FEATURE: Spotlight: Maryze — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Maryze

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A truly tremendous name to watch…

Maryze is a queer bilingual singer-songwriter based in Montreal (originally from Vancouver). Her stunning Alt-Pop sound is so instantly affecting and memorable. She released her debut album, 8, earlier in the year. I have only just found her music. I am already really invested. There are a couple of recent interviews with Maryze that I want to bring in. I want to start with an interview from You Wanted a List. Marzye was asked about cultural recommendations; picking new albums and films that she would urge others to explore:

“What albums would you recommend others listen to?

Pang by Caroline Polachek

From Under the Cork Tree by Fall Out Boy

In the Zone by Britney Spears

Anti by Rihanna

The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga

Clandestino by Manu Chao

Ctrl by SZA

Fresh movie finds? What films do you think everybody should watch?

I got obsessed with the Fear Street trilogy this summer! The first was my fave. I think everyone should watch Mean Girls, Donnie Darko, My Neighbor Totoro, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Les Choristes, It Follows, and The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Which artists working today do you admire most?

There are so many, but I would say especially lesser-known indie artists who are so talented and always grinding. Montreal has some of the hardest-working and most interesting new artists”.

I really love 8. It is an album that everyone needs to check out. Before getting to a review for the album, there are a couple of interviews from this year. The first, from CULT MTL, introduces us to a bilingual star who has a very long future ahead of her:

“Born to an Irish-Canadian mother and a French father from Brittany, Maryze’s influences also come from some of the most disparate of musical worlds. On 8, she takes cues from hyperpop, jazz (she spent years studying the genre, and was in her high school’s jazz choir), Celtic folk (her dad’s from a Celtic region of France), soul music (Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald are favourites), Édith Piaf and the emo scene bands she loved in high school.

There’s even a song titled “Emo” on the album, and the tone of its bass parts are influenced by that of Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy — a band she’s seen four times. She names Panic! at the Disco, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Bring Me the Horizon and late-aughts crunkcore duo 3OH!3 among her other favourites.

“My favourite Warped Tour was 2009 — you know, 3OH!3, Abandon All Ships. Not necessarily great music, but it makes you feel something,” she says while laughing.

Though she grew up in an anglophone majority, the community around Maryze was largely francophone, as she went to school with francophone kids who’d moved to B.C. with their families who wanted them to continue speaking French. She also went to a fully French school, where she only took about two classes in English before Grade 7.

Even at home, her father would have her watch French TV for most days of the week to ensure she’d become fully bilingual. Though she was allowed to watch Pokémon in English once a week, she’d sometimes sneak it past her dad while he wasn’t looking.

“I remember hearing my dad coming down the stairs and trying to switch back from Pokémon to the French channel,” she adds. “At the time, it was annoying, because I wanted to watch what I wanted to watch and I have to watch all these foreign films. But I’m so grateful for it now. It does give me a larger sense of identity and culture.”

Having visited Montreal multiple times as a child, Maryze decided it was a matter of when, and not if, she would relocate to the city, packing up and moving to la Belle Province during the summer of 2017. “Montreal was this kind of very magical land I always hoped to get to when I was a kid,” she adds.

For the rest of 2022, Maryze will be playing a handful of Canadian cities in May, where she’ll play the album live for the first time. Though she also intends to take time writing more music, she’s also hoping to film more music videos for the LP, and possibly play shows stateside.

When asked what she thinks her debut album says about her personally and how far she’s come artistically, she believes it’s her ability to be herself while embodying her tastes and interests without feeling any restrictions.

“It demonstrates, even to myself, that I’m also able to take on different roles as a producer, songwriter and performer, and really be my full self,” she says. “Even if the genres seem kind of disparate, I think they tie in together, and I don’t really care anymore if people think that it’s cohesive or makes sense — because it makes sense to me”.

The final interview that I am bringing in is from RANGE. They note how, even though 8 is her debut album, even before she began her run of solo singles and E.P. releases back in 2018, she had spent time in Electronic duo Seaborne; also fronting Vancouver’s Spectregates. This is an experienced young artist who is making her first big steps:

“Maryze recently announced her debut album, 8, by posting an Instagram video of herself excitedly opening up a box full of freshly-pressed CDs. The joy in the Montreal-based singer-songwriter’s voice is palpable as she pores over shrink-wrapped copies of the album; and while it’s technically her first full-length, Maryze has been excelling in the world of pop music for quite some time. Even before she began her run of solo singles and EP releases in 2018, she had spent time in electronic duo Seaborne, and fronted Vancouver’s Spectregates back when she was living on the west coast. There’s a more obscure release in Maryze’s discography, too, tracing all the way back to her childhood when she was attending a French-language school in North Vancouver.

“There is a CD from my elementary school—they recorded some of the kids who were musically inclined; I guess that was my first record,” she remembers fondly of the foundational moment, adding, “It’s so funny, because I sound so puny on that recording, singing in French.”

Building on her Francophone foundation, Maryze has since made her bilingual identity a point of pride in her artistic output, combining her English and French-speaking abilities on all three of her major musical projects. Naturally, a bilingual dialogue is woven throughout the course of 8. Maryze floats verses sung in French through “Squelettes” alongside the anglicized bars from Polaris Prize-winning rapper Backxwash, but also pivots between the two languages, stream-of-conscious-style, during the spaciously-clanked “Mutable.”

“I sang in school choirs in French, but of course growing up in Vancouver the radio was mostly English,” she says. “I was also singing to Britney Spears and *NSYNC. It was a mix of the two, just the same as my languages have always been a mix of the two.”

Fittingly enough, her music isn’t singular in its approach, either. Throughout her debut’s 10 tracks, Maryze glides through literal motor-revving hyperpop (“Unofficial”), elegiac piano balladry (“Playing Dress-Up”), and adds a Big Shiny crush of guitar distortion to the song “Emo.” The latter, partially inspired by listening to My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy in her youth, reflects on vintage playlists and a toxic ex.

“This person that I was dating was always sending me these playlists that he thought were really cool. I would always listen to them and report back [to] tell him the songs I really liked, and why,” Maryze explains, noting the inherent intimacy of making a mix for someone. “Then I would make playlists and send them back, and he would dismiss them. This was [indicative of] the relationship, I guess…”

“I feel like artists are told that we have to keep pushing and pushing, but it’s this sad thing: sometimes you feel like you’re just screaming into the void. Every day I’m looking at my TikToks like, ‘Wow…I feel like a fool.’ I look so ridiculous in these videos—so cringe,” Maryze says, though the artist is quick to add that she’s connected with creators and made both friends and fans through the platform. “The thing is, no one is scrutinizing you the way you are—people can tell when you’re being genuine, and [they] want to get to know you and support you”.

I want to round up with a review from Earmilk. They gave us a guide and insight into a brilliant album from an artist who is going to go on and inspire so many other people:

“Montreal bilingual queer pop icon Maryze explores how snippets of our past actions influence our current lives for better or worse on highly-anticipated debut album 8, a ten-track collection weaving through themes of intergenerational family trauma, mental illness, identity, sexuality, ruptures, forgiveness and acceptance within an expansive electronic alt-pop instrumentation.

Opening with powerful stylings of “Mercy Key,” built on acappella harmonies, which seamlessly darts into sultry, club-ready production “Experiments,” and a classic R&B-pop track with electro-tinged sensibility on “Unofficial,” establishing a vast sonic range in just the first three offerings of the album.

Pop stand-outs on the album include the glossy pop feels of “Panoramic,” stretching into synth pop pulses of “Too Late,” as the album swiftly moves from smooth pop blends to touch on everything from emo and stripped-down ballads to Celtic folk brought to life on “Witness,” keeping our ears perked on each note.

If breakup anthem “Emo,” highlights Maryze’s explosive rock artistry rooted in anthemic guitars and live drums, before flipping into noisy and fierce hip-hop on “Squellettes,” featuring Backxwash. On closer, “Playing Dress Up,” she changes moods once again with the emotive, piano ballad, as the album fades away with a powerful message to consider our history and its impact on the present and future”.

Go and follow Maryze and show her some love. A phenomenal artist we are going to hear a lot more from, 8 showcases a very special talent! With gigs and surely more material coming out later in the year, let’s hope that we get to see her in the U.K. at some point.