Over the past couple of years, maia has built a remarkable bond with her audience entirely on the strength of her resonant songwriting and unaffected presence. Her 2018 debut EP plum blossom clocked more than 100 million streams on Spotify alone—not bad for songs recorded by herself in her parents’ guest room. She’s now amassing millions of followers and subscribers across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, making a point of using her ever-growing platform to speak out on issues close to her heart. “As a young bisexual woman of color from a family of immigrants, a lot of current events directly affect who I am,” says maia, who’s mixed Chinese-American. “I firmly believe it’s my obligation and opportunity to speak on issues that affect us all.”
Since the release of the masquerade—as well as its accompanying original Spotify podcast and graphic novel—mxmtoon’s following has only continued to flourish. Boosted by glowing praise from the likes of The New York Times and The New Yorker (who lauded her songwriting for showing an “emotional sophistication that reminded us that there are some things we never outgrow”), the album’s breakout success recently saw maia embarking on her first-ever UK tour. In addition, she’s now gearing up to support Lauv on his forthcoming spring tour of Asia.
Despite the grander scope of “fever dream”—an element amplified by her notably more powerful vocal command—mxmtoon’s upcoming output carefully preserves the warm intimacy that’s always defined her material. As evidenced on the masquerade, she possesses a singular talent for turning detailed narrative of the most mundane moments into songs with deep meaning—a transformation propelled by her delicate melodies and utter aversion to self-seriousness. Made in collaboration with musician/producer Robin Skinner (aka Cavetown), the album offers such standouts as “prom dress”: a layered meditation on expectation and disappointment penned by maia in a moment of sheer frenzy (“I ate a Double-Double from In-N-Out and then couldn’t fit in my prom dress and started having a panic attack,” she explains).
On songs like the impossibly breezy “seasonal depression,” the masquerade reveals mxmtoon’s rare gift for illuminating experiences typically unrecognized in pop music. “I wanted to be honest about the feeling of waking up and having no desire to do anything with your day—but then also maybe help people feel a little better and lighter when they’re stuck in that gray moment,” she says. Meanwhile, on the album’s showstopping centerpiece, mxmtoon presents a particularly confessional track called “my ted talk.” “I find myself writing all these songs about romantic relationships, which is ironic considering I’ve had very little experience with that,” says maia. “That song came from me asking, ‘Am I even allowed to write something I barely know anything about?’ But I’ve realized that my songs are a way for me to untangle my emotions and try to make sense of what I’m going through, even if I don’t fully understand it in the moment.”
In each piece of music she creates, mxmtoon matches her lack of artifice with the graceful musicality she first honed by studying violin and cello as a child. After writing her first song with two friends for a music class at age 13, she continued writing on her own but mostly kept her output to herself. In 2017, Maia began posting her music on SoundCloud, first only sharing her comedy songs but eventually uploading a heart-on-sleeve track called “feelings are fatal.” “At the time I was like, ‘Whatever—I have 200 followers, I’m just gonna post it,’” she recalls. “But then people really responded to it, which made me realize that I needed to keep my music as candid as possible, because that’s what people connect with.”
As her recent touring has shown, mxmtoon relentlessly brings that unabashed candor to her disarming live performance. Her first ever headline US tour sold out months in advance in part to her army of fans across social media platforms. In the past year, she’s augmented her live set to include a drummer and guitarist/keyboardist/background vocalist, a shift that’s paradoxically made each show all the more intimate. “Having my band frees me up to interact with my audience in a way that I can’t normally do if it’s just me up there with my ukulele,” she says. “It’s been so much fun, and I’m excited to keep elevating the live show as I keep touring.”
In her endless effort to create true connection onstage and in her music, mxmtoon has attained an undeniable solidarity with her listeners, ultimately providing some much-needed solace for the shy, the sensitive, the routinely underrepresented. “When I listen to my first album, it feels like a musical of the things I’ve gone through and the life inside my head,” says Maia. “I hope people come away from it feeling like the songs belong to them too—like now there’s a piece of art in the world that speaks to their own experiences, even if they’d always felt like they were alone.”
Press for the masquerade…
"...a Bedroom Pop Empire in the Making” - The New York Times
"On the masquerade, which features songs written over the last two years, she's offering the most polished picture of herself yet. And it's one that, like all of her music, succeeds based on her candor and intelligence.” - NYLON
"mxmtoon Might Be the Songwriter a New Generation Needs...Armed with a ukulele and a sardonic charm, the TikTok star paints a portrait how it feels to be lonely, in love and connected at once...the masquerade is comforting twee-pop that wrings out genuine pathos from mxmtoon’s internet celebrity. She’s made a portrait of what it’s like to be lonely, in love and perpetually connected, while at the same time filled with sly, painfully earnest observations.” - Paste
"the masquerade is a deeply human album, one unshackled by any pretense or notion of the 19-year-old artist’s ensuing fame... a ten-track run that plays with themes of lo-fi indie rock, jumps headfirst into soaring indie pop, dips into nostalgic, swaying R&B, and finds its footing in heartbreaking ballads, all while staying grounded by mxmtoon’s gift for poignant lyricism.” - Bandcamp
"the masquerade is a deeply human album, one unshackled by any pretense or notion of the 19-year-old artist’s ensuing fame... a ten-track run that plays with themes of lo-fi indie rock, jumps headfirst into soaring indie pop, dips into nostalgic, swaying R&B, and finds its footing in heartbreaking ballads, all while staying grounded by mxmtoon’s gift for poignant lyricism.” - Ones To Watch
"The ukulele-toting singer brings her wry sense of humour and diary-entry lyricism to her debut record, recalling the lo-fi relatability of Frankie Cosmos. She's charming, candid and unafraid to delve into some tougher themes…” - Exclaim!
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