The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.
Lead vocalist and guitar player Maria Weiss of the San Francisco lesbian rock band For Your Pleasure says she hopes listeners will feel empowered to take action for whatever causes they are interested in. Weiss has been playing guitar her whole life and joined her high school band. Her father also played drums in different bands and would send Weiss to a family dance camp every winter for years.
“I think that when I write songs, I don’t have a plan, or I’m not like, ‘I want to write a song about this,’ but somehow the lyrics just form what I’ve been thinking about, kind of like a diary or journal,” said Weiss.
She wrote music for years but was too shy to share it with others until she began playing at open mic events and meeting people. She formed the band in 2019, which includes her sister, Catherine, who plays drums and vocals. The band is in the process of recording their first album.
“This is the first time I’ve ever recorded in like a legitimate way,” said Weiss. “So we’re gonna release some singles, and we picked [“Teardown”] because it feels relevant to the political and cultural climate of our world.”