It was Maya Delilah’s last night of her very first U.S. tour. The 22-year-old singer songwriter and guitarist was touring around the country, and had spent the past eight days opening shows for NYC indie band Melt along the west coast. This marked the last date—a clear, cold night in Portland, Oregon.
“I didn’t bring enough coats, ” said Maya, dressed in heavy gold jewelry and a patterned sweater vest. “I didn’t really think about where I would be going, I just wanted to take each day as it came.”
This may have been Maya Delilah’s first time playing in the U.S., but there were already plenty of fans familiar with the London artist. Over the past two years, Maya’s steadily released a slew of songs showcasing her soft R&B pop styling and razor sharp guitar skills, totalling streams in the millions. She’s also built a big following on socials (even getting a nod from John Mayer on TikTok) and recently signed with Blue Note/Capitol. It’s a lot of momentum, but it doesn’t seem to be overrunning Maya, who was calm and easy going while she sat at a small table in the low-lit bar above the basement venue, waiting for soundcheck.
“I’ve really noticed in terms of audiences, American audiences are so much more energetic,” Maya said over loud voices from a nearby table. “English audiences are really supportive, but in America, if you do something they like mid-song, they’ll cheer, that energy helps when you’re performing, it just feels much more encouraging.”
Though Maya’s ascent has seemed quick, the artist’s been working at it for a long time, picking up the guitar around the age of eight.
“I was playing piano at the time, really not picking it up, [and] the difference I felt in playing guitar and playing piano was crazy,” Maya said. “I think because I learned piano in a traditional theory way and that doesn’t really work for me, I’m quite dyslexic. Going into guitar I knew I didn’t want to do it in that conventional way, I wanted to just play by ear, and that’s what I did. I think I improved really quickly because I just wanted to play.”
Flash forward a few years, Maya Delilah went on to study at the prestigious BRIT School (alums including Adele and Amy Winehouse), and then began writing her own music with producer and collaborator Stephen Barnes.
“Me and him have such a fun, non-serious relationship with each other,” Maya said. “We wanted to put that into music.”
She continued:
“I really like sharing the [writing] experience with someone, that feeling of finding the right lyric or a song coming together. I want to share that with someone, I find that much better than doing it on my own.”
Her most recent single, “Pretty Face”, written with James Smith and Martin Luke Brown, has that sharing feel, an R&B pop-tinged heartbreak anthem that’s coated in harmonies that make the track both sweet and playful.
“All the harmonies in it are us screaming in a room together for hours,” Maya said.
Collaborating on songwriting isn’t the only way she’s building community. Through her TikTok, the artist’s been outspoken on encouraging more young girls and women to pick up the guitar, and talking openly about the stereotypes of it being a more ‘male instrument.’
“Even when I was young, I considered it a boy thing,” Maya said. “I was quite an outgoing child who wasn’t scared, so I could see how [a] young girl who is afraid of the stereotype maybe wouldn’t pick it up. I want to help that change, and young girls [see] it as a normal thing.”
The encouragement seems to be working.
“I’ve had people come up at shows and messages saying they’ve got their first guitar because they’ve seen me playing and that’s been really amazing.,” Maya said. “I even had a mum recently at a show say she’s started playing which is really cool. All ages of women picking up the guitar and saying I helped them is just overwhelming.”
It was just about time to head down to the venue for soundcheck for the last show, though it felt certain the artist would be back again soon for more shows. Her vision is a big one, and she’s just getting going.
“I’m on the way to trying to create a world within my music, where it’s not just music but videos and fashion, more than just music that I want people to get involved with, “ Maya said.
Is there a theme for this Maya Delilah world?
“There will be,” Maya said. “I don’t know what it is yet, but there will be.”
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