"At just 24, the Australian singer-songwriter Maya Cumming known to fans as May-a has already experienced the promise and heartache of Los Angeles as a star-making town. In 2021, she signed with Atlantic Records in the US ahead of her debut EP, Don't Kiss Ur Friends a moment she described at the time as a dream. The following February, she featured on Flume's precision-made festival anthem Say Nothing, which went on to win the 2022 Triple J Hottest 100."
"What should've felt like a career arrival was instead a dispiriting eye-opener. I moved to LA for the label and then did the sessions that they put in for me, she recalls. And then I was like, these are sucking everything out of me and leaving no trace of my personality in any of this music. It was just feeling very stale and devoid of personal touch, like canned Christmas music."
"After what she describes as so many compromises on her 2023 EP Analysis Paralysis, she split from Atlantic in late 2024, having already begun work on a debut album fuelled by resentment at the music industry. I had lost who I was because of trying to please corporations that just wanted me to write singles and hits, she says. Bunkering down with her partner, the guitarist and engineer Chloe Dadd, Cumming wrote fully formed songs that alternated between righteous anger and personal revelation."
Maya Cumming signed with Atlantic Records in the US in 2021 before releasing her debut EP Don't Kiss Ur Friends. She featured on Flume's festival anthem Say Nothing, which won the 2022 Triple J Hottest 100. Arranged studio sessions in Los Angeles felt impersonal and drained her musical personality, prompting a 2024 relocation and eventual split from Atlantic in late 2024. Resentment at corporate pressure inspired work on a debut album written with partner Chloe Dadd, producing fully formed songs alternating between righteous anger and personal revelation and seeking a sound beyond hushed bedroom pop.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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