Maria BC // Now It’s Gone
You make your music at home in your bedroom. How has spending even more time in this space the past year influenced your creative headspace?
It feels less, uh, forbidden than it once did. I used to write songs and feel bad about it - in a fun way! - because I thought I should be doing something else. Music feels “permitted” to me now (by whom, I don’t know), and I’m often obligated to be in the space where I do music, so I’m doing it all the time, but my process has become more meandering. I feel less rushed.
Your music feels very atmospheric and of a certain mood, but the vocals still remain front and center. How do you build song structures and what comes first, lyrics or instrumentation?
Usually chords come first, then melody. Sometimes vice-versa. Lyrics come dead last. The ebb and flow of a song matters most to me, so I work on that first. The current of my voice, so to speak, is very legible to me, and controllable, so yes, I put that front and center. But what’s scary is, lyrical currents feel out of my control - listeners will hear your voice but tune out the words, or will interpret your words in vastly different ways, etc. - but lyrics are inextricably linked to the instrument I put front and center. I avoid them until it’s like, Well, there’s no way out but through.
Anyway, writing lyrics first would feel like trying to write a story without verbs, or paint a picture without a subject. You need the subject - a tree, say - before you can add the details - the individual leaves, the buds, etc. If you really botch the details, it can ruin the whole piece, but people will forgive a beautiful subject with some blurry patches.
The EP is reminiscent of water to me - kind of fluid, with depth and a sense of juxtaposition of darkness and light. Would you say this applies thematically?
Ok! Yes! Ebb and flow, currents, just as I was saying before. Music creates oceanic feeling, and vice-versa. Intimacy and longing mixed together. Joy should not equal light and sadness should not equal darkness. Experience makes a whirlpool of all these things.
To me the space between “before” and “after” sits perfectly within your music. Does that fit in any relation to your artist name Maria BC - what’s the ethos behind that?
Maria BC is my real name but also a moniker. It’s a funny accident - my instagram handle is @mariab4christ. I try not to make too much of it, but yes, I’m interested in how time moves in slippery ways, and how music can convey that, and “Maria BC” has something to do with that idea.
MARIA BC
MIX
Even the visuals convey a strong sense of texture, shape and movement. Do you feel like the songs themselves are three dimensional and how important is context outside of the music itself?
People describe reverb-heavy music as “atmospheric” or “enveloping,” or negatively, “claustrophobic.” It evokes space that isn’t there. I feel ambivalent about this. It’s magical how sound can transport you. But it’s also easy to get trapped in a sound cocoon. There’s some music I love that, when I feel stagnant or depressed, I’ll play over and over and over again because it feels like a blanket. It comforts me but also might trap me more. Then I get angry! Why does this hurt so good?? It’s silly.
Yes, context is important. I want my music to make people feel held, but I don’t only want to cater to people’s sadness, either. When SOPHIE died, my partner said about her, “I can’t imagine knowing you made music people listened to at their most ecstatic, that you helped form their happiest memories.” Yes! She worked with very different textures and shapes than I do, obviously, and the club was her context, but still, I have a lot to learn from her and other artists who carve out space for joy.
Tell us more about the recording process/inspiration behind this new track.
When I was writing this song, I knew I wanted something free time, with the vibe of an art song (but with guitar instead of piano). No refrain, but a melody that folds back in on itself. And I was reading this book of poems by Alejandra Pizarnik, who’s obsessed with void and absence and negation, so I found myself writing these lyrics that kind of celebrate dissatisfaction.
Then when I was recording it, I felt drawn to machinic sounds. I’m not sure why. The song as a whole is about desiring utopia and knowing you don’t have the tools to get there, but there’s a moment in it about automation, maybe that’s where the mechanical sounds come from…
Any under the radar musical peers we need to know?
I don’t know if these people are under the radar, or my peers, but I’ve been listening to a lot of Rachika Nayar, Nuha Ruby Ra, and Lucy Liyou (all of whom are on the mix). Noah Sauer blows me away. And The Narcotix just released what’s maybe my favorite record of the year, Mommy Issues, they’re unbelievable.
What’s special about the mix you’ve made?
This is the first mix I’ve ever made! It features some artists I listened to while working on “Now it’s gone.” The whole 30-min thing is all over the place - part soft and ambient, part jarring and loud - like the single.
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