What is Mettātopia

Mettātopia, the sonic vision of singer-songwriter and creator Barbara Wilson Arboleda, is a genre-blending amalgam of neo-indie, indie pop, dark alt-pop, and industrial pop.

Painted on a canvas of sonic textures and voice, Mettātopia is immersively ambient with a chaotic undercurrent that hints at vacillating tension between the comforts and conflicts of human relationships. Barbara approaches her music with the same story-first ethos as her poetry and science fiction writing, hurling listeners between dystopian disillusionment and hopeful aspiration.

Barbara approaches her music with the same story-first ethos as her poetry and science fiction writing, hurling listeners between dystopian disillusionment and hopeful aspiration.

Through haunting melodies and deeply reflective lyrics, Mettātopia laments humanity’s shortcomings while calling for a collective drive toward something better. Each track is infused with a sense of urgency—an invitation to look inward and upward, to question, evolve, and find hope amid the darkness.

Who is Mettātopia

Barbara Wilson Arboleda

Barbara was born a storyteller and has been singing for as long as she could speak. The parade of characters marching around her mind enters the world as poems, fiction, and songs.

The themes in Barbara’s work are a fusion of her passion for technology, history, sociology, and the nature of consciousness. She’s an avid reader of science fiction, steampunk, crime fiction, and everything by Nnedi Okorafor. Her musical inspirations are varied, including Duran Duran, Soccer Mommy, David Bowie, Mitski, Rush, IAMX, Amanati, Bjork, and Pat Benatar.

Barbara is a voice and upper airway specialized speech-language pathologist and singing teacher. She helps people develop their vocal potential and heal their voices from injuries, chronic illness, and strain. Working with people’s voices allows her to help them open up possibilities of vision and creation. She lives in the Boston area with her multimedia artist husband and indulges in many inspiring hours in the local coffee shop.