User:Driptv/sandbox/Maruco

= Maruco =

Mario Alberto Sibaja Vargas ("Maruco"), born on November 25, 1989, is a Costa Rican Latin Pop and R&B singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Maruco was born in San José, Costa Rica. He was mostly interested in soccer as a child but coming from a family of musicians on both sides of his parents it was only a matter of time before he had taken an interest for music. At the age of 12, he started playing the acoustic guitar. He learned how to play the electric bass at the age of 13 and drums when he was 15. He was part of a couple rock bands where he mostly played bass. Maruco moved to the United States at the age of 21 to the State of Wisconsin where he lived for a few years before moving out to Seattle, Washington where he was influenced by the music he heard in the Latino community.

Though his music is primarily latin pop with an R&B style of singing, Maruco has experimented with a variety of musical genres in his work, including folk, synth pop, electronica, house and nu disco music, reggaeton and Latin trap, and R&B. His original musical inspirations included the likes of artists such as Daft Punk and Depeche Mode as well as reggaeton king, Daddy Yankee. Maruco also attended an Audio Engineering and Recording Program where he learned how to record and produce his music. He writes, produces, and mixes all of his own material making him a rare artist in the Reggaeton and Latin Trap scene. Maruco has also produced Folk, Synthpop, and R&B making him quite a versatile musician and independent producer.

His debut single, "Lo Confieso" was released on July 12, 2019 on all digital music platforms.

1989-2009: Early life and career beginnings
Maruco was born into a middle-class family in San José, Costa Rica on November 25, 1989. His father was a traveling salesman, and he grew up moving around the country mostly in the province of Heredia. He grew up listening to rock groups such as Metallica and Nirvana. He developed an interest for pop music growing up. He grew up in a big family and his father was the sole breadwinner of the house hold. Putting food on the table was sometimes a struggle. On this period of his life, Maruco notes, “When I would go to the rural areas and barrios, people saw me as a rich person, mostly because of my white skin but when I was around rich people they would see me as someone from the ghetto. It’s all perceptions. I like moving between worlds. I feel equally comfortable in both.”

When Maruco attended Liceo Samuel Sáenz Flores (public High School) where he was part of the high school music program as a bassist and participated in several music competitions. He also performed singing and playing bass with his own rock band that he put together with other high school friends for student elections campaigns in front of hundreds of students. Right after high school, he got involved with an international non-profit where he worked as a volunteer for a couple years. He met a girl from Wisconsin and got married after six months of dating even though they knew each other for a couple years prior.

2010-2017: Rebirth and new music pursuit
During his time in Wisconsin he focused on his marriage and his job where he worked as a Spanish Medical Interpreter in different clinics and hospitals in Northeast Wisconsin. He then shortly moved out to Madison, Wisconsin where he felt the environment was a little more diverse for his liking. Maruco and his wife at the time bought a small house in Madison at the age of 23 and during that time he stopped making music and performing until 2014 when his marriage fell apart and decide to pursue music again. Later in 2014 and 2015 Maruco had been performing in local bars playing acoustic folk music on the side while working as an Account Manager for an employee benefits company. In late 2015, he decided to pursue music a little more seriously and moved out to Montana where he studied Audio and Recording Engineering and recorded a folk EP at Studio 501 in Lakeside for 4 months before moving out to Seattle, Washington in January of 2016. Shortly after arriving in Seattle, he wrote a 4-song 80's synth pop EP under the name of the name of "Northern Nomads" and put together a 5-piece band that he lead. They performed in different Seattle venues but after a year of performing the same songs and not feeling like it was going anywhere he decided to dismember the band. Maruco continued to release a couple R&B singles on his own under Northern Nomads until he felt the project had to come to an end at the end of 2018. Maruco had a rebirth not only musically but culturally. He felt like something was missing and decided to go back to his roots: his people and music for his people in his native language.

2018-present: Reggaeton and latin trap
Maruco had been DJing at clubs and venues different styles of music however, there was one that always resonated with him: Reggaeton. It's the music of the moment but also the music that he grew up with. It reminded him of home and his people back in Costa Rica. In 2019, Maruco decided he wasn't there anymore to try to please people with music that appealed to mostly white people thinking that would somehow help him while living in America. He decided that he was only for the culture and he was only going to sing in Spanish going forward no matter what. He said "I feel that as a white passing latino in the U.S. I'm sometimes held to certain standards other latinos aren't. I want that to stop. I want the world to see me and treat me for who I truly am: a born and raised latino and really proud to be one and I want equality and justice for my people no matter their skin tone." This is when he decided to use his childhood nickname as his artist name because it reminded him of his roots. He had been working on a few songs in 2019 and finally decided to drop his debut single, "Lo Confieso" on July 12, 2019.

Musical style
Close friends of Maruco have described his music as "if The Weekend sang Reggaeton" with his vocal delivery as a "gentle drawl", differing greatly from the rapid-fire, aggressive delivery of earlier reggaeton acts. He generally sings over his beats as opposed to rapping, and favors a more melodic, pop-influenced style. In terms of music production, instead of the hard-edged, maximalist beats of the first wave, Maruco’s tracks are moody and spaced out". Maruco says "my production has a little bit of everything but you can definitely hear the pop influence on my beats. Mostly coming from the synths but I try not to take away the vibe from the summery-feel good Caribbean Reggae influence. I listen to a lot of J Balvin and the production of Tainy and Sky Rompiendo but I'm also a big fan of The Weeknd and his production style with a lot of 80s synth influence which I can appreciate."

In addition to the primary inspiration of Daddy Yankee, Maruco has cited reggae legend, Bob Marley which was a big part of his adolescent years during trips to the Costa Rican beaches. Another big influence was the poet and Cuban trovadeur, Silvio Rodriguez whom his father listened to and covered extensively growing up. You can also hear some tropical influence in his music. A big part of his influence was salsa and merengue in his early years. He listened to a lot of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Juan Luis Guerra, Celia Cruz, Oscar D'Leon, Ruben Blades, and Willie Colón.