Today we’d like to introduce you to Maeve Higgins.
Maeve, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Better known as MaeThePirate, I’ve been writing, singing, and playing cello since I was a girl growing up in New Jersey. We lived a few miles from the city and the music I write is heavily influenced by the East Coast, more specifically music and artists based New York City. I like my lyrics to get straight to the point, address some uncomfortable truths with a twinge of sarcasm and humor to keep it interesting. I like to point out things in life we ALL struggle with and share how it makes me feel and hope that in response, listeners will feel less alone in their own emotions.
My next single, “Bang Bang B****”, which comes out May 26th is a commentary on disparities between the classes, I really felt I saw this disparity more clearly since moving to Los Angeles, where the rich live in large, sprawling Beverly Hills and Calabasas estates, while the poor live in their camps in Echo Park and under highways. It is such an extreme difference in such a small area, it almost seems criminal.
The one after “Ring Ring, is that Dopamine?” releasing July 7th, 2021 is on Social Media and how it affects us. I truly believe that as a generation, we are growing more addicted to media than ever. Platforms are designed to give us just enough dopamine (through the form of notifications, likes, comments) to keep us hooked. Talk to any advertising agency, and you are the product the platform is selling. Social media sells your self-esteem. Advertisements are aimed to make you feel lesser, and the notifications are there to keep us hooked. People crave approval, and social media apps are there to give you just enough to keep a captive audience. I’ve written songs on this topic before, “Sick Of The Internet”, which released early 2021, talks specifically about fake people and false expectations it builds for everyone, young or old. “Ring Ring” talks more on the addiction aspect.
In terms of style of music, I would say I fall under the category of “Alternative”. As a cellist, I like to add my own cello flare to every song of mine. I play the cello more like a fiddle than Yo-Yo Ma, I like to chop, a rhythmic style of playing, which I learned at Berklee College of Music from my Celtic and Jazz teachers. I like to counter the smooth legato lines, which brings emotion and a grandiose feeling, with my signature “chug” of a low-bodied cello, keeping the rhythm pumping and the energy high. It can be hard to add cello without making the music sound like a film score, so I like to add synths and Hi-Hats to keep things sounding modern. Though the cello may be buried, every song I write has celloes hidden somewhere in the background! I like to imagine it’s a game, and anyone who has heard my music before should have an easy time playing “find the cello”!
I want to be the artist you listen, enjoy, then laugh at the lyrics since you’ve been there before. All I truly want is to spread joy, awareness, and an escape from the grind. Something to make life for someone a little less dark. These past few years haven’t been easy, with the coronavirus keeping us all locked in, hard economic times and school from the internet, I want to be a breath of relatability from a world of growing chaos.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Wanting to be an artist for a living would never be easy in any field. Everyone I know is working one if not two or more side jobs just to keep their music industry life alive. It’s an industry gate-kept by the rich, the labels, and the powerful. Breaking into a world like that is near impossible.
I recently lost a close friend to suicide, and I never want anyone to feel alone in those thoughts ever again. I want to bring awareness to mental battles. Most outward battles start from within someone. I would say I am lucky that most of the obstacles I face I have put in my own way, whether it be with insecurity, anxiety, fear of judgment. The majority, if not all external battles start from a mental battle within someone. And it’s time the world addresses the importance of mental health. If therapy was more accessible, someone’s son, daughter, friend, mother or father, could still be alive today. I want to change this.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
For a living, I record and edit dialogue for TV shows and film. I use this to inspire my passion, as I find a lot of similarities in film in music. I write, produce, sing, and mix my own music from my bedroom. I think snarky lyrics and rhythmic cello playing really define what makes a maethepirate song. I’m originally known from a small community known as Musescore, which is a freeware application that lets you write out sheet music for any instrument, it has presets for orchestras, guitar tabs, chords charts, you name it. Musescore really got me a start in the community and nurtured a love for the online music community. I used to write piano scores, then orchestral scores, and here I am writing and producing my own special style of Alternative pop. My cello sounds like someone playing a fiddle on the table at a bar, not like the classic cello you hear on the television and movies. I try to keep the music I make accessible, though my lyrics definitely touch on serious topics.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Hm, some important lessons I’ve learned is that naked short-selling is a predatory practiced used by Wall Street billionaires to run small companies into the ground while making profit and retaining their money and power.
I’ve learned the importance of community, felt firsthand the pain of the loss of a friend.
To take this post literally, I’ve learned I have to speak up if I want anyone to hear me. To act if I want my message to be heard. To push if I want to advocate for change. I’ve learned that if you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will. I truly hope one day I will have the means to fight these issues head on, until that day, I will just keep fighting for the things I believe in.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.maethepirate.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maethepirate/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maethepirate1/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/maethepirate_
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/maethepirate
Image Credits:
@holysmokephotography (instagram) Alissa Lise Wyle
