CONNLA'S WELL

Maruja are a Manchester-based four-piece who fuse jazz, punk, post-hardcore and experimental chaos into a singular, genre-defying sound. Think post-punk meets free jazz, with lyrics, rooted in rap, that are all about the message. Add the hair-raising sonics of ruthless breakbeats, gnarly guitar loops, transcendent sax and flourishes of psychedelic bass and you have Maruja: this is force-of-nature music, born from a place of spirituality and protest, with a deep four-way friendship at its core. Their triptych of EPs spanning between 2023 and 2025 has cemented their status as one of the UKs most exciting new bands. Theyve been selling out increasingly larger venues, most recently Village Underground in London and Gorilla in Manchester, while also completing a world tour and performing standout festival sets at Glastonbury, Green Man and ArcTanGent. They were selected as Artists to Watch for 2025 by NME, Clash, Line of Best Fit, DIY, Alt Press and Consequence, and released their incredible full debut album Pain to Power on Music for Nations.