Exclusive Interview with 'MAYSHE-MAYSHE'

Mayshe-second Mayse’s album, “Indigo,” is a dreamy art-pop exploration of gloomy emotions and ethical concerns.

Alice Rowan, a writer and producer from Yorkshire, performs under the moniker Mayshe-Mayshe. After the release of her first full-length album, Cocoa Smoke, in 2018, much has changed, or at least become more evident. In a similar vein, her new album peels aside layers of apathy, doubt, and despair to reveal a sparkling DIY electronica soundtrack.

The album was written, recorded, and produced by Rowan herself, embracing the DIY aesthetic that is clearly a driving force behind all creative productions. It’s like having superpowers, a new ability to create sound worlds from her sofa; learning to self-produce her music has been such a happy, empowering experience.

Indigo is similar to Mayshe’s previous album Cocoa Smoke in that it has dreamy bedroom music, but with stronger production and more complex soundscapes. This new album is “pop-ponderings about the human predicament,” as Rowan puts it. According to her, it’s darker than her past work, yet with bright edges. One of the best ways to deal with adversity is to listen to an upbeat pop song with a memorable hook. Check out the album and the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?

MAYSHE-MAYSHE: I’m from Yorkshire in the UK. I started writing and performing in a band with my sister Miriam. When she moved away for university, I started writing new songs using a loop pedal, so I could still perform songs with harmonies and layered vocals. I loved using a loop pedal so much, and how you can build up these meditative sonic worlds, that I’m still writing and performing in this way now. This was also my gateway into recording and producing my own music, as live-looping is essentially live-recording your music.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

MAYSHE-MAYSHE: I had piano lessons when I was young, very reluctantly at first, but I got really into it later on. It wasn’t super formal – I was taught by a lovely dutch woman who was like a pseudo grandma to me, and we had tea and biscuits each week before playing the songs I had learned. Most of what I do now is self-taught though: song-writing, singing, producing, live looping, and the other instruments I play.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘MAYSHE-MAYSHE’?

MAYSHE-MAYSHE: The first singles I owned were by Destiny’s Child, PPK (a russian trance duo) and t.A.T.u. and later on I started listening to a lot of indie music. My music today is a mix of all these influences: At its core my music is pop, it’s catchy and accessible, with a lofi aesthetic to it like in a lot of indie music. It’s got the layered vocals and harmonies of Destiny’s Child, and the electro-angst of t.A.T.u. PPK’s influence might be less obvious in my music, but it’s completely there: many of my songs are built up of repeating melodies, beats and dreamy lead lines, like in trance music.

The name Mayshe-Mayshe comes from the dutch word ‘meisje’. I grew up in the Netherlands and my mum called me and my sisters ‘mayshe’ as a nickname.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

MAYSHE-MAYSHE: My music is dreamy, lofi and experimental, with a mix of organic and electronic sounds. I use layered choral vocals and vintage synths in most of my songs, with 808-style beats.

5. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?

MAYSHE-MAYSHE:

The starting point for my own music is telling my personal narrative: it’s like a diary of my thoughts, feelings and experiences. The subjects I discuss in my music do have spiritual, cultural and political implications – I talk about mental health, about the environmental emergency, about social ideologies. But at the heart of my music it’s not about spreading a political message, it’s about sharing difficult thoughts and experiences I’ve had. I hope that listeners will relate to this and that my music can help them through hard times, like music has helped me through challenging experiences.

6. Could you describe your creative processes? How do you usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

MAYSHE-MAYSHE:

I usually start a song with an idea of a vocal or synth loop. I record this into my loop pedal and experiment with layering different beats and riffs on top of this, until it sounds cool. I let the loop ‘marinade’, I keep it playing in the background as I think about the song structure and the vocal melody. Last of all come the lyrics – which takes me much longer. I can write all the music for a song in 30 minutes, but lyric writing takes me weeks.

One of the techniques I use to keep developing my song writing is by choosing an artist very different from me, and trying to write a song inspired by their sound. The result never sounds much like the original artist, but it stops me from getting stuck in creative ruts!

Occasionally I collaborate with other songwriter-producers in a sort of musical version of the game ‘consequences’. I write and record the first track for a song (beats, a melody or a riff) and then send it to the other artist. They then record a new track to go with this and send it back. We keep repeating this till we have a finished song.

7. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

MAYSHE-MAYSHE:

In my early music career, the most frustrating thing I experienced was not being able to record my music. I couldn’t afford studio time, and I didn’t know many people who could help me do home recordings. But this led to one of my best experiences! One day a colleague suggested that I try learning how to record and produce my music myself. It hadn’t occurred to me that I’d be able to do this, it seemed way too techy and complicated. But after a bit of learning and experimenting, I grew to absolutely love recording and producing my own music.

8. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

MAYSHE-MAYSHE:

Learning to produce my own music – it’s been a game changer in so many ways. It’s taken away the time and financial pressure that comes with paying for studio time, and I now have creative ownership over my recorded music in a way I didn’t have before: I can make my songs exactly what I want them to be. I have time to experiment, and I can try out things I’d never dare to do in a studio context with engineers and producers watching me.

9. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?

MAYSHE-MAYSHE: I love both of these experiences. For me, both are important, and they compliment each other. I feel most creative and comfortable working in my home studio, writing new music and experimenting with new sounds. I love those moments when you come up with something new, where you’ve created a new sonic world to live in for a while.

Performing is both harder and more exciting. Performing music live for an audience is a really special experience, sharing your art and seeing people connect with it. I also get quite a lot of anxiety about performing though. But once I get going and am in the flow of the performance, I love it. And being able to share my music in this way keeps me inspired to keep writing and recording new music.

10. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?

MAYSHE-MAYSHE: I am happy for people to interpret my songs in their own way. I write about very personal experiences, but in a way that I hope is relatable. The (lyrical) purpose of my music is to discuss difficult experiences openly, like mental health, and so to help listeners who have similar experiences process this and feel like they’re not alone with these thoughts. Music like this has helped me get through really tough times, and I want to do the same for my listeners.