Dafür dass Maruja bereits seit 2014 existieren, sind sie doch erst nach einiger Zeit wirklich auf den Plan getreten. Nach drei EP-Veröffentlichungen in der Bandfrühzeit vor 2019 (die von Maruja selbst als nicht mehr repräsentativ angesehen werden) und weiteren drei EPs seit 2023, ist vor allem die Single „The Invisible Man“ aus dem Vorjahr ein wichtiger Punkt in der Bandentwicklung (letztes Jahr auch schon in unserer Endjahresplaylist).

Nun ist gerade das erste Album erschienen, das in seiner Kombination aus Noise-Gitarren, quietschendem Saxophon und bellendem Spoken-Word-Gesang doch recht avantgardistisch, anstrengend im besten Sinn klingt. Nachdem die von mir heiss geliebten Black Country, New Road nach Abschied ihres Sängers heute doch zu lieblich baroquepop klingen, sind Maruja ein willkommener Nachfolger in der Schrägheitskategorie – nur noch eine ganze Stufe aggressiver.

* Your three favourite Punk singles/songs?

– Banned in D.C. – Bad Brains

– You Know You’re Right – Nirvana
– The Boom Is Back – Panik Attaks

* A record that will make you dance?

– New Forms – Roni Size, Reprazent

* Your favourite song lyrics?

– How Much A Dollar Cost? – Kendrick Lamar

* The best “new” artist / band right now?

Enola Gay
It’s tricky to define what “new” is. Lots of people are raving about Geese at the moment but they’ve been together for a while now and have 3 albums out even thought they feel quite new. Although we’ve just dropped our debut this year, we’ve been releasing music as Maruja since 2020. Being in a band, naturally it takes longer to release music than if there was just one or two songwriters, so will measure “new” as an artist who is yet to or just released their first album.
One band that is yet to release their debut album, but has influenced loads of bands already is Enola Gay from Belfast, Ireland. We know when they do drop and people listen to them for the first time it’s going to magical. They combine everything we love in music; high energy, potent lyrics, insane noises, genre crossovers and viciously danceable music. They’re bound to change their sound up for their first album and that’ll surely affect everything for bands to come. Nobody makes noisy bangers like the Irish, and
nobody does it to the depth of Enola Gay.

* Your favourite song about rebellion/revolution?

– Wake Up – Rage Against The Machine

* Your favourite song this year so far? (or of last year)

– Suffocate (feat. Poppy) – Knocked Loose

* Your favourite movie about music – and why?

– Summer of Soul – Documentaries offer an insight into a world we’d have never normally be able to witness, Summer of Soul showcases some of the greatest artists of all time collaborate to perform at a one-off free festival. Music and film that have the greatest impact are ones that make you feel inspired, this film encapsulates this perfectly, it just leaves you feeling completely inspired by the power of music. It showcases counter-culture, what happens when community is set out to inspire and look out for future generations and just a beautiful watch and listen.

* Black Country New Road, Black Midi or Squid – which one do you prefer and why?

– We were fans of all 3 bands back in 2019 but haven’t really been too crazy about any release since, so with that metric we’ll rate which of their debut albums is our favourite and that would be Schlagenheim by Black Midi. It showcases their performance abilities, but mostly their unique approach to songwriting and experimentation. It’s loud and crazy and something that was of influences to us growing up as a band.

* The best song you’ve ever written / recorded?

– Look Down On Us – this was written in May 2024 over the course of 2 or 3 weeks, with each session adding more chaos into the fire. We finished the track at about 8 minutes long, but already knew we wanted to add strings/orchestral elements to bolster it. When we came to recording it, we’d already played it over 100 times with all these wild ideas about how to take it to the next level. This was the first song we tracked and mixed and did it with complete ease in only a couple days, each time adding something new. It felt like we were exceeding our vision for the track – something which can be really hard to execute if you’ve been playing it continuously as well as rinsing the original demo version for such a long time. We definitely think we exceeded the heights we could take the track too and it’s the best individual track to represent the album.

* Your favourite german song/record?

– Modern Life by Ralph Heidel

* Your favourite record of all time?

– Every Day – The Cinematic Orchestra

Das Debüt-Album von Maruja, „Pain To Power“, ist bereits erschienen: