Based in NYC but born and raised in Quito, Ecuador, Maria Usbeck moved to the states at 17 to attend art school, and found herself fronting the new wave band Selebrities. After five years of singing in English, Maria decided to let her mother tongue speak and began to create music on her own. The tracks on sophomore LP Envejeciendo – out on August 16 – form a concept album exploring the universal obsession with youth and our preoccupation with growing older, and are anchored in Usbeck’s personal experiences with adulthood. After recently forcing herself out of a depressive, aging-induced slump, Usbeck was determined to have fun with the subject matter. The album is peppered with personal anecdotes and nods to her firsthand fieldwork into the aging process. Particularly moving are the samples of a recorded interview with Usbeck’s late Ecuadorian grandmother, who speaks animatedly about her girlhood suitors and imagines what her life could have been had she married someone else. It’s this tone of nostalgic joy, coexisting with curiosity for futures both impossible and unrealized, that runs throughout Envejeciendo.
