Fatal Jamz Headlines The Teragram Ballroom in Celebration of New Album Fatal Attraction

Fatal Jamz —the moniker of Marion Belle— has an established history with WMF, and we’ve documented extended conversations over the years. Fatal Attraction is the second album in the Fatal Jamz trilogy and is set for a May 26 release — the same date of the Fatal Jamz show at Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles. And while we’ve had the pleasure of attending multiple Fatal Jamz shows at great venues over the years in Southern California, we’ve never had the opportunity of catching the self-described "dream rock” project headline as large a venue as the 600+ capacity, storied Teragram Ballroom.

Tickets are on sale now for the Fatal Jamz show at the Teragram, which is presented by L.A. underground mainstay The Witching Hours. Also on the bill are Dagger Polyester, Akira Galaxy, and Billy Tibbals — all names that are surely familiar to WMF readers and followers. Eager to learn more about Fatal Attraction as well as the background to the ambitious and historic Teragram evening, we’d spoken offline with Marion, covering some of our most burning questions. He graciously addressed our curiosity by sending exclusive insights into the upcoming album and show, which we’re delighted to share with you here.

On whether Fatal Attraction is the second in the Fatal Jamz trilogy and if there is a third album in the trilogy already complete:

Yes, Fatal Attraction is the second record, and yes the 3rd one is complete as well. The trilogy follows a red white and blue structure, as true as the flag that flies over the Friday Night Lights field in season one.

Coverboy, our last album, was true blue. Fatal Attraction is blood red. The third record is opalescent, translucent, mother of pearl.

Each record a Molotov cocktail of love lust regret shame and illicit conviction to the game of being a true babe, of living from the heart. All set to a Club Med, day for night pulse.

I had the idea for a trilogy set in L.A. after reading this book on Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy. Why not L.A. why not me? I’ve been here since I was 21, figuring out how to be a singer, how to twist the blade, how to be the kind of performer who can reach you, someone who can express his truth and maybe have a chance to touch people like other singers touched me, saved me when I was a young babe living on the blue jean streets of youth.

And I was hooked to the street allure (of L.A.) from the first whiff. It was a heady mixture of death danger glamour. There were so many illusions to see through. I arrived an innocent, I was young and dumb like the hick from Midnight Cowboy. I was utterly alone in the night, like when Axl gets off the bus in the Paradise City video. I was working with Autistic kids, riding shotgun with them like a silent watchmen in their lives, going to the park with them, riding horses. At night and on my days off crafting my sound, my display. The Hollywood YMCA was my zone. Club Moscow was my training grounds. Finding the voice to tell my story was the addiction, offering a meaning, a reason for the feelings inside. Performing came from salvation, hunger. Coverboy was the story of the becoming.

On how Fatal Attraction connects to the first album in the trilogy, Coverboy:

The new record picks up in the aftermath of where Coverboy left me…that record was a firecracker. I was giving the streets Gigolo, Jean Paul, Rodeo, Touch the Flame, and Lead Singer and on the street level our wave was cresting hard. Everybody saw it. But there was no rocket ship ready to take us onboard, no corporate support, I had to realize we were just ahead of the curve even for our own town, that although other artists and all the dolls knew the real score, we were going to be on own to figure out what came next. I felt very alone in that terrain then as essentially a glam rock singer, which now six years later the times have caught up to a bit, and it's good to know I was a blueprint in keeping that lead singer spirit alive. At that crossroads after the Coverboy blitz, all I knew was that I had my band, my core creative crew, and the trilogy. I would have never have foreseen all the twists and turns fate would put in my path, but I would have never written these songs without them.

During all the time it took to hone Fatal Attraction, fans and friends never stopped writing me…those words in the dark kept me going. Once I had the songs, I was like, I’m going to rise again, I’m going to continue to sing like a motherfucker like I always have. I’ve often been labeled an underground artist with a cult following... and instead of forsaking that idea, I just embraced my cult star status. I’m here to infiltrate your dreams with my satin attack, that’s it. When you listen to songs like Eternity, Taste the Rain, and Cult Star, those songs transcend the vantage point that the singer in Coverboy knew, they penetrate a deeper more intimate, a more limitless place. No matter who you are, I promise they will stroke you.

On the symbolism of the album’s title track:

Music and this city, is a fatal attraction, for me at least. It’s a ride I can’t seem to get off although I have tried. I go to my home town, to Miami, to the Deep South, to Europe, to the desert, trying to escape. After my friend Sam passed away I told my dad, I want to stop, I want to give this up, but I know I’m going to get on a plane back to Los Angeles and whatever it is in me is going to take over and pull me back into the deep end. So it symbolizes that strange pull, and at the same time speaks to something secret between two people.

On how the Fatal Attraction album release show ended up being booked at the Teragram :

Like everyone else we had to cancel shows in 2020 and 2021. After our tour with Tchotchke last August and after playing our first official SXSW showcases, I was pretty committed to getting this record out and was on the lookout for the right venue. One day my manager called me and said that the booker from Teragram had asked him if Fatal Jamz would want to headline a night in May and I said yes absolutely, bc I had loved playing there when we did the two nights with Lemon Twigs and apparently the booker still remembered our sets pretty vividly so that was cool. It’s an amazing stage and a very special room.

Anyway, I was definitely daunted by the size and still am! It’s by far the largest venue we’ve ever headlined. At the end of the day, it’s going to be a rite of passage, a dragon it seems we have got to slay and I am excited! I may have to go full Sheen to get through it, but one things that’s always given me courage to take on leaps of faith is the musicians who have been willing to ride with me. For instance, getting to play this show with John Anderson on lead guitar, I feel it’s just absolutely legendary for the children. The combination is sick and it’s a honor to step on stage with him each time. We started this out together, writing songs, he lived with me and Abby an then was there in the mix when “Rookie” was being created, we did the Sky Ferreira tour together, etc. So this is full circle and we are both at the top of our game.

*Marion Belle, Billy Tibbals, and Dagger Polyester, 2023. Photo: WMF*

On what’s next for Fatal Jamz after the album release show at the Teragram:

A video is in the works for “Fatal Attraction” the song. After that, I’m going to release the 3rd album before the New Year or just after and tie the white silk ribbon on the saga. I’m going to give these albums to the lady of the lake, as a ceremony a bon voyage from which they can take on the weight of their own destinies. Will they rise one day like Excalibur to be claimed by the dolls of this age or another? I would never bet against it:)

Tickets for the Fatal Jamz show — including Dagger Polyester, Akira Galaxy, and Billy Tibbals — can be purchased here.