By Zach Collier
Underneath Maeta’s new, glitzy, carefree record is the same midwest sadness and hopeless romanticism that’s made her immensely popular with listeners all over the world.
Photography: Elliot Hensford
Styling: Kiera Liberati
It’s 2019, and Maeta’s 19 years old. She’s in Los Angeles, California and is about to perform live for Jam in the Van – a YouTube channel for hipsters and music lovers like me that has captured hyper-unique live performances from the likes of Elle King, Theo Katzman, Portugal. The Man, and more.
This Indiana girl who used to walk around barefoot by the lake near her midwest home is in way over her head. She has just fallen deeply in love, she thinks she’s about to hit it big with this new record deal, and now she’s incredibly nervous for the boutique performance she’s about to put on inside a solar powered van.
‘I had so many expectations about what my career was going to be like and when it was going to take off,’ she tells me from Brooklyn. It’s just a few hours before her next arena show with Chris Brown.
‘It’s been like five years and now I’m finally taking off. So I would just be a little less hard on myself. I was so mean to myself and trying to be perfect all the time and trying to figure out who I was. I would tell her, “Take your time. It’s all going to work out in perfect timing. Stop overthinking so much. Just let go.” That’s what I would tell her.’
Then, after a thoughtful pause, she laughs: ‘Also I would tell her to stop posting embarrassing shit on the internet.’
Maeta wasn’t lucky enough to lose the digital record of her awkward teen years like me (I thank God every day that Myspace botched that data transfer and deleted my high school poetry), but she is lucky enough to have had the gift of patience and persistence. She got her first big breaks from posting weekly to Soundcloud, YouTube, and Instagram. Her powerful vocals and willingness to put herself out there – consistently, patiently, painfully – have opened up incredible opportunities for her.
She recently peaked at #1 on the Billboard Adult R&B Airplay chart with the single ‘Through The Night.’ And she's opening for Chris Brown on every single one of his tour dates for his 11:11 Tour. Momentum is building for Maeta in a big way, and the release of her upcoming EP – the stunningly carefree Endless Night – couldn’t be happening at a better time.
Its lead single, ‘DJ Got Me,’ feels like a sonic sequel to ‘Questions’ from her 2023 album When I Hear Your Name, but with a crucial change to her formula. When announcing ‘DJ Got Me’ on Instagram, Maeta wrote that she was excited to ‘stop singing about the deep love shit’ that characterized her earlier releases.
‘It feels good and just freeing,’ says Maeta about putting ‘DJ Got Me’ out there and its effect on her sound and visuals. ‘Everything in this project has been effortless and spur of the moment. I just had fun. In the visuals there's a spinning yellow thing and there’s wind on me and there’s like this gay couple eating sushi off each other. It’s just kind of wild and fantasy-like and free. That’s kind of how I’ve been, and I’ve seriously been having so much fun. I’m honestly happier than I’ve ever been. I think it’s because I’ve just been having fun and I’m not singing about the sad shit.’
As a musical human, I sit squarely in the middle of the venn diagram of mathy Midwest Emo and devastatingly sad British Nu-folk. I love sad music. It’s always been easier to write for me. Maeta and I have that in common. The only difference between us?
Literally everything. She’s clearly way better at songwriting and performing than I am.
But I know enough that we’re able to joke about how hard it is to write carefree, happy music without it sounding hokey, corny, or tryhard. It’s fun to talk to Maeta. She is the kind of person where you can hear it in her voice when she smiles. She’s exuberant. She’s easygoing, but not afraid to speak her mind and share her unfiltered thoughts. We joke about the midwest and whether or not it’s okay to go barefoot in certain places in big cities. We discuss vocal production techniques and her love of reverb and light phasers.
Photography: Elliot Hensford
Styling: Kiera Liberati
Eventually she shares that the coolest thing about this record is that it’s not a concept album.
Maeta didn’t intend to write a carefree, happy album. It’s a byproduct of who she is right now at this point in her life. ‘I naturally do want to sing about love,’ she says. ‘That’s just who I am. I like that you mentioned sad midwest emo, because I’m a sad midwest girl. It’s like a midwest depression thing,’ she laughs.
Like ‘Questions’ before it, ‘DJ Got Me’ is a really nice blend of R&B and house music. Co-writer Fallon King is a common thread on both tracks. I asked Maeta if she’s been really into club music lately, or if Fallon brings that out of her.
‘I think the soulfulness I always bring to a song. That’s just who I am. I’m just a soulful singer,’ says Maeta. ‘So, I think the R&B touches on it are me. But the house stuff I think naturally comes from KAYTRANADA’s beats, but then Fallon was just writing fun simple stuff on top of it. So I would say that stuff is her. But I love it though. I love just blending genres and trying stuff, you know? It just kind of happened. Fallon did four songs. She’s so good at writing about fun-dance-free-party kinda stuff. That kind of thing can easily be corny or too cookie cutter. But she makes it cool.’
The title track, ‘Endless Night,’ employs similar tactics. It’s dancy, but it feels like a sad night at the club. It’s a really slick song, but has a depth of emotion – kind of an ache – that I don’t feel on the other songs on the record.
The lyrics ‘Maybe if we keep dancing we won't have to go, maybe if we stay here they won't turn the lights on’ demonstrate such a bittersweet concept to me. On the one hand you’re having a great time out on the town with friends. On the other hand, it implies there’s something you don’t want to return home to.
‘I’ve never thought of it like that, but I think that is the truth,’ says Maeta. ‘When you’re just going through it and you’re out – you’re away from your shit. But once you go home, you have to wake up to your regular life and your regular problems. Whatever you’re going through. There is a sad note to it.’
Photography: Elliot Hensford
Styling: Kiera Liberati
And that’s why the record is named Endless Night. ‘Every song is about going out. Those nights where the sun’s coming up and you seriously don’t want it to end,’ says Maeta. ‘I just want to live in that kind of night, I guess. An endless night. I just want to live in this night and not leave this little dream or fantasy world. Even on tour, I feel like this is an escape.’
Everybody – no matter who they are or where they’re from – has something they’re running from. So what is that thing for Maeta?
‘Love is seriously the thing that drives me in life. It’s such a big part of me and my music. Even in this project, there’s still a little touch of it – even though I try to run from it,’ she says. Suddenly she gets quiet and thoughtful, and the smile disappears from her voice.
‘I’m trying to figure out who the hell I am. As an artist I’m a certain person, but then at the end of the day when you’re home alone, no makeup on, you have family issues, friendship issues, issues with yourself. Right now I’m going through growing pains. And that’s probably the thing that I’m running from.’ She gasps and laughs. The smile is back. ‘Oh my God, am I in therapy right now?! Love is the thing that I try to cover up! And I go get drunk to not think about it.’
That exuberant, pensive wrestle with love – and its dual-headed hydra of self confidence and self loathing – comes through the hardest on her song “New Lover.” The song itself was the product of goofing around in the studio. It plays like a heavily sidechained bossa nova, because that’s what it is. The song is built off a sample of Chicago soul singer Minnie Riperton’s song ‘Only When I'm Dreaming.’ Ripperton, herself a midwest girl, had hits in the 70s but tragically died of breast cancer at the age of 31. She was widely acclaimed as an exceptional vocalist with a 5 octave vocal range, including the whistle register.
The fact that Maeta fills her place over the sample so well is a testament to Maeta’s vocal prowess. The song was co-written with James Fauntleroy, Maeta, and KAYTRANADA. The addition of saxophone was a spur of the moment addition. They had a sax on hand, and Kosine was in the studio and knew how to play, so he just stepped up and wailed on it. And he nailed it.
‘That song was like 30 minutes to an hour and then it was done,’ recalls Maeta. ‘It was probably the easiest song to work on.’
Clocking in at just under two minutes, the whole thing feels very stream of consciousness. Full of life and spontaneity. Maeta’s sultry voice projects an aura of self assured swagger – but the music itself feels dangerous. There’s real tension there. Jazz harmony in a modern context like this evokes completely different emotions. ‘New Lover’ in particular captures the feeling of replacing someone, and drawing self-confidence from a well of retribution. Thematically, it helps encapsulate the dual nature of Maeta’s music on this record.
Regardless of the deeper implications hidden underneath all these songs, Endless Night is fun listen. It’s glitzy. It’s glamorous. And it captures a new, effortless, fun side of Maeta.
With all her barefoot Indiana confidence and heart-on-her-sleeve romanticism still at the core, old fans will find familiarity here. And for new fans? The music – and her current tour – are sure to win them over.