Nicaraguan-American Mars Rodriguez wears many hats: DIY artist, producer, music engineer, and a one-person band. At the moment, she is working on her debut album, and with that endeavour comes a new single and video entitled “ReaLiTY”, which touches upon self-healing and personal evolution.
Her music incorporates elements of varied styles ranging from post-punk, blues, indie rock, pop, and electronic music, but Rodriguez also transcends cultural and language barriers, with lyrics are written in Spanish, English, and French.
In 2018, Mars Rodriguez started a solo project, releasing two singles No Estas and Pulsar, recorded at La Gotera, in Nicaragua. Months later, she ended up moving unexpectedly to the U.S. due to Nicaragua’s political crisis and dictatorship, spending time in Atlanta first before making the move to Los Angeles. These major life changes led to the artist making home recordings, where she learned to engineer, mix and produce herself. Last year, she released her debut EP, Don’t Wait For Nothing. All songs were written, recorded, engineered, and produced by Mars Rodriguez herself.
“There are always challenges, stepping stones in order to become whatever you want to be,” she told VoyageLA. “Inner troubles, dealing with yourself and your demons… it’s always a challenge, losing one of closest friends, ex-bandmate was and still is painful. Being far away from home, knowing that people don’t have freedom, knowing that people are persecuted, tortured is so painful, I feel like I’m living a double reality. I have experienced a lot of uncertainty, not knowing where I’m going, trying new ways of making music, literally just going with the flow, I kind of like it, life surprises you, when you allow to not take control.”
The video, filmed and co-directed by Ryan Dietzenbach, is a powerful interpretation of the addition cycle, as she manically writhes about between vignettes of popping pharmaceuticals and masking her true self. A poignant offering from her upcoming EP, addressing a growing problem around the globe.
Watch the video for “ReaLiTY” below:
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