Maripool

“Soundtracking days spent in increasingly sunny bedrooms, simultaneously bored but hopeful for the imminent freedom about to be restored.” DIY

“Her music doesn’t quite sound like anyone else…blending shoegaze aspects with 90s indie rock flavours, all pieced together amid a bedroom pop sensibility.” Clash

“The Best New Music” Crack Magazine

“Rippling with dark undertones…Maripool offer company in a world of solitude”. Hard of Hearing

“Captures the aerial melancholy that swirls between the delightful wonders of articulated shoegaze… a witching hour state of deep-blue dreaming.” So Young

Ahead of a support tour with Boston’s Squirrel Flower across the UK next month, London-based ‘one girl band’ Maripool shares sophomore EP a day that feels like nothing at all - out now (7th June) via Smoking Room (Hotline TNT, Island of Love)

Coming off the back of singles ‘not today’ and ‘isn’t it funny’ which can count Crack Magazine and Pitchfork Founder Ryan Schreiber among it’s fans, a day that feels like nothing at all sees Maripool - real name Natacha Simões - breach her scratchy, intimate and confessional lo-fi indie rock into shimmering, dream-pop realms, inviting comparisons to the likes of Electrelane, Galaxie 500 and Life Without Buildings.

Recorded with Euan Hinshelwood of Cate Le Bon’s backing band - and guesting members of Lobby and piglet for the EP’s sumptuous violin and saxophone arrangements - Maripool’s latest EP offers poignant takes on grief, ennui, and the search for life’s meaning through a wistful, coming-of-age lens, as Simões herself explains:

“This record picks up where my last EP, ‘It All Comes At Once’, left off; I think ‘a day that feels like nothing at all’ dives deeper into the world of Maripool which that record gave a glimpse into, and invites the listener to come in and take a look around. Whereas that record was one story, one emotion, which all ‘came at once’, this record explores six separate stories. Life is not one feeling, it’s not one story, it’s all connecting the dots between everything you see, hear and feel, and that’s what I wanted to present with this record. When I first showed the songs to Euan he said “this is nighttime music” - I think all Maripool music is nighttime music but on this record things are a bit later, a bit darker and a bit gloomier.”

More about Maripool:

Upon moving to London from her hometown of Lisbon aged 18, Natacha Simões got a job at Whole Foods and bought a guitar with her first paycheck. Having never played music before, she spent her evenings after work teaching herself the classics of 90s Midwest Emo. Eventually dubbing herself Maripool, the project came to blend her emo teachings with the scratchiness of jangle-pop and the washes of 90s shoegaze. Playing the majority of instruments on her records, Maripool is a DIY project through and through: Simões designs all her own artwork and gig posters,  directs her own music videos, often performing solo sets in London, and other times with her backing band. 

Releasing debut single ‘Blindness’ in 2021, and its follow-up It All Comes at Once EP the following year (via Practise Music), Maripool’s latest collection comes following widespread backing from The Line of Best Fit,  Spotify’s ‘Lo-Fi Indie’ playlist, Crack Magazine, Clash, DIY, So Young, Beats Per Minute, Hard of Hearing, When The Horn Blows, The New Age Magazine, Scientists of Sound, The Most Radicalist and Mix It All Up. With her live show - sometimes solo, sometimes with her band,  Maripool has also graced Left of the Dial, Supersonic Block Party and  Wide Awake festivals, earning support slots along the way for the likes of Porridge Radio, Flat Party, Bleach Lab, Langkamer and Mandrake Handshake, with six shows across the UK with Squirrel Flower penned for July.