“There’s choreography, I have a lot of crowd work, I love feeling like I’m the vibe captain, bringing people together and facilitating energy,” says burgeoning queer pop star MARIS, who’s currently nearing the end of a tour supporting NYC indie-soul group Melt, which will have her at our very own Brooklyn Bowl this Friday, November 8th. MARIS – who’s been based in Los Angeles since 2021 — has already provided support on jaunts for Anna Of The North and Postmodern Jukebox, tells me during a recent phone chat that she doesn’t let her role as opener curb her desire to bring a spectacle to the stage every night: “I come out in an astronaut suit and do a striptease to basketball shorts… For this show, I’m an astronaut, and I’ve crash landed on a planet of aliens who want to party, so I have to do a striptease to appease them.” “I just love fantasy… I’m always thinking about, ‘What is the fantasy I’m creating and what role am I playing in that fantasy?’” MARIS explains of her approach to performance.
I ask MARIS if she thinks there’s anything especially important for fans to know about her, and she admits, “I’m not hyper-fixated on them knowing so much about me, but I would love for them to know so much about the music and be able to sing it together.” And apparently she’s already earned herself some quite dedicated fans: “The coolest thing for me is just meeting people who have been following my music for a long time, to get to see people dressing up and singing the music back to me… At the Chicago show, there was a group of people with mustaches and leotards and legwarmers, like my video for ‘False Idol,’ which is a hero’s journey through the lens of ‘80s aerobics madness!” “They’re all really fucking fun and silly and badass,” MARIS says of her fans, who that particular night were led by one particularly dedicated follower named Brad, who initiated an unofficial hangout with the artist after the show: “It’s a community, people coming together for the first time, and I get to see them be silly and not judge each other, they’re not too-cool-for-school… It made my night… No, it made my whole month! I’m still smiling thinking about it!”
Early MARIS singles (in addition to two new songs) were collected for last year’s Gravity EP, and the singer has released seven singles since, including four this year, most recently “Chameleon,” a ballad which dropped in September and chronicles the artist’s challenges, and ultimate transformation, that came with adapting to life in L.A. However, MARIS tells me that she was doing music well before her move to the West Coast: “I moved to New York at 18 and just tried to play as many shows as I could, with bass guitar and drums, and just do rock shit.” “I’ve had such a good year of community. For a minute, it was me doing everything on my own,” she reflects on her current situation. And MARIS has had quite a few big moments this year, including performing at Boston Calling (her first-ever festival), playing Pride in her hometown of Missoula, and working with Boston Music Project, a, “nonprofit organization committed to ensuring the long-term social-emotional and musical success of Boston youth.”
“In December I’ll be picking songs for the album, because a first album is really important,” MARIS tells me when I ask what the immediate future holds for her. However, that album has been in the works for a little while now: “I’ve been doing this DIY for a long time, but I started working on an album this year, but doing it as a secret album… At shows I’m giving out SoundCloud links of demos, and the songs that get the most plays will be on the album.” But she also wants touring to remain a priority: “I hope to just get back on the road. I love touring, I love performing, and I love meeting people… I wanna do a headline tour next year, but I think I have a little more growth to do before I can headline and pack a club, so maybe late next year.”
However, at the moment, MARIS tells me that she’s focused on these dates supporting Melt, which will wrap next week in Brooklyn. And while she’s apparently getting a relatively substantial opening set, she does tell me that it might be missing a fan favorite or two, based on the venue: “It’ll be a 40-45-minute set, depending on the venue. For the 40-minute set, there’ll be a few songs that’ll have to be cut, just because I already have so much music.” But she’s quite confident that, regardless of the length, people will have plenty to enjoy about her astronaut-stripping-for-aliens spectacle, which she says has classic fun-loving, silly vibes: “Aesthetically, I’m pulling from the ‘80s a lot, like aerobics and wrestling. Honestly, this tour has a very WWE vibe.” And MARIS and her fans already have their own unique dance floor ritual that you can expect to experience.
“I feel like I have a little bit of a punk spirit. I’ve started this thing called a moosh pit (I’m gonna trademark that.) A mosh pit is a cathartic release of music through the body, but it’s violent, and I’m not an advocate for violence. With a moosh pit, if anything, it’s kissing and hugging and consensual touching.”
*Get your tickets here.
**Listen for MARIS on the next edition of Philthy Radio, 11/15 (9-11pm ET) on Y-Not Radio.
