Rising UK singer-songwriter Maisie Peters is certainly one to watch. Her newest single “Stay Young” has over 2.6 million streams on Spotify. We talked to Peters about her musical influences, recording her debut EP Dressed Too Nice For A Jacket, and touring with Tom Walker.
BTS: Can you tell us how you got started with making music?
Maisie Peters: I saw Taylor Swift, specifically the “Love Story” music video with her in a white wedding dress in a Romeo and Juliet castle, and from there on borrowed a friends guitar and started writing songs.
BTS: Who are some of your biggest influences?
MP: So many! I think my most formative ones are Taylor [Swift], Lily Allen, Abba, Sara Bareilles, Ellie Goulding – and then also people like Frank Ocean, John Mayer, and bands like The Vaccines.
BTS: How would you describe your music for someone who hasn’t heard it before.
MP: Mostly emo, organic heart-y (in the literal sense), girl pop is my normal go to.
BTS: Can you tell us about your debut EP Dressed Too Nice For A Jacket that came out at the end of last year?
MP: Yes! It’s my first ever collection of songs and I actually really love it and still listen to it occasionally like “wow this is really good.” I get a lot of questions about the name and whilst I actually have many reasons for it, the main one is that the lyric ‘dressed too nice for a jacket’ just embodies the nights I would go out with my friends and mess around falling in love with strangers and drinking cheap wine through a straw, memories that a lot of this EP carries within it.
BTS: You worked with some incredible writers and producers like Jon Green, Fred Gibson, and Two Inch Punch – what was that like?
MP: So amazing – they are all such sick producers but also genuinely hilarious, lovely people. It really is just like working with your very overly talented best friends.
BTS: What did you learn through recording the EP?
MP: That’s a hard question because the EP was recorded over the space of a year or two if you look at when the first and last songs came together. Maybe to not underestimate the power of sitting on something, a decision or a song or an emotion, and giving yourself time to really think about how you feel about it before you begin to take on how everyone else does.
BTS: You just released a new song called ‘Stay Young,’ what does that song mean to you?
MP: A lot of things! It’s a melting point of emotions I felt during the summer of 2018 when I was living on my own in London for the first time, pursuing my music dreams and my friends were off to university – sort of loneliness and excitement and a bit of healthy panic and love and wanting to make the people you love proud.
BTS: You recently wrapped up supporting Tom Walker in the UK & Europe – how was that?
MP: So fun! Tom is the nicest guy in the world and I had such a tiny tour group in me, my keys player and our tour manager that it just became like an extended family holiday where you have to do some singing for half an hour every evening for wonderful strangers. Love love loved it and I can’t wait to do more of it!
BTS: What’s your favorite part about performing?
MP: Getting to see how my music has become part of people’s lives – I live for when you see one girl nudge her best friend when I sing a certain lyric or another group of friends shriek the middle 8 holding hands. It makes everything feel so much more real.
BTS: What do you have going on for the rest of the year?
MP: More writing, more music coming out, I’m going on my first headline tour this April so planning on making that a sick time for one and all. Also planning on passing my driving test, so we shall see what 2019 holds!
Follow Maisie Peters on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Spotify.
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