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On my spare time pausing from work, I listen to music, good music and on Bandcamp I’m always searching for new bands & new sounds. Northern American Canadian city of Vancouver in British Columbia exists a big cauldron full of industrial/ dark wave/ post punk bands. Bands like Skinny Puppy, Weird Candle, Koban, Lié, Spectres, Animal Bodies, Underpass, ultrviolence, Actors & many others. And from this cauldron I took out an odd piece of a pumpkin with an enigmatic four letter word post punk band called…MARY. 

So Kuba, could you introduce your band to Last Day Deaf readers?

MARY has consisted of different members in passing however it has been my project for about 7 years now. I love writing music that I feel. That’s kind of the idea. Post punk allows me to capture the emotions I set out to perfectly. I love Chorus and 80’s synths. Just sounds great to me.

Why the name MARY?

Trying to find a name that describes the sound or finding a name that encapsulates music is very difficult. The reason I chose MARY is because it is vague. I aimed to create something that can be left to the listener to create for themselves.

What can you tell us about living and absorbing this great dark underground music culture of Vancouver?

I am now living in Toronto again. MARY has been active in Montreal, Vancouver and now Toronto. Vancouver’s post punk scene is very strong and I am grateful to have been a part of it. Unfortunately my stay in Vancouver ended quite abruptly which stopped MARY from playing with great bands like Spectres, Koban and Actors.

MARY released last year a debut EP called ‘END‘, was this a demo?

END‘ was created by myself at home. So, it would be considered to be a demo by some haha. For me it was the best I could do as far as recording and mixing at the time. I have just been trying to put stuff out because being a musician can often lend itself to meticulous overthinking. At some point you just have to surrender and let go.

Your videos are always pleasurable minimal dark visual treats. Are these inspired by any films, books or even other bands’ videos?

The inspiration for these videos I’m sure are tucked away in some part of my brain, but I can’t think of anything specific. The videos are kind of what I’m capable of working with right now. I am always very intrigued by minimal design. I think with art, using as few elements as possible to get the feeling or point across is crucial.

I do plan on having full production videos but when things grow a little bit more and I have some time. I am still just trying to focus on the music and creating as much as I can. As with all other things, when the time is right, I’m sure a higher production video will present itself online.

Songs like ‘Nocturne’, ‘Question’, ‘Growth’ & ‘Time Again’ all have great 80’s dark wave signature sound reminding to us bands like The Cure, The Sound (on ‘Growth’) & Joy Division. Are they going to appear on an album in the future?

There will be another EP or full length coming out soon that is going to be written and mixed at home. ‘Question‘/ ‘Time Again‘ will definitely be on there as I think they have something to offer to the listener. ‘Nocturne‘ is quite old and I’m happy to have that one isolated for now. ‘Growth‘ I put out in a rush and there are tons of things I can hear in that song that I would love to change. The problem with rushing things at times.

Now you’ ve just released a new EP on Northern Light Records called  ‘Analyze Paralyze‘. Is this a pre-taste for a future debut album in 2017?

In a way, yes. ‘Analyze Paralyze‘ was the first professional thing I have released. My goal is to keep releasing things as much as I can. As I was saying earlier it’s really easy to think a song has no value or that it’s not good enough. but my goal now is to just release everything. Since I’m so involved in the music  something I don’t think is good might mean something to someone so…there should be a lot of stuff coming out in the next little while. All of these are little tastes of what is in my mind. There will definitely be a full length coming out in next year. no doubt about that.

You may now know that you are getting a good reception of your sound in Europe. How do you feel about that?

I am so very grateful, its almost surreal. I have been writing for so many years and 90% of the songs were very hard to listen to haha. It’s very motivating to see people interested and hopefully feeling the same things that I feel when I’m writing the music.

Do you have any musical plans in the future with other bands?

I think for the next little while I will be writing completely alone, as I feel I still have a substantial amount of growing to do. I could see myself bouncing ideas off Jason Corbett (Actors) but I think that would be about it for now.

Thanks for the generosity of this small interview Kuba & all the best luck in the future.

Thank you!

Toze Cardoso