Maya Manuela - Interview
From the TikTok commodification of youth to the deep feelings of unsatiated longing, there is an accumulation of influences on indie-pop artist Maya Manuela’s upcoming album American Doll. We sat down with her at her first show of the album tour in Nashville to discuss who she is as an artist and what’s coming up next.
PURPLE HAZE MAGAZINE: Let’s start with a little introduction. What are 3 things people should know about you?
Maya Manuela: Very tall and very emotional – that's what I usually go with. I grew up on the ocean and think there's something about if we want to get, you know, “woo woo.” There's something about really paying attention to the moon and the way that it affects the tides. There's definitely an impact on that here. And the way it affects my family, like we always have weird dreams around the full moon.
I also always try to find a balance. I would say in my personality, I'm very emotional—I can be sad, happy-go-lucky, try to stay up and try to have fun—I like to feel good too, obviously. I think that comes out in my music a lot where there's sort of this like push-and-pull between being very introspective with heavy, emotional longing with a really upbeat production. Like going from “multiverse” to something like “Laura”.
In terms of artists, do you have any specific influences on your music or artists who you look up to?
MM: That's always a complicated one... because if I say somebody like Doechii, you'd look at both of our music and think that there is no correlation. Other great examples are Kendrick Lamar & Noah Kahan, where it's like they went all in on who they were and learned how to specialize in being themselves. It's almost like turning up the dial on who you are.
So if you were turning up the dial on any specific thing, what would that dial be?
MM: That's a great question, definitely something I'm trying to figure that out. With this album, it's gotten closer and closer to that. One key thing that keeps coming up for me is longing. Like a lot of longing. “multiverse” is a breakup song, but it's also longing for somewhere out there that we work, you know? And then “Radio Station” is upbeat fun, but there's longing to have a deep connection in your life, to have a place where you fit.
We’ve discussed your past work a bit. How have you changed or remained the same to your work compared to “multiverse” from a few years ago?
MM: I am definitely leaning into a lot more upbeat and experimental stuff. But what remains the same is definitely the longing. It never goes away. But this longing in the context of the music, in a weird way, is a continuation. It’s not that one chapter's closed so another can begin—there are through lines in all of it.
So what's been your creative process on this upcoming album, American Doll?
MM: I love this question. I've never written an album before. Maybe this is a Nashville way of thinking about it, but I’d write the best song that I could write and then figure out other songs that I liked, then put them on an EP together.
But with this, it started with a couple of songs that I was like, “wow, I really like these.” I had the idea for American Doll because I was scrolling through TikTok and someone said something about American Girl Dolls. And I was like, “oh, that could be a cool song… no, that's actually so lame. What even is that?” But I liked it, and thought if I flipped it around, and got to “I know she’s your girl, American doll” [from the title track].
I wrote “American Doll” with Matt Martin and loved it. And then it brought this idea of the American Doll up for me and who she is. It’s just a bunch of different ideas into a singular, super-put-together projection. Real people are many things, and are inherently messy. But with a Barbie-type, she is perfect and flawless. An image that kept coming up for me throughout this was Farrah Fawcett, and there was this poster I found of her. Once again, she’s like a doll that people just project fantasies onto. So then I made a mood board for the album and brought that into writing sessions with me and would explain to cowriters and producers my concept of the album. People would nail it right away.
What are the details behind the album and is there anything in particular you want to share?
MM: The album has 9 songs. I think a lot of the story is kind of like a bottle. There are songs about feeling like “I don't belong here” and “what am I doing?” And then there are ones about longing, about breakups and wrestling with a deeper, darker side of yourself. I have one song called “Where The Light Gets In” and it’s about how it’s okay to not be okay.
There’s another song called “Fatal Attraction” based off of a book called The Pisces. This is really dark, it’s basically this girl who falls in love with a merman and wrestles with wanting to be with him—but if she's gonna do that, she has to die and leave her life behind. So in the song, it hits this point where it's like ‘I am so lonely and so alone that I would die to be with you.’
I’m also really excited for “God Forbid”. That one came when I thought I had the album done, and then I went to write with Phil Barnes—who produced “multiverse”—and Sarah Gray, an artist, too. We somehow got on the topic of castor oil packs and the pressures of being a girl, how much was trying to be sold to us on TikTok, etc. And Sarah and I were showing him these different videos because he had no idea what we were talking about—because men don’t see that stuff. There was also this other video of this 27-year old that blew up a couple of years ago, who was showing how her eyes would crinkle when she smiled. Everyone in the comments was roasting her like “you need sunscreen” and “ewww this is why I wear sunscreen at age 12.” Like women can never get a break. So it came together in this very sarcastic tone and started with the line “God forbid I have smile lines” and we went from there.
What is the sentiment that you're hoping listeners will take away from this album?
MM: Hmm, I guess a bit, like, it's okay to be messy, you know? It's okay to not feel chosen, but to still feel like you're developing as a person. I think there's a lot of just messy humanity to it.
This was your first show on the American Doll Tour. What are you looking forward to on the rest of the tour?
MM: I'm really looking forward to New York, honestly. I love being from the Northeast. Last year Alex, the drummer, came on tour with me too, and we just played Raye’s album over and over and over again... so honestly, I'm looking forward to another 12 hours of straight Raye.
Pre-save the album American Doll here
Catch Maya on the American Doll Tour!