Interview: MARIS Reflects on MOSH★PIT and Captivates Sommo Festival Fans
Missoula, Montana-born, LA-based singer-songwriter MARIS is having quite the impressive year. She headlined a spring tour across the Midwest and East Coast, made numerous festival appearances, released a string of singles, and featured on Post Sex Nachos' song "Pop Tarts." Most recently, she released her second EP, MOSH★PIT, on September 18, and is also credited with directing its visuals. MARIS will hit the road on October 1 for a 26-city tour spanning the US and Canada, with shows selling out left, right, and center.
Tonight, MARIS took the stage at Sommo Festival in Cavendish, Canada, delivering a performance of warmth and connection in front of a crowd of new and longtime fans, giving them an electrifying taste of songs from her freshly released EP and her thrilling catalog. Before the performance, MARIS opened up to Rock DNA Magazine about her music, the role it's always played in her life, and taking the stage at Sommo Festival.
MARIS' story began when she was just a young child. "My first real memory of falling in love with music is either seeing The Lion King for the first time when I was little or walking around the yard (my dad lived in the middle of nowhere) and singing to myself about my feelings," she says. It's an image so innocent, but quite revealing, foreshadowing the natural connection MARIS had with listening to music and putting emotions into words, long before she even had a name for it. Though she was still only a child, the foundation of what the artist MARIS would become was beginning to form when she discovered that singing and sharing her emotions outwardly could create connection. "The first time I sang in front of the cafeteria in 2nd or 3rd grade, I was so addicted to the rush and feeling so connected to so many people at once that I knew I wanted that feeling forever."
But the idea of seeking that feeling of connection and turning it into a possible career didn't dawn on her until she was older. Learning the songwriting process, along with understanding the meaning of having something tangible to share, made the idea feel real. She explains, "I don't know if I knew it was gonna be viable until I learned how to burn CDs and write music!" In 2016, MARIS was hand-burning CDs and selling them at her local record store back in Montana. Even as MARIS' career continues to grow, the art of burning a CD is something she still loves doing. Only now, she's burning CDs of her EP MOSH★PIT.
As her writing flourished, MARIS the artist started to take shape, not as a separate persona, but as an amplified extension of who she already was. "I always knew the all-caps version of myself would just be a heightened, dramatic version of myself and my feelings in my life," she reflects, "because that's how I've always used music to process my feelings." She continues, "Pretty much everything I've ever been able to understand about myself has been through music. In the moment I can either overintellectualize or feel nothing. Music is that delicate and beautiful space where intellectualization and true feeling can co-exist."
With years of putting pen to paper, MARIS has come to understand there's a balance between honesty and consideration, especially when asked whether her continued success has changed what she feels comfortable sharing. "In some ways, but I've always been conscientious of what and how I say it because I want to be honest about my life in my songs, but I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or embarrass anyone publicly!"
Despite those years of experience, she admits there is one emotion still difficult to encapsulate in a song. "I always find pure sadness hard to capture. I feel like I always need some sort of twist." It's an idea that immediately made me think of "Losing People," her song structured around loss but one that refuses to sit still in it.
Since the release of her debut single “Heavenly Bodies” in 2022, MARIS has come into her own and steadily built a community of amazing and dedicated fans. A connection that in some ways redefines the lines between artist and listener. Rather than completely creating behind closed doors, she has opened them. Allowing the Superstars, the name she has dubbed her fan base, to choose singles, artwork, merch, and logo ideas. She explains, "I was a PA at a market research facility when I first moved to New York for a couple years. Seeing how these companies just simply asked their consumers what they like and don’t like really inspired me to not try and guess what the fans would like, I can just ask." It's a testament that a meaningful connection can come from a simple gesture: just asking.
As I stood in the crowd watching MARIS' performance tonight, I couldn't help but look around and embrace the energy and sound she created from the stage. Her sound lives in a cool space between pop and rock but isn't bound to it, and when asked what other sounds or styles she's curious to explore, her answer was simple: "Everything, I love music." She performed one of the newest songs off her EP, "Nothing to Do (nananananana)," and it speaks to just that. It's a song that lives within that pop-rock space but also delivers an exciting, flavorful undertone of country. The energy that she brings is also special, whether you were seeing her for the first time or not. Playing Sommo or any festival for that matter brings an interesting possibility of new fans. She spoke to the feeling of seeing new fans take in her music versus longtime ones. "They both hit hard, but in different ways. There’s exciting potential when someone is being converted in real time, and then when someone is tried and true and they have met me multiple times." Watching those around me, I can say both those things undoubtedly took place. By the time MARIS' set came to a close, the crowd was singing, dancing, and smiling from ear to ear. It's exactly the feeling MARIS hopes to leave people with: "I hope they feel comfortable and excited to dance and sing and scream and like they can just be themselves fully. Music is a release for me and a way to catalyze my feelings into something meaningful." It's the same innate connection MARIS found singing to herself in her father's backyard. Only now we get to hear it.
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