Maria Mena – Interview

Maria Mena is a singer/songwriter/performer with a rare and precious gift. Her songs come directly from her heart and her experience, are written with candor, clarity and purpose, and are performed with a disarming guileless charm. That she is 18 years old makes her talent all the more remarkable and all the more vital. She gives voice to the roiling emotions of adolescence and to those deeper emotions we never outgrow.

HipOnline chats with Maria Mena about her desire to create honest music and her new CD White Turns Blue!

Can you tell us a little more about Maria Mena and what you’re all about?

Laughs) I am an 18 year-old singer songwriter, originally from, and born and raised in Oslo Norway and I write songs and make music. I’ve done that for the past 5 years and I’m really enjoying it. And now I get to share my music with America and that’s pretty cool.

White Turns Blue offers a vast range of sound. Tell us about the songs on your new album?

I think every song has it’s own life. They’re not connected in anyway. Each song represents a new emotion I’ve gone through during the year of 2003. And it was a pretty rough album to make. I didn’t really believe that I could finish it and it’s pretty hard to overcome that feeling because it was the sophomore album and people were expecting a lot. So I was definitely under the pressure, but I really feel I did my best. I’m really proud of this album.

I did notice you thanked yourself in the CD’s liner notes.

I had to. (laughs) It was tough.

I love the song “Take You With Me” for it’s rocky riffs . . .

Exactly.

Also “Lose Control” for it’s bluesy piano vibe. Were those tracks fun to write and record?

Absolutely. Usually it’s very easy to write the acoustic songs and the mid-tempo ones so when you are able to write those jazzy and rocky ones it’s extremely fun.

And it’s very interesting to create the music round the songs. But those two were my favorite songs for such a long time. Just because they are so much fun to sing. “Lose Control,” it’s very funny that you mention that piano riff because I actually wrote that riff. I don’t actually play any instrument so it’s very rare that I write a riff because I hear them in my head, but I let someone else sort of write the music. That riff was the base and foundation of the song and I went from there to write the lyrics. So the main thing for me was the melody.

You seem to be having a really good time when you’re singing it.

Yeah always. Whenever I felt like everything was going . . . (she pauses) . . . to hell (and laughs) that was like the one song that made me feel a lot better. Just because it’s was fun and I remembered how much fun I had recording it.

What do you hope people come away with when they listen to your music?

I hope that I do connect with something in my audience. I do believe that we are all going through the same emotions just in different ways. For me to be as honest with myself as I try to be. I think I eventually and basically honest with a lot of other people and their emotions as well. I hope. I think people get to know me through my songs and I think they probably will in there somewhere I hope I am able to but words to their feelings as well.

The title White Turns Blue comes from a poem your friend wrote for you if I’m correct. What does exactly does “white turns blue” mean?

That is a metaphor for my room actually. The white turns blue comes from the curtains in my room. During 2003 I had a pretty tough time recording the album and he wrote me that poem and I realized I could do it. White turns blue stands for when you open up your curtains and the light floods in the room my blue walls turn white. And I was actually spending all my time in my room, sort of afraid of the world, it’s just a metaphor for stepping out of my box, you know. Trying to push yourself.

Good story. Your single “You’re The Only One” has been picking up a lot of rotation. What was it like the first time to heard it on the radio?

It was crazy, especially in America. That was something I never expected or never dared dreaming about, you know, America because it’s such a big thing and such rare opportunity for a European artist to be able to come over here. And so the first time I heard it was in New York on Z100 and my record company actually set me up because they knew it was going to be played, but I didn’t know that. We were all in a restaurant and they turned on the radio and my song started playing. We actually have it on tape. It’s one of the funniest experiences of my life.

That leads to my next question about when you were 14 and your song “My Lullaby” hit big in Norway. What was it like to get a bunch of attention at such a young age? Especially for very honest song about your parents splitting up?

I have to say that whenever I write a song it’s my way of getting it out of my system. Especially that emotion I write about. It’s my way of taking that next step. I’ve gone through emotion, dealt with the problem and when I write songs I sort of look back at the time I was going though that and I try and write about. Just remember it. My songs are sort of like a journal.

Actually when that song hit the radio and everyone just reacted to it, for me it was pretty okay. People were like “Oh my god, this is such a young girl and it’s going to be too big for her. Is she going to be able to make it” And you know what, I just distanced myself from it. I wasn’t going through that emotion at the time. It was a couple of prior to that. It was a great thing. The great thing about writing your songs and being as honest as I try to be is that when you get the reaction from the fans. When people come up to you and tell you your song means so much to me, I really feel it. As opposed if I didn’t write my songs.

So it’s very important for you to write your own songs.

It really is just because I really started doing this because I felt lonely and wanted to connect to people. I’m getting to do that now. And it’s really important to me.

I read article from a Norwegian publication recently that pointed out that when you perform on David Letterman next week 4.5 million people will be tuned in – and that’s is the same amount as the entire population of Norway. How does that feel?

That gives us perspective. Right? That’s going to be crazy. That’s been one of my biggest dreams ever. I have a big crush on David Letterman.

Really. Me too.

Ah. Guys with humor.

That must it.

(We both laugh) For me, I don’t know. It’s going to be cool to be. I’m going to be star stuck, but to be able to perform is something even better. I would be satisfied just sitting in the audience. I think.

You’ve mentioned in interviews and on stage that the track “Sorry” is one of your favorites to perform from the new album.

Yeah.

It’s a very emotional song and talks about the sadder parts of loving someone and not having them return that feeling. Is it getting easier to perform?

No actually not. And you would think so, but it really doesn’t and I really don’t think I want it to be. I really do believe that it does connect something everyone goes through. Everyone’s been there, loved someone that didn’t love you back. In the way that you wanted them to love you back. It really does make people listen when I perform it and I love that. It’s one of those songs that just makes people shut up and listen.

The songs “Just A Little Bit” and “Your Glasses” deal with a lot with self esteem issues like being accepted, loved but at the same time trying to think better about yourself. What have you learned about self esteem in the last couple of years?

It’s sort of a choice you have it make. I do believe in general that happiness is not a privilege it’s a choice that you have to make. The way you live your life. If you’re a very stressful person you are able to make a choice and not be that way. Just to be aware of yourself and that is what you have to do. I was very much an insecure teenager and I was really aware of it and I think that was my strong point. I chose to deal with it. I chose to not be as self conscience as I was. Over night it changed basically because I decided I didn’t want to do that. And it’s so much easier to just be around people. I’m more confident now.

We just interviewed Zac from Hanson. What did you think when you got the call about joining the Underneath Tour?

I thought it was really cool. The one thing I thought about was M2M, they were pretty big in Norway, and they were opening for Hanson. So I thought in general Norwegian press was going to give me a hard time, but not at all. It’s been a really cool thing and Hanson has been so sweet to let me join them on the few shows I’m doing with them. It’s been such a great pleasure. Just because I do get to perform in front of an audience that is not there to see me which means it’s more of a challenge to sort of win them over. For me, it’s a lot of fun. I love that. I love that challenge. In general, I love charming people and seeing if I can get them over to my side. (laughs) So I have a lot of fun up on that stage.

Any stories to share from the road?

They’re great guys. We hang out backstage and they’re really, really sweet guys. It makes it a lot easier for me to be there.

We’re been talking a lot about performing. What is it to be up there in center of it all when you are onstage?

It’s just a feeling you can’t describe. If you watch someone up on stage and they’re being so good and the audience’s reactions are just amazing. You get sort of little butterflies in your stomach and that’s how it feels to be up on that stage. You can’t describe it and you really can’t process it. When I get off stage I have to just sit down and really think about what I just did and how I did it. We’re been filming a lot of the shows so I get to go through it in detail (laughs). It is so crazy because you get to see your fans eyes and just how they react to each song. It’s so cool.

Besides music, what are some of your other passions?

Ah. (laughs) Passions. My life is music right now. I’m just having fun hanging out with my friends. I’m taking them with me when I travel sometimes. I’m just enjoying myself. So that I am able to combine my work life and my personal life and that is such big help for me because it makes everything so much easier.

You’re Dad is a drummer. Has he passed on any of his drumming skills to you?

Not at all. (laughs) I did sit at his drum set once and (pause) yeah it didn’t work. I think I have some of his musicology. I hear music if that makes sense. I can hear sort of guitar riffs and piano and I’m able to put vocal melodies on top of that. I just that’s something that he given me somehow. But, I’ll never be as good as him when it comes to drums.

I hear you’re a big Jeff Buckley fan. What was is about his music that draws you to it.

It’s all the emotions that he was able to put out in one song is what amazes me. It’s unfortunate that he pasted away. The way he used his voice, that was the thing that really, really got me when I heard him. He had this way of putting every emotion into his vocal chords and really using his voice as an instrument instead of just signing he would put emotion in it and really touch people with it. And I try to do that as well, I try to use my facial expressions and my body and mind and tap into those emotions that I had during the time I wrote the song whenever I perform it. That’s a gift that he had.

Are there any other artists out there that blow you away?

Absolutely, Ani DiFranco, Fiona Apple and Alanis Morrisette. And Joe Firstman, who is a new singer songwriter. Connie West. Amazing. He liked my single and I really didn’t know who he was and I bought his album and it just blew me away. Just a lot of people who are able to take music to the next level. You know beyond the radio format and into people’s lives and their emotions.

Have there been any artists that you’ve been compared to that it really touched you to hear your name mentioned in the same sentence?

Oh absolutely. Alanis Morrisette is actually one a lot of people have been telling me and I still don’t really think that. But it’s so nice for people to think that. (laughs) I guess she just set the standard for how I choose to write. I don’t try to sound like her when I write, but I definitely try and be as honest as she is.

Are there any questions that you’re tried of being asked at this point?

Well usually it’s like describe you album. And I know that it has to be answered and I’m happy to answer it. I just get asked that a lot and then a read the story and it’s the same story so I try to be creative with my answers, but it’s impossible it the same story.

Maria, it has been a joy. Some final words of wisdom for the HipOnline readers?

I love to say, especially to teenagers out there that are having a hard time adapting, “Stay Curious”, because it will get better you just have to be curious and stay in there.

Some good advice!

+ Krista Rupe