Martina Sorbara.Shervin Lainez/Supplied
When electro-pop group Dragonette landed on the music scene in 2007 with their debut disc, Galore, Canadian radio was busy taking the charts hostage with unstylish, postgrunge burnout bands (think Our Lady Peace and Finger Eleven). Fortunately, Martina Sorbara, Dragonette’s frontwoman, lyricist and creative director, came along. She changed the EDM-challenged and glamour-deficient musical landscape of CanCon for the better.
Dragonette – which went from a trio to a solo act, owing to Sorbara’s divorce with the band’s former bassist – reframed Canadian music culture as a chic hub that went beyond the plaid-plagued, Sk8er Boi aesthetic of the time. Sorbara’s slick video concepts (think Björk meets BTS), highly danceable choruses (Cyndi Lauper once dubbed Dragonette, “the future of pop”) and forward-fashion sense (which prompted a collab with designer Jean Paul Gaultier) presented the world with a fresh example of Canada’s musical DNA – one that integrated dance, soul, visual art and fashion.
On the cusp of Dragonette’s fifth album, Twennies, and the album release party at the Axis Club in Toronto on Nov. 16, the Italian-Canadian talent dishes on motherhood, her new-found creative control and making art in the digital age.
What is motivating you most while fronting Dragonette alone postdivorce?
I’m realizing how much I have to offer and all the self-worth that comes with that. I had an eye-opening experience with a big producer – who I won’t name. I was in the studio with him and he couldn’t play chords to a certain song, he just wasn’t getting it. I had so much patience for him fumbling around. In the old days, I wouldn’t dream of showing a guy how to play something but at a certain point, I asked, “Can I try?” and played the chords easily. I realized that for some reason, I had to dim myself in the past because I was presuming knowledge that isn’t even there – presuming he knows better than me. I realize that this experience with the producer was just PTSD. Now, I’m just taking ownership and not being the host for any parasites any more.
This album possesses nostalgia for a time with no social media. Why is this theme important to you?
Well, the digital onslaught happening right now does make you nostalgic, doesn’t it? Remember a night out with no photos and just a flip phone? Think of the hours of your life unaccounted for because you’re just looking at your phone. Not having your mind think in a digital way is kind of a relief too. The angle that we’re looking at things [with] is warped – our experience is constantly shifting into that question: “Is this social media? Or real life?” I feel like we’re constantly flipping from our brain eyes to our screen eyes.
Dragonette’s album covers and videos look like they were born for Instagram and TikTok. Does the vast number of references you see now cultivate or confuse your vision?
You can have your mind blown away multiple times a day online but sometimes, you have to realize that your mind doesn’t actually get blown away because you’re just desensitized to the amount of colour and action you see on screen. Artists have this double-edged sword with social media because there’s just so much of it and it’s hard to put it in any kind of mental Rolodex and think, oh this is so inspiring! A certain aesthetic on Instagram and TikTok might be hard to get excited about because once it’s out there you feel like it’s already been done.
Which pieces of art in your own collection fuel you?
A piece of work from [Toronto-based artist duo] the Broadbent Sisters. I found out about it because I worked with their brother, [artist] Justin Broadbent, for album cover art and he had a photo of their work on his computer. The image is a rainbow staircase decorated with all these flowers around it. I’m also obsessed [Mallorca-based] artist Louise Despont – who uses ink and pencil on repurposed ledger paper – I have a piece that looks very tribal. I also have a portrait of a cat by [London-based] artist Christopher Page.
Aside from creating songs, you also make art. What mediums have you been in to lately?
I’m working toward having my own exhibit. I’m working on drawings and sculptures. I have a series of faces with numbers on them. It’s almost like hidden faces and expressions. I have line drawings – one is of a disco ball and I’m doing these big pen drawings that are taking more than 12 hours to finish. I’m also making ceramic necklaces and before the pandemic I made a piggy bank shaped like a vagina.
You grew up in what you called a hippie commune in British Columbia and made guitars with your hands. Are you doing DIY craft lessons with your son?
I’m so obsessed with making things. It’s my whole reason of living. I try to do crafts with my kid but I also don’t want to force him enjoy the same things that I enjoy, but I would love it if he was an obsessive maker too. I’m still learning about how to be a mom. In terms of inhabiting the music-making persona of Dragonette – having a baby was also not clear to me. I didn’t understand. I felt like my body cleaved into two different people.
Having [Chef] Corey Vitello as a partner must come with perks. What are the best dishes he’s made you so far?
We had morels growing in our garden and I picked them and made him make me just a very simple morel pasta – that felt very special because they are so hard to find. He was developing a dish of miso, trout with asparagus and enoki mushrooms that was beautiful. He’s finishing his cookbook soon so a lot of the food we eat is in that. This spring at our house he was doing food shoots downstairs and I was in the studio making music, so it was intense.
You have a slew of fashion-inspired songs like Fire In Your New Shoes, Big Sunglasses, New Suit and T-Shirt. Where do you like to shop?
VSP Consignment. I like treasure hunting because it’s so hard to shop for new clothes. When I see five of the same outfit on a sales rack, it’s a real turn-off – that’s why I buy vintage. I wasn’t watching Beverly Hills, 90210, Sex and the City or reading Cosmo and getting socialized to be obsessed with the shoe and the purse or any accessories when I was growing up, so that affects the way I do things. I have such a different relationship with fashion. I have a lot of fun putting together quirky, unique outfits but I’m not looking at trends.