Maria Marcus is a multi talent. Not only does she write her own material, but she sing, play, program and produce the songs herself - in her own demo studio.
Her songwriting treasure of 80 original tunes has a scope that's simply astonishing, until you realise that she's been writing and recording since she was a teenager. But it's not until now that Maria steps out into the spotlight with her debut single "Why (You Confuse My Mind)" - the leading track to the new Wallander movie "MasterMind", which premieres on December 16.

Maria's life has been about music for as long as she can remember. She was born in the northern town of Umeå, but grew up in the mid-Swedish town of Skövde. Her parent's involvement in the Salvation Army marked her childhood, and in church she daydreamed herself away into the world of music. Already as a young girl she was fascinated by "beautiful music, sentimental music, melancholy music". She soon discovered that film music had its own very special character.

Maria became interested in computers in school, and soon learned how to digitally record and produce a song. Songwriting and recording activities fuelled her creativity further. "In the 8th grade we had a musical performance in school. Out of 20 performances, I was involved in 16".

At 16 she sent her first demos to record companies in Stockholm, and today she's got 80 songs published. Initially she looked at herself mostly as a songwriter. Singing was something she did out of necessity, to make a demo. "But then someone said that my songs was so personal that I'd probably would do better to perform them myself. And from that moment I started to regard myself as an artist as well".

Her main instrument is piano. "If I need a guitar overdub for a demo, I can do that too. For two years I have taken drum lessons, to improve my programming. And I try playing the harmonica".

Soul and R&B has always been a major source of inspiration, but her own writing is strictly melody based. "I base my songs on the melody, then write a lyric and finally try to find a groove". She does her own programming, and is experienced enough to hold classes in the digital recording program Cubase VST.

Her skill in this field has taken more than one producer with surprise. Instead of a green vocalist, in walks a seasoned studio wizard with a complete grip on the digital side of things. "I guess many people thinks that girls are less interested in the technological aspects of music, but my teaching experience says something else. Most girls say what they want to DO, where most guys prime interest is in the TOOL. Girls who work with music skips the unnecessary knowledge, don't talk in technical terms and generally get more things done".

So far Maria has cooperated with Anders Eliasson (Lambretta), Martin Hansen (The Rasmus, Robyn, Jennifer Brown, Lisa Nilsson) and Ingemar Åberg (Carola, Stephen Simmonds, Jennifer Love Hewitt). She found a more long term working partner in Pontus Frisk (Eskobar, Andreas Johnson), who produced Maria's single for the new Wallander movie "MasterMind".

When the Wallander team in September 2005 was looking for a main theme, Maria got the opportunity to present a suggestion. She started by listening to Adam Nordén's instrumental music - and was caught up with a theme consisting of five notes. Based on this, she wrote the majestic ballad "Why (You Confuse My Mind)" with lyrical help from Eskobar's Daniel Bellqvist. The film team's reaction was overwhelming.

Right now Maria is busy writing and recording material for her upcoming debut album, due out in the autumn of 2006. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.