Picture sound songwriting flair accompanied with stellar production and vocals; that encompasses the hit single ‘Love Fools’ by upcoming artist maryjo. Her effortless songwriting ability to capture candid and honest emotions isn’t even the most impressive part about her music. With one listen you’ll immediately be enraptured by the wide and versatile range of her vocals. While maryjo gears up for an intense schedule that lies ahead of her, we got a chance to let her catch us up to speed. While reflecting on everything that’s going on in her life, she says “Well let’s see, I have been traveling back and forth a bunch between LA and Nashville from Cleveland. We have been doing tons of sessions and now we’re really honing in on all of the upcoming releases! We just released “Love Fools,” and we are now getting to release a new single called “Traffic”. We’ve received a ton of love so far and I am excited for everyone to hear the new stuff!” 

She made her passion known to the world when she started singing on TikTok, a platform that has been known to lend massive traction to upcoming musicians. While talking about blazing through the music world through her deeply relatable music, she reflects, “it feels great! So many people have worked really hard on these songs, and we all love them, so to have the music doing well and everyone else enjoying it feels really great.” As a musician at heart, she most usually channels her natural emotions into the music creation process, which results in deeply authentic and raw lyrics. The production of her music, which blends seamlessly with her breathtaking music elevates every song. While reflecting on her personal music creation process, maryjo says, “The music creation process for me is so different in every room and every session. I like to make sure the other writers and producers and I are all tapping into the same energy, whether people are feeling more of a ballad or up-tempo, that way we are all excited about what we are creating. We usually talk first, see how we are all feeling, and create a concept/ melody, whichever comes first. Sometimes people already have the idea prior to coming in the room, then we start writing.”

The passion which reeks through in her vocals is a mere reflection of the way she feels about music. “I think music has always naturally been in my life. This job feels very natural, exciting, and like I’m doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing in life, and that’s how I knew”, she says, with undeniable fascination. This actually stems from being raised in a household wherein music was naturally ingrained into her. While upbringings have an immense impact on the way artists create their music, for maryjo, everyone in her family has always sung. She adds, “my dad is an incredible musician. His voice is amazing so I always looked up to him and I think that really gave me a direction of wanting to be in music.”

She also went on to unpack ‘Love Fools’, an absolutely stunning song which is soaked in devastatingly real lyrics accompanied with heartfelt vocals. While discussing the concept of the song, maryjo said, “Love Fools is a super fun one to sing, ironically since it’s pretty depressing. Beau Bailey, a writer in Nashville, also a really good friend of mine, Facetimed me and said “I am writing a maryjo song!” so I hopped on over there. He had already started it, then Logan Maggio hopped in the studio and started to produce, Clara Park and Beau had really honed in on the writing, and I changed some melodies up. I haven’t necessarily been in a toxic relationship, so I thought of fall outs with my friends, or my friends toxic relationships.”

Following the release of this hit single, maryjo now gears up to release more music, which she describes as “sad girl screaming songs in your car” but also adds that “we definitely have been working on some very fun, up-tempo songs that I’m extremely excited about.” As a young artist building up her career, she believes her music picks up fragments from Kelly Clarkson, Lewis Capaldi and James Arthur’s and honestly, with her belting verses the way she does, her music could best be described as a fusion of the three.

Throughout her journey, she has remained authentic in her music creation, despite hundreds of bandwagons to jump on in such a competitive industry. While talking about the pressures of the industry and remaining authentic, maryjo says, “I honestly don’t think about it as competition. Even on Idol, I was looking at the whole thing as boot camp since I was really new to music and didn’t know anything. It was a learning experience. If you are honed in enough with your brand/sound, then you really are the only other similar thing to compete with. So you are your own competitor. It’s really important to do what makes you happy, and if you’re looking at it constantly like a competition, you may get into the “negative and toxic way” of looking at the business, because you’re just comparing all the time. Not focusing on you. There’s a totally “fun, once in a lifetime opportunity ” side of the business and I want to look at it in that way. I’m always learning a lot about this industry, and I still have a bunch to do, but so far it’s an amazing journey and I am very excited!” And honestly, with this attitude fused with her stellar vocals and sincerity in her songwriting, we only see her going upwards and forward.