Maris is pop music's next 'Mega Star.' It's written all over her face

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Nearly 10 years ago, high school student Maris pulled up to Missoula, Mont.’s Rockin Rudy’s record store in her ’05 Chevy Impala, a plastic bin full of burned CDs in tow.At 16, the budding singer-songwriter was convinced that unless she wrote and produced an album on her own, she’d never be a real artist.So she recorded a handful of songs, bought 150 jewel cases and started spending lunch periods in graphic design class, where she had access to Photoshop.

Serving as her own manufacturing plant, she packaged the discs, self-designed slips and handwritten notes while watching movies.Maris recalled Guitar Center and Barnes & Noble declining to sell her music at their stores.

But that day at Rockin Rudy’s, her luck changed, and the 12-track “Of the Sea” — the Latin translation of “Maris” — was the No.1 CD at the record shop for two weeks.

At 26, Maris said she hopes to never hear those songs again.But every time she visits Rockin Rudy’s, she buys a T-shirt as a thank-you for taking a chance on her.“I try to be very evidence-based in the way that I approach the world,” she said.

“And it gave me evidence: this is something that can work.”Maris rounded the back pool table at Highland Park Bowl, her NASCAR cutoff tank and low-slung jeans rendering her unrecognizable as the high-femme pop star who took the Echoplex stage weeks earlier to close her first headline tour.Billed as “the intergalactic sapphic pop show of your dreams,” the monthlong Give Me a Tour run was a joint effort with L.A.transplant Caroline Kingsbury, who featured on Maris’ retrowave track “Give Me a Sign.” The song, released in March, hit 1 million streams in a month.

Since then, Maris has landed a co-sign from Elton John and a feature on “Rock Hall Rising.” Music John Sykes, chairman of the Rock Hall, explains why Los Angeles regularly hosts the induction ceremony...