A few weeks ago we sat down with Isabel Maria to discuss her plans for the rest of the year and her favourite artists that she wants you to listen too, this is what she said...
1. What made you want to get into music?
I've always been pretty drawn to writing - growing up I really loved writing stories, poems, plays, instructions... literally anything, no matter how unusual. But when I was 11 my grandad found an old Casio keyboard in his attic, and he let me take it home. That's kind of what got me into writing songs, and it immediately felt different to all the other kinds of writing I'd been doing, in a really amazing way. From there I worked on my craft a bit and then discovered the Young Musicians Project, which is a youth music group in Sunderland, where I live, and being a part of that as a teenager taught me how to make a career out of music. Which is what I'm now trying to do!
2. What are your plans for the rest of the year?
This year has been a very very busy one for me, which is really exciting, but it's slowing down just a tad as winter approaches, which will give me some much needed time to write new material. I have eight more shows from now until the end of the year, and they're scattered all over the place - London, Hull, Newcastle, Stockton... and perhaps a couple in the US, which I'll be announcing soon. After that the band and I will be in hibernation mode learning all of the new songs from my EP due out next year (which is no secret) and I'm really excited for that. There may or may not be one final single coming out this year for good measure - stay tuned!
3. What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Eek this is a hard one! I'm lucky enough to have multiple things springing to mind. I've won some awards these past few years - the Alan Hull Award, a Northern Writers Award and a North East Culture Award, alongside some funding bids from some super generous, wonderful organisations who support independent musicians. Those are all really special achievements to me. If we're talking this year specifically, I did get the chance to go to New York for something called Anti Social Camp, where I wrote with some really incredible American artists and partied in various fancy recording studios - that was pretty cool.
Probably the best thing about my music career though, is that it actually exists - 13 year old me would NOT believe I'm doing this.
4. Who are your inspirations music wise?
Ooh - I'm into lots of different types of music, but when it comes to my own work I'm super inspired by very lyrical, emotional songwriters like Lizzy McAlpine, Olivia Rodrigo, Joni Mitchell and Maisie Peters. I am a huge Swiftie, which I have been told is very obvious when listening to my music haha - I think Taylor Swift is really great at building worlds inside her songs, which is a quality I have tried to adopt. I'm also very inspired by local music - growing up in the local music scene means I have met so many incredible Sunderland based bands and artists, and there's so much talent here.
5. Who is your favourite up and coming artist?
I have so many. I'm playing a show in Newcastle soon and TWO of my favourite local artists are on that bill with me, so maybe I'll shout those guys out. Nadedja is an incredible alt-pop artist, and her debut album comes out really soon. I can guarantee you it's going to be incredible. And then ERNIE makes folk-y lo-fi indie rock-ish stuff (it's so great that I'm not even really sure how to categorise it) and his new EP Sunsoaked is absolutely remarkable!
Post a Comment