Interview: Maya My - Maya Azucena

Writer: Nilda Velez

Who is Maya Azucena? I set out to answer that for all those music addicts who are more concerned with the overall quality of an artist than sticking to genre-specific clichés. Over green tea in NYC's East Village, she bodly let me know exactly who she is. Judging from her first full-length album, Maya Who?, I knew she melded the vocal equivalent of a tidal wave with the writing skills of seasoned vet. What I didn't know was the extent to which this Brooklyn B-Girl's soul music comes from her personal experiences of love and pain. And I was surprised to find that the brown-skinned beauty with the unique name is not only the voice on this project, but also the blood, sweat and tears behind the work that went into giving it life.

How would you describe the relationship you have with the people who worked on Maya Who?

I feel really fortunate to have these people around me. I think about the depth of this stuff as an independent artist and what it really means to exist and have an identity as an independent artist. A lot of that I attribute to having powerful, beautiful people around me. They have my back. The journey is hard, but we're all in the trenches together. The people who are around me from Rich Medina to Ayatollah and anyone who I write with, we're just really in it for the love.

To what extent are you involved with the technical and production side of your music?

I'm hugely involved in the whole process. Most of what I do is very collaborative because I have a very clear idea of what I'm going for. I share a huge respect for the people I work with. They want me there and I want to be there. I'm there in the editing process. As far as the song writing process, I'm contributing to all aspects of the creation of the song from the arrangement, to what the bridge does, to all the melodies I write.

So, I presume you're very involved on the business side of your music?

It's two hats. I get very sucked into the business, so I have to preserve the artist. It's a blessing and a curse because I do a lot. Sometimes I don't fight as hard for the help that I need.

Who is helping you?

I have a virtual team around me that has developed over the course. I think of it like the Wizard Of Oz. You're on this journey to Oz and along the way you get all these cool little individual people who join the camp. One person who helps me out is Roalh Aarons; he's my webmaster. He started out as a fan five years ago, just coming to shows saying, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Wait, you never met him before and he volunteered to design your website?

Yeah, he became one of my best friends. And at big shows, he's like my tour manager.

What are you like in the recording booth?

I'm going for an honest performance which makes me less of a perfectionist as far as the technical stuff and I'm more into the soul of it; that it sounds like I'm really saying something. But I have years and years of experience in the studio and I work a lot. I do a lot of session work, so I'm very precise and quick.

What do you do when you're struck by creativity outside the recording booth?

Sometimes I put a hook idea into my phone just so I don't lose it. I might call and leave it on an answering machine.

What did you leave to pursue music?

I was running a label [five years ago]. I was getting a crash course education in reality.

And you weren't happy doing that?

Everything I did... I've been a performer since I was four. I've known, always, since the age of four, that I was going to be an artist. Anything I've ever, ever, ever done that was considered a day job, I've always known, without a shadow of a doubt that that was temporary.

Were people supportive of you choosing to sing?

It doesn't matter. You have to be diplomatic [...] I've just never, not even once, had a job that I didn't know was temporary. It was an agreement between me and God. God guides me to make my choices. That clarity is a blessing because there are people struggling to figure what they want to do until late in life. I'm so curious about people who don't know what they want to do. A part of me wants to say that they do know what to do, they're just afraid to do it, [...] to recognize their passion. OK, here's one of my theories: If God created a hammer with intuition, then the only thing a hammer would want to do is bang things because it's perfectly designed to do so. So I feel that your genuine passion within you is driving you to do exactly what you were designed to do.

Are you religious?

All of my decisions are spiritually based.

How would you describe your writing style?

I'm soul and blues. I think blues is the root of a lot of what I write. Not necessarily technical blues, but what blues was born out of, which is expressing your pain and celebration of life. Expressing it from your being. I think I definitely write from that place.

What does it mean to be soulful?

Being soulful is being honest.

Is soulful a sound?

I don't agree that soulful is a sound. I listen to Bono and he's soulful. I think about who I'm drawn to as artists and I'm drawn to soulful artists. And not all of them are 'soul' artists. Like Sinead O'Connor; you listen to her and you can hear the tears in her voice. That's real and I'm connected to that.

Does it have to be painful to be soulful?

No, absolutely not. It can be joyous. It can be an expression of complete joy.

What is your favorite song on the album?

It's too hard to say because, based on the day, I could answer that differently depending on my mood.

Well, I caught you today, on a Tuesday.

[Laughs] You're trying to corner me! Well, my two favorite vocal performances are My All and Still Searching. [Long pause] This is hard. I like different ones for different reasons. I like Too Much because I love the production; the way the bass is, the head-knodding kind of vibe to it. Like No Other... I think I recorded that last of all the songs and it's the closest to the full, complete live recording. I like where it goes in the end; the scatting. That's me on stage.

What does it mean to be successful in music?

Being financially independent through your art is considered a success. There's different layers of success. Success can't be measured by money, but the fact that you can go to sleep and know that you're art is sustaining you and is sustaining itself, that means that you're music is successful. I want [my career] to grow to a stage where it's powerfully international.

How have you been received overseas?

Well, I just finished my first European tour. We played in England and in Amsterdam. They adored us! They gave us so much love. It was emotional. It was exciting, with encores. It was really enthusiastic, open, and loving. It's a really good start because it makes me excited about the next time I go.

So, people had heard of you?

I'm this humble little person with no budget, no institution, no booking agent, no manager and somebody from another country is talking about me in a chat stream. It's humbling and exciting because it means it's spreading.

It's becoming bigger than you.

That's what's cool about having a first CD; suddenly it could be bigger than you. It could be bigger than where I'm playing next.

How was your experience in London?

I had the best time doing my first show in London and it was very intense because I was there during the second wave of bombings. I did a radio interview [that night] with DJ Cass and Brotha Starks from Soul Revolution and they still had the radio station up and running; business still had to go on. I was really impressed with the resilience of the community there. I had a great turnout at my show, still. It was like people were determined not to be controlled by it.

Where did you perform?

At a place called Chez Stelios and downstairs is a space called the Playroom. It's a very intimate space, but it worked really well for my first London show. We packed it in and we had our own vibe. Nomdaic from The Planets rhymed with me too. It was fun.

Do you want to go back?

Yeah, I'm working on going back in November. I'm ironing out some plans to do some more European stuff.

Did you get a sense of what the music scene is like there?

[Laughs]. I've got to be honest. London DJs play better American music than Americans do. DJ Brian Hobson from StarPoint Radio was hipping me to all the hot artists from the US. It was crazy! I'm in London getting the lowdown on who all the dope US talent is.

How about the soul scene here in New York?

I really love New York. I can't get enough of my own city. It's intense. It took me a long time to get to my position as a soul artist.

What is your position?

I have gained respect from almost any venue I could want to play in New York City. Within the general landscape of soul music a lot of people are aware of me or at least of my reputation. It makes it easier for me to do business now.

Who do you go out to hear?

The soul scene has some gems and here in New York, it's so thick and intense. Imani Uzuri is one the first people who come to mind as a hidden secret. One of the most important vocalist I've ever seen. She's like a real Nina Simone of this era and she doesn't even have a CD out yet. Who else? I love Eric Roberson. He's another name that instantly comes to mind. We sang together at the Blue Note.

Are you working on other projects?

I have so many projects up in there. I'm dealing with contracts for this Tupac record. Tupac's label, Amaru Entertainment, their next CD that's going to come out is based upon Tupac's spoken word and poetry. So, I wrote and sang a hook produced by Ayatollah and together with the Boot Camp Click. So, Buckshot and Tek One and Steel. So, that's definitely going to be on that record that should be out in the next couple of months. DJ Rich Medina, his records' about to drop in October, and one of the songs I co-wrote is on there. He and I are working on other projects. We might do a whole CD together or maybe a vinyl EP project. I have vinyl coming out in Japan in a month or two.

So people are on to you in Japan?

No, but it's similar to England. It's like as if I were fishing and I keep getting bites. For example, Tower Records Japan just ordered over two hundred CDs from me within one month. So, there's some interest. I've gotten good write ups [...] so when I do go, I believe that there'll be a really good response. Having the vinyl come out will help. Like I said, I collaborated with Nomdaic, the UK MC that's one half of the Planets. His CD is coming out and one of the singles is something I co-wrote.

So, are you working on a new album of your own?

Basically, I'm in a big writing curve right now. I'm writing a lot and building up my material. I have a lot of material towards my next record and what my plan is to find a label home for my new record. That way I can have a little budget behind it to complete it. I have a bootleg CD that's basically a lot of material towards the next record.

A bootleg CD?

Yeah, it's called What You Don't Already Have and it's particularly for my peeps who say like, "Yo, Junkyard Jewel isn't on there!" or "What's up with the reggae song?" Just to give them a taste towards the next record. We're still writing and the natural progress is you write new songs and you play them. You do stuff so you can get feed back. So you can tell what's working and what's not working.

So, I assume when you do new stuff fans ask you about it?

Oh yeah! What I'm waiting for again is, I need a label home. I mean, I don't need one, but I would like one.

You're not afraid of losing the freedom you have now?

Well, the right relationship will support what I'm doing. Hopefully, they'll have the intelligence to see that what we're doing is working so what they really need to do is get behind what I'm doing as supposed to trying to change it or take it over. It'll probably be an independent type of label with maybe major distribution or capability to go large. To be honest, I could live with a budget and I could get a virtual team around it without having a label that's formal.

Do you freestyle?

Yes, in fact, when I was in Europe, I wrote a song just for each city I was in. So, when we were in Bath we wrote a song just for Bath; it was this dope reggae song. In Amsterdam, we wrote a song just for that spot and the owner wants a copy of it to put on his web site. I definitely freestyle, but I freestyle as a singer, not an MC. Melody comes to me much faster than lyrics.

Do you do covers?

Randomly. Not really. For special occasions, especially in New York where I play so consistently, I'm always flipping it in some way to keep the fans intrigued. So, I usually do a surprise cover or flip it somehow.

Who's music do you like to sing?

There's a couple of things I do by Jeff Buckley. That's one of the crowd's favorite. I do a song called Hallelujah that was written by Leonard Cohen. I do Stevie Wonder's All is Love is Fair. I'm very close to that too.

How do you feel about what you've read about yourself?

What's exciting to me is that what I'm trying to do is translating. People are getting it. So when I read about myself I'm like, "Man, that's what I was hoping they'd get" or "That's what I was hoping they'd feel." And so the fact that people are getting it has been really encouraging. And the press has really been in my corner. It proves a lot. The press has supported me because what I do has integrity; that's for sure. If you come to see a show, you're going to get definitely more than you paid for. I'm committed to the quality. I'm psyched because the industry is so fearful and close-minded and they can't respond to what they genuinely like. The press [has not been] bound by those precepts. They've validated a lot of the stuff that I've been doing.

What's unique responsibilities do you have as an artist?

I think about young people a lot and what I do. And about our self-image as African-Americans and I represent that. I want young girls to have something that gives them the courage [to not exploit] themselves in order to succeed. I'm concerned with who comes after me. I look at this as a leadership position that I've been blessed to have and so what do I do with it? [So,] I do a lot of community-based fundraising. One cool thing that's coming up is... I'm going to be the first live entertainment for the Race for the Cure for Breast Cancer. It's a 5K in Central Park on September 25. I'm excited about being a part of that. I like doing things like that.

That seems meaningful to you.

Yeah, I've sung in Riker's Island [Correctional Facility in New York] a couple of times. It's deep, but, again, the songs that I sing and the things I hold close to me... I want to sing music that really moves people. The last time I sang at Riker's, I went in there... This music is for people who are really going through stuff. It's not just for people's everyday life and if it doesn't speak to someone who's really going through something, then it's ineffective, right? So, I go in there. I'm in a gymnasium with four cell blocks worth of guys sitting on the bleachers, almost a couple hundred guys and just me and two white guys [laughs]; my guitarist and my drummer. It was amazing! I totally had them. They were totally respectful of me. We had an MC battle with a couple of the guys. They were just completely with me. And it was very emotional for me because, you know, these were the guys that I grew up with. These are the kids on the block that I hung out with growing up. I don't feel anything different, or scary, or freaked out... I could've just been hanging out on Flatbush. They've got to get through this situation and, hopefully, see a way to do better.

Do you think that was brave of you?

This whole thing I do is brave. Taking my band out to Europe, spending thousands of dollars I didn't have, using CD sales to pay my guys, is like no buffer at all. No money left on any of my credit cards. That's brave! This is what I'm here to do. I'm not here just to pay my rent. I'm not going out like that. This is what I'm here to do. This is my calling. God is my strength. He's the reason that I'm doing what I do. I don't want to back down. I don't want to back down because I see the state of this industry and how disgusting it can be. I want to prove the opposite. And having that bravery brings the most amazing people around me.

What's the five year plan?

I'm so infused with it. I'm not delegating a lot of it out yet, but I have a lot of balls in the air. One of the things I'm doing is a lot of collaboration and co-writing with the idea of getting into these periphery markets. Doing a lot of hip hop with more straight up rappers and stuff like that and getting on mix tapes and mix CDs. I'm trying to break into those side markets because I'm in a soul niche right now which doesn't cater to the same people all the time. I'm building towards the next record and my plan is, again, to have that with a label home or some form of a more substantial release. And touring to build it to the next level with larger exposure, basically.

Is there time for any vacation in those five years?

I've feel hugely guilty taking more than two days off, but I do this thing called 'playing hooky.' When I came back from these recent trips, I didn't pick up my phone all day. I didn't touch my computer. I just played hooky. I disappeared because I needed it. I had to. I need that for sanity. You know, there's a scripture in the Bible that says, "The body was not made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for the body." The day of rest is really because you need it.

I agree; not taking time for yourself can have disastrous results.

Well, I've been feeling kind of drained. It's like when you're running a marathon and you're at the final stretch and you're completely depleted and you're running on fumes. And the only thing that keeps you going is sheer will because you see the destination. You see that finish line. And that's where I'm at... I feel tired, you know what I mean? I feel at times that I'm at the end. It's an indication to how close I am to my destination. God has put it on my heart. "Just maintain, girl." You see the destination right there and now ain't the time to give up.

What keeps you nice?

[Laughs] What keeps me nice? What do you mean?

Well, there a lot of people who do what you do who are not nice.

I think and analyze a lot. I'm very analytic and I love people. When I was a kid I would obsess about why people did things or why they thought that way, and I would get a hurt a lot because I'm very giving. But now I feel I almost understand the psychology why people do things. I just have perspective. So, why am I nice? I feel in control of my situation. I'm not anybody's slave. I'm very liberated and I'm happy. I feel thankful and blessed to be alive. I operate out of that. I see through people. I don't have time for people who are fake. I don't humor it too much. I'm serious so as a result I feel light. I don't feel weighted down. It doesn't serve me to be nasty because good business follows you. When you're cool with people and you do the right thing, that's with you forever.


Note: Maya Who?! is an independently released CD that is available in several cities around the US, as well as through internet outlets such as: iTunes, TowerRecords.com, DustyGroove.com, CDBaby.com and more. For a list of available retail outlets, go to MayaWho.com, but the CD will definitely be available at Virgin Megatore (NYC) and Soul Brother Records (London).