Maruja - Extreme adrenaline peaks and ginger shots

A couple of months after the release of the excellent "Pain To Power", the hugely anticipated debut from Maruja, and ahead of the strictly sold-out sole Italian date of their tour, set for Santeria Toscana 31 di Milano on 29 November, we took the chance to have a chat with the bassist of the explosive Manchester quartet, Matt Buonaccorsi. From the record just released, written and recorded in just under two months, to life on tour, to the current state of society and politics, with an eye on a future that's more or less rosy, Matt confirms just how much these guys really have to say - and above all, how strong their desire is to tell their story and open up about themselves...

Hi Matt, it's been a couple of months since the release of "Pain To Power"; how are you all doing and how's your debut going?

We're all doing well here, in the cold, dark depths of England, taking things slow, show after show, during the album tour; ginger shots and yoga seem to be the new rock'n'roll. Even though it was written, recorded and half-produced in just a month and a half, "Pain To Power" really feels like it took eleven years to make for us: it's a dream come true, and a hard dream to pull off. You're told over and over that your first album is what either forges you or breaks you, so the pressure was definitely high in that short window to get things right, and we couldn't be prouder of ourselves for pulling it off and for seeing such a hotly anticipated record welcomed so warmly by fans and critics alike. Special thanks go to Samuel W. Jones, our producer and best friend, who's been at the helm in the studio since "Knocknarea", working hard to make sure our sound is as thrilling as possible. The day we finally released the album marked a pivotal moment in our lives; you could really feel the sheer weight of what was happening. Now it's time to work, and we're currently halfway through the album tour, tweaking and refining the new set as we go, turning it into something truly special to see live.

Among the themes underpinning the record are the transformation of pain into power, both in relation to a collective - such as the resilience of the Palestinian people - and from the point of view of the individual, alongside the identification of music as a means of healing and unity. "Trenches", from its very first lines, goes straight to the point without holding back, with lines like Indoctrinated pain and Generations cuffed by the ghosts of their past: among the thousand ghosts and pains "inherited", more or less consciously, that our generations find themselves facing, which one is, for you, the absolute worst?

There's no "absolute worst". That said, I'll keep the answer simple and straightforward: hatred. The Palestinian people have suffered a genocide for over seventy years. When hatred manages to alienate an entire society, to make it indifferent and, in the worst cases, to actively celebrate the massacre of innocent people - people who haven't even reached one year of age - then something deeply wrong is happening. Hatred makes people all over the world look the other way while real evil is happening right in front of their eyes. I will never understand how anyone can watch footage of children being crushed to death and consider it something "good" or "necessary"; that's a profound sickness, let alone an opinion. Hatred blinds us all.

From "Knocknarea" to today you've gradually broadened your range of musical influences, leaning more into rap-rock and metal territory, while still staying true to the concept of instrumental improvisation that's almost entirely free of genre labels, as expressed for instance in "Zaytoun". Did you have particular sources of inspiration, or were you listening to anything specific while writing "Pain To Power"?

A quick look at "Zaytoun": the improvisational element has long been the fundamental backbone of our compositional style. It's a method that predates even "Knocknarea" by a few years. That track, in particular, was precisely that improvisational element in its rawest form, as shown on "Pain To Power". It's not "evolved" in itself like the other tracks, but it's the side of our music we're most excited and eager to show the world: it's the heart of our music. Not to sound completely self-centred, but this method has always been our main source of inspiration. That said, you're absolutely right that rap-rock and metal influenced us a great deal during this period. In the years following "Knocknarea", Harry (Wilkinson, ed.) became more influenced and inspired by rap as a way of writing and voicing his ideas: Kendrick Lamar comes to mind as a major source of inspiration. As an extension of that, we've always been fans of Rage Against The Machine (who would have thought!) and we've also always loved System Of A Down, both very direct in their political message, so Harry and the rest of us felt it was necessary, now more than ever, to be as furious and direct as possible in shaping the message and the music of "Pain To Power". In our minds, the world needs to be angrier about the blatant injustices our societies are facing. We also listened a lot to "You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To" by Knocked Loose at the time; we found the production and the sheer power of the music pretty staggering, overwhelming, and a perfect sonic reflection of anger as an all-powerful force that can bring people together.

The first time I heard "Look Down On Us" was live at Covo Club in Bologna last year, when you came to Italy for the first time in early October, and its structure struck me hugely right from then. Could you tell me about the genesis of this track?

We loved the show at Covo Club! One of our favourites from the entire tour last year. "Look Down On Us", musically speaking, grew out of a forty-minute improvisation we recorded on our phone, I think last year. At the time we were rehearsing at Brunswick Mill, looking for ideas, and as soon as we started listening back to this jam, lightbulbs went off in our heads. We felt the need to write this song; there was something menacing and devastating about it, and the world itself seemed to be turning into a self-destructive threat. The first two verses and the choruses, again musically speaking, came from the original jam, and the calmer second half of the track came loosely from another jam we'd done around the same time. Even then, this was an unprecedented piece of music for us; it was the first time we felt a strong need to write a song that went beyond the usual limits of a single's length, and for a while we'd considered keeping it exactly like that - a short, rage-driven banger - until Harry started writing the lyrics, and we arrived at the idea that developing this apocalyptic outburst into a spiritual catharsis was exactly what the song needed to stand out from the rest of our output up to that point. It made perfect sense for the central message: here's why you should be angry, but let's not stop there; here's how we can start to change.

Speaking of shows, one of your greatest strengths is indeed your live performances, and you were very keen to translate that kind of energy onto the record as faithfully as possible, highlighting the expressive and cathartic power of music, as mentioned earlier and as comes through in the closing track "Reconcile". What's your relationship with the audience like, and how do you experience life on tour?

We really appreciate the kind words and the love for "Reconcile", a song that took a long time to come together. We have an amazing relationship with our audience! It's always a 50/50 commitment at every show; the more energy and appreciation they give us, the more it inspires and transforms us, pushing us beyond our performative limits. We're lucky to have fans who can come together to let loose in mosh pits and walls of death, but who can also come together to express their deepest emotions and show love to one another: it's the most beautiful experience in the world, and honestly we couldn't ask for more. Living life on tour is a whole other story. The shows and the fans are the unchanging heart of touring, but so is the chance to explore new cities, new countries, new cultures, new food, and better weather pretty much anywhere compared to Manchester. But there's an undeniably exhausting side to touring, especially when it's hard to sleep well, eat healthily, and when personal issues crop up at the same time. Whenever our paths have crossed, and whenever there's been enough time to do so, we've talked to some other bands and artists we admire, and hearing all their burnout stories is comforting in the worst possible way. Burnout is no joke. The huge adrenaline rushes and the post-show crashes definitely leave you a bit disoriented and drained, so you really have to make an effort to take care of yourself, otherwise you won't be able to fully appreciate all the beautiful things about touring mentioned above. Still, this isn't a task the artist alone should have to take full responsibility for: it's an issue that concerns the entire industry and needs to be addressed. We're not robots, we have natural limits, and those limits need to be respected, otherwise the artists this industry helps promote will crash and burn left and right, and there won't be any more extraordinary, forward-thinking music that can change people's lives.

In terms of expression, the visual side has always played a big part in your work too, from the black-and-white and sepia photography of your earlier releases to the intense red of Mikey Thomas's emotional paintings now. How did that collaboration come about?

We'd already been good friends with Mikey for a while - Harry in particular knew him back in high school, and Joe (Carroll, ed.) had played in a university band with him. We hadn't been in touch for a long time, but we'd been following his work on Instagram, and it wasn't hard to tell that a mad genius was emerging. Harry had bumped into him a number of times on Manchester trains, so they got the chance to catch up on life and on our different but similar artistic paths. Before long, the four of us were writing and recording "Pain To Power" and we were looking for a new visual style to go along with our whirlwind of sound. We still had a huge variety of old photographs from Joe's grandfather's collection, but for a while we'd been thinking about changing things up: it was the start of a new era, so a completely new style felt right. We got in touch with Mikey, who took us to his studio in Salford. A small white room worthy of a mad genius, and watching his artwork, listening to how he described making it and what he thought about it conceptually, was all confirmation that that's exactly what he was. Initially he didn't have time to create new cover art for us, but when we sent him the album, something clicked inside him. While our record was being mastered by the wonderful Katie Tavini, he started sending us drafts of what he was working on. We never had to go back on anything. Whatever artwork he came up with was a world of its own that we could explore: absolutely perfect for "Pain To Power".

Is there a track on the album you feel is most "yours", one you're most attached to? And if so, why?

"Born To Die" and "Reconcile" are both very evenly matched choices. I'd say "Born To Die" wins by a small but meaningful margin. That song took a long time to come together. We first wrote it two and a half years ago, during a month spent in a beautiful house set in the fields of southern England. Around that time we were also writing "Break The Tension" and immersing ourselves in some seriously powerful psychedelic improvisation, as well as the wildest, most manic free-form jazz, with little to no traditional method holding us back. It was a very liberating process, though one with harsh discipline in order to actually write something. "Born To Die" came out of that effort, loosely inspired by a jam, of course. It was without doubt the most patient yet at the same time explosive song we'd written up to that point, and it felt light years beyond anything we'd already written and released. "This has to be on the album", I remember all of us saying to each other during those frantic years. We stayed true to that statement, and so, when we finally sat down to write "Born To Die", we couldn't have been more excited and proud of what we were creating. When we listened back to the final result, it already had the feel of being our masterpiece, and that was proof of our willingness to push ourselves to create something bold. For that reason, it holds a very special place in my heart.

Last summer also saw the release of "CASPER", your collaboration with Quadeca. What was it like working with him?

Even though we didn't work with him in person, it was still an immense privilege and honour to be able to work with him from across the great Atlantic divide. Maybe in the future one of us will be able to cross that divide and put together an in-person collaboration. We kept exchanging messages on Instagram for a while before he sent us a demo of "CASPER", which we first listened to after playing OFF Festival in Katowice, Poland, and we were all left speechless. The collaboration was an obvious choice, and at the time it was already a colossal track, so we were desperate to somehow make it even more colossal. Not long after, we were at Salford University working with our producer Sam, around the same time as our third EP, "Tír na nÓg", when we took some time to play and record a few parts. We did what we do best and mostly just improvised as much as we possibly could, making sure we had the right tone and texture and that our parts developed well alongside the song, while Sam recorded and compiled all the takes and sent them over to Quadeca himself. Quadeca had already written some strikingly beautiful lyrics for Harry, because he loved the idea of those lines being delivered in Harry's voice. Harry happily agreed, but he also wanted to try writing some of his own lyrics to help elevate the message and themes, a prospect that excited Quadeca. Later, during some brutal stretches of touring, when we heard the final product, we completely lost our minds all over again. What an immense talent that man is. What an artist!

Is there any artist or project you'd like to collaborate with in the future?

A whole host of rappers: Billy Woods, Danny Brown and many others. As mentioned earlier, and it goes without saying, we'd love to work with Quadeca again. We loved "Vanisher" so much that it's hard even to find the words to describe what he created there. He's a kindred spirit to us musically, and he has an incredible talent for writing about apocalyptic, mind-expanding sonic worlds, something we ourselves are constantly striving to produce. Joe and I were recently on BBC6 with Craig Charles, and he asked us which of their artists of the year we'd like to work with. I said Geese, and Joe said FKA Twigs. Both are artists we've listened to a lot on tour, and both are artists we consider forward-thinking, innovative, incredibly creative and unapologetically themselves.

Emotion is contagious, see the domino effect flourish. Speaking of the future, in light of the ongoing string of political and social events happening on a global scale, what do you see ahead?

If the gap between the wealthy elite and ordinary people wasn't already fractured enough, we can only expect it to fracture further if the greed and power of that elite aren't reined in over the coming years, especially considering that world leaders like Trump have openly ignored public scrutiny of their appalling actions for a while now; he almost seems to enjoy that scrutiny, compared to previous presidents like Nixon who desperately tried to hide their corruption from public view. Remember when Trump happily talked about how his billionaire friends had made billions more in stocks after tariffs were lifted? If one person is able to manipulate the global economy like that and openly state how it made him and his inner circle richer, imagine how things could go if those actions keep being ignored and treated as the new "normal". There's nothing normal about this, not in a moral sense or in any sense - it's an ever-steeper slide into unchecked greed. This maddening abuse of power isn't limited to America, even though it's a country that bears a huge share of responsibility, but it extends across the whole world, in your country and in ours. Recently, a couple of months ago, we did an AMA on Reddit and received moving messages from both a Palestinian fan and an Israeli fan, the latter actively involved in protesting the genocide carried out by his own government. It's people like these two fans who come to mind whenever I think of the lyric you quoted: "Emotion is contagious, see the domino effect flourish". Everywhere, people are growing weary of the immense pain and suffering, whether it's inflicted on their own loved ones or on people like them in far-off lands. The ongoing horror can seem insurmountable in scale, but that's exactly where we need to do our part to detoxify the world, so to speak. Healing might take generations, and the horrors might resurface following history's usual cycles, but we can't wallow in misery and let things take over; change happens through continuous action, and that cycle can be broken - things don't have to go this way. We have to look at it like this: either that, or we give up and let hell break loose.

(23 November 2025)

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