{"id":240504,"date":"2026-04-21T15:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240504\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:57:08","slug":"ahead-of-tampa-debut-at-usfs-music-festival-maris-talks-beginnings-community-and-personal-style-the-crows-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/240504\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahead of Tampa debut at\u00a0USF\u2019s\u00a0Music Festival MARIS talks beginnings,\u00a0community\u00a0and personal style \u2013 The Crow’s Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maris Maddux-Ward, otherwise known as MARIS, is a pop artist who performed at the University of South Florida\u2019s\u00a0BullStock\u00a0Music Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Gabriel\u00a0Ballister-Rivera.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

By Irena Mesa\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

From the second her sister showed her the GarageBand app, MARIS knew she wanted to be a musician.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

She moved to New York at 18, playing what she called terrible gigs with just her guitar for five people who hated their lives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

On\u00a0Friday,\u00a0April 10,\u00a0she brought her flashy pop songs and bright style to perform in the\u00a0BullStock\u00a0Music Festival as an opener for The Driver Era.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like my music is bright, colorful and saturated, so I try to execute that on my face with stage makeup as well and it brings the whole thing together,\u201d MARIS told\u00a0The Crow\u2019s Nest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

MARIS sports a star drawn with graphic eyeliner,\u00a0a personal touch\u00a0dating back to high school where she wore plastic stars as tears, which eventually evolved into a part of the look and\u00a0atmosphere she\u00a0wishes to evoke with her music.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a place where people could come to be loud and obnoxious and glittery and punk, and it doesn\u2019t matter where you\u2019re from \u2014 if you\u2019re here and you\u2019re here to have a good time, you\u2019re welcome to party with us,\u201d MARIS\u00a0said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"MARIS and her new single \u201cMissing Me\u201d were recently featured on Vevo\u2019s DSCVR series that has highlighted other up-and-coming artists such as Chappell Roan. Photo courtesy of Gabriel\u00a0Ballister-Rivera.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MARIS writes her own music, and she told\u00a0The Crow\u2019s Nest\u00a0that it is a form of therapy for her and inspired by whatever she is going through.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI went into the studio one day and I was like, \u2018I think I need to analyze my relationship with cannabis,\u2019 because I was smoking a lot,\u00a0and \u2018She\u2019s that girl, but we need to take a look at that.\u2019 And then \u2018Mary and I\u2019 was born,\u201d MARIS said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

MARIS explained that \u201cBody is on fire\u201d was inspired by a late night of crazy sex and provided an outlet for what she was feeling.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With\u00a0all of\u00a0her songs, she hopes to share the message of the positives that come from being dramatic and loud.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating a space for yourself to really feel all of your feelings to the thousandth percentile is healthy and good,\u201d MARIS said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI feel like a lot of my songs are about different things but take the most dramatic angle that I could possibly\u00a0take.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"MARIS best describes her music genre as pop that sometimes sounds club-like or has more drums and a rock sound.\u00a0
Photo courtesy of Gabriel\u00a0Ballister-Rivera.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her live shows build on that idea, allowing fans to come together, meet new people, make new friends and to dance and let go all in one space.\u00a0\u00a0And she believes that aspect of community is essential.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGo and make friends with people that are different than you, because the world is a really incredible, diverse and stunning place, and you can always learn something from everybody,\u201d MARIS said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The MARIS \u201cGoes to\u00a0College\u201d tour started on April 8 in Georgia, and will be touring through the United States with a final stop in Canada in Sept. Her next stop is in Chapel Hill, NC.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"During her set, MARIS let the crowd through a self-love exercise, asking audiences to hug themselves, take a deep breath, and tell their 16-year-old self that they love them.\u00a0Photo courtesy of Gabriel\u00a0Ballister-Rivera.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 32 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
Written by: Irena Mesa<\/a> on April 21, 2026.
Last revised by: Julia Ferrara<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maris Maddux-Ward, otherwise known as MARIS, is a pop artist who performed at the University of South Florida\u2019s\u00a0BullStock\u00a0Music…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-240504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}