MARO on “So Much Has Changed,” Being In a Band with Your Besties, and Playing a Hometown Show

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Lisbon’s Coliseu de Lisboa - a grand 4,300 capacity venue in the middle of the city; kind of like the Portuguese capital’s answer to London’s Royal Albert Hall - has played host to legends like The Cure and Nick Cave, and is an imposing space for any performer, let alone for those who hail from Lisbon themselves. Luckily, however, as she prepared to take to the stage for a sell-out leg of her “So Much Has Changed” tour, 31-year-old Portuguese musician MARO wasn’t fazed - we caught up with her before the show to talk about her new music, what she’s learned from turning 30, and how it feels to head over to the US for the next phase of her tour.

Polyester: Hi Maro! How have you how you spent the day so far? How has it been like different to normal touring? Playing in your hometown must be a nice relief!

MARO: I've been really missing the bus. It’s been incredible! We're such a team - everybody's just five stars and we're really enjoying it. But we are getting to the end of the tour, and it's nice to be back home. And, you know, I like woke up in my bedroom. But sometimes there's something really magical about how tour has been, and now we're all a bit sad that it's like, “Oh, I can't believe we're on like the last two shows!”

How does it feel to be bringing this particular show to your hometown? It must be a very special moment. 

Yes, I've been very excited. It’s the first time that I’ve had a show too with stage design and, you know, it's more of a show. And it's been a dream. I'm playing with my best friends. And so we're on stage and it feels like we're at home at the same time because we look at each other and just like, you're hanging with your best friends which I love, so it’s cool. 

Does it feel like a bit of a full circle moment for you? Is this venue a place where you grew up going, or have you seen amazing shows here before?

I've watched a bunch of shows here in the audience. Every time I was like, “Wow, this one is incredible.” And then I was lucky enough to sing with Jacob Collier on stage here, and there's just been a few other times where I got to be a part of shows here too, and it was always kind of like, “wow.” And now it's the first time doing my own show. It feels crazy.

It's gonna be so cool. Stepping out will feel like a very special moment looking out from the other side. I wanted to ask a little bit about the tour so far and just how the shows have been. Have have you found that playing these songs on this album live has changed them or brought up anything unexpected in the music? 

Yeah, I mean, we're doing it all live. There's no backing tracks and no click or anything. “Drown” is a bit more electronic, production-wise, but live, because we don't have any of that, it became a bit more like rock, which is really cool. So yeah, some of them shifted a bit, but they still feel very much true to the record.

How do you enjoy having the band on stage, especially when they're your friends? That's a really great comfort blanket to have! 

From the first moment, we all look at each other, like, “Oh, we can't really believe we get to do this together!” They're like family. Best friends. Like, one of them, I’ve known since we were kids, because our parents are friends, and the other two are siblings, and I kind of stole their parents as well. So it's like I'm actually just another daughter. It's like we're full on siblings. That's why I keep on going to Brazil - I’m always saying “I always go because I miss my Brazilian parents,” but it became a thing. So yeah, they're all family. 

In terms of the live show, are there any live performers in particular or shows that you've seen who inspire you or whose live shows have kind of given you some direction when you were planning this kind of step-up type of show for yourself? 

Well, in a way, no, because even though it is a step up, at the same time, I still feel it was very me. Not that I don't look up to other shows, obviously, but more like, I didn't think of it as “Oh, it's a step up and we have to do different things now we have a stage designer”. But what we came up with was like, half of the sun on stage, so we can have strong colours, because that felt like such a part of the record already, you know?

But yeah, for sure, there are a lot of artists that I kind of watched their shows or know their music that have been constant inspirations. In 2024 I saw Parcels, for example - I think they are more a reference in the sense of feeling, which is like, you're so invested, and obviously you want that when you play live. I think naturally, because I'm playing with my best friends, and I feel like we're feeling it so much that I think, “If I'm feeling like this, it's gonna transpire for everyone else.” 

When you have that genuine back and forth with the audience, it kind of doesn't matter what else is happening on stage, right? It’s about the atmosphere you create in the room. In terms of the new album So Much Has Changed, I can really sympathise with the experience of turning 30 and looking back on everything on your life. And I wonder what were the biggest changes for you at that time were? How do you feel like they made it onto the record?

I feel like this whole album is about basically turning 30 and seeing things differently. And so, I mean, all the changes that I've felt throughout the past years. That's what I ended up talking in this record, like, first of all, it starts with “I Owe It To You,” which is really kind of understanding that I wouldn't be who I am or wouldn't be where I am, if it wasn't for, my family, and support system, and their unconditional love. There's gratitude, but there's also the idea of maybe needing to understand me more, a bit more about, like, self-love. I had so many realisations that were like “All of the relationships that are so shitty, in a romantic sense, were because I feel like I was always going after something that you shouldn't go after. It should feel easier.” So there's a lot of these realisations throughout the last couple of years. I think when I was reaching 30, I was like, “Wow, it feels easier.” 

Something that people always said to me during the time around when it was happening to me was that obviously there’s your Saturn return. But the other thing is that people always said to me, “Yeah, it's literally like you have a second puberty.” You realise so much more stuff about life and you change again as a person when you think you've already done all of your changing, right? So yeah, I agree. It's very interesting and strange. 

I feel like the exact same person as when I was young. But at the same time, very different. It's just the way you react to things. At least for me, it's suddenly it's like, “It's not that bad...” I mean, even when it is, I don't know, it's just like, you react differently. You don’t need to give that much energy to the bad stuff. You can just take it as learning experiences. Like, you know, you're sad about somebody, and it’s like “Well, it didn’t work out,” and understand that it's life. You're gonna always have those moments. On “So Much Has Changed,” I say “One day, we'll lose grandma.” Like my grandma's the love of my life. She's not gonna be here, and I'm sure I'm gonna be destroyed but at the same time, I'm already like, you know, it's life. I’m gonna go through it and it's gonna happen. It's more like, “How do I deal with it? “

You’re here and it's happening, right? I guess this kind of like nicely links on to the next thing that I want to ask, which is just in terms of musical evolution, how do you feel like this album represents a progression for you in sound? 

I don't know, on this I'm a bit random, I just kind of do what I feel. My last album Lifeline is electronic. I think So Much Has Changed like does have this kind of rooted sense of acoustic, intimate. It's funny because even though it sounds bigger and happier, I feel like it still feels very much cosy, yeah. 

I’d love to talk to you a little bit about what you like to play in on stage, what you like to wear and what clothes make you feel like you're kind of like stepping into your power on stage. 

It's funny because this whole record and kind of life chapter, it's been about accepting more and more that I've always been very natural about everything. Like I've never really thought about my visual - I mean, I only found out I have curls a few years ago! I grew more confident and I actually love fashion. I love cool clothes, nd yet this album, I think it was so much about kind of going back to your inner self, that I ended up doing - I'm literally wearing my show jeans now. I have, like, literally, like, Levi’s jeans and I've been wearing just some colourful tops. It’s like my day-to-day clothes that I've been taking on stage. I'm not gonna dress up because the whole album is about the essence of me. Because also even personality wise, I've never really had a persona on stage. My friends have always said like, “It's funny, it's so crazy, you're the exact same person on stage.” Now it's it's a bigger tour, so we could have had more and more, but I was just like, “No, for this tour it just doesn't make sense.” 

Finally, you're about to head to the US for a big run of shows. How do you feel? What are you most looking forward to?

I think to just see how this album lands on Americans. Because we've been seeing such different crowds in Germany and Belgium and France. It’s going to be cool to see how it's going to be in Boston, for example - my home for 3 years. Or, LA or, you know, Chicago, all these places that I've passed by there, I haven't toured there in a while. So it's going to be nice. 

Thanks Maro!