Q&A: Maiya Blaney Compounds Her Melodic Voice To Create Debut Album '3'

☆ By Jill Verhaeghe ☆

SOON TO TAKE OVER THE PAINFULLY WHITE-DOMINATED ROCK SCENE — Maiya Blaney taught herself how to play guitar during quarantine while everyone was making banana bread. But before she blows the current rock scene out of the water, in the meantime, we can enjoy her debut neo-soul album 3 coming out March 30. The first single, “Something Bout U”, is Maiya’s ode to the typical love song - a catchy R&B soul track as sweet as honey, you’ll have it on repeat while you linger on that pink melancholic cloud of innocent first love. It’s a song that feels like a gentle touch, which is something we all need right now.

Of course, Maiya has more for us up her sleeve than bubblegum and roses. Prepare yourself for a voyage full of poetry, sick beats, history, and the future. But before you get hooked on 3, you can get a sneak peak into the artist’s mind.

Read below to hear about Maiya’s creative process during the pandemic, her take on being speaking out on social media, and more.

LUNA: Let’s get to know you a bit better first. Can you give us a little insight on your background and how you choose music to express yourself?

BLANEY: Hi! I’m Maiya. I’m an artist. Music is so sacred to me. When I write, it’s truly an extension of myself and [it] becomes whatever I need it to be in the moment. I think when you listen to my music you feel like you’re meeting me — I hope so.

LUNA: Congrats on the release of your new fire single “Something Bout U.” Can you share the story of this song with us?

BLANEY: Thank you! I’m so glad y’all can finally listen to it — I love this song so much, and I feel like I’ve just been grooving to it in the shadows. I wrote this song about my first relationship; when I was in it I just felt this sense of unbridled joy and sensuality and lust that I’d never felt before in my life, so I wrote about it. In hindsight, it’s funny because there was still so much I had yet to learn about partnership, so the lyricism is kinda intentionally vague because I was like, “This is how you write love songs right? Cause I think this is what love is?” The chorus definitely has that vibe to it, the almost “how-to-write-a-love-song” lyrics, but I like that — it was a necessary innocence to bring to the record.

LUNA: Your debut album, 3, is released at the end of the month. What can you tell us about the vibe of the album compared to its first single?

BLANEY: The single definitely gives a glimpse into the album, but I wouldn’t call it the album’s main spokesperson per se. “Something Bout U” was one of the songs that I was most eager to share from the record, so that’s why I wanted it to be the single — but the album is a mixture of all the thoughts and feelings that I’ve had over the past couple years while writing it, so there’s going to be much more than just joy and romance on there (especially given this last year), but I definitely wanted to lead with joy.

LUNA: We love the album art! Can you tell us a bit more about how it came to be?

BLANEY: Thank you! I worked so hard on it! (laughs) It was a collaborative process to be sure — I reached out to Kimari Hazward a couple years ago, just because of how much I admired his work. He has this ability to create such intimate warmth in his photos, and I’m so drawn to his color palettes. When the time came around to shoot the cover, he was the first person who came into my mind — and I was so excited when he said he was down to be a part of it. As for the concept of the photo, I knew that I wanted it to be in an attic like the one I grew up with. When I was younger my dad would come home from work and go to his office up there, and while he was working after hours he would play music off his speakers and it would just permeate throughout the whole house. I’d run up there and sit on his lap and ask him what he was playing — and it would be just the most amazing music: Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, Al Jarreau … just the greatest. I see that as one of my musical genesis stories so the cover art is an homage to that: my dad, our home, the people in it, and the songs I found there that made me fall in love with music.

LUNA: How has the pandemic changed your creative process?

BLANEY: A LOT. I never saw myself as someone who was able to create music in isolation — I’m much more of a “let’s get a group of people together and pull an all-nighter and then by the next morning we have a song” type. So to create during the pandemic — to practice diligence and the art of a slow burn — has been challenging to say the least. But I think I’ve done a pretty good job at adjusting; I mean I made an album. (laughs)

LUNA: Which artists do you draw the most inspiration from? Besides music, who or what influences your work?

BLANEY: Gosh, so much, so much. Well, musically, like I said before, my dad was so good about introducing me and my siblings to music, and my mom was amazing as well. My dad would show us all the jazz records and R&B oldies, but then my mom would have us dancing in the kitchen to Mambo Kings and Hector Lavoe or playing Missy Elliot in the car. I draw inspiration from everywhere because of them — I’m so grateful for that. Apart from music influences, I definitely have a huge love for poetry, and that’s very apparent in my music as a lot of my stuff is rap and/or spoken word. The first track on the album, “Epigraph,” is a collage of poems by and dedicated to Black poets and their phenomenal works, and the penultimate track on the album is a spoken word piece that means oh so much to me.

LUNA: You are politically vocal on your Instagram. What do you want your listeners to take away from your music?

BLANEY: Ah, that’s so interesting to me. I’ve never gone on social media with the intention of being “political,” but I’ve always been someone who strove for honesty from myself and others. I think as a marginalized person it is almost impossible to not be vocal. Especially being an artist, the fact that I am one means that I’ve realized my voice as my greatest tool, and my work is me using that gift to the fullest of my ability. I want listeners to know that when they listen to my music, they are only listening to me — not all Black womyn, not all singer/mc’s, not whatever trope they think I belong to based on how I look — they’re listening to Maiya, and I want them to appreciate that. I compare myself to others enough, so I always try to be as authentic as I can in my sound, and what I hope that listeners can take away from my music is my story as an individual.

LUNA: What’s the silliest new hobby you got into since 2020?

BLANEY: Well, I don’t know about silly, but I started playing guitar this year! It was something I had always wanted to do — being that I have a lot of indie rock influences and grew up in a DIY garage rock music scene in Jersey. I also realized that there was a huge lack of representation for Black femmes in rock music, which is crazy to me being that rock is Black music, so it made me want to learn it even more. I have these amazing visions of me doing shows after COVID, barefoot on stage, fro picked out to the max, and just shredding on the electric with an all Black femme band behind me. Can’t wait.

LUNA: Besides your upcoming album, is there something else we can expect from you in 2021?

BLANEY: (laughs) In true Virgo form, I am ALWAYS working on stuff. I already have an idea for a collaborative EP with one of my favorite artists and humans, so I’m planning on getting to work on that pretty soon after the album release. There’s already some singles in the works as well, especially because some of the songs we were working on didn’t make it to the final tracklisting, and we may or may not have shot a music video for one of the songs on the album… ;)

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“I want to set the mood for younger emerging artists in Toronto, to be like, ‘Hey, you could, like, fucking work with literally anyone who has a kind soul.’ I do want to uplift the artist community. I do think collaboration is important, because if you wanna be in the community, you're gonna have to collaborate one way or another." - Cruz ⭐️ 🎞Allowing themself to take a more vulnerable & meaningful approach with their work, photographer Cruz is combining her creative talent with her passion for mental health advocacy. Read more about this incredible artist & how quarantine shifted her work + about the work they are doing for the community in our feature on the site now 💞