Maria Hein: "María del Mar Bonet has inspired me greatly, not only as a singer and songwriter."

BarcelonaA Majorcan sibyl with a Japanese katana. This is Maria Hein (Felanitx, 2003) from the album Katana (Primavera Labels, 2025), dedicated to the memory of her father. The Mallorcan singer projects a very unique voice between urban rhythms and traditional tunes, just as she did in the magnificent version ofTo alenar by María del Mar Bonet. It is also included in an album that focuses on revenge, in the style of the film. Kill Bill, by Quentin Tarantino. After Container and content (2021) and the return of electronic music Everything that nobody knows (2023), Maria Hein returns with a third album full of attitude and good musical solutions.

How would you describe everything you've experienced since you released the song Gone for a coffee, five years ago now?

— Since I haven't stopped, I haven't had time to process everything I've experienced. I started in Mallorca, singing at home, writing my songs, and suddenly I'm in Barcelona, ​​living, doing concerts... Everything has happened very quickly. Obviously, I've really enjoyed it all, but I think I've quickly normalized how my life has changed, and I still haven't fully realized it yet.

You started your advanced musical training in Barcelona, right?

— Yes, I did jazz piano for the first year at the Liceu Conservatory, and then switched to jazz singing at the Taller de Músics. But after those two years, I decided to put it aside for a bit to focus 100% on my project, which was working out better and more and required more work.

It's not exactly that music has changed your professional expectations, because you've been studying music for many years, but it has changed a little, right?

— Yes, it's changed me a bit, but, in the end, what I love most is making music, and if I have to endure a few moments to make a living from it, then I'll endure it, always within certain limits, of course. It's true that it's a somewhat harder life than I imagined. There's a lot more work behind it than I imagined there would be when I started.

The other day I was talking to the Lia Kali, who is also trying to come to terms with the success, and I was talking about just this.

— Lia Kali is a star. She's killing it and she's going to kill it even more. She's a lot heavy.

In one of the last songs on the album, Katanas and pianos, you sing: "This song is for you, this album is for you too." You're singing to your father, right?

— Yes, I'm singing this song to my father. He died eleven years ago, when I was eleven. I wrote this song last summer, exactly ten years after his death. In the last two years, I've realized that all this admiration I feel for Japanese culture is for him.

How has it influenced you?

— While writing the album and thinking about the concept and the visuals, I realized that my admiration for traditional Japanese culture and martial arts is for my father. I'd never associated the two, and little by little, I've been remembering moments from when I was little. My father always encouraged me to sign up for martial arts and judo classes, and I remember teaching him everything I learned at home. He had studied martial arts when he was young, and we have two of my father's katanas at home, as a collection. They're small things I wasn't aware of when I was little, but now that I'm older, I've realized it's something that connects us. Plus, my father always wanted to be a singer, and music is something I also hold very dear because of him. If it hadn't been for him, I might not be dedicated to music or have that admiration for Japanese culture as a whole. It's all like a small tribute I wanted to pay him, and I think he'd be super happy to see it.

Thematically, this song falls somewhat outside the narrative of the rest of the album, which moves between love, heartbreak, and revenge.

— Yes, but when I wrote it, I thought that, in the end, that's what made the album what it is. It's also an album that generally talks a bit about death, about invoking it—not physical deaths, but more spiritual ones, like killing memories. I didn't want to leave this song out because it made perfect sense for it to be there, for all the world.

Since you're covering the Song of the Sibyl, you inevitably imagine yourself as a sibyl with a katana playing very contemporary music. You're particularly interested in this combination of the most radical contemporary style with roots in Mallorcan traditions, aren't you?

— Yes. When I was little, my godmother made me go to church with her, and one day the nuns heard me sing and asked me if I would like to play the Sibyl. First, I sang the Song of the Angel, which is a somewhat shorter and sweeter song that announces the arrival of Jesus into the world, and later I started singing the Sibyl, which at 9 years old was a challenge and a responsibility. When I was making the album, the Sibyl came to mind, who is a very powerful woman who announces the end of the world with a sword. And I thought I could relate her perfectly to the album. I imagined myself singing Sibyl with a katana. Also, over the last year I've been exploring ways of fusing Mallorcan roots with more contemporary sounds, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to do so.

I suppose you do it consciously, that in the topics more connected with the root, like Night, Gold Cross and the version ofTo alenar, your voice is less filtered than in other more urban songs, right?

— Exactly. If you're recording a song with an urban rhythm like reggaeton or Afrobeat, it's different, because you're going to process the voice differently. NightI wanted to write a traditional song myself, and when we were recording it, one of the producers told me, "María, we're not adding anything to the voice for this one. Nothing at all." I already had that idea because I wanted to take advantage of my voice. In fact, my project is primarily sustained by my voice, which is very unique, and I wanted to take advantage of the fact that I like to sing like that.

With the good reception that your version ofTo alenar, by Maria del Mar Bonet, have you noticed that you have reached another audience, or if you have brought this song to your audience?

— I think it's both. I've reached a different audience, maybe a bit older. And I also think this version has reached a younger audience who might not have known the original. In fact, I remember when it came out people writing to me saying, "Oh, I saw you covered Manel's song." No, no, Manel sampled this song by Maria del Mar Bonet. [to the topic For the good people, 2019]I think I've introduced a younger audience to a singer as important in the Catalan Countries and around the world as Maria del Mar Bonet. I decided that To alenar It would be included on the album because I had already been singing it on a whole tour, and because people really liked it.

I thought of Maria del Mar Bonet when in the song Betta You sing "let it be engraved in your memory, Hein always goes ahead," which is also the attitude of Maria del Mar Bonet, always forward, without fear, like the great artist that she is.

— Exactly. When I wrote this, I thought it's important to believe it a little, and to know that you'll often be ahead of yourself and emphasize it. I also think I don't even need to emphasize it, because she has an incredible voice, strength, and presence. On this album, Maria del Mar Bonet has inspired me greatly, not only as a singer and songwriter, but as a female figure. She inspires me, and I like the way she presents herself, that aura she has.

Listening to the album, I found that there is no gender in the lyrics.

— I almost never put gender, but I do it quite unconsciously.

So it's impossible to know the gender of the person you're talking about in the songs, right?

— It's something I've always done, but subconsciously. I also like it because you never know who the song is about. I think if I wanted to do it on purpose, it wouldn't work.

How did you choose revenge as the theme of your songs? Is there anything personal about it?

— Yes, there's a lot of revenge, but it's fiction, so people don't think I'm very aggressive. All the songs on this album have an element of reality, because I'm singing to someone and making them understand that it's over, that now it's my turn to win. But there's clearly an element of fiction, especially to create a story and make it more visual. This album speaks to a vital process of my growth as a person. In this last year, I've realized that there were many things that perhaps a few years ago didn't work so well for me, or that I lacked a bit of drive, due to relationships I've had. And in the last year, the project has worked much better for me, also because I've gotten rid of people who perhaps trapped me a bit. It's a more mature album, much more adult than the one I've made until now, and I wanted to represent that strength and that aggressiveness that I'd never shown.

All the references you make in the film Kill Bill and usually in Quentin Tarantino they are part of this revenge narrative.

— Exactly. I remember when I saw Kill Bill It's been a year and a half or so now, when I was just starting to write new songs. I was really drawn to it, and it inspired me to make the album.

Love and heartbreak are amazing songs. Do you have a favorite song that gives you goosebumps?

— So, of love and heartbreak or revenge... Like a G by Rosalía. When it came out I cried so much, with that song. And even now, when I listen to it, it moves me quite a bit. On the album Motomami There are others, such as Sakura.

In addition to Rosalía, other artists like Julieta, Mushkaa, and yourself, despite having different profiles, have a lot of attitude.

— Yes. We're in a great moment of empowered women and strong singers on the Catalan scene.

What's your best music-related memory? And what's the one memory you'd like to forget?

— Luckily, there are many good memories. If it's in a more professional setting, it would definitely be the Felanitx concert I did last year, during my town's local festival. It was an incredible concert; it was packed, packed, packed. I was really moved. I'd never seen so many people singing my songs together at a concert, and I heard I was doing well. Normally, it happens that in your town, sometimes you don't really work out because your project is less appreciated, but it was quite the opposite, and I'll always remember that. And a memory that's not related to my professional setting... I remember learning a Frank Sinatra song by ear when I was very young, from watching my mother listen to him. Strangers in the Night, and I remember sitting down at the piano to try out what notes they were. And one day I played it for my dad and mom, and they were amazed. I played it everywhere. I'd go somewhere with a piano, and when I was 5 or 6, I'd sit down and play the song.

And bad memories?

— Musicians suffer a lot because of social media. Sometimes I feel like if my project were to leave social media, it would stop working, and that makes you feel tied to social media, where you often receive comments you don't like. It's something I don't like about music. Like the comments I received when I was starting out as a sound technician, as if they disregarded my work just because I was young.