Interview with Marisa Rodriguez - Marisa and the Moths

 There is no doubt that it has been a busy 2025  for Marisa Rodriguez and her band. Marisa appears to be touring, promoting, collaborating what must feel like every available minute of every day, this is the world she resides in, it is difficult to step back and breathe sometimes. A new album is also out in July called Live - In the Studio, this contains music from the 1st and 2nd albums recorded in Studio 3, Abbey Road Studios so I suppose a summary of the Marisa and the Moths music up to here. There are more gigs in the offing too. I met the band at a show in Brighton to take photographs and then a week or so later we caught up over zoom. The first topic we discussed was the gig where we had met.

ReturnToSound: “A great show at The Green Door Store, though it all started off with a little bit of technical difficulties and you probably had to adapt. I think you had to go acoustic a little bit early in the set, didn't you?

Marisa Rodriguez: “Yeah, that's never happened before so that was an interesting one, so basically Myke Gray was stepping in for Alez (D’Elia). It was his first time doing it and he brought his amp and it just broke. It was working and then it broke a minute beforehand. It's annoying because we prep for so long, we make sure this stuff's working, but you just can't predict if something's gonna break that's of no age”.

RTS: “There was a period when everyone was trying to go wireless, but everyone's gone back to good old plug it in with dodgy cables because it's rock ‘n’ roll isn't it?”

MR: “I actually feel differently. I've had less issues since using wireless than when I had cables because I no longer trip over them and actually, we fit my pedal board - because there's quite a lot of pedals - into a flight case where our in-ear system is then no one touches it. All of the leads that connect it were custom-made, so it lives in the drawer, and nobody touches it. I've also had an amp die at a gig as well, but I was like fuck it, I’ll just do it with lead guitar, bass and drums, it's fine I just won't play - it's fine. The good thing about that experience was that I realised that I didn't have to play a guitar in every song and that's why we are doing what we're doing now. It's meant that we can elevate our live performance more. I feel like there's a silver lining when things go wrong sometimes”.

Marisa playing in Brighton

"I actually found out recently that

I have ADHD,

which makes a

lot of sense for

how I think I

react to certain life scenarios"

Marisa playing in Brighton

RTS: “That's the experience you pick up playing live on the road. Those scary moments test you and like you say something good may come out of it”.

MR: “Definitely. I mean there’s nothing scarier than everything going off on stage and everyone just looking at you like “dance monkey”. I actually found out recently that I have ADHD, which makes a lot of sense for how I think I react to certain life scenarios. When small things happen, I can freak out more than a normal person but when under severe pressure, or in a really bad situation I can be the calm one. I'm like, right, how are we gonna deal with this? So I think maybe that part of my personality comes in handy.”

RTS: “You've actually been diagnosed? Though I don't know how you test for conditions like ADHD to be honest, what did you go through if you don't mind me asking?”

MR: “It was a psychiatrist in the private NHS sector. I was basically struggling with a lot of things that other people didn't seem to be struggling with and I've been struggling since I was at school. I just thought that maybe I was stupid or something, so if I struggled, I just kept quiet about it. I've actually just realised that I've spent my whole life bullying myself for being me when there's nothing wrong with me, my brain just works differently and actually I think I excel at certain things that other people wouldn't because of my brain being the way it is. I think, if you have the knowledge, that knowledge is power and if you understand how you work, you can accept it. You can double down on the things that you're good at and try to work on the things that you're not, rather than just beating yourself up for it. They're talking about this a lot more now especially for women, because they're now calling women with ADHD the lost generation. It shows completely differently in women than guys, that's the reason why they couldn’t be tested for it before because when they were studying people with ADHD, they only studied boys, so it's only recently that they have done something about it. So, yeah, to be honest I just wanted to know that I wasn't mental (with a chuckle)”.

RTS: “Haha, yeah, I think as you get older, I'm not calling you older in any way, but you learn more about your personal qualities and your imperfections. That's part of growing up, I think when you're very young, as you say, you may get mixed up and it can be very hard. It has probably given you some sort of release to know?”

MR: “I just wish that I had done it sooner, but I believed that in my head it was like, well … that's just the naughty boys at school that didn't get good grades or try hard, because I had to try hard. I struggled but it was like I had to get good grades, and I had to do what it took to get the good grades. It's just different. I think they said that women tend to internalise it more and mask it better than boys do.”

RTS: Has this played into your lyrics and song writing?

MR: “I didn't actually find out about the ADHD until after our recent album releases. It’s totally given a different meaning to a bunch of my lyrics and makes me think… oh yeah, this all makes sense now. 

Obviously, I write a lot about mental health and my experience of being in an abusive or toxic relationship. I think having undiagnosed ADHD may have affected my relationships and the choices of people I’ve been with. They weren't good choices, let's put it that way. They weren't very kind to me, but I think maybe I don't realise that I have a PP (people-pleasing) nature myself and maybe I could have gotten out of those situations more easily rather than just thinking there's something wrong with me all the time and thinking that I had to fix it because it was my responsibility, as it must be my fault.”

RTS: “It seems that you have come to a place where you can please yourself, you can now demonstrate to others who you are? Fate is taking you into the right place to be yourself in front of a band?”

MR: “Definitely yeah, everything happens for a reason, I really feel that. I’m still human, though, and have my bad days like everyone else. In Brighton I kind of touched on that fact, I was very open about the fact that I had a bad day. I know it sounds random maybe but part of me was like, oh no, did I bring this chaos with me BECAUSE I was having a bad day. I was just a bit overwhelmed. But it happens to us all, right?

RTS: “You have the band around you, they look like they back you both in musical and mental terms?”

MR: “Absolutely! We're all really good mates. We all have our strong points and our weaker points but, yeah, we're a really good team and we all get on and have a laugh.”

RTS: “So Liam's from Reading if I remember right, you are also?”

MR: “Yeah, I was born there, I've moved away around the outskirts, but never too far. The furthest I think I've lived away from there is about an hour away, I always end up back there somehow. I do love it; my family are there and Liam as well. We've been working together for quite a few years, obviously through the band, but we were mates long before that. I met him when I was about 17, back when I was doing my first original gigs with my old guitarist”.

Alex Ribchester and Liam James Barnes from Marisa and the Moths

"That’s when the

toxic perfectionism

kicks in and nothing

ever feels good

enough to you.

I think most artists are hard on

themselves in this way"

Marisa Rodriguez

RTS: “I was going to ask, with the amount of touring you do, is it a challenge to transition back to normal life and routine?”

MR: “Yeah, I'll be honest with you and say with great difficulty because it's like a constant high. I was actually talking about this earlier, as I was saying how I found at the start of this year that, honestly, I was really depressed, and it was just because I hadn't been gigging enough. It’s not like work stops off tour, because it never does. Literally, I will get up in the morning and I'll be doing stuff until late at night unless I force myself to go somewhere where I can't physically work. I'm trying really hard to get back to finding a balance but it's hard when you know there is as much to do as there is. Also being creative, it's really exciting and the most amazing feeling when you create and record, but it can feel deflating when you're not seeing the people that connect with your creations to give you that reassurance that what you're doing actually matters. That’s when the toxic perfectionism kicks in and nothing ever feels good enough to you. I think most artists are hard on themselves in this way. But back to touring… I love touring, touring is my favourite thing”.

Marisa playing in Brighton

RTS: “Are there other bands or music out there you like to go and see live?” 

MR: “So my plan is to go to a few festivals so that I can see as many different people as possible. I really like Chappell Roan; I think she's really cool and I know she's not rock, but I reckon she'll be a really cool fun act to see live. I really wanted to see my favourite band Flyleaf for so many years and they're finally touring again now with the original singer but they're not coming over here. I’ve been like oh, do I go to America to see them then? I'm generally more into modern metal kind of stuff, as well as heavy rock and some more stripped, poppy stuff. I’m hoping I can go to Slam Dunk and 2000 Trees, even if it's just for a day at each. I'll be at Download because I'm performing there so I'll be seeing whoever's there. Of course that includes Sleep Token, as they're amazing live, in case you haven't seen them yet.”

RTS: “Back to you and the band, you've got a live album on the cards, that must be exciting?”

MR: “I just gave mix notes to Peter. He's just finalising the mixes for them, and I've been sorting out the final touches to the artwork as well which I did the main design for. I've got an artwork designer just to sort of finish it off so that it's high enough quality for print. We set one of the songs (Needy) to come out on 2nd May which lines up with the one-year anniversary of What Doesn't Kill You coming out, which actually got to number 1 on its first week of release, then the full album is gonna come out on 4th July - Independence Day, which just felt like the right sort of time, as we're an independent artist so it kind of feels apt.”

RTS: “You played all this live in the studio, is that right?”

MR: “So basically there are eight songs on there that were recorded live in Abbey Road, Studio 3, so they will be mixed together. We actually had the whole day recorded on video too, so I found funny little soundbites of things that happened in the studio, and we’ve put them between the breaks of the songs. Physical prints include some additional bonus tracks that you can only get on the physical albums that we've done through the Crowdfunder to raise the funds to release it. On the CD we've decided to include five bonus songs. The Abbey Road session will be so cool, and I can’t wait to share the music and videos for it. I think maybe some of the footage might not be usable, so I've got to really go through it with a fine-tooth comb but hopefully we'll be able to do a little video for each single.”

Marisa playing in Brighton

RTS: “Talking music formats, which is your go to for listening, do you buy vinyl?”

MR: “I will if I really like a band, I'll buy the vinyl anyway, but I won't ever really listen to it. I will do it just once just to say I have and then I'm like, oh God, this is a lot of swapping things over when I'm busy doing other things. Generally, if I'm honest, I'm probably more of a Spotify and CD girl because CDs I can put in the car, and Spotify is more accessible wherever you are. If I really like a band, I try to buy their merch because obviously, you could just stream them, but we all know how that doesn’t do much for a lot of artists financially. Also I like listening to and discovering new bands on YouTube because I'm quite a big music video fan, and if I like one video I will go through and watch all their videos.”

MARISA AND THE MOTHS are:

Marisa Rodriguez – lead vocals, rhythm guitar and piano

Liam Barnes – bass guitar and backing vocals

Alessio (Alez) D’Ella – lead guitar

Alex Ribchester – drums

They will be touring through the Summer of 2025, check the website for information

www.marisaandthemoths.com

Marisa And The Moths are a pretty filthy, filthy pretty, grunge-influenced alt rock band from the UK with a modern edge. Female fronted with soaring vocals and powerful melodies.

Interview by Dan Reddick

All photographs by Dan Reddick