Maria Moss, The Fascinating Spanglish Singer-Songwriter

If you like No Roots by Alice Merton, you will also highly enjoy Gold by Maria Moss, an incredible Spanish recording artist and songwriter, based in London.

The reason I like referencing well-known acts to introduce new musicians to you, is to simplify the whole process. It works for you, the reader (listener), and it works for me as the comparison sets the tone for what you’re about to get.
Gold starts with Maria’s sultry voice showing off an impressive range easily, from chest voice to head voice in matter of seconds. This is a professional doing what she does best: perform. Then when the hook kicks in, her vocals shift to a strong, tough vibe and while telling ”don’t you see I’m a soldier?”, she is actually commanding us to follow in line. Few are the artists who can express a multi-layered emotion through a sentence. She’s giving orders while actually asking a question, and singing at the same time. In case you didn’t know, it is insanely difficult to be raw and technically on pitch at the same time. Yet, she does it.

This is a very rare instance where the artist is actually better looking in the video and while singing and moving, than being still in a photo. The photo doesn’t do Maria justice. This girl was made to be alive, to entertain and breathe fire through her lyrics and voice. Maria Moss is a musical volcano to be witnessed in motion, not in stillness. And she confirms my opinion: ”One day, I would write a power ballad, and the next day I would write a dancy pop tune or a soul song with raw vocals. As a child, my musical preferences went from The Black Eyed Peas, Ciara, Britney Spears to Motown, Linkin Park, Pink.”
What will surprise you, probably more than it surprised me, is that Maria was writing in English way before she dabbed in Spanish lyrics: ”I only started writing in Spanish four years ago. I’ve been writing in English since I was a teenager. However, I realized that being able to pen Spanish pop songs is an asset that makes me different in London so I got to practicing.” – smart girl. A lot of non-native English artists try to hide their origins and work on their accent and pronounciation for years. While the wise ones, like Maria, embrace it and turn it into a strength.

I want to know when did Maria receive her call of being a musician: ”I was already telling my parents that I wanted to be an entertainer by the age of 3. But it was later on when everybody caught up with my plans, specifically when at 14 years old, I won ¨The English Key¨ prize, singing ¨When You Believe¨ by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston on Cantamania, a Catalan TV programme (Salou,TV3).” oh, and check this out: Maria is by far, the top educated artist we’ve ever had the pleasure to interview, an achievement that should not be taken lightly. It takes YEARS of full-time commitment, determination and TONS OF PATIENCE: ”Before being my own artist, I wanted to make sure I knew music theory, ear training and had a good vocal technique so I attended Aula Musics (Liceu of Barcelona), to study the professional degree of jazz and blues, the Conservatoire of Tarragona – to study classical music, Acción-Escena School of Actors of Madrid – to study a professional course of Musical Theatre, and BIMM London – for a BA Creative Musicianship.” – just WOW! but… how does one pay for all these prestigious classes? ”I am a teacher and have been one my entire life. I started out teaching the National Curriculum when I was teenager, and eventually got to teach dancing, singing, and music theory. That’s how I was able to pay for my own performing arts and music education”

As with every artist, we try to learn a new lesson from every act we get to talk to, so I proceed with ”The biggest lesson you’ve learned from the music industry?”, to which Maria responds: ”It is all about creating a community. It is better to have one thousand engaged fans that love what you do rather than ten thousand that are not very excited about your music.’‘ – Boom! write that down if you’re an upcoming artist.
”Who paid for the music video production of Gold?” I ask curiously, ”I did. I paid for the music production, the video production, and the promo. I was lucky to find Stavros Ladikos online. I loved the kind of films he was doing and I asked him if he wanted to film ‘Gold’. His company Shockwave Pictures made the official video possible.” a bow of admiration for a truly independent female artist. When you got the dollars, you got the last word – another indirect lesson from Maria Moss. She also shares with us just how serious the whole process was: ” I am a very hard-working person so I always do a lot of research and try to find professionals that will suit what I am doing. ‘Gold’ is the first single of a series of songs wrote by me, co-produced by Jamie Sellers (who is a platinum-selling songwriter and record producer), and mastered by Pete Maher (Peter worked in the past with the likes of Katy Perry, The Rolling Stones, U2 etc).” When you got people on THAT level working with you, you CAN’T go wrong.
On an ending note, Maria wants to say something important: ”Thank you very much to everyone who has supported me throughout these years. It really means a lot to me. It is also really nice when people contact you to tell you that your songs help them to be more positive and feel more empowered. That is all the truly matters.”

Support Maria Moss by checking out her website HERE, following her on Facebook HERE, staying updated with her posts on Instagram HERE, listening to more of her songs on Soundcloud HERE, and adding her to your Spotify playlist HERE.

Interview conducted by Mariana Berdianu
Blue Rhymez Entertainment ©2020