MAY-A TRANSFORMS FLUMES “SAY NOTHING” INTO HER OWN MASTERPIECE
Maya Cumming, publicly known as MAY-A, has been a dedicated, authentic, self-starting artist since the age of flip phones, iPod touches, and Bieber fever. If any of those artifacts strike you as ancient, the point should sink in. MAY-A, although only 20 years old has spent over a decade extracting the sounds of 90’s candy coated vocals and classic rock lyricism to create her own unique, idiosyncratic sound.
With a mixing pot of musical inspiration, MAY-A told us that, “I grew up listening to a lot of Bob Dylan from my dad and Amy Winehouse from my mum and I really think both of those artists shaped me into the songwriter I am today. Taylor Swift had a big influence on me lyrically and I believe she really pushed me towards the importance of words in music.” Her newly released rendition of Flumes “Say Nothing,” married the convention of Dylan and the soul of Winehouse, creating a beautiful sound of her own.
Her ambition and admirable talent led her to where she wanted to be, and her surprise appearance during Flumes set at Coachella left others wanting more. Her live performance of “Say Nothing,” led Rolling Stone Australia, Complex, and Billboard to coin her as an unencumbered vocalist who is one of, “this years seven most captivating non-headline sets.”
After the 2021 release of her EP, “Don’t Kiss Your Friends,” that she describes as a, “very green, longing-ful, and self-depreciating piece of work that I (she) view as teenage me trying just trying to understand my surroundings,” MAY-A had her heels in the Australian pavement ready for more. Her fantasy soon became reality as songs like, “Swing Of Things“, “Time I Love To Waste“, and “Apricots” launched her from Sydney and into the arms of our world. With her ability to intertwine poignant projection and a story worth telling, MAY-A’s rendition of “Say Nothing” became a piece that needed to be heard. As the original gleams with electro-hops, MAY-A divorced herself from the sound and birthed a track of poetry that displayed her musical maturation.
As an artist who built herself from a 13 year old who “really wanted to tell stories,” MAY-A proved she can create anything with only the synthesis of her voice. The introduction to the track sounds nothing other than heavenly. She layers herself high, low, and in between to create a harmony that scratches the itch inside of your brain. The track reveals the uncertain moments of overcoming heartbreak– emphasized by lines like, “It hurts to love and leave, I don’t love you less”, “So if you don’t wanna say goodbye/Say nothing”, and “It’s not like we ever burned so bright.” Simple but quite effective.
The song reads like a letter, much like Olivia Rodrigo’s “Driver’s License,” and in a similar sense, “Say Nothing” makes you want to feel what she’s feeling. It makes you want to be heartbroken so in turn you experience the song for all that it is. Not many artists make you want to feel the pain they were in when composing heart-wrenching tracks, but with MAY-A, the world will do anything.
Don’t waste your time, hear it for yourself! Download “Say Nothing” here–now available on all streaming platforms.
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