Get to know MAYAH and her debut single ‘Pray’
Brisbane-based MAYAH is rising to the surface with her debut single Pray. The singer began her musical venture when studying music at school and immersing herself in her older sister’s music library. Consisting of vocalists including Janet Jackson, Lauryn Hill and TLC, MAYAH sculpted the outline of her creative identity, with classic R&B, hip-hop and electronic staples being the fabric of her musicality.
Despite the musical force that ran within MAYAH, her journey took a pause as she committed herself to completing a degree in medicine. Soon after, MAYAH embarked on a precarious move to New York City to chase any path available with the desire to unlock her talents.
Training in New York City with vocal coach Craig Derry (Alicia Keys, Mary J Blige, D’Angelo), MAYAH was able to build the foundations to her artistry and finesse her assets. “His classes are so high energy. I felt honoured to be part of them and I met some of the most talented people I’d ever come across”, MAYAH shares.
The translation of her learning and experiences is guided onto her debut Island Records Australia release Pray. Teaming up with Melbourne producer Rob Amoruso, the track folds together contemporary hip-hop and R&B with an electronic edge. Using her sharp, penetrating voice over a syncopated trap beat, MAYAH reflects on the impact of social media and the way in which it forms the scope of individuals.
When discussing the song, MAYAH says, “the song is about how we show curated snippets of our lives on social media, but it’s not the full side; it’s the highlight reel. It’s often hard not to compare or question your own happiness, but it’s more important to stay true to yourself and what you love and want to do. Forget about what the f**ck anyone else is doing”.
We chat to the singer below, diving into her road to music and the backbones of Pray.
What has your journey up to now been like, and how were you discovered by Island?
I got into music a couple of years ago, and it was a chill hobby while I was studying at uni and doing something totally different. I just decided to do some cover songs and write a bit, but it was when I was in Cairns a year or two ago.
I linked up with Scramble, a producer, and we did some songs together. I didn’t know how it would go and I was just testing the waters. It was my first song I got properly produced. A couple of labels got a hold of that and a manager at BigSound was king enough to share it around and give me a heads up. From there, I started getting some meetings and a bit of attention for my music.
Recently, MAYAH shared the music video for ‘Pray’, bringing to life the concept of curated realities and the social media sphere.
How was developing the narrative of the video?
Pray touches on how social media impacts and influences us. What we see on the ‘gram or scrolling [on social media] that day is a snippet of other people’s lives and other highlight reels we see daily. I remember writing that song and thinking, ‘man, it’s often hard to not feel like you’re comparing yourself’. There’s all those social pressures and comparisons and it’s tough.
You can doubt yourself and go through all those emotions because you’re literally seeing people’s highlight reels. It comes from that space, and I thought ‘how can I make this into something creative, in a song, and then into a video which illustrates that?’ [I wanted to] give it some perspective and another side of the [difference] between how you deal with things on social media, and behind the scenes, and what that feels like…
I haven’t done a proper music video before, but I’m glad I had such a sick team to guide me and give me tips. The guys [Nick Stevens and Jon Baxter] who I did the video with were great. We did it fairly last minute and got in there and got it done! It was good fun and the team pulled it together.
Social media is a strange conflict because music and celebrity culture can sometimes perpetuate the negativity of social media, but it’s also how people express their vulnerabilities.
Do you think that being in music and behind the scenes as a creator has given you this perspective on social media?
I think you’re right about that. A lot of people have a love hate relationship with social media. It’s hard to distance yourself and take a step back because it’s easy to get caught up in ‘how many likes and comments did I get on this picture today?’
You also want to think, ‘who gives a shit?’ because you don’t want to have to be worrying about that every single day. As an artist you are using the platform to promote stuff and to connect with people, but I do find that if I am on social media all the time, it gets me down sometimes. That’s just the way it is.
‘Pray’ marks many firsts for MAYAH, including her first time working with producer Rob Amoruso. The lyrics for the song were impromptu, being written on an airplane en route to a Melbourne studio session.
How did this song start and were the ideas you had just a lyrical foundation?
I was bored on the plane, so I thought that I should write a song, considering I was going to a studio session. I was on my phone, on social media and I was feeling these emotions and wondered ‘why am I feeling like this?’ I just started writing a bunch of words to describe my feelings. The words in the chorus ‘fabricated/Insta famous’ came to me, and then I just wrote some other sentence, which became a paragraph, and turned into the very wordy chorus in Pray!
The ideas evolved into that concept which was cool, and I just had a melody idea on the plane and was humming away, annoying the people next to me. I went to the studio with Rob, who I’d just met. It was just lyrics and melody at the time, but then he made up this funky beat.
How was building beyond the foundations of the track with Rob helpful for your confidence going into other studio sessions?
It was really great! I feel really grateful to have had Rob there from the beginning. That was the first proper studio and writing session I had, so I didn’t expect much and didn’t know how they work. I think it was awesome to have Rob, who is now one of my good friends, as the first producer.
He’s super encouraging and nice and gave me a lot of confidence because I didn’t know what to expect. But we came out with Pray after one day, so I thought ‘sweet! I want to do this again and again’. It’s paved the way for me, which has been really cool.
When you were taking on music as a hobby, were you making the beats and producing yourself?
Not really! I went overseas to the States for about a year, and a lot of the time I was writing over beats that friends had made… I was fiddling around with that, but I wasn’t commonly writing words and melodies and then having a producer make beats around that!
Does ‘Pray’ feel a lot more real and tangible then because you had the opportunity to be there when the beat was being made?
Yes, exactly! You have a lot more control over what instrumentation and sounds there are. You can build it organically a bit more when you’re in the studio with another person and can say, ‘hey, why don’t we try this?’ It is fun being there in the early stages.
I remember when Rob and I were writing the song, we were stuck on a chord for two hours and were getting nowhere… We didn’t end up using it anyway, but it was fun going through that. After that, it was kind of easy. I like that process of being in the studio and working that out.
Most compelling is the sense of optimism MAYAH imbues into the song, with the main lyric ‘pray for me’ being the pillar of the song.
Is that what you intended for that line to do?
Pretty much! It’s saying exactly that. Pray for me and anyone else who is feeling like this or going through that. It’s a positive spin and gives a bit of hope. It’s also a cool chant to sing and say. That was fun. It was a tagline we just threw in, which was great because it brought the concept together in a nice way.
Will we see any other renditions of ‘Pray’ in a stripped back form?
I’ve been thinking about an acoustic version of Pray, with a more R&B vibe. It would be cool acoustic, because there’s not heaps going on with the instrumentation and it started off with chords and a melody and lyrics. There’s lots of ways that could go… It’s more intimate that way and you can pay a bit more attention to the lyrics that way. Although I do love turning up and having a song that you can get lit to and have a bit of fun to.
Lastly, can we expect R&B to be tinged within your future releases?
I have a lot of tracks that I’ve done and are just chilling in the bank that I can’t wait to put out. I reckon they’re really different! I love R&B and hip-hop and pop and Pray is a bit of a mash-up. I like the dark songs, but I also like more bright and chill songs too, so there might be a bit of a mix there… There is something coming out very soon, so keep your eyes [and ears] peeled.