- 4 months ago
The Marías take us behind the production and process of their viral hit No One Noticed and Back to Me.
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00:00We almost wanted to give the illusion of like trippiness, like as if you were tripping and we kind of were tripping, but no one noticed, which we'll get into in a second, was definitely a song that nobody expected to be our quote unquote hit.
00:24It was never meant to be a single. It was never meant to be a focus track. We didn't even have a video for it. Because of how popular the song has gotten and kind of it's taken on a life of its own with the fans, I don't feel the same sort of like emotional attachment to it.
00:40The first couple of times that we played it live, I definitely got really teary eyed and it was really hard for me to get through the song. But now I feel a bit disconnected from it emotionally because now when I sing the song, I just am at like, I see all the fan edits and I see all the videos and I see all the covers and that's what I hear. And so in a good way, I feel less emotionally attached to the song.
01:01It was 2020 during the pandemic. And I started going through my favorite chord progression. This chord progression, I can come up with just hundreds of melodies at this point. And it was during that time that I really wanted Josh to show me how to like lay down my own demo.
01:28So in our living room, he had his like big setup, this big desk, but like in the corner of the room was like my little desk and like my little setup where he was like teaching me how to put demos together. So he put together a sort of like drum looping guitars.
01:43So this was the guitar loop.
01:52This warm pad as well.
01:58And then there was this drum loop here.
02:09And it was originally called Maybe I.
02:13Yeah. And then I put that into my setup and kind of made the structure of the song and recorded the vocals in my little station.
02:20And then I really liked it. I really liked the little demo.
02:23And the night before, I had just seen Paris, Texas for the first time.
02:27It's one of Eddie's favorite movies.
02:28And I put the song to that scene and I just like posted it on Instagram that same day.
02:33It wasn't until like a year later.
02:36It was kind of during a time that, you know, the band, we weren't sure if the Marias was going to continue.
02:41I called up my friend Luca, who lived like five minutes down the street.
02:45Shout out Luca Bucciolati.
02:47Shout out Luca.
02:47And I pulled up this, the demo, and he was like, let's, let's work on it.
02:53I like it. Let's do it.
02:55You'd like pop a little bit of like a little gummy edible and just like be completely in this world of the song.
03:00And we were just playing around and throwing sounds together and just throwing things at the song.
03:06But I do remember specifically calling Jesse up and I was like, Jesse, I have this song.
03:11I know we're like going through it right now, but I could really use you on this song.
03:15Do you want to come over and record guitars?
03:17And I'm like eternally grateful that you accepted that invitation.
03:21Of course.
03:21Because it was such a weird time for the band.
03:24And he came over with his board and his guitar.
03:28And Luca and I were like, that was it.
03:31We just kind of let you, we kind of let you do your thing.
03:35It's really beautiful.
03:36Here's some of the Jesse guitars that were added.
03:40There's a classic Jesse Murph, which is, you'll hear on pretty much any Maria song.
03:44It's a pedal I've had forever that has been on every Maria's project pretty much from the beginning up until now.
03:50I still use it live.
03:51People ask me about it all the time.
03:52It is a Moog pedal that has like 12 different patterns you can choose from.
03:56I'm not going to go into the specifics of it, but I've mixed that with some reverb and delay.
04:02And it gets this very bubbly underwater sound that is just all over all the Maria's recordings.
04:07And then here comes the classic.
04:11Yeah.
04:14Favorite part of the song, honestly.
04:17And so that part was originally a synth line that we had done.
04:22Re-recorded over it.
04:23Yeah.
04:23It just like, it's that gut.
04:26It's that gut feeling.
04:27It gets me.
04:28It gets me.
04:28I remember I just had to pee and I went to the bathroom and the melody and the lyrics were just playing over and over in my head.
04:37It was the,
04:39Come on, don't leave me.
04:41Come on, don't leave me.
04:43It can't be that easy, babe.
04:46If you believe me, I guess I'll get on a plane.
04:50When I came out of the bathroom, I was like, Luca, I have this melody.
04:54I don't know where we're going to fit it in the song, but I really like it.
04:57And I think it really works with the sentiment of the song.
04:58He's like, well, let's record it.
05:00Let's try it.
05:01And it just kind of worked as its own little section.
05:04And we wanted to sort of like show like the vulnerability of what I was singing about.
05:10So when you hear it for the first time, it's just like almost like a single vocal, like feeling alone.
05:15But then I kind of wanted it to like keep building and building.
05:19So every, like with every line, we would just like add some more vocals and then we would add more vocals and add more vocals and add more vocal stacks.
05:37We almost wanted to give the illusion of like trippiness, like as if you were tripping and we kind of were tripping.
05:43But we would add, we would add, you know, layers that like we really wanted to hear.
05:51And we would just add and add and add.
05:52It was, it wasn't a less is more approach for us at that time.
05:56I think we were just like kept adding sounds that like we just wanted to hear.
06:01And so here's without all the core elements of the song.
06:04This is just the.
06:05We've got this Mellotron here that Luca added.
06:16This is all, this is pretty much all Luca and Maria here.
06:20They added some beautiful things here.
06:24Sounds great.
06:27And they've got this.
06:31The ooze here.
06:32It was all just him playing, like him looking back and be like.
06:40I like try this and be like.
06:42This is one of my favorite parts of the song is the piano frill.
06:47Oh yeah.
06:48Hear that again.
06:51I didn't even, there's a little.
06:53I know that's what makes it, that's what makes it, you know, special and unique.
06:56The human element.
06:57Yeah, he's like, should I redo it?
06:58I was like, no, I like it.
07:00This is the classic.
07:01So good.
07:02The Jesse sound.
07:04So many people message me, what do you, after we did Tiny Desk, because I used that effect
07:08when we did the Tiny Desk, of course, and so many comments are like, what is that effect
07:11he's using?
07:12What's that bubbly effect?
07:13And I like to kind of like let them figure it out on their own.
07:17It's a good mystery.
07:18This is also the part, I think, for me, at least, that really sends this whole song into
07:24what it is, is when this Juno here.
07:31Gabe, our keyboard and trumpet and percussion guy live plays this live, and anytime he comes
07:37in, I'm like, oh, there we are.
07:38We're like really sending it in.
07:40In context, it comes here.
07:48I'll go as far as to say this song doesn't have a chorus.
07:52This song is verse, instrumental break, verse, instrumental break, bridge, outro.
07:57Or it's only choruses and there's no verses.
08:00I like that.
08:01I like that.
08:02I like that.
08:02I remember when we were first learning the arrangement of it live, Josh being like, okay,
08:08now we're going to take it from verse two or whatever.
08:10What is verse two?
08:12What would we just play?
08:14I still don't know what he was referring to.
08:16We just start playing and then we find our place.
08:18We have an extended outro that we did.
08:21It was like during soundcheck.
08:22And then I was playing the chord progression during soundcheck.
08:25And then I started riffing another melody.
08:27And then now we'll be rehearsing it.
08:29And then we'll get into the outro and I'll come up with a different melody.
08:32And then the next time we play it, I'll come up with a different extended outro melody.
08:35Sometimes in Spanish.
08:36Sometimes in English.
08:37So there are infinite melodies that I can come up with with that same chord progression.
08:42It's pretty wild.
08:43It's a very jazzy progression.
08:45I mean, it's the foundation for most jazz.
08:50A minor nine.
08:54D seven.
08:58G major seven.
09:01And stay on the G for G seven.
09:04Let's have the dominant seven.
09:05Yeah.
09:06That's what makes it spicy there.
09:07Yeah.
09:09Here she goes.
09:09Now she's off.
09:11Okay.
09:11So you guys wouldn't mind leaving so we can just record this.
09:28Yeah, we're going to track that real quick.
09:36So No One Notice has been on our set since our submarine tour.
09:40But recently, I think the first time we played Back to Me was on the Billy, we opened for Billy Eilish late last year.
09:48And we started playing it then.
09:50Before it was before.
09:51Yeah, yeah.
09:52And in the case of Back to Me, we were like jamming on a few ideas that weren't kind of sticking.
09:57We took a little break.
09:58Like, I came back into the room and I just heard this like synth sound and like the distorted guitar.
10:06And I was like, yes, this is yes.
10:09Yeah.
10:10And so then I went into the vocal booth and just came right out.
10:13And it came the entire, all the lyrics, all the melodies, the structure just kind of like came out.
10:18And we were like, oh, I think we've got something.
10:21The first one right here, or that's actually a mini Moog, which looks exactly like that.
10:29And I have one at home and it's a classic.
10:33Every studio that you'll go to, I feel like, has one of those.
10:36And it's a great bass monophonic synth.
10:38It was that synth sound that Josh was playing.
10:42And then I think Jesse was playing something like distorted chords on the guitar.
10:47That sound combined kind of just inspired me to be very excited about what I was hearing.
10:54And then that melody and those lyrics, exactly how you hear it on the song is what came out.
10:59I remember we were jamming on the chorus for a really long time.
11:03And I just kept saying again, again, again, like just don't stop.
11:07And you just kept, is she all that you want?
11:09And that kind of helped you form the lyrics too.
11:11I think in the beginning, you kind of had just like a rough of the lyrics, but we just kept looping together, like live.
11:18We kept looping that chorus.
11:19And so you kept singing it and singing it.
11:21And then eventually by the time we were done, 30 minutes of just the chorus and you had the lyrics already fleshed out.
11:26And it's just like, that's it right there.
11:28And I wanted this guitar thing to happen.
11:31And I recorded this voice note when I was leaving the gym one day of me singing it.
11:35And then here's this guitar that I went, I was literally going home to record that.
11:48I was like, oh, this is what it's got to be.
11:51It's such a pretty sound too.
11:58That guitar, I was like, oh, and then we did, I did that.
12:00I was like, oh, this is the song.
12:01We got it.
12:05I just didn't really want just like big guitars the whole time.
12:12I was like, there's got to be something that's kind of breaks it up a little bit.
12:16There's these arpeggiated guitars.
12:21There's just the little guy, the Juno.
12:24This is Jesse's main guitar from the jam.
12:27Yeah, that was the guitar that I was like, yeah.
12:31I remember before we started jamming on that, we were kind of jamming on like really dancey songs.
12:37And at that time, I was just like feeling so emotional, like the heaviness of my emotions.
12:43And I was like, I don't want to write a dance song.
12:46You need to be darker.
12:46So I left the room.
12:47I was like, I want it to be dark.
12:48I want it to be dramatic.
12:50And then I came in and you guys were playing.
12:52And I was like, yes, that's the drama that I need.
12:56This is basically what it sounded like in the room when we were writing it, because this is just the four of us.
13:08I just remember going home and I was like, wow, like this is the best song we've ever written.
13:13You know, I have this conviction about this song.
13:16Yeah, I love the song.
13:18We all felt very strong that this was the best thing we had written.
13:22Yeah.
13:22To this point, for sure.
13:24Pretty badass.
13:24It is a dynamic song.
13:27Like the production wise, it is a dynamic song in terms of how it rises and how it falls.
13:32And there's a lot of space.
13:33I mean, as many things that are going on as they are, there is space that you still feel when you listen to it.
13:40The embellishments were a lot of, for instance, this first guitar sound that starts the song.
13:45So that's, I think we had Jesse record vibrato and there's another pedal that he was just kind of, we had a long take of him just making sounds and noises.
13:58And I chopped up one part.
14:00So that's like kind of where I originally put it.
14:04And then I was like, what would it sound like if it started the song?
14:07I was like, oh yeah, that just feels like an iconic start.
14:12And then there's like this little verse thing that was also another Jesse kind of, another sound that Jesse had going that happened in that first verse.
14:22And then you put on the vibrato and cut it right at the top.
14:30We have some fun little, which happens in the verse.
14:39These little like little Juno lines that are.
14:42So pretty.
14:44Little twinkles.
14:45Little twinkles.
14:46Whenever we work, I'll sit in silence.
14:48I'll just like need like a moment to like kind of hear it for a second and see if I can like figure out a way to transform it into, to make it into the session.
14:57And then other times I'm just, we're all just playing around, jamming with it and then seeing what happens.
15:02I guess there's a lot, but it doesn't feel like a lot.
15:04There's a lot of layers.
15:06There's probably three here.
15:09Center, right and left.
15:12Oh, and a high vocal.
15:13Let's go through the highs.
15:14We always have a high vocal in the chorus.
15:16And this one's high.
15:17I remember recording and we were like, baby, come back, that high note.
15:26Yeah, it's so subtle too, but it makes such a difference.
15:29Do you sing that live?
15:30No, it's one too high.
15:31No, I don't think I can hit that live.
15:33You can try.
15:36You can go for it, guys.
15:39That's what I sing.
15:40That's what I sing.
15:40Well, this is my favorite vocal in the whole song.
15:42This was Maria going for it like we've never, like she's never gone for it.
15:46Are you going to solo this?
15:55Oh, yeah.
16:00Nice.
16:00I remember we've never done big, like, big ahs like that.
16:06Yeah, I know.
16:06I think it's the loudest, one of the loudest things she's ever done in the studio.
16:10Because usually she's very quiet and she's singing.
16:12That's like her tone and it's how she normally sings.
16:15But then just going, ah, it was like, I remember taking an ear off.
16:19It did for it.
16:20It did.
16:21It called for the urinating.
16:22It happens at the climax of the song.
16:23I mean, it's...
16:26Yeah, it's hard to do.
16:28What I love, too, is like, we can have a song like No One Notice and then we can have a song like Back To Me, which is totally different types of songs and we play them both live, but that's why I love this band, it's because we can do both.
16:38They each give you the same gut feeling in your stomach, so it's like, that's always what, there's always a gut check that happens with each song.
16:48Every song has to go through, specifically the Maria gut check.
16:51If she's not moved by it, then it doesn't make the cut, no matter how far along in the process it is.
16:57If it doesn't make me want to cry, I'm like, nah, don't claim the album.
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