News: Maia Friedman

New York musician Maia Friedman presents a gorgeous new single/video, “On Passing,” via Last Gang Records/MNRK. This is Maia’s first new piece of solo music since 2022’s Under The New Light, her “immersive and intricate” (The Line of Best Fit) debut. Co-produced with Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Billie Marten, Florist) and Oliver Hill (Magdalena Bay, Helado Negro, Wet), “On Passing” unfurls beautifully with fingerpicked guitar and serene woodwinds.

***Click to save/stream Maia Friedman's "On Passing"

The track’s sublime lyrics illustrates her embrace of her own poetic lens, focusing on the beauty of the miniscule: “As you drift along // you float on course to Eden // hoping the waves will take you all the way to where you come from // Where we all come from // And from up above // the leaves fall as they ought to // crossing in hatchback upon currents in the air.”

The accompanying video was made by Ryan Faist and is composed of footage shot by Maia. 

Maia penned “On Passing” “as the health of two close friends were in rapid decline, with illnesses that led to both of their untimely deaths,” she elaborates. “Processing end-of-life is at once entirely natural and human, and at the same time, entirely abstract and unimaginable. It feels impossible to fathom, thus we vacillate through emotions; despair, anger, disbelief, confusion, and often eventually settle into a permanent melancholy (the quiet sadness) that will forever be tied to the memory of those we’ve lost. I find it healing to celebrate these memories in ephemeral moments of magic; a leaf falling from a tree, the glint and reflection of sun on water, a particular scent in the air, a bird that visits our windowsill unexpectedly.”

The palette Maia Friedman summons in her music has been described as lush, wise, and evocative. Drawing from her upbringing in the Sierra National Forest region of California, she often invokes a devotion to the natural world in her writing—an attunement to what is wild and divine in both the existential and the everyday. Her voice is a captivating centerpiece, lending a unique quality of warm comfort to every syllable.

Under The New Light garnered support from Rolling Stone, NPR Music, and BBC among others, and amassed over five million streams with widespread playlisting support. She performed the record in the US and Europe, sharing stages with Bedouine, Charlotte Day Wilson, Lord Huron, and Durand Jones & the Indications. In the two years since Under The New Light, Maia wrote, recorded, and toured with her various collaborative projects and gave birth to her daughter. This series of transformative experiences inspired new creative desires – to observe the world with unwavering empathy, to explore fresh musical colors, and to commit fully to world-building. There will be more new music from Friedman coming in 2025.

 

Throughout the months ahead, acclaimed independent record label Last Gang Records will celebrate its 20th anniversary, with a series of releases, re-pressings, limited edition merch items, and more. 

Today we celebrate Brooklyn’s Maia Friedman, who has just released her solo debut, Under The New Light. The album has garnered enthusiasm from tastemakers including NPR, Rolling Stone, Consequence of Sound, BrooklynVegan, Line of Best Fit, Flood Magazine, KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, BBC6, SiriusXMU, as well as notable playlist placements across all streaming platforms. 

**Click to save/stream Under The New Light

**Click to grab the Last Gang exclusive BLUE LP variant

Maia will celebrate release on March 18 with a show at Brooklyn Made. She has also announced a string of UK/EU dates this spring, supporting Tomberlin. Full list below.

“Pour me over, show me how to begin,” intones Maia Friedman on the first track of her lush, immaculate debut Under The New Light. Following a breadth of experience as a collaborator and multi-instrumentalist, Friedman’s densely-textured pop is wise and evokes what she wants it to: the sensuality of touch, feeling and image, a sonic form of empathy.

As an ode to the shifting landscape of our own lives, Friedman began Under the New Light four years ago, while teaching music and performing in multiple New York bands. “Collaborating gives me the juice,” she says, laughing. In 2018 Friedman was asked to join Dirty Projectors and a heavy schedule of touring followed. She sang and co-wrote the lyrics for the first of their 5 EPs, released last year, most notably for the soothing earworm “Overlord.” Meanwhile, Friedman also formed Coco, which began as a collaborative recording project with Oliver Hill (Dustrider, Pavo Pavo) and Dan Molad (Lucius, Chimney) and they released music anonymously until the announce of their 2021 self-titled debut.

Friedman’s voice lends a unique quality of warm comfort that permeates all her collaborations, but Under the New Light presents her full intention. Her role is that of the wounded healer, one who has gained wisdom through darkness and grief. In her empathetic role, rather than share the details of any struggling, Friedman instead sought to build a cloud of safety for those who might have pain of their own. It’s an antidote to suffering rather than its depiction. The closest she comes to stark personal detail is on standout “Sunny Room”: “To be in a place that knows your mold / The tighter your hand the less you hold / You’re looking for a way to ease your mind / So you won’t make a mess of your good time.”

Growing up in the Sierra National Forest region of central California, Friedman lived with her mother, their two dogs and four cats, playing in the wilderness until evening when her mom blew a whistle for her return. The family moved to the southern California coast when she was ten where her father, a film editor, director and teacher, cultivated the home’s expansive music collection, gifting Maia a jazz album every birthday. Her mother, a Jungian Psychoanalyst, led a dream group and filled their home with books on mythology, symbolism and dream interpretation.

It’s this translation of the image into sonic reality that Friedman shoots for and achieves wholly throughout Under the New Light. On “Elevate Us,” a sparse, succinct ballad, Friedman lifts a simple moment of observation into the weight of the world: “listen to the woman on the screen, promising everything / I am left more or less the same, with or without it / Oh how they elevate us, not that it’s for real / But ah, the elevation I feel / like a flock above the wires, carried by the current / In with the breeze, out with the front / We watch the rising flood.”

As with her other projects, Friedman collaborated closely on Under the New Light as a trio with Tom Deis (Pineapple Room Studio) and Peter Lalish, with Dan Molad in a production role. They worked on the album sporadically across the country, in Omaha, New York, and Los Angeles. Friedman had melodies but left it open, with the trio co-writing the swirling harmonies together. The arrangements are less sparse than they feel and even when Friedman’s voice is accompanied by a single guitar, there are swirls of ambience and synthesized sound design building around her.

The album plays like a fulfilled journey, and though Friedman is still somewhere in the middle of her own, on Under the New Light her vision is fully formed. On the bright closer “A Sleep in the Garden,” she nods, for better or worse, toward the future: “I won’t look away / when you show me more.” 

EU/UK Tour Dates (with Tomberlin)
Apr 20 - Paris, FR -  L’Archipel 
Apr 21 - Utrecht, NL - Kromme Haring
Apr 22 - Dortmund, DE - U Cinema e. V. (Kino im U) 
Apr 25 - Berlin, DE - Prachtwerk
Apr 26 - Leipzig, DE  - Horns Erben
Apr 27 - Brussels, BE  - Botanique - The Rotonde
Apr 28 - Margate, UK - Margate Caves
Apr 29 - Nottingham, UK - Rough Trade Nottingham 
May 01 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
May 02 - Manchester, UK -  Yes 
May 03 - Edinbugh, UK - Voodoo Rooms
May 04 - Birmingham, UK - Cuban Embassy
May 05 - London, UK - St. Matthias Church 
May 06 - Cardiff, UK - Clwb Ifor Bach
May 07 - Brighton, UK - Komedia Studio
May 08 - Dublin, IE, UK - The Grand Social

There’s just over a week before Brooklyn’s Maia Friedman releases her solo debut, Under The New Light out March 11. Today, we have just dropped her final single, entitled “Sunny Room.”  Maia explains to Flood Magazine:

The search for my sunny room - my internal place of peace, comfort and calm - is a daily endeavour, and sometimes feels like a tug-of-war. This song is a wish that the comforting space within one’s self is bright enough to outshine moments of darkness. As someone who has struggled with depression and anxiety, I know that these sunny rooms can often be difficult to find, and yet I do my best to renew the search time and time again. 

To be in a place that knows your mold / the tighter your hand the less you hold / you’re looking for a way to ease your mind / so you won’t make a mess of your good time

To accompany the track, Maia also made a simple yet stunning live version of the track:

For “Sunny Room,” I wanted to create a video that was intimate, raw and still, says Maia. We drove up to Marlboro, NY the day after an ice storm in early February, and the hills and trees were completely sparkling. You could hear a crystalline sound coming from the icy branches moving with the wind. My dear friend Stephen Spaccarelli was kind enough to let us set up in his studio and his son Mateo helped Philip capture the audio. It was a special and lucky day - very grateful to have been amongst friends in such a beautiful place

As an ode to the shifting landscape of our own lives, Friedman began Under the New Light four years ago, while teaching music and performing in multiple New York bands. “Collaborating gives me the juice,” she says, laughing. In 2018 Friedman was asked to join Dirty Projectors and a heavy schedule of touring followed. She sang and co-wrote the lyrics for the first of their 5 EPs, released last year, most notably for the soothing earworm “Overlord.” Meanwhile, Friedman also formed Coco, which began as a collaborative recording project with Oliver Hill (Dustrider, Pavo Pavo) and Dan Molad (Lucius, Chimney) and they released music anonymously until the announce of their 2021 self-titled debut.

Friedman’s voice lends a unique quality of warm comfort that permeates all her collaborations, but Under the New Light presents her full intention. Her role is that of the wounded healer, one who has gained wisdom through darkness and grief. In her empathetic role, rather than share the details of any struggling, Friedman instead sought to build a cloud of safety for those who might have pain of their own. It’s an antidote to suffering rather than its depiction. The closest she comes to stark personal detail is on standout “Sunny Room”: “To be in a place that knows your mold / The tighter your hand the less you hold / You’re looking for a way to ease your mind / So you won’t make a mess of your good time.”

As with her other projects, Friedman collaborated closely on Under The New Light as a trio with Tom Deis (Pineapple Room Studio) and Peter Lalish, with Dan Molad in a production role. They worked on the album sporadically across the country, in Omaha, New York, and Los Angeles. Friedman had melodies but left it open, with the trio co-writing the swirling harmonies together. The arrangements are less sparse than they feel and even when Friedman’s voice is accompanied by a single guitar, there are swirls of ambience and synthesized sound design building around her.

The album plays like a fulfilled journey, and though Friedman is still somewhere in the middle of her own, on Under the New Light her vision is fully formed. On the bright closer “A Sleep in the Garden,” she nods, for better or worse, toward the future: “I won’t look away / when you show me more.”

Brooklyn’s Maia Friedman is delighted to announce her debut solo album, Under The New Light, out on Last Gang Records, 11^th March 2022. After the critical acclaim of the first single “Where The Rocks Are” Maia has just released the second single “First To Love,” a mellifluous tune about the emotional wonders of being human. Maia explains: 

It is a humbling privilege to love someone in all their humanness and imperfection, to not only support but celebrate them through their journey of growth and exploration, to be by their side as they evolve into new versions of themselves. “Peel away / Keeping me up through the night // Escape / Be whatever you like” translates to: I will love even the deepest layers of who and what you are. A question I pose to myself is, what if this person were me?

Exclusive vinyl versions of Under The New Light are available for pre-order, more info below: 

• Sky Blue variant can be found here.
• Rough Trade exclusive Orange Translucent variant can be found here.

As an ode to the shifting landscape of our own lives, Friedman began Under the New Light four years ago, while teaching music and performing in multiple New York bands. “Collaborating gives me the juice,” she says, laughing. In 2018 Friedman was asked to join Dirty Projectors and a heavy schedule of touring followed. She sang and co-wrote the lyrics for the first of their 5 EPs, released last year, most notably for the soothing earworm “Overlord.” Meanwhile, Friedman also formed Coco, which began as a collaborative recording project with Oliver Hill (Dustrider, Pavo Pavo) and Dan Molad (Lucius, Chimney) and they released music anonymously until the announce of their 2021 self-titled debut.

Friedman’s voice lends a unique quality of warm comfort that permeates all her collaborations, but Under the New Light presents her full intention. Her role is that of the wounded healer, one who has gained wisdom through darkness and grief. In her empathetic role, rather than share the details of any struggling, Friedman instead sought to build a cloud of safety for those who might have pain of their own. It’s an antidote to suffering rather than its depiction. The closest she comes to stark personal detail is on standout “Sunny Room”: “To be in a place that knows your mold / The tighter your hand the less you hold / You’re looking for a way to ease your mind / So you won’t make a mess of your good time.”

As with her other projects, Friedman collaborated closely on Under The New Light as a trio with Tom Deis (Pineapple Room Studio) and Peter Lalish, with Dan Molad in a production role. They worked on the album sporadically across the country, in Omaha, New York, and Los Angeles. Friedman had melodies but left it open, with the trio co-writing the swirling harmonies together. The arrangements are less sparse than they feel and even when Friedman’s voice is accompanied by a single guitar, there are swirls of ambience and synthesized sound design building around her.

The album plays like a fulfilled journey, and though Friedman is still somewhere in the middle of her own, on Under the New Light her vision is fully formed. On the bright closer “A Sleep in the Garden,” she nods, for better or worse, toward the future: “I won’t look away / when you show me more.”

Track List

1. Where The Rocks Are
2. First To Love
3. Happiness
4. Under The New Light
5. Elevate Us
6. Sunny Room
7. Raintime For Yohei
8. All We Are (How To Last)
9. Interlude
10. A Sleep In The Garden