Interview with Maya Colwell

Maya Colwell is a teenage singer-songwriter from London, a guitar playing songstress, if you will. Maya posts her songs on Soundcloud, so check them out and don't forget to download, folks! She also has the esteemed merit of being one of my best friends. Nepotism, me? Nah.

So, Maya, dream question: if you could invite any four people, dead or alive, fictional or real, to a dinner party, who would you invite and why?
OK, I would invite Jennifer Lawrence, because she is amazing and hilarious; Stephen Mangan, because he is also hilarious, you know, fun dinner party; Leonard Cohen, because, you know, he's one of my idols. And F. Scott Fitzgerald, because he is a true romantic.

OK, so you've said Leonard Cohen. So does he feature as part of your influences for your songs?
I'd say his style of romance and writing about love is would be an influence. I don't think I would say he's an influence just because you can't copy what he does. My influences are more people who are a lot more easy to copy.

Fair enough. What one song by any artist ever would you say best describes your style?
That's a hard one. That is a really hard one! Erm, I have lots of different songs that kind of go with different periods of time that I'm in. I think the song that best embodies what I am would be 'Alas I Cannot Swim', by Laura Marling.

Good choice! So you've said in conversation that your songs are written as a way to deal with your emotions, and the majority of your songs are about unconditional love and dealing with that. Why do you think that's the prevailing emotion that you choose to put down?
Mostly because it's what I've experienced. Also because there's something wonderful about - it's sad, tragic and beautiful - about living this whole love story in your head, and the person who it's destined for having no idea, being completely oblivious to the utter obsession that you feel. And that's such a great emotion to be able to capture again and again and again.

There was a very descriptive line, I think it was in Lover's Complaint'. It says, "you'll find me in music and poems". They're sort of typical lovers' gifts to each other, so would it be fair to say that you're expressing a longing feeling?
It is, and I think, "you'll find me in music and poems", it's very personal but also very universal. It's a reference to people like Shakespeare, where you read something and you can relate to what he's written, it's something that everyone feels. Yeah, and the fact that most of my songs are written about one person; you'll find that person in most of the songs that I'll write.

So recently you've had a gig at the Troubadour and you've got an upcoming one on 5th March. What was the crowd there like?
The crowd there, which featured yourself, were wonderful. It was great. I wasn't actually expecting people to listen to me. I'd been told before to be prepared for people to talk during my set, and I was very surprised to hardly hear anyone talking actually. It was a really great crowd, very supportive, and just generally, the other artists were wonderful too.

And people who've previously played at the Troubadour, people like Bob Dylan, Laura Marling with 'Alas I Cannot Swim', Pete Doherty, people like that, is there a feeling that you have to step up to that kind of legacy?
Definitely. The James Taylor cover that I did was a way of expressing that fact that there are all these incredible people and this huge legacy that they've left, and to be worthy of playing there is incredible, it's really great.

You are as yet unsigned, but you've had interest from Universal. What do you think is the best route in to the music industry, climbing the ladder up to fame, or being shot to fame?
I am a huge champion of climbing the ladder. Ladders are fun to climb. You get a great view once you're up there, and you get to appreciate every rung of that ladder. Still rolling with your metaphor there! I'm not really one for shooting to fame. I'm so in awe of people who go on the X Factor and reality TV shows like that, but I think that if you're someone who has a wonderful voice but can't really write, then it's a great way of getting signed. But if you're someone who writes your own songs, going up the rungs of the ladder gives you a chance to express yourself as an artist and find your own voice, rather than being told what to do?

Is that something that's very important to you, to be able to have your own input to your creative product?
Yeah definitely. I think that songs are so personal. You hear some things and you think "does this person understand what they're singing?" For me, I wouldn't ever want to be that kind of person. To write my own songs means that I know what I'm singing, I understand the emotions and I'm more attached to the material.

So you wouldn't ever consider writing for somebody else?
No, I would consider writing for someone else! I'd be happy to do whatever, if anyone's reading this! But I think if I did write for someone else, it would have to be someone who I understood and felt a connection with. I wouldn't be able to write for someone who had no idea about their ethos or whatever it was. I can write from other people's point of view, which is great because as someone who writes, it's a chance to be more empathetic, I suppose.

You spent your childhood in Brussels, you live in London, and you're currently living with your friend Eve whilst your parents are living in Brussels. So how do these sort of changes affect your music and your writing?
Well, living in Brussels, I was horribly shy and couldn't sing in front of people. The school I was at, I'm not saying all people in Brussels are like this, but the place I was in Brussels, I felt as if they were basically trying to do whatever they could to squash my creativity, and moving to London and being exposed to so many different types of music... I don't know, it was more established, culturally, and it made me grow up and my songs became more mature.