Maya Elise on Capturing the Intimacy of Live Americana in the “Salt Cave Sessions”
Maya Elise by Bradley Jacob Cox
Alt-Americana artist, Maya Elise, draws from the soft folk and country sounds she grew up listening to and turns it into comforting, transcendant sounds of her own, leading her band The Good Dream into the euphoric atmosphere their latest release, Salt Cave Sessions, creates. Inspired by their time touring for most of 2022, Elise and her bandmates decided that capturing the magic that comes from a live Americana show would be a great way to make the feeling of raw instruments, harmonies, community, and intimacy live forever.
The Salt Cave Sessions features live versions of their songs “Mailman” and “Settle Down” recorded at the Asheville Salt Caves with Sunroom Productions. Released for the first time today, “Settle Down” taps into Elise’s version of a lullaby. “It’s a lullaby for endings, prayer for rain, and a call to grieve. I wrote the song after attending a funeral of a dear teacher, Rachel Brodie z”l, who I had the honor of working with at Jewish Studio Project. When I told Rachel I was going to pursue music more full time, she responded ‘obviously you should do that - what are you waiting for???' I think of her teachings often and am humbled to share this song in honor of her life.”
Since the release of Maya Elise and The Good Dream’s 2021 album, Songs for the Breakdown, Elise feels she’s grown a lot as an artist, performer, and musician over the past year. She opened up to Amplify Her Voice about the storytelling behind her music, the ways in which being part of a band opens up a new community for her art, and what she hopes people will take away from her latest songs.
Can you remember the moment you fell in love with music?
I remember I asked my parents if I could play violin when I was six or seven. We were watching a basketball game on TV and I was like, “I think I’d rather do music than watch this game right now.” And my dad plays mandolin and guitar, my brother plays guitar, my other brother played bass, and I’m the youngest, so I wanted to play something and I wanted to play something that no one else in my family had made yet. I think the first time I really fell in love with music though was when I saw jazz violinist, Regina Carter, perform, and I realized that music could be so much more than I thought it was and it was just so spectacular.
Who are some artists that inspire your sound today?
I used to be really into pop country music like Shania Twain and The Chicks, and what I think was cool about them is that at the time, I didn’t really realize that they were singing about really feminist ideas, but going back and listening to their songs as an adult, it was cool and I hope that some of those messages subliminally sunk into me. I thought I wanted to be a country pop star, and I ended up not going that route but I feel like I’m still inspired by it.
I find it interesting you say that because country music isn’t the #1 thing in California where you’re originally from, so what about Folk/Americana/Country sound draws you to it?
That’s what I grew up listening to. My dad listened to a lot of Americana and folk and he’s from the midwest, so that makes more sense, but there’s something about the storytelling in the lyrics and nostalgia that exist in folk and Americana music that make me feel at home. The cool thing about Americana is that it’s everywhere, and sometimes I forget that some of my favorite folk musicians, like Sara Watkins is from LA and Shania Twain is from Canada. I also just feel like this genre allows you to tell stories in a way that’s really compelling. The other thing also that got me was the harmonies. To me, harmonies are the center of my music. I don’t have a song where the harmonies aren’t featured and I feel like when I hear harmonies, it rings something deep inside me that’s so beautiful – I want to bring that to other people.
Your latest release, Salt Cave Sessions, are a collection of your songs recorded while you performed them live, and it’s out today! What was your inspiration behind recording these songs live? Is there something different you wanted to express artistically this time versus when you put out Songs for the Breakdown last year?
I feel like in the studio albums we’ve released and the new one we’re working on that we’re going to release hopefully in the Spring, you can do anything in the studio! You can put electronic sounds in, and you can layer and layer that. This summer, we toured, just the three of us, and we stripped all of that away and it was just so special to be in a room, have a really intimate setting, and it’s just like the guitar, the violin, the bass, and that’s it. I feel like that’s something we really wanted to capture that could be available to people. I had a friend who came to the show in Brooklyn who was like, “I wish this show had been filmed and recorded because it was so special!” A few weeks later, we were in Asheville and we just said, “Let’s capture this,” so it feels like a version of our sound that I want people to know exists, especially if they haven’t been to a show.
Can you tell me the story behind the song “Mailman,” and how that came about?
I started writing “Mailman” in a songwriting class that I took during the pandemic called “School of Song,” which is this super sweet community that’s grown. The prompt for this was to write in the style of another artist. We’re always taking from melodies and plays on words and making it our own, so I was listening to a John Prine song and I just loved how simple it was and how his songs are almost like a conversation and how sometimes you don’t always know the perspective of who’s talking. I took that concept and asked myself, “What kind of conversation do I want to have in this song?” That’s how I started writing it and recently, I listened to the demo of it and it’s so different. I must have just set it down and forgot about it and when I picked it up again, it became the version that it is now. It started out a lot more country than it ended up being.
Why is it important for you to collaborate and make music as part of your band, The Good Dream, rather than completely as a solo artist? Does your friendship with your bandmates have anything to do with how you create together?
Absolutely. My band are like my best friends. Before we became Maya Elise and the Good Dream, it was just Maya Elise, and they were sometimes playing with me, but I noticed that I felt really alone - having it be just about me and being the only representative of the music. Their influence became bigger and bigger in the way that the band sounds and the way the record sounds. So I needed a symbolic shift to show that this was no longer a solo project, and I really think that helped me feel less alone and it helped them feel more invested in the project. Now, we’re producing the records together. There are a couple songs they've written on and it just feels like a more collaborative project. I’m learning the more it feels like a community, the better it is.
Have you ever come across any roadblocks in your career as a woman in music, and if so, how do you push through that to keep making your art?
Sometimes I feel like as a woman, you have to have it all like you have to be talented, and have a social media following, and you have to be beautiful and you have to have a certain style that’s unique, and sometimes I’ll look on record label lists and 80% of the people are men on the record label, and it feels discouraging. I think the other main thing that’s been hard is the stuff that people say to me at live shows is sometimes so insane that I can’t even believe it. I’ve gotten comments where people will say, “Wow, I didn’t know that was going to be so good, you’re so small.” I’ll look back and it’s usually like a tall man who will say that to me and I’ll just think, “You must be really talented because you’re so much taller than me.” Or I’ll hear, “I didn’t know someone so small could have such a big voice.” I think people think they’re giving me a compliment, but then they’ll say things like, “When I first saw you, just based on your look, I thought you were just going to be an annoying indie girl, but I really liked that,” and I’m just like, “You didn’t have to say it like that!” What even is an annoying indie girl? So I notice the boxes that women and non-binary people get put into, and part of me is like, it feels really good to prove people wrong, and another part of me is just wants it to be assumed that someone is gonna be interested before they hear the music. I wish people had a little bit more of an open mind but I’ve grown some thick skin, so I’m gonna keep going.
How do you feel you’ve grown either as an artist or a person or both since you started making music?
I released my first record in 2018 so I feel like my career really started four years ago, and I feel a lot more confident than I did then. I noticed that the waves of imposter syndrome are coming less and less, which feels really good, and sometimes when it comes back, I’m like “Oh, this hasn’t happened in a while,” which is a good thing. I also think I’ve grown as a musician. I’ve noticed how important it is to have my playing really tight so that I can give the best performance possible whether there are 10 or 200 people in the room, and in order to do that, I need to be well-rehearsed. I’ve also learned a lot about the business and the promotional side of things, which can be the less glamorous side of things, but to me, it’s all about relationships and if I look at it that way, it feels really good because then I can relate the business aspect to people and not to my cellphone.
When people find your music and listen to it, what do you hope they’ll take away from it?
I think when people find my music, I want them to feel part of something. I want people to feel like I’m telling a story that’s for them. I feel like the stories I tell are highly personal but also, I want to create little windows for people to be like, “Thats me,” and for them to feel like the music is giving you a hug and going, “I hear you,” or “You’re not alone.” I hope my music can be your friend. These songs are my friends that have helped me get through so much and I want that for other people too.
Stream Salt Cave Sessions by Maya Elise and The Good Dream here.