Rock’n’roll has long been seen as a male-dominated arena – with sex, drugs and heavy misogyny being its core values. That’s not to say that there haven’t been iconic rock’n’roll females who gave the boys a run for their money – Joan Jett, Deborah Harry, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar just to name a few. But legends like that are far and few between. Not to mention the long-standing debate – is rock’n’roll finally dead?
Gen-Z has watched as the music industry has changed drastically in their lifetime – endless pop hits being made for TikTok, the rise of reggaeton becoming mainstream, and artists jumping from genre to genre. That is, until Mary and the Matrix came along.
Nestled away in Nashville, lead singer Mary Malu, bass player Courtney Diamond, drummer Alana Lefoy, and guitarist Tess Pope have been spending the last 5 months creating something epic – an all-female band destined to save rock’n’roll.
You recently had your first concert at the end of January AND it was sold out! What did performing live together for the first time together feel like?
Courtney: It was incredible. We had all-female bands with us – not only that but Latina female-fronted bands that opened for us. I was crying for days after.
Alana: The place was packed.
Tess: A total of 275 people – crazy.
That’s incredible! Especially after 5 months. Can we expect more gigs soon?
Mary: We actually just got asked to play Boulevardia, the music festival in Kansas City, Missouri. Then we have a gig in March and two gigs in April. This month, we are just focused on being creative and recording some new music.
What does your music-making process look like?
Mary: We’ve had success on social media. But we’ve only been playing together for five months. It’s still a baby band. And so it’s all really exciting. We’ve all written things individually, but we’re still kind of learning to write together as a band.
I feel like as women, writing can be really intuitive. Sometimes we don’t really plan, like, okay, we’re gonna have a writing day.
Tess: Mary’s written a lot of songs already that we’ve had to kind of arrange to fit for a band. We’ve referenced her old stuff and combined it with the sound we’ve made as a band to decide what to cover and how to write.
How do you think living in Nashville has impacted your music and shaped you as a band?
Mary: I expected it to be competitive, but it’s more just a really good community of artists, just all going after what they want to do.
Courtney: We realized there was enough room for everyone. It’s just all very supportive. It’s great supporting people, especially other women—
Mary: I was just about to say that: I feel like as women, it can feel like we’re programmed to be competitive against each other. But no, we have to stick together – there are only so many female musicians.
You’re also known for covering mainstream pop songs with a rock twist. What’s it been like to put your own rock spin on popular songs by artists like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles?
Mary: I really love putting our own twist on something, and infusing our own sound with a song that’s already popular.
I didn’t really get into rock until last year, and I always thought of it as something that was very much middle-aged white dad-like vibes. And that’s not our energy at all.
As an all-female band, do you feel like you have to work harder to prove yourself?
Mary: That’s interesting you bring that up because there’s this sense amongst us that… we don’t want to be labeled as the girls that can’t play their instruments.
Tess: Oh my god yeah! It’s a certain degree of like ‘I have to prove myself. I cannot mess up.’ And you know, that’s weirdly discouraged in the music industry because you have to learn from your mistakes… but I feel like I just can’t.
Alana: I feel like I’ve always been underestimated, as a girl drummer – the boys just assume I can’t play. But I kind of like that – I like having them underestimate me and then smoking them.
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Their sold-out show back in January is just the beginning. Despite being widely underestimated, Mary and the Matrix are locked in and focused on one thing – creating a new era of rock music. Their lead single can be found on Apple Music and Spotify and their new music is set to debut sometime this summer.