tunesday – get to know maia toakley

There’s a fair chance you’ve come across Maia Toakley’s music recently. After her track “Everything On Fire” blew up on socials, Maia’s music has been opened up to a new world of listeners. But Maia is no one-hit-wonder. With an upcoming EP on the horizon and a schmick back-catalogue of hidden gems, it’s worth immersing yourself in the awesomeness of this muso’s art. Oh, and also immerse yourself in our chat with her below!

When did you first know you wanted to make music? I was obsessed with singing other people’s songs growing up, but it wasn’t until I was neck-deep in an architecture degree that I found myself writing my own music. Songwriting was the perfect procrastination method from such an intense degree and by the end of it I found myself armed with a catalogue of original songs and I’ve honestly never looked back. 

Why did you go to London to make your upcoming EP? My time in London ended up being a bit of a self-driven residency. I’d been gigging in the Eora/Sydney music scene for nearly five years (which I loved) but I wanted to see what else was out there. I rented this bedroom above a busy pub on the high street in Camden, borrowed a guitar (a story for another time haha), and was able to really lock in on my songwriting. I then came home and properly recorded the tracks with Charlie Tait at my favourite place on King St – The Confectionery Studios, Newtown.

Your latest single “Everything On Fire” is blowing up online. How does it feel to be recognised in this way? It’s surreal, my mind has been blown. I’ve had the absolute best time playing and sharing my music locally over the last few years but seeing the song connect at this scale is beautifully wild. There is so much incredible music out there, and I feel insanely lucky that mine is getting heard. 

Besides music, how else are you creative? No emerging indie musician is just making the music, we are also coming up with all our own merch, posters, cover art and event creation. I luckily love design and am thanking that architecture degree for forcing me to learn Photoshop.

What can you tell us about the upcoming EP? Despite “Everything On Fire” being a total heartache of a song, I would like to think the EP actually has a lot more conviction than some of my previous work. There’s less 'woe is me' energy, and more, 'hell yeah, I know who I am a bit better now – let’s go’.

Anything else we should know about you? I shorten all my words and say things like, “I’m such a peso” (pessimist), Aldous Harding’s latest album Train on the Island will be my number one record of the year, and I don’t actually want to have babies any time soon!

For more rad music chats, have a squiz at our chinwag with Blondshell or take a gander at Ruby Gill's stories of her hometown. Plus, sign up to our newsletter to stay in the music loop.