Last year, Sydney alt-pop prodigy MAY-A (Maya Cumming) featured on Flume‘s dance banger ‘Say Nothing’, which topped triple j’s Hottest 100.
Today (September 1), she’s releasing her second EP, ‘Analysis Paralysis’ – a sharp turn away from what more casual listeners might expect. On the EP, she revels in punchy, empowering punk-pop – with a few twists.
The wryly confessional singer-songwriter first generated buzz with the single ‘Green’ in 2020. Signing to Sony, her debut EP ‘Don’t Kiss Ur Friends’ arrived the following year – chronicling a formative romance with a girl on songs like ‘Apricots’, and going on to receive a Breakthrough Artist ARIA nom.
Then still a teen, MAY-A initially expressed apprehension when the media automatically labelled her “a queer artist”. Now, at 22, she embraces it.
These days, MAY-A has a devoted fandom with their own Discord community, some lining up overnight for gigs – to her astonishment. “I realised it’s not necessarily about me, or the idea that you have to be first, it’s more about a big sleepover with your friends in a random place.”
On ‘Analysis Paralysis’, MAY-A pushes the limits of guitar-pop. “You have to learn time and time again that there’s no rules in music and there’s no expectation for what you have to do – and you can actually do whatever the fuck you want,” she says.
MAY-A raps on feverish lead single ‘Sweat You Out My System’, while the tormented ‘LOLA’ and ‘Guilty Conscience’ (co-produced by Canada’s Stint, whose credits include Gallant, Jessie Ware and MØ) both nod to 070 Shake. MAY-A’s favourite is the brooding ‘Superior Liar’, inspired by early Radiohead.
“A lot of the songs are posed as ‘relationship songs’ but, at the core of them, it’s more about the emotion.”
MAY-A has performed widely, even joining Flume at Coachella in 2022. She’s just wrapped Australian headline dates with her all-female band and an appearance at Splendour In The Grass. Next, she’ll tour the US before returning for Spilt Milk.
MAY-A talks to NME over Zoom, as she contemplates time off over summer to hang with family and hit the beach.
You had huge success with Flume’s ‘Say Nothing’ – a cultural moment. How do you feel about it?
“I feel pretty lucky. I think it’s pretty cool that he asked me to be on that song. It’s a great opportunity and it’s just done nothing but good things for me and for my project in letting more people hear my music as well.
It’s kind of like bootcamp; it’s a good ‘chuck you in the deep end’ kinda thing – like being able to play shows with him to massive crowds, when before that I had only really played small rooms. So it was a nice way to get used to that [exposure] without it being my ‘thing’. It’s like getting a taste of what it’s like so I know what to prepare for, if it goes in that direction, which is really cool.”
What was Coachella like?
“Coachella was crazy. I feel like I wasn’t really mentally prepared for that, so I think I just blacked out the whole experience (laughs). But it was really fun – and it was just super inspiring being around all those artists.”
‘Analysis Paralysis’ really feels like your project – but there’s some new sonic influences.
“I think that I wanted to go a bit darker with this EP, just because it’s kinda where the world is right now a little bit – not necessarily in a bad way, but I feel like everyone’s a bit more angry than we were four years ago. But I feel like that’s influencing music in general right now.
I really wanted to experiment with my vocal tone and try different ways to sing – ’cause I think that, when I started writing music, I was just writing for the words, rather than using my voice as an instrument or experimenting with different sounds. I was inspired by a lot more electronic influence, and a lot more band influence, than just a singer/songwriter kind of project.”
The title suggests that you’re at a crossroads – and you’re processing a lot?
“I think that I was really struggling to piece together what direction I wanted to go in and kind of who I was and am. I think that the next thing that I make is not gonna sound like this, and it’s not gonna sound like the one from before – because I just keep changing.
When I was writing this EP, I was kind of fighting that [dynamic], in a way, and trying to decide who I was going to be, rather than just letting it happen. I think that’s where ‘Analysis Paralysis’ comes from, ’cause it just felt like I was overthinking every single detail and every single thing that came out of my mouth, or fighting what I was naturally drawn to – because I felt like it didn’t fit into what I wanted myself to look like.
It was hard to make any decisions based on trying to be ‘curated’. I think that, by the end of this EP, I managed to let a bit of that go.
A lot of my anger comes from things going on around me –just in the world in general and the stresses and pressures of being in the industry; this stuff gets put on you, from yourself and from all the people around you, and [you’re] trying to navigate that as well and just figure out what actually matters.”
Around the time of your last EP, you questioned the media tagging you ‘a queer artist’. How do you feel about that now? Is that accurate? Do you feel comfortable being called that?
“Yeah, definitely – it definitely is! I think I was more scared of it when I was younger, ’cause I didn’t wanna just be boxed in as that and deter other audiences from listening to the music ’cause they’re like, ‘I’m not a queer person, so I shouldn’t be listening to queer music.’ I was a bit worried about that.
Then I realised that it doesn’t fucking matter! It’s music and people will find it – and they’ll like it or they won’t, and you find out more about the person and then you like them more or you don’t.”
MAY-A’s ‘Analysis Paralysis’ EP is out now. She’ll perform as part of the Spilt Milk festival line-up later this year, find more information and tickets here.