The bubbly Maggie Rogers was in Paris last week to announce her new album. Justfocus was able to ask him a few questions.
We've been talking about it since 2017… Maggie Rogers, revealed by Pharrell Williams during a masterclass at her university, is a talented and spontaneous young artist whose music particularly touched us. We had the chance to meet her to learn more about her entry into the world of music
First of all, how are you?
It's going well, thank you. I love being here. Coming back to Paris makes me very happy.
It seems that you did your Erasmus in Paris?
Yes, it was great! I love the French Xforce Crack culture. I spent six months here in 2015… It was at a time when I was really lost. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, or if music was really for me. I needed to get out of my head and coming here allowed me to let go. Just live, exist, experience new things. I fell in love with dance in Paris but also in Berlin. It changed a lot of things when I returned to the States: on my way of perceiving music in particular! Suddenly I was thinking about rhythm and it was new compared to what I was doing before.
You grew up with many instruments and different musical styles, but your choice stopped on folk and banjo when you went to high school. How and why this choice?
I think the most important thing was my gender, because I was a girl. I know it sounds weird to say that Hotspot Shield VPN Crack. I've always played guitar and I quickly realized that I was never going to play in a band because there were too many guys already doing it. So when I started the banjo, I knew I would be the only one. Today I don't need it anymore. I think at that time I didn't think I could really use my voice. I think I started to get a little bit of resentment because it marginalized me and I was producing at the same time. When you produce, you can't play on all the instruments, or program all the instruments. But, the banjo was when I was in high school. And then I went to university, I stopped playing because I was mostly studying engineering and production; I had access to more open peers, a more inclusive community, and many tools.
Alaska is the song that revealed you to the world. How was this song composed and arranged?
It was the first song I wrote in two and a half years. It was for my graduation project and I was very bored because I had tried a lot of things, I was late, and it was my turn to show my work the following week. Then it happened quickly: writing the song took me 10 minutes. I started typing with my hand on my jeans and recording seemed simpler starting with the rhythm. It was spontaneous, like the way I usually write. I don't write very often, but when I do it can be quick. Today, I try to be better at writing and writing even when I don't feel like it, by practicing. I think resting on my spontaneous side is special, but I really want to be better. I am very keen on that. And writing is also what I prefer!
Now That The Light Is Fading your first EP was made during your last semester at university. Is it just an end-of-year project?
Yes, it's really a graduation project. I did these 5 songs in 3 weeks because I had to produce something for school, but if I had known I was going to release them, I would have made an album instead. It all happened so fast before I had time to think about it. The songs are finished but not in a set. It's like I didn't finish my sentence… In fact I just started!
Right now there's a lot going on in the world. I read that you write mainly about topics that affect you. What do you want to write about right now?
I have not yet felt particularly compelled to talk about politics in my texts. But what I'm talking about in my words are things that have happened to me personally. What happens in the world can be very divisive, and unless you're completely devoid of empathy, you feel it in your environment. So somewhere, I will say that the outside world plays a role in my life and in the way I experience things. And as I speak from my experience… But I've never written a song that is only and completely political. Not yet…
What is your process of creating your music? The lyrics before the melody? How is the composition going?
Sometimes it happens at the same time. And everything happens very quickly, it's more intuition. And every time it's different. Sometimes I play the piano, sometimes the guitar, sometimes it's the synth, sometimes I just mark the beats and I find the rhythm of the words that goes with what I want to say. You know creativity is a very flexible process, just like writing.
The percussion always seems very special. How is it composed and placed on the title?
I don't know. I just choose sounds that instinctively attract me. I don't think about it too much. I listen to different things, I find some cool and I put them aside. It's not very intellectualized after all. I'm not worried about gender. Because gender has nothing to do with music. I also believe that because it comes from me, it's me. So I don't ask myself any questions: does it sound like me? If I like it then yes, that's for sure! The brain can be the worst enemy of creatives. I try not to think too much…
Your last song, Light On, is really touching. What is she talking about?
It's the most vulnerable song I've ever written. After my first video all of a sudden my private life became very public. There was a lot of expectation around me.I was about to have a breakdown in front of journalists, because it can be very dehumanizing as a confrontation. For a long time I was very scared… I never had any doubts about music, but when it became my job, it became clear that as a musician, my daily life would only be 30 to 40% made of music. My real job will be everything else: promotion, traveling… Which is great but complicated at the same time. What I love most is being in the studio. So I knew music was for me, but I admit that for a while I wasn't sure I could do all that. You know, I've spent my whole life mostly alone in a room with a computer making music and suddenly… Everything became public.
Light on, I wanted to write a song that tells this story but also expresses the joy that music and being on stage is for me. I wrote this song as a letter to my fans because during my first tour, when everything was really intense and too much, I had these crazy days where you think, "I can't do this, this is not for me. " And then I'd go on stage and it was stupid! All the people who came to see me were so present, full of light. They told me how my music had helped them pass tests, had given them hope, that they had danced on it at a party with friends… something that simple. So I wrote back to them. Music helps us connect with others. These concerts helped me connect when I felt cut off from everything. That's why Light On is a thank you: you showed me that you were there for me so I'm here too. It's me who chooses to be there, to stay and say yes to all this!
How do you feel in the world of music now?
I am finally very happy. I ended up enjoying this life, which is really great. I try to be present and I am very careful where I put my energy, in the things that stress me the least. When it's not: I'm human, sometimes things are like that and I deal with it. The music industry is a really intense environment, but it's also a place where it was possible for a 22-year-old woman to enter the studio immediately. Because I had an idea, people wanted to bet on it and it's an incredible source of power and motivation. Now I'm 24 years old and I'm so inspired and I have a lot of visions; I feel privileged to be surrounded by people who are there to help me bring these visions to life. I'm really grateful.
It's a weird moment in music. We're not quite sure what streaming does to the way we create music. There are singles that come out quickly and albums that are optimized for streaming. I don't know what it can do to artists like me; who are careful to do work that comes from the gut. I think it's OK. People will find the record in due time, or maybe they want them all… I love what I've done, but not only: I'm proud of it. It was really an essential therapy for me. I am happy, I feel free and hopeful and excited, but only because I was able to get out of all his emotions by writing about them.
And as a woman, how do you live this experience? Is it a very masculine environment?
It's a 2-step process actually. That's my theory. At the moment there is an awareness and the #metoo movement is there to validate the voice of women. I think it's also useful in the music world because I'm a producer/songwriter and I always have to defend my work or qualify it. We are in a world today where people are actively making room for different voices. And that's the most important thing! Whether it's a question of gender, origin, socio-economic background, the first thing we have to do is make room in politics, on stage, on all public platforms to represent who we are in all our diversity. We are a little late… many late in representation.
But when this stage is over, I would like to see a world where I am no longer defined by my gender. I don't want to be a female producer, a female guitarist. I just want to be a guitarist! Music is all about listening. And if you close your eyes and listen to a guitar, there's no genre. That's the essence of music: it connects people and there's humanity in the way you play or sing. Music has this ability to show people how you feel without telling them. And that's not gender, it's just human!
We are talking about a first album for 2019 but you already have two albums: The Echo and Blood Ballet.
Indeed! It's my debut with a label and I am particularly careful that my album is different. But I'm very proud of these other 2 albums. These are full statements and I would like them to come back on streaming platforms. Right now I'm trying to figure out if it's the right timing because on these albums you can hear me learning and experimenting. I've learned a lot to let go of perception, especially when it comes to qualifying my work. Before it was super important for me that people know that it was me who had done it, who had written, composed, produced… In the end, I realized that I knew I was the one who made them. I didn't need validation. People think and believe what they want; There is no point in wasting your energy justifying yourself. It's useless to stress about it, it doesn't bring anything. Some people think that to establish a first project you have to have done a lot of research, or that you are well referenced on Google. There's a myth around the first albums, like you've spent your whole life doing it when you've usually done other things before. This album is only a year and a half of my life. It was written and finished in 4 months. It's all about chronology. More so people know where the beginning and end of this chapter is.
What can we expect for Heard It In A Past Life, your album?
First of all I grew up. Well a bit like everyone else I guess: I graduated and spent 2 years in the real world. But also, there was this whole evolution that we talked about with the banjo and my first EP where I'm more experimenting with electronic music… After that, I made music of all styles. This album is a bit of a mix of all that: I missed having real instruments and being in a band. So there's more piano, more guitar and I think the songs are more assured, the same way I am now. This album is honest and that's my only goal. People think my story is some kind of fairy tale, and it is in a way, but that's not how I feel about it. We picture ourselves a lot on social networks and people tell each other stories every day. But things are often much simpler than they seem. I don't want people to feel like I'm in representation. I just want them to know that I am… human being!
Superb moment of confidence with a simple, mature and confident young woman, already very professional in her approach to music and especially who knows where she is going and what she wants. A real pleasure to see that there is such a personality! A beautiful artist in the making.
His album will be released in January 2019. She will be at the Gaîté Lyrique on February 22. Not to be missed!
