‘His Parents’ House’ is a housing crisis song and an anthemic moment in the mode of boygenius. Like many young adults in Ireland, Maria and her then-partner moved in with his family to save money—an opportunity she was grateful for, while also mourning her loss of independence. “Think of the money we’ll save at his parents’ house,” she sings wryly over driving drums, an all-too-common refrain for many Gen Z-ers and millennials in Ireland.

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“I’m someone who tends to burst into tears when I feel angry. It’s such a frustrating reaction, because it often makes me unable to speak up for myself in the moments I need to. This song is about the resentment that comes with letting others walk all over you. Though, it’s not really about the other person as much as it’s about claiming back your voice as your own.”

Waiting Room is both a very real place, as Maria found herself stuck in sterile clinics hoping for answers to inscrutable chronic pain, and a dream-like, surreal space representing her own inner world: “This album is an exploration of the roadblocks, both internally and externally, that keep us feeling powerless and taking away our agency,” Maria explains. Beyond Ireland’s oblique quagmire of a health system, Maria ruminates on the housing crisis, societal expectations, faded friendships, and more—all through a personal lens, but communicated with a poetic universality as only a double Aquarius can.”

Waiting Room:

1. Like A Wave
2. Waiting Room
3. Drive
4. Something Better
5. Nearly Thirty
6. Slump
7. Rearview Mirror
8. His Parents’ House
9. When I’m Angry
10. Coming to Kill
11. Appointments

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Adding an urgency to her usual sparkling melodies, ‘Something Better’ signals a new, more indie rock-driven sound for Maria. ‘Something Better’ is about the pressures we put on ourselves to meet our own impossible expectations, and a tongue-in-cheek reflection on the self-involved disappointment that often follows.

She says: “‘Something Better’ felt like a missing piece that captured the core feeling of this next record – a feeling of wanting a better reality for yourself than the one you find yourself in, and slowly but surely cultivating the courage to get there. Though, ironically, this one was really difficult to get right! Countless drafts, vocal difficulties, recording bumps – it just wasn’t coming together. It essentially became about the songwriting process itself, and was finally finished with some help from my friends Matt, Laoise and Seán; a funny reminder that everything gets easier when you ask for help!”

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The soft acoustic song acknowledges the difficulties of finding yourself stuck in a rut—“I feel the weight of every word I say / It’s heavy”—through a self-deprecating lens.

She says of the song: “‘Slump’ felt like the right place to begin when thinking about how to roll out this next project. It captures a starting point—finding myself, once again, at the beginning of a mountain to climb, with no real will to climb it. It began on guitar, but once Matt and I got to the studio, it felt like the lyrics required more humour in the sound. It landed in this funny twee universe that I think pokes fun at that self-deprecating space we can all find ourselves in.”

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‘Drive’ is about longing for closure, and grappling with the reality that it may never come. It’s a rose-tinted story of ‘what-ifs’, fuelled by the desire for forgiveness, and the need for permission to finally move on.

She says, “I wrote ‘Drive’ as a sort of comforting daydream as I looked back on my past relationships. I’ve always struggled with the fact that people who once meant so much to you can suddenly become a stranger again. I know that growing apart is natural, but I’ve never been able to move through that loss with ease – especially when so much is left unsaid at the end of it. ‘Drive’ is a yearning to go find them now, explain, and have them ease the guilt – and an attempt at accepting that it won’t ever happen.”

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