Marilyn Hucek’s ‘Self Destruct’ EP Is A Bold Exploration of Love, Passion, & Obsession
Samantha Colleran, November 2026
Marilyn Hucek is a Chilean-American indie pop rock artist from Washington D.C. Music has always been in Marilyn’s DNA, from a young age she began songwriting and learning how to play the piano and guitar. Her debut single in 2020 was released in honor of her father, who battled early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Coming off Season 30 of The Voice, Marilyn’s musical journey is far from over. I had the chance to chat with her ahead of the release of her new EP Self Destruct. Covering themes of love, obsession, and passion, Self Destruct showcases a new side of Marilyn’s artistry and vocal abilities. Read our conversation below, and be sure to stream Self Destruct, officially out today!
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Samantha Colleran: Marilyn, welcome to the blog! For first time listeners, can you give a little introduction to who you are and how you got started in music?
Marilyn Hucek: I started singing when I was ten. I was in musical choir groups in elementary school and loved it so I kept going. When I was little, I was writing songs before I even knew what songwriting was. I don’t think any of them were very good, I don’t remember the melodies or anything, but I have journals of lyrics and that’s always how I’ve processed my emotions.
It really wasn’t until 2020 that I decided to pursue music professionally. When the global pandemic happened, my dad, who had been suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s got COVID, I thought I was going to lose him. Music spoke to me so loudly in that moment, I was compelled to write a song and release it in his name. That’s what launched my career and I haven’t looked back since. It’s been an incredible journey.
SC: That is so beautiful. You did mention your dad and the song you released for him, “Memories”, as well as “Neil Young” from your debut album which talks about the impact watching his battle had on you. Alzheimer’s, dementia, it’s a really tricky disease to watch someone you love suffer with. First, I have to say how sorry I am for your loss. I’m sure you get a lot of these stories, my Granny passed two and a half years ago and my parents and I were her primary caretakers. So, thank you for speaking about Alzheimer’s and bringing attention to it. A lot of conversations surrounding Alzheimer’s can be very heavy, so if you’re willing to share I’d love to know a story about your dad or a favorite memory you have, music related or not.
MH: Thank you so much for opening up to me about that, it takes a lot of courage and it’s not easy. I’m happy to talk about it because it helps us get through it and connect us. It’s kind of a taboo subject, it’s not talked about enough. I try to use my voice and platform to raise awareness, especially since it had such an impact on me and my family. I’m sorry to hear what you went through. I do think coming together in moments like this matters.
Music was something that always kept us connected through the years even when his memory would fade. That’s a big part of the song “Neil Young”, even when he would forget my name I would play his favorite song and he’d remember it. It goes to show how powerful music is. That’s what keeps me going everyday, realizing this deeper purpose I have of not only sharing my love of music and creating and all the stories I have to offer, but also this dual purpose of sharing Alzheimer’s. That’s what keeps me going on the hard days.
Some fond memories I have of him, he was such a hardworking guy and he loved to play piano. We both were the two piano players in the house, we’d take turns practicing on the piano. That’s how he met my mom, they met in the piano room while my mom was studying to be a professional musician in Chile and my dad was working for NASA at the time but he loved to play piano. He was a hobbyist, so he was borrowing the piano room and they met in the piano room. Music has always been in my DNA. He was a very hardworking guy and instilled those morals in me. I think… you know, we’d always go on runs together. He was a big marathon runner, I followed in his footsteps and ran the New York City Marathon. I remember small things that he liked to do, the way he would cut his grapefruit in the morning and sing songs. Small things like that bring me joy.
SC: Thank you for sharing, that was all so beautiful. I’m holding back tears right now, you think about the little things and it makes you smile. “Neil Young” is such a beautiful song. You did mention that your mom is from Chile. You were also born and raised in Washington D.C. How do you feel your Chilean-American background and growing up in D.C. shaped your musical identity and allowed you to find your path as an artist?
MH: It influenced me a lot. Being Chilean-American has influenced me a lot, it’s given me a lot of perspective. Growing up we’d visit my family in Chile a lot, for months at a time over summers, it was our winter break and their summer break. Sometimes my mom would take us out of school and homeschool us just so we could spend more time with her family. It’s given me a whole new vocabulary, I’m bilingual. I sing in English and Spanish, I’m able to express myself in both languages. It’s that culture, having multicultural heritage has given me more things to pull from, more ways to express myself. It’s cool to be able to connect with the Latin community in the states, especially Chileans. They’re such a prideful community from what we eat to the music we listen to, even now I’m getting to know so many Chilean artists that are inspiring me. I hope to be able to collaborate with more Latinos and Chileans in the future.
SC: I can’t wait to hear more of your collaborations in the future! Since you did talk a little bit about how being bilingual has expanded your vocabulary, I’d love to talk about your lyrics. You’re very vulnerable within your songwriting, it’s something that allows you to stand out among musical peers and helps you connect with your audience on a more human level. Do you find it a challenge to share so much of yourself in your music, or is the connection with listeners something that drives you to be more honest as a storyteller?
MH: I feel like drawing from personal experiences has been the basis of my songwriting, it’s how I got started. I just felt like, especially with my debut single “Memories”, writing about something that’s so personal is what launched my career. I’ve written other songs about Alzheimer’s like “Man Of The House”. I remember writing it and feeling really scared to release it. It felt so much bigger than me. Music is something that helps people everywhere, it’s such a powerful medicine in so many ways. I felt like I would be doing a disservice if I kept it to myself. There could be someone going through it that needs to hear it. It’s healing for me as well.
I’ve gotten better at being more vulnerable, “Neil Young” was a really tough song to share and it’s even more tough to perform. In the safety of my studio and my writing space I take risks and scare myself and go to places that I might not want to. Sharing it to the world is the next level of scariness, the third level is performing it live. The thing is, lucky me I push myself to do what scares me everyday so I can keep growing, but you just get better at it, it is scary.
SC: Being so vulnerable is a terrifying thing, but I appreciate it so much because like you said, it can be hard, but it brings people together. Sometimes having a community around you when you’re that scared can make it a little easier to be vulnerable. The main reason we’re here today is to talk about your EP Self Destruct, which is coming out on Nov 6. When you’re starting a new project, how do you approach it? Do you go into songwriting sessions with a general idea of the themes you want to talk about, or does that come later on as more songs take shape and you get deeper into sessions?
MH: It honestly depends, it changes with every project. For this one, I actually wrote it when I was in a music academy in Los Angeles called LAAMP, Los Angeles Academy for Artists and Music Production. It’s out in Santa Monica, we were there for a year writing and producing pretty much everyday in the studio. We had an end of year project where we all had to physically turn in an artist project. We could pick our collaborators, producers, we formed our teams and we had to concept our album, come up with moodboards. This was thought out, but I had been writing at the music academy for a year, so there were songs I started earlier in the year that I thought felt like me and I held onto, and by the time I got to my artist week I brought the song back in because it fit the world I was building. I would add songs and write new ones all based on this concept I came up with. It was definitely fluid, but I think there was a concept building, brainstorming session, too.
SC: Amazing it all came together in a year and you were able to build upon it in that way. I’d love to ask about the title track, “Self Destruct”. Did you know it was going to be the focal point of the EP, or was this something that came later on?
MH: When I wrote that song, it surprised me. I fell in love with it and I thought “This is the world I want to build.” After I wrote it, it gave me that lightbulb moment. I wanted to keep going in that direction and find songs that fit the attitude and theme. The whole EP is a little edgier, a little darker than what I’ve done in the past. It explores themes of passion, love, obsession, extremes. I felt “Self Destruct” was a perfect focal point for that and it’s a song I genuinely love.
SC: I love it as well! I did of course listen to your debut album, and listening to this it felt a lot edgier. It was really exciting to listen to. Was there anything you learned about yourself as an artist/musician while working on your debut album MARILYN that you took with you into the Self Destruct sessions?
MH: Working on MARILYN, I learned a lot about collaboration. When it came down to me working in this music academy, it served me. I started working with more people than ever. There were songs that were throwaways, not every song I wrote made it on the album. It taught me how to collaborate. I learned new things while working on the EP, I explored my range a lot more on this album. I’m belting on songs, hitting notes I’ve never hit before. “Animal House” is the most I’ve belted on a song. On “Self Destruct” I really go there on the bridge. It was fun because I got to explore different parts of my voice I’d never explored before.
SC: Did you find it challenging to get to those places, or was it like, “I’m in it, we’re going to try all sorts of things”?
MH: To this day, I’m learning so much about my voice, my instrument. I’m growing so much everyday, I will say when I was at the music academy, I had collaborators who pushed me. They pushed me to go there with my range. With their support and trust, I was able to explore and take risks which unlocked something in me I didn’t know I had. I never pushed myself like that before. It can help to have collaborators and to work with other people
SC: For sure, especially in a school like that where you’re working so closely with people, you want people to support you and you want to feel safe enough to go there with. I’d love to talk about “Graveyard”. I am a sucker for album/EP closers, and was really struck by “Graveyard”. It’s sonically different from the other four songs and feels incredibly personal. Can you share a little bit more about how that song came to be, and if its placement at the end of the EP was something you always envisioned as you were curating the tracklist?
MH: I’m so glad you like it and noticed that song. That one is definitely personal. I wanted to write a love song on the EP, something pure and special. That was inspired by my engagement. I also wanted the love song to fit on the project so I was exploring the juxtaposition of love and it being sweet lyrically but having the imagery be a little bit spooky and edgier, that’s where the graveyard imagery came from. It also came from a personal experience that my partner and I have. Sometimes we go on road trips together and we’ll keep our inner child alive. I don’t know if you ever did this growing up, when you hold your breath passing through a graveyard. We had done that and we’d be laughing, “Hold your breath, hold your breath!” I held onto that memory. At the time we were long distance, and I brought a recent memory of us doing that into the studio, we fleshed out the song based on that.
I wanted to have something a little calmer on the EP. It kind of reminds me of a workout class where you start out really hard with intense cardio and lifting, and at the end you do shavasana at the end of a yoga class. You lay on your back, you take it all in and reflect. When I wrote it, I wasn’t thinking about it being an album closer, I was just in the song and the lyrics. When I was putting the tracklist together, I felt this song should be at the end because it’s that more reflective, lighter tone. I want you to process the whole album with it.
SC: It was definitely the perfect way to close it. It is very grounding. It’s so sweet it was inspired by your engagement. It’s something everyone can relate to, so many people did that when they were younger. The superstition of holding your breath in a graveyard.
MH: Exactly! There’s a lyric in the song that says “I’m with you till the end”. It’s a metaphor for me and my community of listeners. You’re here with me until the end and you’ll be here with me in the future. It’s a powerful line because it’s speaking to my partner of eternal love, but also the listener, it’s like, “I’m with you till the end, too”.
SC: Is that your favorite lyric from the EP, or do you have another favorite lyric you’d be willing to share the story behind?
MH: I love that, and also a lyric in “Animal House” in the second verse. “Finally out of the cage and I’m feeling my fate take the bait / Got a mind like a snake / You’re a catch so you better pray”. It’s a long line, but I love the rhythm, I love the rhyme scheme. It rolls off the tongue. It was me and my two collaborators, and we were riffing off of each other. It’s like when you’re doing a puzzle and you’re on a roll, someone gets a piece and then another piece and then someone gets the final piece, it feels so good. I love to sing that live, it rolls off the tongue really well.
SC: I could feel how happy you were singing just now. Even without any background music, I could feel it. That’s a great one! I would also love to know if there were any songs on the EP that were harder to complete than others.
MH: “Self Destruct” was actually harder to complete, it took us a few days. We did a complete rewrite on the second day. THe first day we wrote it and we had our melodies, lyrics, production. Then we changed the production and then I went home and I was listening to the production and I was like, “Wait, I want to change the lyrics and the melody.” I was up all night thinking “We have to change this!” and was ideating, I had all these ideas. I came in the next day and told them I wanted to completely change it, and we did, and it was amazing.
SC: Sometimes you just need a complete redo of things and it comes together.
MH: My producer came up with this arpeggio that’s in the intro of the song. That really got my wheels turning, when she came up with that part I had so many more ideas. Sometimes a musical part will inspire me so much
SC: Sometimes if you hear something and you can’t get it out of your head, you think to yourself how you can keep it. What’s currently inspiring you in general, music or not?
MH: What’s currently inspiring me? I’ll say I’ve been listening to Spirit Room by Michelle Branch. She’s on tour now and she rereleased some versions of it, so that’s really fun. Also, what’s funny is that I was reading the series Twilight later in my adult years and that was a series that inspired the EP. I proceeded to watch all the movies and now it’s just a part of my life. Two days ago I ended up watching it again. “Clean” was fully inspired by Bella and Edward, the moment Edward comes into the cafeteria and Bella sees him for the first time. That mystery and fantasy and the vampire and the obsession and do anything for love vibe was really inspiring and still inspires me to this day.
SC: First of all, obsessed with that because I love Twilight. This is coming out at the perfect time. People will appreciate that little tidbit so much. My final question, what do you hope listeners take away from Self Destruct, whether it’s walking away feeling a certain emotion or a message you hope they carry with them?
MH: I hope they can enjoy the EP, they can see themselves in it. I hope it makes them feel something, whatever that feeling may be. I hope they enjoy it and can make it their own.
SC: Thank you so much for your time! Where can people find you online and follow along all things Marilyn?
MH: You can find me @marilynhucek everywhere.
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Self Destruct is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, and wherever else you listen to your music! Follow Marilyn on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter (X) to stay up to date on future releases.