MXMTOON – Tickets – 9:30 CLUB – WASHINGTON, DC – June 2nd,
2020 MXMTOON Claud Tue, June 2, 2020 Doors: 6:30 pm / Show: 6:30 pm
9:30 CLUB WASHINGTON, DC $20 Tickets
https://www.impconcerts.com/event/1889983/
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Calendar MXMTOON Website Facebook Twitter Instagram On her 2019 debut
album the masquerade, 19-year-old singer/songwriter MXMTOON DELIVERS
WHAT SHE CALLS “rhyming diary entries”: an off-the-cuff account of
her most private thoughts and feelings, usually dashed off very late
at night, straight from her brightly lit brain. In her deliberate
refusal to hide behind metaphor, the now Brooklyn-based artist
otherwise known as maia achieves a quiet bravery, an unrestrained
honesty that gives voice to those who often go unheard. “When I
first started making music it felt like an escape from my day-to-day
life, where I’d have to put on a mask to hide what I was really
feeling,” says maia in reflecting on the title to the masquerade.
“Writing songs was a way to express all the things I couldn’t talk
about in face-to-face interactions, and share them with a community of
people who maybe also needed to put up a façade to get through the
day.” Over the past couple of years, maia has built a remarkable
bond with her audience entirely on the strength of her resonant
songwriting and unaffected presence. Her 2018 debut EP plum blossom
clocked more than 100 million streams on Spotify alone—not bad for
songs recorded by herself in her parents’ guest room. She’s now
amassing millions of followers and subscribers across YouTube, TikTok,
and Instagram, making a point of using her ever-growing platform to
speak out on issues close to her heart. “As a young bisexual woman
of color from a family of immigrants, a lot of current events directly
affect who I am,” says maia, who’s mixed Chinese-American. “I
firmly believe it’s my obligation and opportunity to speak on issues
that affect us all.” Since the release of the masquerade—as well
as its accompanying original Spotify podcast and graphic
novel—MXMTOON’s following has only continued to flourish. Boosted
by glowing praise from the likes of The New York Times and The New
Yorker (who lauded her songwriting for showing an “emotional
sophistication that reminded us that there are some things we never
outgrow”), the album’s breakout success recently saw maia
embarking on her first-ever UK tour. In addition, she’s now gearing
up to support Lauv on his forthcoming spring tour of Asia. Newly
relocated from her native Oakland, maia is currently at work on a pair
of back-to-back EPs due out later this year with the first single the
spellbinding “fever dream.” With its soaring chorus and
shapeshifting textures, the song finds MXMTOON EXECUTING HER SOUND ON
A FAR MORE SONICALLY ADVENTUROUS SCALE THAN SHE’s ever explored
before. “Writing and producing with other people has really helped
me step outside what my brain would normally gravitate to, and helped
me to take more risks,” maia points out. “At first it was
nerve-racking to go from writing alone in my bedroom to working with
other people—in a way you’re essentially having a therapy session
with complete strangers. That’s a really intense environment to be
in, but it’s also been so fun and eye-opening to have other people
help me unpack all these ideas swirling around my mind.” Despite the
grander scope of “Fever Dream”—an element amplified by her
notably more powerful vocal command—MXMTOON’s upcoming output
carefully preserves the warm intimacy that’s always defined her
material. As evidenced on the masquerade, she possesses a singular
talent for turning detailed narrative of the most mundane moments into
songs with deep meaning—a transformation propelled by her delicate
melodies and utter aversion to self-seriousness. Made in collaboration
with musician/producer Robin Skinner (aka Cavetown), the album offers
such standouts as “prom dress”: a layered meditation on
expectation and disappointment penned by maia in a moment of sheer
frenzy (“I ate a Double-Double from In-N-Out and then couldn’t fit
in my prom dress and started having a panic attack,” she explains).
On songs like the impossibly breezy “seasonal depression,” the
masquerade reveals MXMTOON’s rare gift for illuminating experiences
typically unrecognized in pop music. “I wanted to be honest about
the feeling of waking up and having no desire to do anything with your
day—but then also maybe help people feel a little better and lighter
when they’re stuck in that gray moment,” she says. Meanwhile, on
the album’s showstopping centerpiece, MXMTOON PRESENTS A
PARTICULARLY CONFESSIONAL TRACK CALLED “my ted talk.” “I find
myself writing all these songs about romantic relationships, which is
ironic considering I’ve had very little experience with that,”
says maia. “That song came from me asking, ‘Am I even allowed to
write something I barely know anything about?’ But I’ve realized
that my songs are a way for me to untangle my emotions and try to make
sense of what I’m going through, even if I don’t fully understand
it in the moment.” In each piece of music she creates, MXMTOON
MATCHES HER LACK OF ARTIFICE WITH THE GRACEFUL MUSICALITY SHE FIRST
HONED BY STUDYING VIOLIN AND CELLO AS A CHILD. After writing her first
song with two friends for a music class at age 13, she continued
writing on her own but mostly kept her output to herself. In 2017,
Maia began posting her music on SoundCloud, first only sharing her
comedy songs but eventually uploading a heart-on-sleeve track called
“feelings are fatal.” “At the time I was like, ‘Whatever—I
have 200 followers, I’m just gonna post it,’” she recalls.
“But then people really responded to it, which made me realize that
I needed to keep my music as candid as possible, because that’s what
people connect with.” As her recent touring has shown, MXMTOON
RELENTLESSLY BRINGS THAT UNABASHED CANDOR TO HER DISARMING LIVE
PERFORMANCE. Her first ever headline US tour sold out months in
advance in part to her army of fans across social media platforms. In
the past year, she’s augmented her live set to include a drummer and
guitarist/keyboardist/background vocalist, a shift that’s
paradoxically made each show all the more intimate. “Having my band
frees me up to interact with my audience in a way that I can’t
normally do if it’s just me up there with my ukulele,” she says.
“It’s been so much fun, and I’m excited to keep elevating the
live show as I keep touring.” In her endless effort to create true
connection onstage and in her music, MXMTOON HAS ATTAINED AN
UNDENIABLE SOLIDARITY WITH HER LISTENERS, ultimately providing some
much-needed solace for the shy, the sensitive, the routinely
underrepresented. “When I listen to my first album, it feels like a
musical of the things I’ve gone through and the life inside my
head,” says Maia. “I hope people come away from it feeling like
the songs belong to them too—like now there’s a piece of art in
the world that speaks to their own experiences, even if they’d
always felt like they were alone.” Claud Website Facebook Twitter
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