Maisie May and the mesmerizing alt pop chemistry of "Small Talk" (Official Video)

 

"I don’t know how to talk to you / I don’t know how to feel / One day I’ll run into you / And I won’t know how to deal..."

Over the last several years much has been said about mainstream pop feeling formulaic. I mean there is a certain pop / indie rock, alt pop chemistry out there as if created in a laboratory.  Arctic Monkeys spawned iterations of their sound from Arctic Pygmy Marmosets to Arctic Silverback Gorillas and every sonic sub species in between. Even a talent like Olivia Rodrigo (and collaborators) can't seemingly resist using a Jack Antonoff plugins. Brilliant bedroom pop / pop noir stalwarts like Phoebe Bridgers and Lana Del Rey have inspired many who not only wear their brilliant aesthetics on their sleeves but wear their original sounds like a coat and, no doubt, Ed Sheeran will again be pulled in a courtroom and swear he has never heard that one Al Green song. I am not a music luddite by any means and I joke about a lot of things but I am really stoked about emerging new music especially when it feels real. 

This is why I feel a hopeful spark listening to "Small Talk" by Los Angeles based (by way of New York) alternative singer-songwriter / producer Maisie May. The bedroom pop aesthetic is pushed into other places. There is a faint acoustic guitar but overall the song rides on plaintive piano chords and ghostly cello courtesy of producers /collaborators Aaron Sayre and Kaleb Fulmer. Maisie eschews indie pop tropes like the obligatory pre-chorus rushed vocal patter that borrows from hip hop but really isn't hip hop or the drum beat that slips in to lift the song up. Instead she filters in sincere melancholia and the vulnerable bruises that is the stuff of youth. 

What if we got talking and I overshared all night
Succumbed to friendly gossiping when you don’t have the right
To know what I got going
My days are overflowing

But you don’t get to hear about knew ways I move through life cause

I don’t know how to talk to you
But I’ll be fine
Baby all I can say to you
Is hello and goodbye

"Small Talk" also benefits from beautiful surreal production touches that sound like memories as transmission in time and space, bending sounds with glitches the way one's brain might skip from pain or false feelings. This artistic decision creates alternative positioning for the song and just like the gorgeous dips into jazzy chords it makes the emotional spaces open up. It is like the song is not quite folk, not exactly pop, not always experimental but all of those things, all at once. All these elements also feel fractured, just like Maisie's vocal countenance spouting broken lyrics. "Small Talk" feels birthed from fate itself. 

Speaking on her creative process, Maisie shares: "To be frank, ’Small Talk’ first came to me in April 2022 when I still lived in the same city as an ex and I was dreading running into them. I still didn’t feel healed enough to give them the energy that I wanted to give them yet. I wrote the first verse pretty quickly and then put a pin in it. Months later, after moving to LA this January I picked up the song again and wrote the second verse on a rainy night with my guitar. The idea of taking an old song, an old feeling, and finishing it with new memories and new growth inside of myself is an incredible feeling. It brings forth a cathartic feeling of closure that I never thought I could give to myself. It’s what I’ve done with a lot of the songs coming out on this EP which is part of why i'm so stoked for it to come out." 

"Small Talk", as an initial preview of Maisie May's upcoming EP "All In" (set to release this winter) portends a special batch of personal songs. Finding producers you gel with, that you think like creatively is a special thing. May, Sayre and Fulmer have been writing and producing the EP in Sayre’s studio since March of this year. I love this song and Maisie May's deeply confessional style and the fact that she sounds like herself. That may seem like an easy thing to do, sound like yourself but I can tell you as someone who has been writing about indie artists for over 13 years that it is not.

More from Maisie:

“To put it simply, my songs really are just entries in my diary. From cringey Tumblr posts to my middle school composition notebook, I've been sharing poems and melodies as a way to process since I was 10. Making music is a way for me to cope, celebrate and feel. So when I get to the final stages of a song I get this massive amount of joy when I imagine sharing it with people- the idea of taking this thing I made entirely for myself and having other people get something from it... that truly is the massive cherry on top of being a writer and producer.” 

This team of three. Keep doing what you are doing and never take each other for granted. 

-Robb Donker Curtius    

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://soundcloud.com/maisiemaymusic

https://www.facebook.com/maisiemaymaisiemay/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2YyWc6vw5CgNO7sDdgA6tq

https://www.instagram.com/maisie___may

https://maisiemaymusic.com/

https://maisiemay.bandcamp.com/track/small-talk


Maisie May is an alternative singer-songwriter and producer with a keen ear for crafting lush, diaristic soundscapes. After releasing a series of singles this summer after her big move from New York to Los Angeles, she's now announcing her second EP titled All in which is set to release this Winter.

Despite the dreamlike quality of her music, Maisie's lyrics explore themes of girlhood, self-discovery, heart break, lust and serendipity, making her songs both deeply personal and universally relatable. Within her upcoming EP, she pushes her boundaries and explores new territory while also staying true to the distinctive style that has made her a standout in the LA music scene.

May's music is the perfect soundtrack for late-night drives, lazy afternoons, and moments of quiet contemplation. With her upcoming release she is poised to cement her place as one of the most exciting and innovative songwriters working in alternative music. Keep an eye out for Maisie May, and prepare to be swept away by her enchanting perspective.

New York, singer songwriter, Maisie May, Los Angeles, "Small Talk" (Official Video), indie pop, alt pop, surreal pop, experimental pop, folk, jazz dips, bending genres, EP "All In",