Concert: Margaux at the Union

Margaux (born Margaux Bouchegnies) is a singer-songwriter based in Philadelphia, PA. Born to a French father and an American mother, Margaux grew up in Seattle. She picked up guitar first, then upright bass, and began writing songs inspired by Motown, Pixies, and Dirty Projectors. Bass in hand, she moved across the country to study jazz at the New School in Manhattan. Bouchegnies later switched into the writing program, where she graduated with a degree in poetry and non-fiction.

In Margaux’s own words: “The album’s common thread is really about making sense of big feelings. I do love songwriting as a craft but I think a lot of the time it is something I turn to amidst a spike in emotion, whether that is rooted in heartbreak, dread, feelings of love, or angst… these things can feel so unruly inside. Writing these songs has helped me gain a sense of direction and clarity in moments that have otherwise felt like complete internal chaos.” In that sense, the album’s title refers not only to its cloudy, rolling vortex of indecision and fear–it also refers (somewhat tongue in cheek) to the idea of “losing ones marbles.” On nights surrounded by tangled cables and piling laundry, these ten songs gave Margaux a reason to pull through the worst pangs of heartache and post-graduate dread. 

“Inside the Marble” was almost five years in the making. Demos for “Midnight Contact” and “Ships” date back to 2019, and Margaux and Ansari first began chipping away at the album the following year. In the doldrums of covid, they took an even more experimental approach to recording and layering sounds–like using a horse brush on carpet to get the percussive whish on “I Wouldn't’ Want It Any Other Way.” The album's final track “What Could I Say?” features birdsong that Margaux recorded at her grandmother’s house back in rural France. (Margaux and Ansari spent a week there in 2022, where songs like “What Could I Say” began to take shape).

All details on the Union website