Brett Callwood
The Marías Join the Beehive: María Zardoya and Josh Conway of L.A. alt-pop band the Marías told us about their Coachella experience.
María Zardoya: I have a couple. The first one that I experienced in my life that is one for the books was a Don Omar concert — he’s a reggaeton artist. I was 15 or 16 and I had saved enough money from working at this retail job to get my brother and I V.I.P tickets. Right before Don Omar came on, they were doing a dance contest in front of thousands of people, and obviously I raised my hand. So they picked me to be a part of this dance competition, and I did a little dance, did a back handspring and some splits (I was in gymnastics), and ended up winning. It was really cool.
Another favorite was, the same weekend we were playing our first Coachella, Beyoncé was also playing. That was just the most incredible, visually stunning performance, plus of course it sounded amazing. For context, I’m 5’2 — well, 5’1 but 5’2 on a good day — and I could barely see but our trumpet player who is like 6’3, propped me up on his shoulders and I saw the first three songs, including the intro performance from up there. We were in the middle of the crowd too, so I really got to see the entire thing as if they were performing right to me. That night I remember being with all my girlfriends, and turning to them multiple times throughout the night and being like, “Wow, women are amazing.”
Josh Conway: Mine was that Beyoncé performance too, for sure. I’ve seen a lot of concerts in my day and Beyoncé was by far the greatest concert I’ve ever seen in my life.
The Marías Join the Beehive: The Marías’ new album Cinema is out now.
