Her declaration of independence is deliberately confrontational. “BEAUTY AND VIOLENCE ARE DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE SAME COIN.” Speaking on the language around girlhood, “My experience of it has been very savage, violent, like cathartic exorcism. That’s why I also say pop and noise are different sides of the same coin. To me, one can’t exist without the other. My idea of what girlhood is, to have spit and gravel next to the dolphins and the Hello Kitty, you know?” Instead of opposing impulses, the mixtape reveals two expressions of the same experience. The breadth of her beauty can be found over a trap beat in the dulcet “December Forever”, which caught the attention of Arca earlier this year.
Marwan's honeyed poptimism sees her put her sword up, a symbol of her high-crowned ambition, in the touchstone “Towards the Sky”. “A new age is coming”, she sings over synth stabs. Personal, political and pleasurable, its spirited video accompaniment honours the Moroccan Tecktonik underground electro dance movement. “When I was really young in Lebanon, all the older kids were dancing this Tecktonik dance. It had all different versions around the world, but it was always people in their tiny room or on the street or something just dancing to electro, like really intensely. When I was young, I was like, ‘Oh, these are the coolest people in the world.’”
After her 2023 debut EP , the significant expansion of Marwan's world ever since has given way to live gloving spectacles, tracing neon-green light patterns in the dark with her two backup dancers. Everyday, Everything Is At Stake proclaims an Arabic pop renaissance, and there is more to come soon, too. She teases a subsequent album, produced by Bassvictim’s Ike Clateman, to follow later this year.
A longtime friend, Marwan and Clateman first met in Chicago, and would later put on shows together before the Thoom project took off. “My first song, ‘Shaytan’, we made together,” she says. “But he went to the UK, I lived in Berlin for like a year. Then I lived in New York, and we kind of just hadn't been in touch. Then we got in touch again. We’re making music that I’ve been trying to make maybe my entire life, like, for a very long time. I know this sounds intense. It’s just very intuitive and free.”