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)
JUNO, Polaris, and Prism Prize-nominated Toronto producer and all around musical polymath, Harrison, today shares a new single & animated visual for "Outta This World" featuring fellow JUNO-winning, Toronto artist, TOBi. Harrison's signature keys and laid-back beats provide a perfect backdrop to TOBi's half-singing, half-rapping soulful vocals, with Complex Magazine praising the track as "celestial, buttery smooth".
Click to listen to "Outta This World"
The accompanying animated video for 'Outta This World' out today is the brainchild of Jack Harrison, who has worked with Keys N Krates, The Kount and Jay Feelbender, among others, and depicts Harrison and TOBi venturing on a journey "outta this world" to cook up the track in perfect camaraderie. The artwork was illustrated by Elijah Anderson and designed by Jeremy White.
The single marks the second collaborative track between the two since “Beige,” off of TOBi’s 2020 mixtape ELEMENTS Vol. 1. Released via Last Gang Records/MNRK Music Group, “Outta This World” also serves as a glimpse into Harrison’s forthcoming album, which will be released later this year. Harrison brings his signature aesthetic sound of catchy instrumentals and innovative beats to the new track.
“As soon as I finished this joint, I immediately thought of TOBi,” Harrison says of his new joint single. “I knew he would deliver and he did. He floated on it. Always happy to be collaborating with him.”
On the collaboration, TOBi adds: "Since Harrison and I did 'Beige' a couple years ago, we’d been trying to get another joint in. A lot has happened in those few years, good and bad, so I wanted to capture that in the song on our second go around. Growth, friendship, moving through the music world, increasing my love for art, culture and of course pretty girls. The beat Harrison sent felt like I was right at home with the jazzy melody and the smooth drums. This time I’m making sure that I celebrate every moment."
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.”
