BRYNMAWR-born singer-songwriter Marina Diamandis, formerly known as Marina and the Diamonds, spoke to us about her new album Love + Fear and her ongoing UK tour which includes a stop in Cardiff tomorrow evening.

After stepping away from music in 2016, Marina, made a comeback this year and ditched the moniker Marina and the Diamonds.

“Marina and the Diamonds felt more like a project and theatrical. I love character playing and it was a way for me to express myself, but at 32 I felt differently and wanted to go under my first name.

“Thanks to social media it’s easier to be more authentic, there is more room to be real, and it’s a change I’ve seen in the industry”.

Her name change was quietly announced on Twitter in 2018, saying: “It took me well over a year to figure out that a lot of my identity was tied up in who I was as an artist, and there wasn’t much left of who I was”.

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On coming back into the spotlight, Marina said she was “happy to be back” after her opening show in Edinburgh on Monday.

Her new album, Love + Fear, released as a double album in April, was inspired after having just finished her psychology course in London at Birkbeck University.

“I was reading a lot of books during my course about where fear comes from and how it affects our lives, how love and fear are the primary emotions and how our actions come from one of those”.

The album was released in two separate parts methodically, the first part, Love, dropped on April 4 and Fear dropped April 26.

Singles from the album include ‘Handmade Heaven’, ‘Superstar’, ‘Orange Trees’, and ‘To Be Human’. Marina also released an acoustic companion EP, Love + Fear (Acoustic) on September 13, 2019 and fans can expect to hear these versions on her current tour.

Speaking of the show in Cardiff, Marina said it was a “special” one for her, having been born in Brynmawr and growing up in Abergavenny from the age of four to 16.

Her Cardiff show will be split into two halves, a bit like her album, with a mixture of live theatre, contemporary dance and multi-instrumentals.

Tickets are available via motorpointarenacardiff.co.uk/whats-on/marina