Have you met rising Indie Pop star, singer-songwriter Maisy Kay? She’s transforming pop music with her own sub-genre of pop.
After being a part of JVKE’s “What Tour Feels Like” summer tour across the United States this past year in 2023, Maisy has since released her single “Sunlight” on February 14, 2024. “Sunlight” has been featured on several global editorial playlists on both Spotify and Apple Music and has generated over 565K views on YouTube. With over 225K streams on Spotify, Maisy’s single “In Your Car” premiered on April 5, 2024. Next up, her newest single + dreamy music video “Technicolor Honeymoon” released Friday, May 10 off of her EP Wonderlust: The Dawn, which premiered on May 13, 2024! As an impressive feat, “Technicolor Honeymoon” climbed to #1 on the Pop Charts and #5 on the overall YouTube Charts and currently has 1M YouTube views! “Karma” (Tiësto and Maisy Kay Collaboration) recently released on August 9th and is currently #2 on the iTunes Charts! Now, Maisy is thrilled to announce she is supporting Tori Kelly on her Purple Skies World Tour this Summer/Fall 2024! Not stopping there, her upcoming single “Love Is A God” premiered on September 6, 2024, followed by her newest EP Wonderlust: The Dusk, releasing October 18th!
Maisy Kay has incorporated her love for fantasy and alternate worlds with her original single “The Beast Within” inspired by the fictional Na’vi language from “Avatar.” She has made waves with her hit singles, “Karma is a Bitch Like You (Tiesto Remix),” “Scared Together,” which received a remix from producer DJ R3HAB, and got her first big break contributing Japanese lyrics and vocals to pop artist Andy’s #1 Spotify viral hit, “Distance.” Maisy Kay is excited to continue to share her gift of music with the world!
Moving from a small countryside in England to the heart of Los Angeles, Maisy Kay is a one-of-a-kind musician blending nostalgic dance and pop music magnified through her lyrics and overall inspiration behind every track. Having the experience of both cultures has inspired her music style, and given her the ability to create a unique sound.
Check out our interview with Maisy:
So in reading your bio and getting to know you a little bit through your social media and through your songs, you’ve had an incredibly busy 2024. Can you recap everything you’ve accomplished so far this year?
Maisy Kay: Yeah, so I put out one of my EPs, Wonderlust: The Dawn earlier in the year and then I had a Tiësto remix come out of my song “Karma,” which was really cool. And then, yeah, I’ve been on tour with Tori Kelly, it’s been a super busy year. And then I have part two of my Wonderlust EP coming out in October. So yeah, super busy.
How has the tour been?
Maisy Kay: It’s been really fun. I’m happy to be on the bus. I think the Asia stretch was a bit tiring for me, just because of the travel schedule and all the flights were just a bit grueling. So it’s very fun, but I’m excited to be on the bus and sleeping a bit better as well. I think that makes a big difference.
Oh, I can only imagine. When you’re not sleeping or trying to catch up on rest, what are you doing in between shows?
Maisy Kay: So, I like to read a lot. I brought a lot of books so I can just sort of make my way through my reading list for a little bit. And then I go out with my team. We look for nice restaurants or things to do on off days, and so I get to spend some time with them.
That’s awesome. Have there been any standout places that you hope to go back to?
Maisy Kay: Oh, I will say I think Manila was the best show I’ve ever had. The audience was so incredible there. I would love to one day get to go back to Manila.
What inspired you to go into music and be a singer-songwriter?
Maisy Kay: So, I think I always knew I’d do something with singing. I’ve been singing ever since I was a little girl. My whole family knew I would do something music related. But I originally thought it would be more in the musical theater universe. It wasn’t until I was around, I think, 12 or 13, and I got the opportunity to work at a recording studio where I started writing my own songs, and I realized that I enjoyed that singer-songwriter lifestyle a little bit more than musical theater. So, that was when I made the decision to switch lanes.
Would you ever consider going back to musical theater?
Maisy Kay: Yeah, I love musical theater. I think there’s definitely a world where I could do something with that in the future. It’s just a question of timing, I think, and scheduling, because it does require a lot of time away, and I’ve just been busy with, you know, artist stuff, and there’s not always time to take that time off. I hope one day, if the right opportunity comes about. I would definitely love to do something in that world.
What influences your music?
Maisy Kay: I write a lot about my real life experiences. I think that’s where I do the best. I think I tried for a few years to sound a very specific way and try to, you know, make a hit. And I think what ended up working the best for me, and where I think my music shines the best, is where I just write about my real life feelings and my real life experiences without trying to be someone I’m not or be something I’m not. I’ve found that people seem to connect to it the most, and I feel the most proud of my music, but I just get to write it from the heart and not think too much about what it should sound like or what it should be like,
You grew up in the UK and you’re now living in LA, how has the culture affected your music or influenced your music?
Maisy Kay: Yeah, I think it definitely has made a big difference, because the music scenes in the US versus the UK are pretty different. I think that I’ve had opportunities to work with a lot of incredible writers and be in a lot of different rooms that really have sort of influenced the way my music is now. I think I definitely wouldn’t be the writer I am today without having moved to LA, and it is definitely a very different culture. And there is a lot I do miss about the UK, and I would love to honestly go back again one day in the future, but I think, yeah, it makes a really big difference. The scenes are very different. I feel like the UK is a bit more, almost like dance music, that’s what you’d hear on the radio a lot, whereas LA has given me the opportunity to really look into pop music a bit more, and I think that’s where I feel the most comfortable.
If you were to kind of give your sound a name, what would you call your sound?
Maisy Kay: I’ve been calling it whimsical, ethereal pop. I think it does the job of explaining that it’s pop music, but also that I like to bring a little fantasy into it where I can. So, whimsical, ethereal pop.
I definitely think that’s appropriate considering your EP. When I was doing research before this interview, your Instagram bio says “your local fairy princess,” and I just thought that was amazing. Is that kind of your aesthetic? Why the local fairy princess?
Maisy Kay: Yeah, I honestly changed that in my bio a couple months ago because it just felt very fitting. It is definitely my aesthetic. I’ve really been leaning into the sort of like woodland fairy theme. It’s very true to who I am in real life and what I enjoy. I love fantasy. I love anything that’s a little, you know, larger than life. And I’ve been really leaning into a lot of butterfly imagery, both in my music and my live performances. And that’s very true to me in real life, too. I raised butterflies in my personal life, so I picked your local fairy princess because it’s just sort of the aesthetic I think I’m trying to portray, both musically, but also just in regards to my personal life and what I enjoy and what I relate to.
I love that so much. When writing your songs, what is your creative process like? Do you start with the lyrics, the melody? How does it work for you?
Maisy Kay: Honestly, it depends. Sometimes I have lyrics in mind first. Sometimes I have a melody. Sometimes I’ll just sit down by the piano and play some chords and see if anything resonates. It really depends. But I would say the running theme for me and how I write is, I definitely like to be sat by a piano, like I don’t like to have a track already produced. I like to sort of start from the bare bones and build around it.
What was your vision for “Wanderlust: The Dusk” when putting it together?
Maisy Kay: So, I never actually planned to do the Wonderlust EPs. I was just writing a lot of songs because I was feeling a lot of feelings in my real life, and I just knew I had to talk about it. And then it reached the point where I had, like, nine or 10 songs. My team really liked them, and we thought, you know, maybe we should actually release them. And I knew I didn’t want to do an album yet, so we had the idea of splitting it into two EPs. And “The Dusk” is sort of a nighttime sister to “The Dawn.” So, I think we chose the songs for “Dusk” that are a little more darker sounding. There’s a little more edge to some of them. There’s nods to some of my older works. I think lyrically, it’s a bit darker, it’s a bit more sultry. I think production wise, it’s a bit grittier. So I think that’s how we ended up deciding what songs made it onto “The Dusk” instead of “The Dawn.”
So, now that you have both parts of the “Wonderlust” EPs coming out this year, are you going to be looking to do an album next?
Maisy Kay: I definitely would love to do an album. I want it to be the right timing, and I want to make sure everything is set up correctly for it and it has its best chance to succeed. But I know I definitely have a whole catalog of songs that I’m just itching to release, and whether that ends up being my debut album or an EP or just singles, I’m not fully sure yet, but I do know there is a lot more music coming in some sort of format.
That’s awesome, I can’t wait! So when deciding what goes into an EP, what can be a single, if you have enough material for an album, like, I’m not a musician by any means, so I don’t understand that process, but, is it something that you just like, know, or is there almost like a science behind it?
Maisy Kay: So, I think it really depends. I’ve had listening sessions before where my whole team comes in and listens to, like, a lot of music, like 15 songs, and then everyone picks what they think their standout tracks are, and we work from there. From the EP perspective of what I put out this year, it wasn’t as much of a science. I think we did sort of know. I know with “The Dawn,” with “Technicolor Honeymoon,” the minute I wrote, that everyone knew that was like the focus track, and it wasn’t even like the conversation we needed to have. Everyone just knew, like I wrote it, and everyone was like, ‘Okay, this is the song.’ And with part two, I think the only issue was deciding which single would come first again. We definitely knew which two were going to be the standout tracks. It was just more of a question of, which one do we put out first, and which one comes out alongside the EP? So it really depends, I guess.
So with this year starting to wind down, what does the rest of 2024 look like for you?
Maisy Kay: Other than releasing part two, I will be on tour with Tori Kelly until early November, so I’ll be very busy on the road. Honestly, after that, it’s my birthday in November, and then it’s obviously the holidays, so I think I’ll probably just take the time to be with friends and family and see my cat again, which I’ll be really excited for. I’ve never been away from him for this long, so that’ll be really nice. It’ll be nice to sort of relax a bit, because it has been such a busy year,
Honestly, you deserve that.
Maisy Kay: Thank you. I’m excited for it.
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