Marisa And The Moths: Finding Strength In The Face Of Adversity
One of the most beautiful things about music is the feeling in not being alone. No matter what you’re going through, you’ll find a song that perfectly conveys how you’re feeling, what’s going on in your life, and how things can get better. Whether you’re a fan listening to the lyrics or an artist singing does words, it’s a cathartic feeling. That is the aim behind the record What Doesn’t Kill You, the second full-length album by UK grunge-rockers MARISA AND THE MOTHS.
Frontwoman, Marisa Rodriguez, wrote the album following the breakdown and aftermath of an abusive relationship which coincided at the same that the world went into the lockdown. With everything internal and external thrown into chaos, Marisa put her energy into writing lyrics that detailed all her thoughts and emotions as she processed everything, the end result being an album that is as heartbreaking as it is uplifting.
We sat down with Rodriguez as the release date got closer to talk about What Doesn’t Kill You and the main things that she hopes people will take away from it. For Marisa, this record helped to process her grief and trauma as she went through a difficult time, a form of therapy almost. “This particular album, and I guess with the previous one, I feel like I go through a crazy period where I would just write and write and write, and it’s usually after something significant has happened and triggered me into beginning that process. Maybe unlike some other artists who I speak to just write all the time, for me it’s like a purge and I get hyper focused on it. This one in particular was triggered by the end of the relationship I was in, breaking down and the trauma that came with that. I was processing it and then lockdown happened, so I was also processing that and kind of navigating, kind of grieving, that relationship.”
“The whole journey of the album is meant to represent the process of grief and how it’s non-linear, like how you might feel angry one day and then really great the next day, and then you’re all over the place the next day. It’s like you’re two steps forward, five steps back, and it’s not as obvious as being in an order of stage one, two, and three. It’s never like that, life isn’t perfect,” she explains. “I hope people who listen to it can relate. I feel like everyone has gone through something difficult that has taken a while to get over and has been hard to explain. I suppose this is what it is for me as a story.”
As the album covers such a deeply personal topic regarding her experiences of being in and getting out of an abusive relationship, it can be hard a thing to relive and retell whether performing the songs live or talking through their meaning, but Marisa believes that not only has this helped her but will also go on to help others in a similar situation. “It’s a form of therapy with being hand on heart open and honest about it, now we’re in the process of doing these interviews and talking about what the songs are about. My partner, Peter, is saying, ‘you should go online and talk about it more’, but it is quite triggering. The reason I’m wanting to write about it and share it is to help others, because I felt like when you’re going through it, in that moment in that relationship, you can feel like you’re the only one that it’s happening to because of the isolation that comes with being in that situation.”
“If I can help one person who’s in that sort of scenario or something similar where they’re going through a hard time, it would have been worth it with putting my soul on display. It’s vulnerable and it’s good to have feelings about it with recognising where it’s coming from. Everything is happening so fast and with going through the whole story again and feeling everything, but it’ll come through in performances live hopefully in a good way!” She says laughing.
To describe how MARISA AND THE MOTHS sound in a nutshell, it would be a combination of 90s grunge and modern alternative bands with names like FOO FIGHTERS and HALESTORM coming to mind, although other artists are discussed as influences with bands like EVANESCENCE and FLYLEAF coming into the conversation. The process of creating What Doesn’t Kill You taking four years and with it’s release around the corner, she believes that this album is some of their best work that they’ve put out. “I’m just proud that we didn’t cut corners in general because we wanted to make the best album that we could possibly make and not rush it, because the story behind it is obviously a personal and massive thing for me, and therefore the songs mean a lot. I worked really hard when I was writing them, and I just wanted them to be presented to the world in the best way possible. I’m just proud that it exists after the crazy journey that has been making this album.”
On a final note, with an album representing the strength one has when facing adversity, what would Marisa say to someone who is still trying to find that strength? “It is always darkest before the dawn. It’s something that I’ve had to remind myself a lot in the last few years, and it’s true because the best part about it is when the light comes, and things start to get better you’re going to appreciate it more. You can’t really appreciate the good things in life without the bad happening. One of my lyrics in the song If You Knew is ‘never broken, never moved’, and I feel like for us to grow we need to break and it’s only going to make you stronger in the long run.”
“So just hang in there, you’ll get there, you can do this, and you’re not alone. Don’t keep it to yourself, speak out if you need support because that is the hardest thing to do but it’ll be the best thing you’ll ever do.”
What Doesn’t Kill You is out now via self-release.
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