a little bit of a rebirth.

On that theme, when I wrote this song, I was falling in love with San Francisco all over again. The only thing I could do during the pandemic was go on walks. I was walking around a lot in Bernal and the Mission and just really enjoying the landscape that we get to live in in San Francisco. And then also feeling frustrated because I work a food service job, so I was like an ‘essential worker’--that was me–and felt like I wasn’t getting compensated for that kind of risky work, especially before the vaccines, when there was smoke everywhere too. The doors were wide open, so I’m breathing in the smoke, I’m breathing in COVID, and I’m getting paid minimum wage to give you a cup of coffee. But you know, I think it’s all worth it. I appreciate that, like, a cup of coffee for someone was a nice thing to hold on to amidst all the chaos.”

Do you have advice for surviving as a young person in San Francisco?

“Work the least amount of hours you can where you can still pay rent, so you can live your life and make art and not starve. Get really lucky with a rent situation. Find somebody who’s lived here for like a hundred years, and then befriend them and live in their little Dobby closet.”

How about advice for fellow artists in San Francisco?

“Engage in community. BFF is such an amazing space. I’ve been feeling very supported by radio, like BFF.fm and KALX. ATA is another one. All of these amazing communities are out there. Being involved in our local communities and community art spaces is great. We can all support each other and uplift each other.”

Support and uplift local music at our next listening party on July 18! We’re welcoming Jake Mann of Santa Cruz onto our studio stage to perform and discuss his latest record, Outta Mind A While with BFF.fm DJ Swirving of audiosyncrasies. Listening begins at 7pm, doors open at 6:30pm. Space is limited, so grab your tickets now at BFF.fm/listeningparty.