Maruja's music does not simply follow the times; It is a reflection of them.
The rock band, whose debut album “Pain To Power” was released on Friday, has forged a niche in today's music scene, obtaining praise and raising the eyebrows for its innovative instrumentation and song composition.
But the quartet born in Manchester, Harry Wilkinson, Matt Buonaccorsi, Joe Carroll and Jacob Hayes, has already made the formation, recording and trumpta tour.
This can be largely accredited to its three EPS, “Knocknarea”, “Connla's Well” and TIR NOG “, launched in 2023, 2024 and 2025, respectively. Each project is based on post-Punk, Jazz Rock and Art Rock elements that are mixed in a musical cocktail enthusiast.
“We begin to travel, and then it has not stopped since then,” says Carroll with a smile, through a zoom call. “That was about two and a half years ago … towards the end of last year, we made about four months, 47 shows throughout Europe.”
And they have not stopped. As soon as they got home on the tour, they returned to that. In total, the “best ideas” of “Pain To Power” were written and recorded within two months: January and February of this year, when the band made the study of their second home.
“We had to go 'ham' in the studio for six days a week. It's quite hard,” he says.
Some clues had “generated from jams” before being filed for a while: “Some of them took two hours, some of them took two years,” he expresses it clearly.
But this was not a problem for the band, since they collected those “jams” as if they never left them.
“All the songs we have written, feel that they are still within the same world, but sometimes only through different filters,” says Buonaccorsi.
“Born to Die”, which existed during most of recent years, represents the midpoint in the album and presents one of its most impressive sound shifts. It also assumes the Herculean task of merging many of the ongoing tones and the deepest issues of the project.
“I know what this life / we are universal spirits is worth / and our kingdom is this land,” Open Wilkinson, as if a light had shone.
The song is soft, with a distant and tearful sax that looks for a brief moment between the battery lines. It is almost symphonic, continuing for almost seven minutes before descending to a lullaby.
“Our feelings are only visitors / compete for attention / avoid each trigger / while looking for ascension,” he continues, in a quasi-monologue.
Hayes enters, hitting his battery next to Wilkinson's guitar and a fascinating bass line of Buanoccorsi. Naturally, Carroll's saxo follows his example. The song then backed Serenity once again, before resuming “Break the tension.”
It is a stimulating trip that continues on the rest of the album, decreasing and flowing between chaos and calm. A large amount of “Pain To Power” force is in its last half, and particularly in the three -track race that is “Tronches”, “Zaytoun” and “Concile”, the album is almost 10 minutes.
“What you are seeing are these notions of pain that we are taking out in these songs,” explains Wilkinson. “These aggressive songs like 'Bloodsport', 'Look down in us' … We are turning all that aggression and that pain and anger in something beautiful, and that is reflected in a track like 'Saose'.”
“It's a fairly dynamic album,” adds Buonaccorsi. “You have quieter songs, more intimate songs, and you have noise, bombs, crazy and aggressive songs, but they all feel they are part of the same sonic universe.”
“Saose”, the third song of the album, reflects the gloomy first half of “Born to die”.
“It is our differences that make us beautiful,” Sings Wilkinson repeatedly, as if he were murmuring a mantra. Of course, it is a bit in the nose, but it embodies what Maruja is about.
“Saose”, which translates into “freedom” or “freedom” in Irish, has historically transformed into a term that represents the desire for independence of the country of British dominance and cultural autonomy. These allusions to Ireland are always present in the creations of the band, with titles such as “Tir nog” and “Connla's Well” stained in their discography.
But how did a British attire become synonymous with Irish activism?
“When we were recording 'Knockarea', my father began to get sick a lot and that led me to connect much more with his parents, and they told me about my great -grandson, who was a photographer,” Carroll recalls.
“We ended up using all his photos for the early stages of music … All things in black and white are the photos of my great -grandfather in Ireland … I really got into my Irish heritage, and I am really proud of it … and I feel very connected to culture and earth,” he continues.
The group says that it has a strong correlation with its avid support for Palestinian rights, which Irish have demonstrated for decades: “They were the first western government to speak in public support to the Palestinian people,” says Hayes.
In that, they are also talking against their home, Great Britain, who say that it is “completely complicit” in the conflict of Israel-Palestine.
“The colonization of Ireland of the British Empire, and then the … Secret Police of Blacks and the Bronze [in Palestine] It is a direct relationship with the colonial and imperialist forms of the British government today, ”says Hayes.
According Irish timesWinston Churchill demanded that a “selected force of Blanca Gendarmerie” be deployed in Palestine after facing the riots in 1921. The force was composed of “members of both” their assistants and black and bronze, which were “assigned to Palestine once their presence in Ireland was no longer considered necessary.”
“In England, we only see that this upset hypocrisy continues Lord on our political landscape,” he adds. “We want to give voice to those who have no voice … If we can help raise awareness, generate a message and … highlight the complicity of our government, we have to do it.”
In “Bloodsport”, this is clear, with Wilkinson crying around the world.
“Complicit in the narration of the peaceful murders, it is a view when you have to choose / the minor of two ills, any of which will prove / that we are socially in apathy? What remains to be lost?”
His activism is strongly linked to his music and has undoubtedly contributed to some of the band's recognition on a global scale. But, for them, it is only part of their responsibility, and their music is an indication of that.
“We are only reflecting our environment,” he explains. “Our lives are oppressed with politics and war and the suffering of the world.”
Buonaccorsi Chimes In, referring to an “The Great” Nina Simone appointment: “The duty of an artist, as far as I am concerned, is to reflect the times.”
“It's our job … talking about things that really care, the things we feel should not be happening in this world,” he says. “The barbarism and the horror that we have never been able to see in our lives … Now, we see it before our eyes on the phone screens.”
