Today we’d like to introduce you to Maya B.
Maya, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
From a young age, I’ve always loved music. When I was about six, I began to sing and make music with my sisters. We were in a girl group called ATM. The acronym was our first initials. I wrote songs for the group. And soon wanted to write songs for myself. So I did – and I became quite prolific at a young age. I was always writing music. Fast forward to me being depressed at 18. I hated where I was at in my life – I felt so far away from my goals. So I begin to annoy any person in the entertainment industry through DM, email, comments. Soulshock and Karlin were the first people Who showed interest in me and actually did something about it. In the process of making music with S&K all of a sudden I had a full team around me. A team that’s like family now. I released my first song independently called ‘kiss on my neck’. DJ Khaled heard that song and dropped a line about it on social media. That was the beginning of my journey. From then, labels were hitting us up left and right. I went from working in a frozen yogurt shop and in my first-year college to being in the thick of the music industry in just a few months.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Of course, there were obstacles and challenges. Obstacles and challenges don’t have to necessarily be a negative thing to experience either. It’s an essential part of growing. For me personally, my whole life I’ve felt like a reject. My whole life I’ve felt alone. Maybe that’s because my mom left me when I was young. Maybe it’s because of society standards. Maybe I was just born a reject and a lone wolf. But someone once told me “every wolf has a pack” and right then it clicked. My biggest obstacle has been and will always be myself. Getting over myself, getting out of my ego, getting out of my head, getting out of my feelings. I knew once I get to that place of clarity in myself then world can throw anything at me and I’d be alright.
Can you give our readers some background on your music?
These songs are my diary. There are feelings of loneliness, feelings of abandonment, then feeling of revelation and finding my voice. They are all dressed up as pop songs, all dressed up as turn up songs. But lyrics have always meant the most to me. I think the most eye-opening part of this process for me was: My family moved from a rougher area of Pasadena (at the time) into Santa Clarita. And if you’ve been to Santa Clarita you know – nothing fucking happens there. I used to always call it perfectly imperfect. Looking back, I realized these changes that I hated were the biggest influence on these batch of songs. Causing the songs to now be perfectly imperfect. It works but it’s not supposed to. I want to be that and I’m happy to be that for pop music right now.
I feel like there is a theme with all my songs. An underlying message of: fuck you, materialism. Fuck you, Status. Not because either are inherently bad but as a culture, they have almost become necessities instead of accessories. And I think it’s played out at this point. I feel really strongly about making sure that when my songs are getting moshed to: if people look at my lyrics that I’m not telling them what brands or what drugs to buy into but that I’m telling my deepest thoughts.
“Sink” is about how the real drip is how you carry yourself, how you treat other people. Being with another artist, Saint Jhn, who believes in those same values added so much quality to the record. Because we can’t lose if we are speaking the truth- we can’t. Artists like us who write their own records and are so involved in the processes- I would feel so empty if I was in the studio for 6 hours and left with song naming everything I own. Again not because it is inherently bad but because I know that’s not my purpose.
My purpose is to add substance and art to mainstream music.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Uniqueness.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://mayabsound.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayabsound/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mayabsound/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/mayabsound
Image Credit:
Diego Andrade
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