Maria Isabel Talks New Music, New EP

M
aría Isabel is always on the go. Over the past year, the singer-songwriter has been living out of a suitcase, shuttling between New York and her home in Los Angeles, recording a new EP in Miami, and even visiting the Dominican Republic, where she shot a recent video for her new single “Suiza.” It may sound head-spinning but she thrives in constant motion.

“I don’t like being in one place for too long,” María Isabel tells Rolling Stone. “The second, every day starts to feel the same, I get really restless.”

We are sitting in a booth at Cafe Chelsea on the first non-freezing day in late February. It’s warm enough that María has slipped off her light fluffy brown jacket and wears a simple white tank top, her gold hoops and matching gold nameplate necklace shining in the restaurant light. Her green eyes glimmer as she admits that she has to go home and pack later for another flight back to L.A.; she is only home for a few days to pick up her dog Omarion. New York is where she grew up and it will always have her heart, but there is one thing in L.A. that she can’t wait to get back to: her car.

“I really love being in my car by myself,” she says, adding. “That’s when I mostly listen to music, including my music.” María remembers that special moment when she was finally able to play her collection of new songs while driving. “It was the first time I had given myself a second,” she says. “We’re in the dead of winter right now, but it feels quite summer-coded, so I’m excited for it to just get warmer and to have it blasting.”

María shared the first taste of her new EP last year with singles “Sunset Tower” and “Bien Bien.” Now, the singer has released “Suiza,” a dembow-inflected track which highlights the project’s confident, IDGAF tone and its Latin music influences. Along with the song, she delivers a bright music video, filmed in her homeland of the Dominican Republic. “The song just feels a little bigger than anything I’ve made before,” she says. “Shooting the song’s video felt like living my pop star dreams.”

“Suiza” and the rest of the sultry R&B and reggaeton-inspired tracks, produced by Latin pop architect El Guincho, who has worked with everyone from Rosalía, FKA Twigs, and Camila Cabello, mark somewhat of a departure for María. Since 2020, the singer-songwriter built a steady following with her EPs, I Hope You’re Very Unhappy Without Me and 2021’s Stuck in the Sky, which were full of  “sad girl R&B,” as María puts it. “I definitely used to box myself in a little bit as an artist,” she says. On those earlier projects, María reflected on her mental health journey over simple, muted beats and delicate chords. “I was very much a little bit lost in the world when all the first music was coming out and still figuring out what I wanted to say.” 

In the five years since her last EP, María’s vision for her music has become clear. While her earlier work found the singer seamlessly moving between Spanglish, this new release is entirely in Spanish. “I didn’t go in with that intention,” says María, Instead, she “leaned more heavily on the way I grew up to write this next project.”

Born and raised in Queens, the singer would walk outside and hear a mix of Jay-Z, salsa, and bachata being played from bodegas. Her family didn’t have a musical background; her father worked as computer technician and her mom was a patient services administrator at a hospital. Still, “they definitely helped shape it at home,” she says. Her parents signed her up for vocal lessons and the church choir, and her mother bought her Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera concert DVDs. “I would watch them so excessively that I would start to memorize the choreography on stage,” María says. For a school exercise that asked what kids wanted to be when they grew up, she vividly remembers her response: “I drew a girl with a microphone and I was like, ‘I’m going to be a pop star.’”

Before she could make that happen, María’s parents insisted she get a college education. She chose to study English literature at New York University; halfway through her undergrad, she switched to Gallatin to study songwriting and music business. While there, she wrote her first songs and met the collaborators that would shape her initial projects. Though María has spent most of her life dreaming of being a professional singer and musician, she doesn’t take her reality for granted at all. “As a first-generation kid, I’m really blessed to do what I do in the sense that I don’t think my parents could have imagined my future turning out this way or seeing it for themselves,” she says.

Beyond her New York City upbringing and Dominican background, María’s new EP was also inspired by the end of her longest relationship at this point in her life. “The relationship just got really heavy. As much as I loved that person, it was just at some point I was like, ‘I’m losing myself to be in this,’” she says. Still, Maria put off ending the relationship for some time. “I just thought I was going to be so heartbroken.” As soon as she made the difficult decision to end the relationship, something she says she “delayed,” María realized it was the best thing she could’ve done. “I felt lighter after and I was like, ‘I am okay by myself,’” she recalls. 

That’s why her new EP isn’t a collection of heartbreak songs, but self-assured tracks with biting lyrics that reflect her current adult chapter. On “Suiza,” for example, María quips, “Menos mal que no me case” (“Thank goodness I didn’t get married”). “I was dating for the first time as a full grown adult where I’m settled and know what I want, what I don’t want,” she says. “So it was just way more fun and lighthearted,” she adds.

The set of songs blend María’s love for hip-hop and Latin pop as she embarks on her new era. “I was so anti uptempo when I first started making music. Everything had to be under a hundred bpm,” she says. Now, those sad vibes and minor chords are being traded for tropic-hued songs with a pulsing bass. 

With a faster-paced project on her hands, María can’t wait to see how she’ll bring the songs to the stage. “In the past it was a live band with me on the mic but now there’s so much going on sonically that I am not really sure what a live show looks like yet,” she says. But she’s ready for the challenge. “I’m excited to figure that out.” The best part about performing live for María, though, is being able to watch the audience connect with her songs in realtime. “Nothing will ever feel as good as that,” she says. “I just think seeing someone sing the words to your song is the best feeling I’ve ever felt in my life.”