In a world shaped by conflict, technology, and shifting truths, Mary’s work blends music with sharp political and social reflection. In this interview, she reflects on art as both reaction and responsibility, the ideas influencing her work, and how global realities continue to shape her sound. Come check her out in concert — Wednesday 1.4.2026. 

Your music often carries political and social commentary: do you see art more as a responsibility or a reaction?
I think it’s a mixture of the two. Naturally, writing is a reaction to the world around us, but there is also an element of engaging with it, in hope to affect it, to connect, unite the like-minded.
With nearly every aspect of life affected by the wars sprawling and spreading from all the countries I am connected to, aggressive new forms of state propaganda and restrictions on expression, access to information, and to some extent even thinking itself in every country that I visit (with self inflicted censorship, fear, peer pressure) it is increasingly impossible to write about anything else.

What non-musical influences (books, philosophy, visual art) shape your ideas the most?
Let’s see.. in recent years I was captivated by the writing of Ray Kurzweil, whose views I also find unrealistically optimistic, yet very interesting – coming from the perspective of a very privileged man, disconnected from the reality of the majority of the world’s population.
He believes that humanity will prosper with every new technology, merge with it, become better with it. He’s one of the most prominent supporters of Transhumanism, an odd ideology, if not religion that many Silicon Valley men have adopted since. With megalomaniac power hungry visions of extending (their) human life, preserving their legacies. It’s pretty terrifying and fascinating. And the scary part is that it’s no longer science fiction. He also developed a very interesting theory of rights for incorporeal beings – for artificial entities to have legal rights similar to corporations – and all of this was imagined already over twenty years ago(!).
I find it hard to believe that those in power will allow for technology to be used to create a more fair, equal society, ATM it seems that most societies are heading towards less equality, and a wider gap between the super rich and the very poor, there’s just too many wealthy men who enjoy their special privileges and will do everything in their (big) power to prevent from losing these privileges
Then there’s Yanis Varuofakis’ Technofeudalism, which is a leftist analysis on recent advances on economy and power, from a slightly more socially conscious individual – who despite now being quite wealthy and powerful – comes from a socialist background. It’s particularly enjoyable to read in parallel with Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations – to see how societies’ economic structures evolved over the last 300 years. I’ve been reading that one for… 2 years now? Another 600 or so pages to go.

Looking at Approaching Singularity: Music for The End of Time, what does “the end of time” mean to you personally or culturally?
You can read it however you like. It could be a literal end of life in the way that Karl Jaspers’ The Future of Mankind described it (written leading to the cold war scare and its very real nuclear threat).
It seems that many of those currently in power leading some of the world’s most powerful military powers are truly selfish and couldn’t care less about human life, other than of the ones close to them, so that scare once again feels very real. But it is also about the rewriting of historical, cultural narratives, which seems to be happening on every level right now.
What is real? What can be believed anymore? This is a new dark era of lies and manipulation on a scale we’ve never seen before. And it’s easier than ever before for governments to control their narrative, rewrite uncomfortable facts out of history, and prosecute anyone who tries to challenge it. As someone who was born at the end of the Soviet era, I’m incredibly sensitive to that. Western forms of propaganda (including that of Israel, where I grew up) are so subtle that most of its population is unaware of how they’ve been systematically exposed to it, shaping unquestionable rightwing nationalistic, ethnicist loyalism.

Do you think audiences interpret your work differently depending on where you perform? Could you share an example?

Most certainly. Everyone’s background and experience, and hence the way they relate to the work is different – whether they come from a country with a traditionally repressive regime, or a succession of many. Or if they experienced strict, religious upbringing (the way I did). And then of course there is the question of how they relate to my personal background of criticism of my own states and nationalism. I find that the Irish and South Africans relate in very interesting ways to the palestinian-jewish conflict, through the lens of their own history of political oppression and violence based on inequality enforced by the government itself.
I’ve performed everywhere from the west: all over Europe, UK, North America, Australia and NZ to the east: China, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and of course Russia and Israel where I lived as a child. It’s a pretty scary time to be living in.

You’ve worked largely outside mainstream systems: what have been the biggest advantages and challenges of that?
The biggest advantage is that I am in control of how I want to manage every aspect of my work, and while industry artists get hyped for a year, or a few if they’re lucky, I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years now full time for a living. I will keep doing it for as long as I am physically and mentally able to.
The biggest challenges are obvious – I get very little help and it takes absolutely everything to be able to do this.

What advice would you give emerging artists who want to stay independent today?
Don’t listen to anyone, unless they are encouraging. You can use every bit of support you can get – but be aware that most of them will not be encouraging, they’ll look for ways to make you feel small, and unimportant.
If you choose to follow this path, know that it doesn’t get easier, it will always be hard, but it’s everything, it’s absolutely everything, and it’s worth every bit of it.

Have there been collaborations that surprised you in terms of the final outcome?
Every collaboration is a surprise, from its very nature. You are not in control of what others bring into it, that’s precisely what makes collaborations interesting, it forces everyone to get out of their comfort zones.

How do you decide who to collaborate with: what makes someone the “right” artistic match for you?
I reach out to artists I find interesting. There’s no rules to it, I find the ways that some use words, technology or ideas interesting. It’s encouraging to reach out when I know it’s also someone who is familiar and likes my work. There’s always an element of risk, they might turn you down, or it might not work out in the end, and everyone might end up disappointed. But that’s all part of it, it’s about keep trying despite the outcome.

Razgovarala: Anita Ulovec (Volontiram u Močvari)