Mariya Stokes is a country-Americana artist, known for her candid storytelling style that shines through with her album Mood Ring. Stokes takes the listener’s hand and shares the journey powered by a vision as “bold and unapologetic” as her storytelling.
Stokes took time to talk with True North FM while stopping in the city of Yellowknife to play music from Mood Ring just released in late May.
The artist explains the album has its roots in country music.
“There’s kind of a sonic colour, a different colour for each song. So musically, we have a couple songs that are a little bit more blues or a little bit more pop or a little bit more Funk and then also there’s a song for every mood. So the whole record is kind of like a colour spectrum of mood and sounds.”
The artist looked back at the experiences that shaped the collection of songs and brought to the surface an unexpected duality of forces at work, equally shaping the album.
“I didn’t realize that the track list and the way that the record was structured was actually doing this until the record was done. So the first half of it, the A side, if you’re listening on vinyl or side one, is actually quite focused on empowerment,” says Stokes.
“The back half is quite reflective and almost delusional in some of the songs, when you go through a breakup or a relationship and when you’re in it or right after it, there’s love and then there’s deep anger. And then a little bit later, you’re able to reflect on that and understand what the anger was.”
From a sonic storm that draws from a place of anger, fuelled by love, the song “F____ Pretty” is speaks back to oppressive standards of beauty and appearances.
“I was scrolling on social media, as one does and kept seeing all these videos telling me about how I could improve my appearance and make my hair shinier and my skin clearer,” says Stokes.
“It really started to make me angry, because all the people that I love in my life are smart and funny and kind and they stand up for what they believe in, and a lot of them don’t fit conventional beauty standards. They have really interesting style and really cool ways of expressing themselves. So I got a little angry and I wanted to write a song honouring that and honouring the individuality and the coolness that we all have when we lean into who we are. And also saying that you’re so much more than what you look like,” asserts Stokes
With “Biggest Fan,” the artist takes a deep dive into exploring what it’s like feeling lost in a relationship where the love and care is not reciprocal.
“You’re their biggest cheerleader and encouraging them and putting a lot of love and time into that relationship and not getting it back,” explains Stokes.
The song is written from a “delusional narrator” perspective and it’s among Stokes’ favourite songs on the record.
“One of my favourite ones to sing live. It’s a little bit delusional, just like me,” jokes the artist, who is known for her quick wit and sense of humour.
With “One Of ‘Em” Stokes takes another deep dive into the theme of love. The song was originally not supposed to be on that record.
Then in what she calls a stroke of “luck,” Stokes received a Canadian Country Music Association Development award, recognzing her as among the top eight emerging artists in country music in Canada. That brought a few unexpected turns which shaped the record and brought in another gem of a song coloring Mood Ring ‘s sprectrum.
Stokes was able to go to Vancouver and record at a warehouse that is actually Bryan Adams’ studio. An experience that brought in a lot of excitement and joy to her journey and after going through the song catalogue, Stokes says she realized that something was missing from the album.
“We realized that if we’re going to record a song for this album, we wanted it to be a song that was going to fit within mood ring and what we’d already done and we realised that – One, of (the songs in the collection) there was a was a mood and energy we were missing from the record – about falling in love with somebody and it not working out for whatever reason, but regardless, that person treats you with dignity and respect and care and even though they might be the one that that got away, or one of the ones that got away. It’s a positive experience, so it’s celebrating those people, I think everybody’s got somebody like that,” says Stokes.
Performing the album live is one of the “coolest feelings in the world,” exclaims the artist. “It’s wicked, being at Folk On The Rocks.
Stokes said performing the songs for a live audience now is nothing short of “fantastic.”
“Hearing the stories from folks who have listened to the songs and who resonate with them and hearing them sing along is one of the coolest experiences in my life,” asserts Stokes.
While the artist has reached a level of success many artists can only dream of, as a two-time winner of Country Music Alberta’s Female Artist of the Year, there have been many challenges that shaped her journey and influenced her music.
“There are challenges all the way along and the biggest one would probably be imposter syndrome. I’ve been doing music full time for a long time, but I still have this deep rooted fear that people are going to (say) ‘she’s not a real musician,’ which is funny because I am and I’ve been doing it for a while,” Stokes points out.
At times, she felt “unsure” if the songs were good enough and that shaped the record, Stokes reflects. Ultimately, it was “trusting the vision, the creative vision behind the record” that got her through. Looking back, the artist is proud of what she built but admits there’s always a little bit of fear of “not being good enough.”
“I think, that’s what courage is, just push through it and keep going.
Stokes says she has written hundreds of songs before choosing the songs for the record and has also written songs for other artists, and the dynamic of writing can be tough to navigate.
“Right from the Inception of the songwriting process. There’s always that question. Is it good enough and I always come back to – If I’m being honest and if I’m working with people that I trust, some of the songs will end up being good enough.
When she first started out at the age of 18, Stokes’ main goal was to be able to work full-time at her music.
“The only thing I wanted to do was to be able to make a living doing music. And so, now that I’ve been doing that for a little while, and I have this body of work out and I get to travel to fantastic places like Yellowknife and see so much of Canada,” says Stokes.
“I’m living the dream, there’s always bigger things to chase, but I really especially right now, after all the work that went into this record, I’m trying to just be grateful at the moment.”
What advice does Stokes have for emerging artists?
“Trust your gut. And if anybody tells you that they know what they’re doing, they’re probably wrong. Trust yourself, focus on your art and then learn the business later, but just figure out what you want to say and find good people.”
Stokes says the main thing is “to stay true to yourself.”
Stokes is going to be playing live this Saturday at 4:45 p.m. and Sunday at 5:15 pm at Folk On The Rocks
