{"id":1937,"date":"2022-12-14T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T00:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/?p=1937"},"modified":"2023-08-29T17:23:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T17:23:22","slug":"maya-delilah-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/articles\/maya-delilah-interview","title":{"rendered":"Maya Delilah on Making New Music, Building Community, and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was Maya Delilah\u2019s last night of her very first U.S. tour. The 22-year-old singer songwriter and guitarist was touring around the country, and had spent the past eight days opening shows for NYC indie band Melt along the west coast. This marked the last date\u2014a clear, cold night in Portland, Oregon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI didn’t bring enough coats, ” said Maya, dressed in heavy gold jewelry and a patterned sweater vest. \u201cI didn\u2019t really think about where I would be going, I just wanted to take each day as it came.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This may have been Maya Delilah\u2019s first time playing in the U.S., but there were already plenty of fans familiar with the London artist. Over the past two years, Maya\u2019s steadily released a slew of songs showcasing her soft R&B pop styling and razor sharp guitar skills, totalling streams in the millions. She\u2019s also built a big following on socials (even getting <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@mayadelilahh\/video\/6935826981418241286?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=6935826981418241286&lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a nod from John Mayer on TikTok<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and recently signed with Blue Note\/Capitol. It\u2019s a lot of momentum, but it doesn\u2019t seem to be overrunning Maya, who was calm and easy going while she sat at a small table in the low-lit bar above the basement venue, waiting for soundcheck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019ve really noticed in terms of audiences, American audiences are so much more energetic,\u201d Maya said over loud voices from a nearby table. \u201cEnglish audiences are really supportive, but in America, if you do something they like mid-song, they\u2019ll cheer, that energy helps when you\u2019re performing, it just feels much more encouraging.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1938\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1938\" style=\"width: 683px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1938 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/DZ0A8090-copy-scaled.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=1024&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=683&wpsize=large\" alt=\"Maya Delilah Interview\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/DZ0A8090-copy-scaled.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=300&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=200&wpsize=medium 200w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/DZ0A8090-copy-scaled.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=1024&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=683&wpsize=large 683w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/DZ0A8090-copy-scaled.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=1152&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=768&wpsize=medium_large 768w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/DZ0A8090-copy-scaled.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fit=scale&fm=pjpg&h=1536&ixlib=php-3.3.1&w=1024&wpsize=1536x1536 1024w, https:\/\/sofar-sounds-blog.imgix.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/DZ0A8090-copy-scaled.jpg?crop=faces%2Centropy&fm=pjpg&ixlib=php-3.3.1 1707w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1938\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maya Delilah, photo by Rony Alwin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though Maya\u2019s ascent has seemed quick, the artist\u2019s been working at it for a long time, picking up the guitar around the age of eight.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI was playing piano at the time, really not picking it up, [and] the difference I felt in playing guitar and playing piano was crazy,\u201d Maya said. \u201cI think because I learned piano in a traditional theory way and that doesn\u2019t really work for me, I\u2019m quite dyslexic. Going into guitar I knew I didn\u2019t want to do it in that conventional way, I wanted to just play by ear, and that\u2019s what I did. I think I improved really quickly because I just wanted to play.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flash forward a few years, Maya Delilah went on to study at the prestigious BRIT School (alums including Adele and Amy Winehouse), and then began writing her own music with producer and collaborator Stephen Barnes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMe and him have such a fun, non-serious relationship with each other,\u201d Maya said. \u201cWe wanted to put that into music.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She continued:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI really like sharing the [writing] experience with someone, that feeling of finding the right lyric or a song coming together. I want to share that with someone, I find that much better than doing it on my own.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her most recent single, \u201cPretty Face\u201d, written with James Smith and Martin Luke Brown, has that sharing feel, an R&B pop-tinged heartbreak anthem that\u2019s coated in harmonies that make the track both sweet and playful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAll the harmonies in it are us screaming in a room together for hours,\u201d Maya said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Maya Delilah - Pretty Face\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eISOQmjwxSw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Collaborating on songwriting isn\u2019t the only way she\u2019s building community. Through her TikTok, the artist’s been outspoken on encouraging more young girls and women to pick up the guitar, and talking openly about the stereotypes of it being a more \u2018male instrument.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cEven when I was young, I considered it a boy thing,\u201d Maya said. \u201cI was quite an outgoing child who wasn\u2019t scared, so I could see how [a] young girl who is afraid of the stereotype maybe wouldn\u2019t pick it up. I want to help that change, and young girls [see] it as a normal thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The encouragement seems to be working.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019ve had people come up at shows and messages saying they\u2019ve got their first guitar because they\u2019ve seen me playing and that\u2019s been really amazing.,\u201d Maya said. \u201cI even had a mum recently at a show say she\u2019s started playing which is really cool. All ages of women picking up the guitar and saying I helped them is just overwhelming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was just about time to head down to the venue for soundcheck for the last show, though it felt certain the artist would be back again soon for more shows. Her vision is a big one, and she\u2019s just getting going.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m on the way to trying to create a world within my music, where it\u2019s not just music but videos and fashion, more than just music that I want people to get involved with, \u201c Maya said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is there a theme for this Maya Delilah world?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere will be,\u201d Maya said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what it is yet, but there will be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ready to discover artists like Maya Delilah? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Browse shows.\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was Maya Delilah\u2019s last night of her very first U.S. tour. The 22-year-old singer songwriter and guitarist was touring around the country, and had spent the past eight days opening shows for NYC indie band Melt along the west coast. This marked the last date\u2014a clear, cold night in Portland, Oregon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI didn’t bring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":1944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[49,50,51,48,53,54,52],"class_list":["post-1937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-brit-school","tag-james-smith","tag-martin-luke-brown","tag-maya-delilah","tag-rb","tag-singer-songwriter","tag-stephen-barnes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}