The Marías - No One Noticed

The Marías is a band from Los Angeles, made up of María Zardoya, Josh Conway, Jesse Perlman, and Edward James. They released their first EPs in 2017 and 2018, and their first album in 2021. But then, as you’ll hear, there was a period of a lot of uncertainty around the band’s future. Eventually, their second album, Submarine, came out in 2024, and it was incredibly successful. Stereogum called it one of the best albums of the year, and the band was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist. But all of that almost didn’t happen. I talked to María about the making of their hit song “No One Noticed.” The story’s beginning, middle, and end all took place during different eras of the band’s existence. In the middle section, when maybe they weren’t going to even be a band anymore, María enlisted the help of Grammy-nominated producer Gianluca Buccellati. And I spoke to Luca for this episode, as well. For more, visit songexploder.net/the-marias https://songexploder.net/the-marias.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Hrishikesh Hirway?

  You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and, piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirway.

• 0:11Hrishikesh Hirway?

  I'm going to be on tour, playing some shows this fall. I'm going to be in London on Wednesday, November 18th. I'm going to be performing solo at Rough Trade Records on Denmark Street, and I'm going to be in conversation about my music moderated by one of my favorite actors and writers, Matthew Bainton. And a ticket to the show also gets you a copy of my album on vinyl or CD. And in December, I'm going to be on tour supporting S. Carrie. We're going to be playing a bunch of shows in the Northeast US. So I hope to see you in one of those places. You can find all the details and get links to tickets at songexploder.net/live. That's songexploder.net/live.

• 0:55Hrishikesh Hirway?

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• 1:39Hrishikesh Hirway?

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• 1:56Hrishikesh Hirway?

  This episode is sponsored by the podcast What It's Like to Be. Do you ever think about what other people's workdays look like? Satisfying some of that curiosity is the idea at the heart of bestselling author Dan Heath's podcast, which is called What It's Like to Be. In each episode, Dan interviews someone from a different profession to find out what it's like to be a professional Santa Claus, or a Secret Service agent, or a long haul truck driver, or an aerospace engineer at NASA, just to name a few examples. The show gives you an insider view into all kinds of jobs from a wide range of industries, answering questions like, what do mail carriers learn about us from our mail?

• 2:38Hrishikesh Hirway?

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• 2:56Hrishikesh Hirway?

  The Marias is a band from Los Angeles, made up of Maria Zardoya, Josh Conway, Jesse Perlman, and Edward James. They released their first EPs in 2017 and 2018, and their first album in 2021. But then, as you'll hear, there was a period of a lot of uncertainty around the band's future. Eventually, their second album, Submarine, came out in 2024, and it was incredibly successful. Stereogum called it one of the best albums of the year, and the band was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist. But all of that almost didn't happen. I talked to Maria about the making of their hit song, No One Noticed. The stories beginning, middle, and end all took place during different eras of the band's existence.

• 3:40Hrishikesh Hirway?

  In the middle section, when maybe they weren't going to even be a band anymore, Maria enlisted the help of Grammy nominated producer Gianluca Pucciolati, and I spoke to Luca for this episode as well.

• 4:10Speaker 01

  My name is Maria and I'm in a band called The Marias.

• 4:16Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Do you remember what was happening on the first day that you started thinking about this song?

• 4:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was 2020, peak pandemic. So we were just in our apartment, writing songs.

• 4:29Hrishikesh Hirway?

  And when you say "we," who's that?

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Josh and I. Josh and I lived together at the time. Josh is also the drummer of The Marias. And so we'd just wake up and write songs, go to bed, write songs. You know, we couldn't do much else except for write songs and then just kind of spend time in nature and go on long walks. And so there was one morning I woke up and I just, it was just a beautiful morning. I had all the windows open and I just grabbed my guitar. And there's a chord progression that I just always find myself gravitating towards.

• 5:02Hrishikesh Hirway?

  What's that chord progression?

• 5:04Speaker 01

  I'll play it for you. I can write 100 songs with this chord progression and I think I have. This is just kind of what I jam to, but...

• 5:24Speaker 01

  I think the first complete song that I ever wrote on guitar was a similar progression. So I think it's just something about it that speaks to me.

• 5:35Speaker 01

  So yeah, that morning I was in my bed and I was playing the chords and then the melody

• 5:44Speaker 01

  just kind of came out and I was like, "Oh, there's something here." And so I just hit record on my phone.

• 6:05Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Had you and Josh been making music together for a long time before this moment?

• 6:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we started making music together in like 2015. And we were working on our debut album at this point. And he was teaching me production at the time. I really wanted to learn how to like make my own demos. And so we had two workstations set up in my living room. So it was like his workstation with like a giant desk. And that's where we would record most of our things. And then in the corner of the room was like my little desk and like a little keyboard and my little laptop. And so after kind of jamming on the guitar and having kind of a structure for the song, I was like, okay, like, I think I'm ready to like make my demo. Will you help me kind of put some of the foundational pieces together?

• 6:57Speaker 01

  So that's the loop that Josh made when he was teaching me production.

• 7:07Speaker 01

  The genius of Josh is like finding the right groove. And we call him like the heartbeat of the Marias because he's the drummer, but he's the producer as well. And he put that together so quickly in like 20 minutes.

• 7:21Speaker 01

  I had a lot of the words written. And then when he passed me this track, then more started coming out. And so I came up with the pre-chorus. I'd kind of like it if you'd call me.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  Cause I'm so over being lonely. May have lost it, a virtual connection. I have lost it, my video obsession.

• 7:49Hrishikesh Hirway?

  I just want to go back to the fact that this was during COVID times. Do you think that what you were feeling around that was playing into what you were writing?

• 7:58Speaker 01

  Definitely, I think, I mean, you can hear it in the lyrics. Please be my virtual connection, you know, because we were connecting virtually with everyone. I'm so over being lonely. I'd kind of like it if you'd call me. It's like we're, we're together, feeling so connected and like the virtual ways that we can connect. Everybody was zooming, everybody was doing their Instagram lives, you know, ways of connecting, but still feeling separate and still feeling alone.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  And that same day, I was just kind of feeling like, well, I just made this little demo that I really like, I'm just gonna put it out. So I just like put it to a scene of Paris, Texas. I had just seen that movie like the night before. And there was a scene of like the woman crying like behind the booth.

• 8:45Speaker 02

  I hear your voice all the time.

• 8:50Speaker 02

  Every man has your voice.

• 8:55Speaker 01

  It was like she was feeling lonely, but still together because there was a wall between them. And that's kind of how I felt during the pandemic. So yeah, so I put the demo to that scene and then I put it out on Instagram and that was it. Until it wasn't.

• 9:16Speaker 01

  With No One Noticed, it was kind of a more melancholic kind of sleeper song. And at the time, we were getting a lot of pressure from our label to write more up tempo. They were like tempo, tempo, tempo, we wanna hear Maria's bangers.

• 9:34Speaker 01

  So I think that's why this demo was kind of ignored for so long. Fast forward, a year later, Josh and I separated romantically. And I was kind of at a crossroads of, okay, well, what do I do now with my life? And what do I do? You know, with music, I thought like the band was over. So I was just kind of trying to figure out how I wanted to go about, you know, music. And I remembered this song and I had a friend in the neighborhood who was a producer.

• 10:06Speaker 03

  My name is Gianluca Bucialati.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  And so I hit him up, I was like, hey Luca, I'm really going through it right now, man. Like, I have this song that I kind of wanna work on right now. I need an outlet. I don't know what's gonna happen with the band, but I still wanna make music. Will you work on these songs with me? And he was like, yeah, come over, like come over right now.

• 10:27Speaker 03

  So she just came over and we made a few songs. And then one day she brought in the beginning stages of what became No One Noticed.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  So we took the track that Josh had created with the drum loop and the guitars. And I was like, look, I kind of have a vision for this song, but let's like be in the moment and hash it out together.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  Luca's superpower is that he's so gentle in his approach and so, like, you can just spill to him. And like, he's just open ears, open arms, open heart. It was very free-flowing in terms of, "Hey Luca, I have this idea. Oh, let's try it."

• 11:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, so that was an idea that I had.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  And I was just throwing it out. I was like, "Luca, what if we did this line on piano?" Just like, it feels very kind of like fairy-like.

• 11:29Speaker 03

  We had these layers.

• 11:34Speaker 03

  A lot of what I do with producing is these hidden kind of sounds that like fill up the space, but you don't really know they're there, but they're doing something.

• 11:48Speaker 01

  And so that's Luca playing that acoustic guitar. He really wanted me to record that acoustic guitar part, and I think we tried it. And I think I fought him on it. And I was like, "Please, you just do it." I'm good enough to write music on instruments, but when it comes to like recording them, I'm like, "Let me leave it to the pros." And then you hear the acoustic guitar sort of like solowed at the end, and it kind of brings you back to the inception of the song, which is really nice.

• 12:18Hrishikesh Hirway?

  The story of No One Noticed continues after this.

• 12:25Hrishikesh Hirway?

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• 13:12Hrishikesh Hirway?

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• 13:56Hrishikesh Hirway?

  New episodes are coming out every other Tuesday. Listen to Before the Moment with Nile Rodgers wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored by LinkedIn. Anyone who's ever had to spend money on marketing knows how tricky it can be to feel like you've spent that money wisely. Well, with LinkedIn Ads, you can be sure that you'll get a great return on your investment. You can target your campaigns by company, industry, job title, and more. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn Ads and get a $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com/songexploder. That's LinkedIn.com/songexploder. Terms and conditions apply.

• 14:43Hrishikesh Hirway?

  So how did things change lyrically between the original 2020 version? And then was it, you said it was a year later when you went to?

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, a year later.

• 14:51Hrishikesh Hirway?

  So did you feel like it was changing at that moment because of where you were in your life from this sort of like COVID loneliness song to like a breakup loneliness song?

• 15:00Speaker 01

  Definitely. "No one tried to read my eyes, no one but you wish it weren't true." That was new.

• 15:26Speaker 01

  And then the bridge was written as like a more yearning, relationship romantic part. I came up with it in a bathroom break. I like went to the bathroom and then just started like, "Come on, don't leave me. It can't be that easy, babe." And then I walked out of the bathroom and I was like, "Luca, what about this? I don't know where we should put it, but I kind of like it. And I really like the lyrics that I'm singing." And Sue's like, "Let's just record it and then figure out where we want to put it later." Come on, don't leave me. It can't be that easy, babe. If you believe me, I guess I'll get on a plane,

• 16:10Speaker 01

  fly to your city. Excited to see your face. Hold me, console me. Then I'll leave without a trace. And so we recorded it and it ended up being kind of its own little part that worked so seamlessly with the rest of the song.

• 16:50Hrishikesh Hirway?

  What was your process for recording your vocals?

• 16:52Speaker 01

  I just sang into like an SM7B with like Luca's special sauce in terms of vocal production. He's worked with Arlo Parks, who has a very breathy voice, and Big Pig, who also has this like really beautiful breathy voice. And so he, I think vocally, was able to like bring out some really special things.

• 17:11Speaker 03

  Just stacking left, right and center.

• 17:25Speaker 01

  It was very in the moment. Like, if the first take sounded great, he's like, "That sounds great, let's move on."

• 17:30Speaker 03

  She's just an unbelievable vocalist, unbelievable voice. It's so pure and nostalgic sounding.

• 17:39Speaker 03

  It's like a one-of-a-kind thing. So I think what resonated with me was just the excitement of working with a voice like that.

• 17:57Speaker 01

  That's Jesse, Jesse Perlman.

• 18:08Speaker 01

  We all, Jesse, Josh, Eddie and I, all in the band during this time, didn't know if the band was going to exist. So when I asked Jesse to come play on this song, kudos to him for being brave enough to be like, "Well, I don't know what's happening with the Marias. I don't know what this song is gonna be used for, but Maria really wants me to play guitar on this song, so I'm gonna do it." So yeah, he came over and Luke and I just kind of let him do his thing. We let him listen to the song and play whatever spoke to him.

• 18:45Speaker 01

  That's a pedal that he has.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  I love that sound so much. And that's very quintessential Marias. He uses that pedal a lot in our songs and in the live performances as well. It just gives like this really dreamy kind of underwater quality to the chords and to what he's playing.

• 19:12Speaker 01

  And then I had this melody I came up with as a synth line when Luke and I were working.

• 19:26Speaker 01

  And then when Jesse came in, we were like, "Let's see what this line would sound like on guitar instead of synth."

• 19:45Speaker 01

  And the tone was just so beautiful that we looked at each other and we're like, yes, this line has to be on this guitar. It like jumped out at you and really tugged at your heartstrings. I feel like the emotion that it gives is longing. And then I was like, okay, well, what do we do now with this song? But then the Marias did not break up.

• 20:13Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Well, can we pause for one second?

• 20:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:15Hrishikesh Hirway?

  So how did you go from not knowing what the future of the band was going to be to deciding that you are in fact going to keep going?

• 20:24Speaker 01

  The label sent us to band therapy. I'm giving you so much information. The four of us went to band therapy and then Josh and I went to therapy together. And then we all did individual therapy. And yeah, I think that honestly is what helped us the most. And then coming to the conclusion that we all love each other and respect each other and have such a strong foundation and such a strong friendship, but also this music that we've created together is really special and we're not going to let something come in the way of the music, which is so much bigger than a relationship or a romance or a breakup.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  I think we have something special, like let's, let's keep it. Let's work to keep it. And we worked really, really hard to get to that place.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  You know, Josh and I came back together and started working past the romantic relationship and into a really beautiful friendship. And we were working through some songs and we were working through this song in particular. Josh still had ideas like post Luke and I session in terms of like arrangement. He's like, let's cut this part out here. It's a little bit too long. Let's go straight into this part. So he had his producer hat on at the beginning and then at the end as well. And then after Josh made his final touches on the production, I had shared it with the label along with a couple of other slower songs that we were working on. And, you know, they kind of were like, these are nice, but let's see what else you got that's a little bit more tempo.

• 21:59Speaker 01

  And I remember kind of just having like a sour feeling about it because I'm like, this song, like, I like this song. I love this song. And I'm also very impatient when it comes to writing and releasing. I mean, the day that I wrote the demo, I put it out on Instagram. So I was like, okay, well, if the label is not going to let us put it out, I'm just going to leak it on my own. And so I put it up on our website, led our fans to the site, and they downloaded it, put it up on YouTube. And then it started sort of circulating on TikTok and it started really making its rounds and people were really gravitating towards the song. And then that's why we decided to put it on Submarine.

• 22:40Hrishikesh Hirway?

  You kind of forced the label's hand.

• 22:42Speaker 01

  We did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and it's kind of amazing how this is our biggest song on Submarine and it's not your typical uptempo sort of banger. And so that made me really happy because we know the vision of our band and we know the vision of our music and what we want to put out and what music we want to represent us. And so at the end of the day, let's just try to do our thing, even if we have to fight for it.

• 23:12Speaker 03

  I just remember them telling me, oh, we, uh, we're thinking of putting this song on the album. I was like, ah, yeah, great, awesome. And then, ah, yeah, we think we're going to make it a single. Oh, yeah, cool. Yeah, that's exciting. And then I'd just periodically get texts from Maria being like, uh, Luca, it's streaming, you know, a million times a day. Oh. And then they started playing it live and I'd just occasionally just be getting videos from her of thousands of people screaming the lyrics to this song.

• 23:50Hrishikesh Hirway?

  I'm wondering how the four of you feel about this song, given how it kind of went through these different stages of your relationship, really. Different kinds of relationships, you know, way of music making, way of living together, and then all that stuff. This song kind of has existed through all those stages.

• 24:11Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, it did go through the process of Maria's and then not Maria's and then Maria's, which was the process that we went through as a band.

• 24:19Speaker 03

  It wasn't an easy time for them. And any record that I've made that actually means something, the person that I'm working with is usually going through something tremendous.

• 24:32Speaker 01

  I mean, it kind of warms my heart in thinking about that because we did break up as a band and as romantic partners, but then we came back together as a band stronger than ever. And, you know, so I think this song is an honest reflection of that process. And so "It" being the biggest song, I'm like, wait, that's really beautiful and kind of poetic.

• 25:08Hrishikesh Hirway?

  And now here's "No One Noticed" by the Maria's in its entirety.

• 25:13Speaker 04

  Maybe I...

• 25:18Speaker 04

  Lost my mind.

• 25:23Speaker 04

  No one noticed. No one noticed.

• 25:32Speaker 04

  It's getting old, kinda like if you'd call me all alone, 'cause I'm so over being lonely. May have lost a heat of virtual connection. I have lost an even fewer obsession.

• 26:12Speaker 05

  No one tried

• 26:16Speaker 05

  To read my lies

• 26:21Speaker 05

  No one but you

• 26:26Speaker 05

  Wish it weren't true

• 26:31Speaker 05

  Maybe I kinda like it if you call me It's not right, 'cause I'm so over being lonely Make you mine, need a virtual connection Take off, be my video obsession Come on, don't leave me, it can't be that easy babe If you believe me, I guess I'll get on a plane Fly to your city, excited to see your face Hold me, console me, and then I'll leave without a trace

• 27:12Speaker 05

  Come on, don't leave me, it can't be that easy babe If you believe me, I guess I'll get on a plane Fly to your city, excited to see your face Hold me, console me, then I'll leave without a trace Come on, don't leave me, it can't be that easy babe If you believe me, I guess I'll get on a plane Fly to your city, excited to see your face Hold me, console me, and then I'll leave without a trace Come on, don't leave me, it can't be

• 29:08Hrishikesh Hirway?

  To learn more, visit songexploder.net. You'll find links to buy or stream No One Noticed, and you can watch the music video. This episode was produced by me, Craig Ely, Mary Dolan, and Kathleen Smith, with production assistance from Tiger Biscuit. The episode artwork is by Carlos Lerma, and I made the show's theme music and logo. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows at radiotopia.fm. If you'd like to hear more from me, I write a newsletter, where I write about the making of some of these episodes, and I write about music and film and the creative process in general. You can find a link to the newsletter on the Song Exploder website.

• 29:53Hrishikesh Hirway?

  You can also get a Song Exploder shirt at songexploder.net/shirt. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirway. Thanks for listening.