If there’s any artist to watch right now, it’s Maisie Peters. With her song “Psycho” quickly accumulating over 11 million streams on Spotify, her debut album You Signed Up For This recently released, and a headline American tour quickly approaching, countless exciting things are happening in her career.
You Signed Up For This is a 14-track album that takes your hand and walks you through every aspect of dating when you’re young: from initial heartbreak to eventual resentment, You Signed Up For This leaves no stone unturned. In the same vein as Taylor Swift and Julia Michaels, Maisie Peters writes lyrics like writing diary entries. A youthful glow is woven into each lyric she writes, making this album a perfect encapsulation of coming of age.
I was able to catch up with Maisie on a Zoom call, where she’s sitting in a stairwell (“I’m in a studio writing Christmas songs!” she had gleefully expressed) with her signature blue earbuds in. Despite some technical difficulties and background noise, we could chat a bit about her album and everything she’s working on.
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BRIGID: Congratulations on your album release! How are you feeling about the response to it and just everything you’ve had going on?
MAISIE: Thank you so much! It’s been so crazy; I’ve had a crazy month. I’ve just been running around everywhere; I did some festivals, I went to America. I went to the VMAs! I did so much, then I came back and moved into my new house, so I feel like I’ve settled in a bit. But I feel like the nature of music now is so… you’re just always thinking about doing the next thing—and the next, and the next.
BRIGID: For sure. I wanted to talk a bit about the “fact file” series you’ve been doing on your Instagram story, where you go into depth about each song on the album and share a bit about the process. They’ve been super interesting to read. What made you want to share that information with your audience?
MAISIE: Yeah, I love those! Thank you so much. I was so involved with all of those songs. It sounds stupid, but I feel like people don’t know that? There [are] lots to [the songwriting process]. I worked so hard on them; I worked so long on them, I was so involved. I was involved in every decision; I listened to them so many times. I just have so many stories and little bits. Obviously, songwriters know, [as] we know, but the world doesn’t know. I just wanted to let people in on it a little bit because I think it’s really interesting.
BRIGID: I love getting insight into the sessions and sort of how each song came together. I can’t believe that you didn’t like “Psycho” at first and didn’t want to put it out! Can you tell me about how you ended up embracing that pop sound?
MAISIE: Yeah, so I wrote that song with Ed Sheeran and Steve Mac. They’re the kings of pop [right now]. We did that session, and we did that song, and it was like one of those things that Ed always says, “commit to the idea.” Just see where it goes, and if you never use it, you never use it. We like to work pretty fast, so we just did it, and I knew I was making a monster. Like, a pop galactic monster. It was fun, it was natural, it was easy. So I was like: let’s do it. I listened to it back, and it was just kind of a scary song for reasons quite personal to me at the time. And sonically, yeah, it was a big pop leap. Releasing something so uber-pop like that, as a girl… I feel like there’s already a sort of snobbery [towards that]. I’m someone who used to lean away from that and be more of a singer-songwriter and not a pop girl. It was just a very different sound for me. So yeah, I got it back, and I was like, “I hate it.” I told my manager it would be released over my dead body. Then, I sent it to a couple of people [with whom] I’m really close with, and was literally like, “do you think this is bad?” I thought it was bad; I truly did! I have a friend called Gretta Ray, who’s an Australian singer, she’s amazing, and she sent me, like, a two-page essay on why the song was great. So many people were telling me it was great, and I trust them. And now, I love the song! Like, I truly do. I think it’s iconic. It’s so much fun to do live; everyone gets so into it. It was just the perfect song for that, for everyone to dance and have a good time.
BRIGID: Absolutely. You performed it [“Psycho”] on both Jimmy Kimmel and the Kelly Clarkson show; what were those experiences like?
MAISIE: So fun! So Jimmy Kimmel was live, as in we did that performance in front of a studio audience. We were there in the studio in LA, with the camera crew, and you get like, two takes. So that was a bit intimidating, but it was really so fun. The team there was great; it was some people’s first time back in the studio, I think. So they were excited to have musicians there; it was just so exciting. And then with Kelly, it was the day after we had shot for Jimmy Kimmel. We ended up shooting outside, on the roof! It was really so fun to work with such talented people. I love getting to work together to achieve a sort of mutual vision together.
BRIGID: Definitely. Speaking of working with others, can you tell me a bit about your sessions? I know you write a lot on your own; how does that compare to writing songs in a collaborative setting?
MAISIE: It’s very different because when you’re working with others, there’s twice as many thoughts. I find it easier, to be honest. You have someone to bounce ideas off of. It’s nice to get a completely different perspective that you don’t have. Versus when you work on your own, you kind of know what you’re going to say. When you work on your own, it’s like you can either finish the song right away, or you never finish it. You know yourself; you know if you have an idea or not.
BRIGID: Yeah, it’s easier to flesh things out when you have multiple people working on it. When it comes to your songs, do you write purely based on your own experiences, or do you often find inspiration elsewhere?
MAISIE: I do pull inspiration from elsewhere, but a lot is based on my own life, especially recently, like as I got older. But I’ve also been inspired by a lot of different things, a lot is influenced by friends or family, or things I see, or words, or books, or other people’s music. I think it’s changed a lot as I’ve gotten older. It depends on what’s going on in my life. I’m not one to write only about my own life, as I love jumping into other people’s shoes all the time.
BRIGID: Totally. Inspiration is everywhere. So, I saw that you’re going on tour! How are you feeling about returning to live music? I know you played a few festivals over the summer, but this is your headlining tour! How are you feeling about going on the road?
MAISIE: I’m so excited! I love playing live. I’m touring America, which is so exciting. I can’t wait to play some of these songs from the album live.
BRIGID: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me today, Maisie!
MAISIE: Thank you so much, Brigid!
