The full interview can be found on Youtube here.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Briston Maroney to discuss his most recent album release, Ultrapure, for my show “Wrinkled Page Radio: The Roundtable” on WXCI 91.7. The  2023 record spans thirteen songs and was originally released in September of that year.

The 26-year-old indie artist first got his start on American Idol after having grown up in Tennessee. At just 15 years old he was able to progress to the semifinals and would later go on to begin releasing music with his first EP “Big Shot” being released in 2017. 

Having opened up about musical inspiration he said, “I think my grandpa was my first exposure to contemporary rock music. I had heard like the radio, but yeah, he got me on some old school rock and roll stuff. It was awesome.” 

Family from the start has been a huge source of inspiration for the artist. Maroney’s great-grandfather was a recording artist and also passed down a guitar he had owned to Maroney for his American Idol audition. 

Following that, Maroney was signed to Atlantic Records and released two full-length records along with three EPs. The artist has shown no signs of slowing down as he was recently featured on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” where despite being sick he was able to put on an incredible show with the performance of leading track “Body.”

Maroney’s music has truly been able to resonate with many listeners’ personal experiences and the raw emotion that the artist is unapologetically able to capture within his music. I speak from experience as I found the musician’s work following the release of his 2018 EP “Carnival.” The four-track project featured one of the most popular tracks in the artist’s discography to date: “Freakin’ Out on the Interstate,’’ a track that even my mom blasts in the car. 

It’s clear, however, that Maroney has felt this newest record represents him the most out of previous projects with this being his sophomore album. As he stated on Instagram, “this is the proudest and most excited I’ve ever been to share anything I’ve ever made, truly. I’ve never made something that felt more like who I am.” 

Ultrapure opens with a simple 43-second intro in which you can hear the birds chirp. Listeners are immediately transported to a natural landscape that could be found even right outside your window but offers a vulnerable opening about forgiveness and giving parts of yourself to another person.

When discussing the opening track, Maroney had this to say: “So, [for] the title track we had recorded…two different versions of it. One was kind of [a] waltzy thing and then the other was the [one] that ended up being the version we went with. But I still really liked the waltz kind of feel to it so we were like, ‘Well, what if we just took a portion of that and made it sound a little bit different and used it as like a precursor for what was to come later on the record?’ So yeah, it ended up being more of a vibe track.” 

It’s apparent when you listen to the record how much fun was able to be had during the creative process. The fact that the musician was comfortable with just allowing himself to vibe and play with the sound of certain tracks is what can help to create a more organic environment for creative exploration. 

One of the ways that this organic nature was implemented into the record was the use of voicemails and ad-libs featured on the tracks.“I think that’s definitely an important sonic element that kind of led to a lot of the more like musical choices we made. I love a voicemail on a track, I love a talking segment or like organic sounds coming from anywhere. So I think kind of using those as inspiration and then building more melodic sounds that made me feel the same way as a voicemail or as recordings of just walking up and down the street,” Maroney explained when asked about the record sonically and how the artist gravitated towards these details. 

He went on to say, “I did want it to feel like people were getting to hear what I was hearing every day when we were making the record so there’s a lot of recordings of the birds outside the studio and like walking on the gravel driveway to get into the studio. I just wanted it to feel personal.”

“This record came together really quickly after a long period of time of not having any form. I had no idea what the album was going to be and then kind of out of nowhere it just all assembled. I started writing and didn’t stop until the album was done, like up until the last minute. So it really just kind of naturally glued itself together over time,” Maroney said when discussing the overall creative process behind Ultrapure.

The natural glue of the album can be felt through the different topics that the album explores with universal messages about love and the idea of what it is to be human. Starting with “Body,” the track highlights the experience of having a physical form that we all get to inhabit over the course of time and what it means to be able to have this time to love others  wholeheartedly while we have the ability to do so. 

The next track, “Breathe,” speaks to this feeling of anxiety and the way that people can grow to turn towards their vices in times of loneliness. When asked about the inspiration found during the writing process, including anxiety and very specific moments in time, the artist had this to say: “I think the past was a bigger voice and then, as we all know, you start reflecting on that stuff and as soon as you start to feel good about it your mind will find something new to be anxious about or new to convince yourself that you’ve done the wrong way. Yeah, that was the more present stuff– [it] was definitely as a result of the past things seemingly being taken care of but not being taken care of.”

The self-critical lens that anxiety can cause people to face is something that a lot of people can resonate with, especially today.  Even though many people can relate to such topics, for some, it can be difficult as an artist to put yourself on display and allow others to view your struggles especially through such anecdotal experiences presented in music.

In a discussion about vulnerability relating to the music, Maroney divulged, “I don’t think I’m really conscious of it when I’m writing or when I’m releasing music. I think it comes more so in the period of time like when we’re touring or how I approach stuff on the internet, but I think it’s just a day-to-day thing. I don’t have a general outline of how much I want to share or don’t want to share. I think it’s just relative, sometimes sharing in the right moment can be a really really helpful thing for somebody. But also preserving my own self can be helpful for people as well…I think it’s a game time decision.”

After feelings of anxiety being presented on the record it takes you on a journey through to the next track entitled “Chaos Party.” The track is upbeat and takes you to a completely new emotional headspace as you listen to the record in order. 

When exploring which track off the record presented the most unexpected challenges, the singer said, “Weirdly, I think it’s strange because it seems the most fun but I really struggled with ‘Chaos Party.’ I couldn’t figure out how to sing it and so I ended up just kind of being silly and then it felt the best.” 

We then delved into talking about the music video for this particular track because of its fun and light-hearted nature. The video features Maroney dressed up as a mermaid embracing the silliness that came along with the song’s process.

“We had some big ideas and it was supposed to be the big single off the record…and I was like ‘Man, I think I will feel so much better if we make this the most fun video of the batch.’ So we kept it super simple. [I] literally just walked around for a day with my friend and was like, ‘You know what’s like the dumbest thing that we could do?’ Basically what would make teenage us laugh essentially, and it was definitely for young us.” 

Upon listening to the record for the first time, what struck me was this overarching idea of openness and how that presents when we are wrapped up in other people. As a listener, it speaks to this idea of the inner child and what it means to be able to show the most innocent and purest parts of ourselves.

As a listener, I think the videos tie into this idea perfectly. We also talked about some of the other videos that have been made through this project in particular, which use elements that are added such as illustrations or animation, including in the video for track four, “Sunburn Fades.”

“There’s one that we plan on putting out two that’s pretty heavily animated as well. Those were a little bit more self-serious. I just wanted to explore that side of creativity for this record too. I wanted there to be some cinematic elements to it so those were a little bit more visually ambitious. But they were still — You know I’m dressed like a freaking wizard in one of them, so it’s still pretty silly.”

Following “Sunburn Fades,” which captures some of the less great moments that a person can go through in their life, the album gives us the track “Sunshine,” a more hopeful and sweet song to switch gears into the latter half of the record. 

There’s a lot of cohesion when it comes to the tracklisting and how the album is enjoyed when you listen to it all together in full. “I think there are a couple songs that are super directly related, and then… as we wrote towards the end of the process some of those felt a little less connected directly but they all ended up [working]. I think that’s an awesome thing about making an album, that’s why I like to make full length albums. You toss all these songs in a pot not thinking that they relate and then they kind of reveal to you how they do,” Maroney shared about the album’s overall story by the end of the production process. 

We then talked about the overall tracklisting and what it was like to bring that all together. “Yeah that was strange,” he said. “That’s my least favorite part of making an album is choosing which songs have to go on the album and in what order. I think it’s unfair and I hate it, and I never want to do it again. It was really tough this time…we tried really hard to listen objectively and try to put the songs on the record that I thought communicated the simplest, most personal, but also most obtainable ideas for anybody who would listen [and for] any stranger who stumbled upon the album. I just wanted something anyone could engage with, so I think that was the biggest influence.”

The album definitely has a wide reach when it comes to the topics and setting that is presented as the next track on the record is entitled “Delaware” and speaks of a small town. The soft slow track is followed up by “Detonator,” which goes into the hardships of relationships and hearing about someone’s ex-boyfriend only to be seamlessly followed up by the track “The Idea” which takes on a more internal view when it comes to looking at things through the lens of a relationship and building a connection with another person. 

All of these things can really resonate with listeners as we’ve all struggled with relationships and what bringing your dynamic into the life of another person can mean for both of you. The next track on the record of “Spring” speaks to what it’s like to balance these connections with a busy life and travel. The artist then credited “Sink;Swim” as his favorite song off of the record. 

We dug into what Maroney was ultimately able to learn about himself as an artist over the process of exploring Ultrapure: “I think I just remembered the power of not letting other people shape what you’re into, like trusting that your own taste may be less accessible at first people but knowing that being myself and hearing people relate to this album has been insane. It just means so much that these people are seeing the real me right now.”

In terms of getting to see the people that his music has been able to impact, Briston Maroney recently just wrapped his tour for the album, which included shows across the EU and the UK. During the interview, he expressed which track he was most excited to perform at the time of the interview: “I’m really stoked to play some of the heavier ones, like we’ve been playing ‘Breathe’ and ‘Spring,’ and playing ‘Chaos Party’ has been pretty awesome too, so I’m stoked to just make it feel like a big rock show.”

The artist sighed when asked about any crazy tour stories that have happened over the course of his career. “Oh my gosh, like more than I can count. The Europe/UK stuff is always a mess.”

“Last year, we toured during, like, the record hottest summer ever in the UK, so every night we literally just slept on top of our [blankets.] We never took the blankets off of our beds so for like two weeks straight we just laid flat on our backs in a pool of our sweat being like, ‘Why didn’t we all go to dental school? This is the dumbest thing we’ve ever done,’” Maroney laughed.

When discussing which show he would like to attend, past or present, the musician shared a love for Car Seat Headrest. “Oh man, I got to see Car Seat Headrest in like 2018 when…I was pretty young, I was like 19 or something and that show kind of blew my mind so I would definitely go to that show again.”

It’s true that especially the music that we listen to growing up can shape the way we view music and the sound that we gravitate toward. Bands like Car Seat Headrest capture some of the most raw emotions in the same way that Maroney has been able to cultivate that ability. It’s no wonder why such a talented musician like Maroney would gravitate towards these artists. 

As the album draws to a close, prior to finishing off with the album’s titular track, Maroney gives us “Skyline.” The way it opens speaks to the power of silence when it comes to a situation, and equally the power that words can have over a situation.

The last track offers a bittersweet farewell that opens with a voicemail and leaves behind a message that upon hearing the entire album will not be quick to shake. The track offers a perfect closing dialogue that allows you to take in the album and digest the messages that have been explored.

“I just hope people feel inspired to trust their instincts and know their — I believe that everybody has something interesting and unique about them. I hope when people listen to this record they feel like they can just have a little bit of love for that part of themselves that is unique and you know the parts of themselves that maybe they’re afraid to explore and that they will explore those a little bit,” Maroney said when opening up about what he hopes people take away from not only this record but his discography as a whole.

I then wanted to discuss with the singer where he sees his career going next. “I think I just want to continue to make [music]. I want to explore a new sound for another record and I think I just want to keep continuing to like to make stuff that I’m proud of. That’s like my biggest goal for sure,” Maroney said.

But I then wondered what he would do if he did not continue making music, and Maroney said this: “I just recently realized because I talked to a friend of mine who has a kid, and his kid is in this, like, hippie outdoor school where they’re just learning survival skills and just like very humanitarian education for a bunch of little five year olds too. I think I would totally want to go be a teacher at a school like that. I think it would be fun.”

It’s clear that Maroney is continuing to make waves with music though as he just released a brand new single this year called “Skydiver.” There is no doubt that the artist will continue to navigate the “wicked beast” that is the music industry and create more music that listeners can truly resonate with. 

It’s incredible to see that the artist has been able to have fun with all of the work that he does and silliness is truly something that he strives to be able to find even with more emotional and serious topics being explored. Ultrapure is an unforgettable record that takes creative risks many people should be able to embrace. 

The artist is currently on the second half of tour for the album across the US and will be in Conn. on October 2 at College Street Music Hall.

To keep up with all things Briston Maroney, you can check out his website here and follow the artist on Instagram for regular updates.