Prodigious drummer, producer and composer Maria Moles has played with a veritable who’s who of Australian art-pop and world music bands and artists, including Jaala, The Cloud Maker, Panghalina, Ajak Kwai, Adam Halliwell, and Jonnine (HTRK).

Her multiple solo releases explore more ambient and soundscape territory, bringing in synthesisers and found instruments to delve into “more instrumental, textural, explorative things”.

“Over the years, I've spent a lot of time playing other people's music and being part of different bands, and I really love that because I just think songwriters and front people are amazing,” Maria says. “Also just being able to connect with other people is such a beautiful thing about playing music.

“I think that's the beauty of playing music that can be a little bit more improvised in structure, because you can spend more time creating and performing rather than doing lots of songwriting and structuring. And then that leaves time for me to have more of that headspace in my own solo works.

I like to see them all as wearing different hats in a way, but they also fuel one another. 

"For example, playing with an artist like Jonnine [Standish], her approach is very organic in the way she writes her songs, and even when it comes to recording and production. And then that can influence me in how I approach my track. So I’m kind of taking little bits of just learning from people that I play with.”

Her critically acclaimed experimental solo works build slowly, with washes of cymbals and sparse drumming growing into soundscapes of synth drones and percussion runs of restrained precision.

Moles says her approach to writing music, “definitely develops as it goes… there might be one where I do this whole drum take and then I'm like, ‘oh, I really want to add this texture or this synth line or this soundscape behind it’, and then I realise that the drum part, I just get rid of that, and then that new soundscape becomes the original bed.

I like to think there's a lot more freedom in the ideas that come out when I'm improvising and I feel a bit more confident to explore bolder statements. 

“Just having more fun and freedom with it… I think that hopefully people that listen to the music are in tune with wanting to listen to something that might make them want to focus and sit with the different textures and go with you on that journey through the piece.”

Moles is currently editing her next piece, aiming for release early next year. She recorded the new work with her sound engineer partner earlier in 2025, having taken a year off after the birth of her son.

“It was really just to play and get in the studio after not playing. It was a really good feeling to just go in there and let these ideas out after having a break. I intended it to be solo drum kit, but I think I'm going to add some different layers and stuff. I still don't really fully know what it'll be yet, but it was really fun.

Her recording set-up is “a very ‘bedroom home studio’, pretty DIY. For drum kit recording, we went to Sydney Road Studios. But I do the editing and recording any overdubs at home in the bedroom. I like the bedroom studio cosy feel where you don't feel like you're going into work, you're just at home and having cups of tea.”

Moles recently toured in Japan, and previously to Europe and North America, with assistance from Music Australia’s Export Development Fund. She says the funding undeniably helped to realise the tours.

It can be pretty challenging because it is such a niche space. 

“You're not playing to huge crowds. It's a more intimate setting, and your listeners are really dedicated, which is a beautiful thing… 

“You get to play in these really unique settings, and it really does feel like you're part of the community, but it's a small community and it's more of that cultural exchange where you get to meet people and be part of this smaller network of musicians. But it is challenging. To make it viable, you really do have to rely on funding for touring to do it in a way that's comfortable and sustainable, not to try and do a show every night. 

“[The funding meant] I could pay musicians that I worked with a fair fee for their time. I could schedule some rest days. It just meant it wasn't a struggle. For the Japan tour, my son was 11 months, so I was able to bring him and my partner over with me. To do that touring as a young parent was really amazing.”

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