At just 24, the Australian singer-songwriter Maya Cumming – known to fans as May-a – has already experienced the promise and heartache of Los Angeles as a star-making town. In 2021, she signed with Atlantic Records in the US ahead of her debut EP, Don’t Kiss Ur Friends – a moment she described at the time as “a dream”. The following February, she featured on Flume’s precision-made festival anthem Say Nothing, which went on to win the 2022 Triple J Hottest 100.
Amid that whirlwind period, Cumming was flown back and forth to LA for arranged studio sessions with producers and artists she felt little connection to, ultimately relocating there in 2024. What should’ve felt like a career arrival was instead a dispiriting eye-opener.
“I moved to LA for the label and then did the sessions that they put in for me,” she recalls. “And then I was like, these are sucking everything out of me and leaving no trace of my personality in any of this music. It was just feeling very stale and devoid of personal touch, like canned Christmas music.”
After what she describes as “so many compromises” on her 2023 EP Analysis Paralysis, she split from At
Continue Reading on The Guardian
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.