Today, Manchester’s Maruja announce their highly anticipated debut album ‘Pain to Power’, due for release by Music For Nations on 12th September and produced by Samuel W Jones, who the band worked with on their three EPs to date.
The extraordinary eight track collection not only confirms the four piece as a creative force of nature but finds a deeply emotional and empathetic band concerned primarily with the power of community, both in the nuclear sense, as a tight knit creative unit, but also as a wider force for social and political change in the age of the individual.
The first taste of the album is new single ‘Look Down On Us’, a furious cry against the impact of late-stage capitalism and the wealth of the one percent on global society.
This is protest music at its most potent. Thought-provoking, unifying and intensely cathartic, it places the band in the great canon of artists using their art to propel change. Speaking about the single, frontman Harry Wilkinson says
“Look Down On Us is a reflection of the times we live in. The first half of the song paints a grotesque and vivid picture of the super wealthy, and the impact they have on our culture. The second half is about the need to come together in solidarity and embrace love as a wider community, especially in times of oppression. The song ends full circle, arching back to where it began as a reminder to the listener of the struggle from which it came, and the struggle that still remains.”
The single arrives with a powerful ten minute video, which starts with the band performing against a backdrop of vivid, expressive brushstrokes, taken from ‘Pain to Power’s’ artwork by Mikey Thomas before segueing into a section of contemporary dance as the single reaches its midsection of calmer, transcendent jazz.
Maruja believe passionately in the ability of art to empower, heal and unite and has created a body of work with ‘Pain to Power’ that they hope will offer strength and knowledge to the listener.
14th November O2 Ritz Manchester
General on-sale is Friday 16th May at 9am local time. All tickets will be available HERE.
