I got the chance to see Briston Maroney and Samia, the indie music power couple, perform at Paradise Music Festival at the Brooklyn Bowl in October. Living in Nashville, Maroney started the 3 day music festival in 2019 as an ode to house parties he grew up with, hosting multiple bands with similar fans. This year, Briston kicked off his world tour with Paradise bringing another incredible lineup of artists including his girlfriend and singer-wongwriter Samia. Both artists released new critically acclaimed albums of 2023. With deeply introspective songwriting, they pushed each other to write legendary albums. Both Samia and Maroney’s albums made it in my Spotify wrapped this year and deserved to be celebrated. However, I felt compelled to write this blog as they are leaving Nashville for good.
Briston Maroney
25 year-old singer-songwriter and guitarist from Knoxville, TN, Maroney is a sensitive storyteller with a sound that mixes earnest folkiness with a 90’s style indie rock melodicism. Best known for his 2018 RIAA-Platinum hit “Freakin’ Out on the Interstate”, Maroney’s latest album Ultrapure is the most honest he’s been on a record yet. Maroney empathetically reflects on the biggest moments that have shaped his life thus far, ones he dubs ultrapure. Maroney describes them as moments “that you don’t even realize have started but feel so deeply when you realize they’ve ended.” Maroney confronts the monsters creeping in his shadows face to face in this new album, as beautifully depicted in his music video for Sunburn Fades.
Lightning 100 promoted his Record Store Tour where Maroney played at record stores around the country to celebrate the release of Ultrapure. Best of all he started the tour at Nashville’s beloved Grimey’s on the day of his album release. Maroney came on Lightning 100 to talk about the positives behind record stores and physical media coming back.
Compared to his past records, Maroney says this one is very internal, not as pressured externally than his work leading up to now. His girlfriend Samia helped him throughout his writing process. He wrote Ultrapure with her help in their Nashville home together with their dog, Milk. He told Line of Best Fit, “This time around, I tried to be a little more honest about my typical manic state, my pretty insecure state…
“I guess that’s just what I connect to when I listen to records – the honest moments when people are not trying to fool you into thinking they’re cooler than they are.”
Samia
Samia Finnerty, known professionally as just Samia, is poetic singer-songwriter who confronts painful moments with the utmost honesty, mixing in humor, irony, and theatrical dancing with her performing. Thus far in her short career she has accumulated a collection of music with central themes of family, community, and reckoning with painful moments of life. Her 2023 Album Honey was featured in the Rolling Stone’s Top 100 songs of 2023.
Despite being born of two actor parents into the world of entertainment, a fact she is not afraid to disclose despite the current “nepo baby” cultural discourse, she has always been interested in writing above all else. The California rasied ex-Tennessee resident says “I just really loved poetry and I really loved lyrics,” she tells V Magazine,
“I became interested in music because I wanted to understand what they (songwriters) were talking about … I think my true passion where I really excavated myself was always writing, and it still is.”
A true poet in her own right, she spoke fondly of her writing process, which often begins with a poem that she will try to “work into something worth singing.”
With navigating pain and memory, sadness and grief often tag along, but Samia resents being written off as merely a “sad girl musician,” telling V, “I don’t care to be categorized. I truly understand (the Sad Girl Music trope), but I think that it’s generalizing and reducing. It’s just so much more complicated. And women are so much more complicated. Especially, in my particular case, my music is incredibly confessional and,” and concedes, “also very sad”.
Both Samia and Maroney clearly aren’t afraid to be themselves which is the reason their fans adore them. They are such genuine people who are able to support each other in each other’s music. Their commitment to more honesty in their work this year clearly paid off.
PARADISE
Walking into Paradise you could see it was so much more than just a music festival. There was a tattoo artist, live illustrator, bracelet making, and more magic awaited us, creating a sweet atmosphere of inclusivity.
I attended Thursday night which included many exciting acts like the band hey, nothing, Jack Van Cleaf, and especially, SAMIA!
While the other bands were delightful, Samia’s performance was as intimate and captivating as ever. I was lucky enough to already see her in March of this year, yet this time it was such a treat to catch her on stage opening for & singing her heart out for the love of her life. She mesmerized the crowd with her soaring vocals and theatrical dancing across the stage.
Briston and his band gave the crowd a spectacle especially when head banging with guitarist and good friend Devin Badget! Briston’s voice has a crispy texture which contributes to its rockstar sound. His discography consists of a wide range of music styles making for a dynamic concert experience. There were calm moments, exciting moments, and sad moments with a mosh pit to end it all.
What was so special for a fan like me was to see the couple perform together. One of my favorite moments of 2023 was seeing them duet Alex G’s song “Miracle”. It was so special to see their chemistry on stage for their city.
Briston and Samia kicked off the tour in the best way possible. It was an honor to see both play together and see the smiles on peoples faces as they performed. It is sad to hear the recent news that they are leaving. Paradise may be over, and Maroney and Samia may have moved away, but the legacy of Paradise left on Nashville Briston and Samia brought too Nashville’s indie rock scene lives on. Most of all I’m thankful for inspiring fans with radical vulnerability.
Click here for a playlist of some of my favorite music by Samia and Briston 🙂
BOOGIE WITH EMMA 