NEW GENRE LOVE
By Anna G. Carlson, Interview by Ashvini Navaratnam, Photos by Anisha Patil
We enter new genre love with Zimbabwean-Australian artist Tkay Maidza who opens up about genre-bending, her sublime path toward self-love and everything in-between.
Coming off the high of her recent post-pandemic tours, performing alongside Billie Ellish, and crafting more songs for her upcoming album, Tkay Maidza transcends industry stereotypes and shows her audience how to remain an authentic individual. The Zimbabwean-Australian artist opens up to Santulan about her journey.
Past and Present: Entering another weird year with fresh energy
Maidza is embracing the weird. An eclectic narrator from the jump, the Australian artist writes her own rules when it comes to defining her style and genre. She breaks out of the constructs of genres as she effortlessly combines 80s synth dance concepts, early 2000s sonic influence, and alternative rap and r&b. Concurrently, she never fails to give honest and intimate lyrics. To experience the full essence of Maidza’s music, you’d have to imagine riding a shooting star through space or attending a rave on Mars. "My music has a lot of elements that clash, like bricks, sticks, and metal," Maidza explains. She notes a clear connection between her parents' profession as metallurgists (scientists who study metal) and her sound. “When deciding my aesthetic, I mostly think intuitively about how the song makes me feel and what it looks like in my head—and for the most part, I feel like my songs look metallic,” Maizda said.
When an artist feels trapped in a genre or aesthetic that is tied to their persona, it can feel creatively limiting. In this day and age, defying industry pressures can be a huge risk, but Maidza fights for her right to be heard. "I'm always going to be an outsider in whatever I do," Maidza says, "so I just try to make it my own."
At the age of 16, Maidza got some traction in deciding her own musical taste. “I just chose to listen to so many off kilter artists at the time, like Santigold, A$AP Rocky, and Kendrick Lamar,” she says. She tells Santulan that these influences had a hand in leading her to create indie alternative rap.
Following the success of her 2013 breakout song "Brontosaurus" and her first signing with Dew Process, Maidza was swooped up by Universal Australia. However, the major label didn’t provide the total creative autonomy Maidza desired. In 2020, Maidza celebrated signing a deal with internationally esteemed label 4AD, also home to names like Grimes and The National. Her three-album deal with Universal Australia ended with 2018's Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 1, a free-spirited alternative r&b record. Maidza suggested to the label that instead of releasing a second album, she should release three EPs to rebrand herself. This was a distinctive choice, one that Maidza says embodied a trial period for her listeners. It was, "Come on the journey with me, and we will see where this goes." "I don’t know where this is going, but I hope you slowly learn the type of music I like to make.” 4AD gave Maidza the artistic freedom to develop the second and third installments of her Last Year Was Weird EP trilogy to her liking.
Production wise, Maidza and her producers were always striving to outdo themselves with each EP release. Her easy relationship with melodies found its “sweet spot” in Vol. 2. which she describes as her “heart and soul.” Vol. 2 includes the electrically bright R&B moments seen in songs like “My Flowers” and “You Sad.” Notable hooks in “PB Jam” keep the EP alluring until the end. The EP finishes with Maidza coming to a realization about a toxic relationship in “Don’t Call Again.” Maidza recounts getting off a phone call and having a moment of hyper awareness about a toxic relationship in her life. “The lyrics came to my mind straight away. In that situation, I was like, - wow, I can’t believe you just said this to me - but now the smoke and mirrors have cleared, and I see through it all. I hoped you were this one person and you weren’t and you then have to come to terms with whether you want to go through it again, or let it go. And now I’ve really come to terms with it by making this track and have moved on.”
Present
Tkay Maidza leaves the pandemic and the emotional fog behind, with a whole new volume to show for it. The least nostalgic of the volumes, Vol. 3 (released in 2021), delivers futuristic manifestations, new sound textures, and an empowering self-recognition in her most confident work yet.
Sonically surprising at every turn, “the way the energy flows from the first to the third—the darker songs get darker,” she admits, talking about her EP’s changes. “The prettier songs get prettier. I progressively become more bold and daring.”
Vol. 3 begins with the psychedelic-soul serene song “Eden.” In this opener, Maidza grants her audience a transparent stream of consciousness in her lyrics. For instance, “So Cold” challenges its intonation with the refrain, “I ain’t falling in love no more.” Only to reveal in a later verse that she finds the falling in love situation a “waste of time.” Let it be known that Maidz LOVES the way the song sounds. She also enjoys the dramatic development of the song, which "keeps getting meaner and meaner and faster." She compares the song to a scenario like, “When you call your friend and they are like, “What happened?” and in the beginning you are soft about it, but by the end of the call you are a whole different person.”
Another noteworthy track is the silky “Cashmere.” The song is perhaps about letting go of a relationship. This one perfectly closes the distance between her fans and her personal narrative. Despite the laid-back nature of "Cashmere," its big emotions and unguarded lyrics like “You just gave me a reason to put a hole in your chest” convey real heartbreak. The pinnacle of the album is “High Beams," where Maidza proudly owns her artist ego, singing the words, “Yes Lord, I've been slept on,” over an edgy beat.
The creative and writing process for Maidza's third volume demonstrates enormous growth in her ability to find clarity within herself. “Doing this EP was a healing process for me, and every song felt like a writing challenge,” she says.
“It was a way for me to channel my emotions in a way that I haven’t before. In that time, I was able to speak better; I was able to correctly describe my emotions to people and be much more upfront,” she says. "Whereas before, when I was in the studio or in my normal life, I felt like I didn’t have that throat chakra open.”
In addition to an open throat chakra, Santulan asked Maidza if she believes having an open heart is key to writing music. “If you want to be better than you were, you have to tap into somewhere you haven’t,” Maidza says. This open posture is what is taking Maidza and her fans into the future. She shares this about love: When you let love in, that’s when life starts to be interesting. That’s when true happiness comes, but you have to be open to it.”
Maidza’s falling in love with her ever-evolving genre and what she has to offer the music world and her audience.
Future
Her listeners are open to new music and are growing along with the artist. So what’s next for Maidza? She’s working on her upcoming album; and this July, Maidza’s the special guest feature performer on Lizzo’s Australia/New Zealand leg of her “Special 2our.” Maidza excitedly discloses to Santulan, “There’s gonna be music out every month for the rest of the year.”
“I always want to have some sort of triumphant overcoming feeling to my songs; I want people to know that tomorrow is a new day-you can start again,” she enthuses. The hit singer reminds her fans, who are eagerly waiting to start their days with a new Maidza drop, “there’s always something better, it’s never the end.”