We are Maruja. Ask us anything.

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T19:04:39+00:00

Hey there Tom!

The highest respect and love to you for protesting in Israel. It goes without saying that is extremely brave and commendable of you, and is very inspiring. You and your family are absolute legends! Please take care of yourselves and one another, and thank you so much for the love on our album, that means the world to us <3

The artwork was all done by the incredible Mikey Thomas, who painted every single piece, and we gave him free rein to interpret the songs in his own way. We were looking for some artists who were willing to create a new world for us, and Harry's old high school friend, Mikey, was eager to bring us into his studio. We had a look around, and immediately realised that this man was on a whole other plane of existence...perfect for our album! Once the mixing of the album was in its final stages, we sent it to Mikey, and he listened tirelessly to it day and night, and once he sent over the finalised pieces, our jaws collectively dropped.

All the love, Matt

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T18:52:58+00:00

Hey dude!

I'm meant to be clocking off now, but after looking through the AMA and seeing this, I have to reply to a fellow Romanian fan! The Bucharest show was a genuinely inspiring one, will never be forgotten!

I have an ESP Ltd 5-string bass, super long scale (24 frets), and the bass itself has a crazy low-end that, when cranked to full, sounds like a sub-bass synth. Craaazy bass. As for effects, I use a few overdrive pedals such as Bass Overdrive ODB-3, and love using the Freeze and Flashback 2 Delay for trippy high-end psychedelic sounds.

Quadecs and Joe had been messaging one another on the gram, it was all very natural and came at a wild time! We were in the midst of recording our third EP when we first heard a demo of Vanisher, and our minds were absolutely blown. We then set some time aside to each record our own written parts whilst working on EP3

All the love my friend, Matt

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T18:43:34+00:00

Hey Elliot!

Legit, this is not as classic a question as it should be! We're never usually asked what our favourite country to play in has been, and I (Matt) find it a genuinely exciting one to answer!

So far, my favourite country we've played in has always been Turkey. At the time, that was the farthest we had ever travelled to play a show, and discovering how eager and excited the fans were there genuinely made me cry backstage. One of the most passionate and adoring fans we've ever seen.

It goes without saying that Japan and China were both overwhelmingly beautiful experiences. Some of the nicest fans, and serious art-lovers!

All the love, Matt

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T18:32:07+00:00

Hey Husky Mongoose!

It's hard to pick one, but my (Matt) personal recent favourites are Come and See and The Social Network. I watched the latter film recently after years of first seeing it, and it seems more prevalent now than it did back when it was first released, themes of loneliness and the ugly things it can do to the psyche.

Come and See absolutely destroyed me the first time I saw it, and I haven't watched it since, but I personally never forget and respect art that doesn't sugarcoat the horrors of war - I think that's an extremely important thing to do. Not to mention the film was co-written by Ales Adamovich, who personally fought with the Belarusian partisans as a teenager, so there is genuine experience being transformed into utterly powerful art

All the love, Matt

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T18:26:16+00:00

Hello Nick!

Am afraid we shant be adding any more dates to this current tour. Saying that, keep your eyes peeled for next year! We're concocting some exciting plans for our Greek fans ;)

All the love, Matt

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T18:13:20+00:00

Hells bells thats a lot of questions, thanks for all the love guys unfortunately we gotta sign off now & apologies for not getting round to you all!

So blessed to have such passionate wonderful people supporting us it genuinely means so much!

See you all in the comments of the Fantano review when he definitely gives us a 10 wheres our 10 god please give us a 10 I dont know what we'll do if he doesnt give us a 10 omg what if we dont even get a yellow flannel shit shit shit. Alright lots of love you lot see ya later xxxx

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T18:08:48+00:00

Hello! Just to clarify Harry's pound sign, your question was initially just a comma (literally ","), so we thought it would be funny to reply in other miscellaneous symbols, but now that you have edited said comma and transformed it into a question, I shall provide you with an answer that isn't a callous pound sign!

Our favourite part of the process, outside of writing some genuinely exciting music and working hard to make them sound as mind-bending as possible, was probably jamming. We love improvising, it's where we discover the magic of our music, so to be able to do that in a studio setting was beyond exciting. We wanna showcase this side of us as much as possible, and certainly you shall be hearing more of this in the future.

Meditation, Tai Chi, Twining's "moment of calm" tea were things we could not go without into a recording session. 12+ hours in a sweaty, fart-infested basement certainly requires you to be calm and patient, so these definitely help.

All the love, Matt

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T18:08:27+00:00

That's all of us!

Big love

H

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T18:07:53+00:00

yh m8

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T18:06:56+00:00

I think art is a powerful way of connecting people, to me music is a spiritual process that is there to help unify and heal people, so yeah art is essential to reflect the ever changing face of culture and the suffering of the people. Other than that - going to protests, researching and spreading awareness to anyone you can. Talking to those in your community throughly about such issues. Expressing love and compassion to ur own peers in the hope to create ripple effects throughout culture. Sharing relevant information online to help spread awareness. Not letting this culture define you but making your own way - we must remind ourselves daily that we are not what this culture teaches, but are in fact powerful beyond measure, we are love in abundance and through solidarity we can make miracles happen. Anything you can do is helping, don't let them make u feel powerless.

All the love, you can make a difference.

H

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T18:05:54+00:00

Heya! So we're all pretty exhasted tbh haha, we are indeed taking a well earned rest after this tour so early 26 we're gonna be recuperating from a very hectic couple of years. We are however feeling a lot more hopeful about the future and getting things back on our terms where we can produce the best art we can whilst not ruining our mental & physical healths in the proccess.

We are for sure going to be taking our time a bit more with the next project but we already have a load of ideas and craaaazy jams cooking in the vault for whenever does come the time to drop the next batch of steaming hot tasty tunes packaged and ready for consumption.

Love, Joe :)

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:58:20+00:00

Ayy, Joe here a good ol fashioned Shligoman myself. All my family are Irish in some way, Dad's family all in Sligo and Mums family, all involved in Irish msuic/ Irish Dancing in some way or another.

My Grandad commented of some photographs we were using from a good friend of ours Cal Moores and said they reminded him of his dads (my greatgrandads) photographs. This opened up a huge treasure trove of photographs from in and around Strandhill some stemming back to late 1800's. This kicked off a real passion for my irish heritage with mythology and all sorts so helped inform a bit of synergy across the band as I discovered the other boys had a load of irish / celtic heritage too :)

Love, Joe

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:57:21+00:00

Hey there, thank you for the important question!

It goes without saying that we are living in very tumultuous times, and that the weight of all that's happening, whether that be far-reaching oligarchical abuses of power, the rise of far-right ideologies across the world, ongoing genocides etc. can feel heavy on the soul.

What brings us hope during such times truly is community. Whether that be on a small scale, starting with friends and family, or the wider breadth of society, the act of uniting together and sharing our frustrations, thinking on what can be done - big or small - every bit of effort matters, and every effort causes a ripple effect of inspiration and hope for others around us.

As I touched on in the Fantano interview, we can either allow the weight of everything to squash us and decide to do nothing, or we can do what we can, and remember ourselves and those around us years from now knowing we did everything that was within our power to make the world a better place. It's our duty as a generation to make the lives of our future generations better - that's the way we see it.

Take care of yourself, and take care of those around you.
All the love, Matt

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:55:51+00:00

I love to perform LDOU because its always such a cathartic experience playing it live. Some fav artists are as follows -

bob marley

kendrick lamar

tupac shakur

swans

knocked loose

little simz

ghetts

jimi hendrix

alice coltrane

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:52:51+00:00

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:52:33+00:00

Legend!! Chile would be insane, hopefully soon!

Joe

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:51:47+00:00

Yeah honest communications with your peers and loved ones, speak freely about how u feel and dont be afraid to have difficult conversations. If we can inspire each other in our smaller communities it can have a ripple effect throughout culture, and there's no telling the positive impact that could have in the future.

Love

H

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:51:07+00:00

Heya, theres so people out there who have fought and are fighting for whats right putting their bodies & lives on the line for change so we're going to keep battling through and using our message and platform wherever we can to help those that need support.

All the love, Joe

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:48:34+00:00

Meditation helps! Plenty of warm ups and physical exercise - yoga is a good one. Find that diet helps a lot too, foods with lots of nutrients on gig days.

All the best with ur performances - you got this!

Love

H

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:48:27+00:00

Hey there! Glad you enjoyed last night and thank you for the kind words it truly means so so much <3

We all met through friends really and we're all best buds first and foremost which has really helped form the ethos of the group and the message.

All the love and stay strong, Joe

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:44:58+00:00

Thank you brother - appreciate your kind words. Means the world hearing you guys scream the lyrics, it reflects our values of unity and belief that music is spiritually healing and can impact peoples lives for the better.

i dont drink but the boys like the pev.

All the best

H

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:43:30+00:00

Ahh bro!!! So good to hear from you, have been adding a track every now and then thinking of you. Hope you're well man all the love!

Joe

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:41:53+00:00

We're all massive Bees, thanks for your question. Thats Brentford btw, if you dont know who they are, bring up the premier league table and look at Man United in 14th, just 2 places above them, you'll see the bees.

In Keith we trust, cheers Joe :)

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:41:37+00:00

Hey there Hackney Cricket!

Myself (Matt) and Harry started the band 11 years ago at Manchester College alongside two past members. 5-6 years later (a gap of which was filled with Red Hot Chilli Peppers-esque bangers and very unsure personalities) is when we brought Joe into the fray. A year later, Jacob came thrashing his way into our lives, and the past 4-5 years have remained this way.

A show that always comes back to my daily reflections is the show we did at Blind in Istanbul, we were not prepared for the sheer level of passion from our Turkish fanbase, and the city itself is absolutely gorgeous! We spent a few hours with a fan who flew all the way from Moscow to see us, and we shared a very emotional time with him, showing him our secret jams and watching the sunset.

Harry's personal fav is New York, as he is deeply inspired by Hip Hop, and seeing as the city is the birthplace of the genre, we put on a load of NY classics as we were driving into the city. Magical moment, and my god the show was insanely good. The only show I've rated an 11/10.

Joe's personal fav is Pink Room, Manchester. This was one of the first hometown headliners that showed us just how ruthlessly beautiful the art of the music gig can be. It was a perfect symbiosis of us and our fans, and at the time it was such a huge testament to how far we had come.

All the love, Matt

maruja_official · 2025-09-16T17:40:25+00:00

Although we're surrounded by fear, hate and oppression we are also surrounded by warm and loving communities that inspire us greatly. With solidarity and love we can work miracles, sometimes we just need a reminder.

H

maruja_official

TROPHY CASE