Creageivity 39 - with Musician and Artist Maia Eden

Maia Eden is a multi-talented creative professional based in the Scottish Highlands. She is best known for her work as an independent musician and singer-songwriter, releasing her EPs New Horizons and Little Triumphs.
In Creageivity 39 we hear snippets of Maia’s songs New Horizons, Home, and Starting Over Again.

Beyond music, Maia is also a multidisciplinary artist and maker. She works across various mediums, including jewellery making, mosaics, and carnival structures. Her passion for sustainability is showcased through her upcycled furniture, where she revives and reimagines second-hand pieces.

In the podcast Maia talks of her deep love for the natural world, especially the Highlands, having been born and raised in Scotland, before a lengthy stay in England. Now back in her homeland, she can’t imagine not creating, and describes some of her methods to keep things flowing. These include journaling, and playing with materials in her idyllic studio space. 

A wise and witty session, with inspringly beautiful music - what’s not to like!

Music by Maia Eden, used with permission.

Website: www.maiaeden.com/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/maiaedenmusic/
Furniture upcycling: maia@maiaeden.com
YouTube clips: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKTnYOtt6l8

If you feel you're too old to be creative, or too creative to be old, then Creageivity is the podcast for you!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

This is the Creativity Podcast, episode thirty-nine.

SPEAKER_05 1:48

If you think you're too old to be creative or too creative to be old, then you've found the right podcast. This is creativity. And we just heard a marvelous piece of music which I think encompasses all that we're trying to say with creativity. That was New Horizons by our guest today, Maya Eden. Yeah. And uh we'll be exploring more about that song and what it means, and of course, in a few seconds, meeting Maya herself. My name is Harlan, and my podcast partner over in England is Adrienne. Hello. Hello, Adrienne.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

How are you doing? I'm doing really well actually, yes. Nice and sunny here, and I'm very, very excited that we have Maya with us today, and that we can hear some of her music. It's really great.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Hello Harlan. Hello Adrienne. Hello.

SPEAKER_05 2:53

Hi.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

It's lovely to be here.

SPEAKER_05 2:55

It's great to have you. Now on your website, you describe yourself as a Scottish indie folk singer songwriter. So that word Scottish seems to be quite important to you.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Yeah, and it's taken me a long time to own it because, as you may hear, I haven't got a Scottish accent. I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

No. There's a lilt in your voice that is very Celtic. Right. And you can hear the influences as well in what you've written, if I may say so. No, you may. Harlem, what do you think? About what?

SPEAKER_05 3:27

Scottish accents.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Being able to hear the Scots.

SPEAKER_05 3:31

I wouldn't dream of doing an impersonation, but yes, I do hear you as being Scots. And the fact that you say this on your website seems to be an important part of your identity.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Yeah, it's a recent addition to my website actually. And it's partly because I now live back in Scotland after living in the southeast of England for 30 years. And I think I finally understood that question. Well, where do you come from? Because I was born and grew up in Scotland. I lived in Scotland until I was about 28 years old, but I have English parents. My mum was born in India actually, but came back to the UK when she was about seven years old. My dad was born in Leicester. And it's been a constant source of confusion, irritation, annoyance throughout my life, both in Scotland, where I was bullied for having an English accent, and in England, where people couldn't wait to tell me that they were more Scottish than me because their great-great-grandfather was born in the islands. I said, Oh, have you ever been to Scotland? Well, no, but so I now feel like I am culturally Scots. Now that I'm back here, I feel this is my home and I'm ancestrally English. So yeah, that's why I, after a long deliberation, put Scottish on there.

SPEAKER_05 5:02

Right, right. I was quite recently in Glasgow, which I haven't visited for a long time. I come from the most northern county in England, Northumberland. So as a youth it was very common to flip over the border and go into Scotland. And I didn't really notice much difference because northern England didn't seem to be much different to southern Scotland.

SPEAKER_04 5:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:25

This time I went to Glasgow and I was looking around like I was in a new country and thinking Scotland is not England, which is obvious. But the vibe, everything about being there felt different, felt like a new place to me.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Yeah, it is. And Glasgow's a great city. I love Glasgow. I've been there a few times now since we've been back. Vibrant, lots going on. Yes. Next time you should come and see us. We are four hours north of Glasgow, but you can get a train.

SPEAKER_05 5:58

If I was to travel four hours north of where I live, which is in Hungary, I'd be in a completely different country. You're just saying you're in a different city.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

I mean, we're yeah, in the middle of nowhere. It's amazingly small Scotland when you look at it, uh Britain. And then you come here and it's pretty vast.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

I think it's quite an interesting subject about home. Like it's a really important area of one's life, and that you can be born in a certain place, but your home can be elsewhere. I mean, my spiritual home is not in England, but I've always known that, but for practical reasons I'm here. I think it's quite interesting how long it takes for you to actually find that. So I think it's great that you've found your home.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Yeah, and I have, as you know, written a song called Home.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Yes, yes, lovely.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Which you will hear a bit later. And that was written in the depths of winter in my house in Lewis, and it was about missing this wildness, the landscape.

SPEAKER_05 7:01

You mentioned Lewis there, and that's actually how we three know each other, because we have we have history, we have some past.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_05 7:13

We're in a band together. Can you tell us about it, Maya? Tell our listeners about it. Adrienne and I know.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Yes, so my memories of that, I'm trying to think how long ago it was now. It was more than 15 years ago, maybe even nearly 20 years ago, I'm not sure. And I remember being asked to help with some harmonies, and it was for one gig, and it was at a place called the Tin Tab in Barkom, and you were doing a charity gig and you just wanted a few harmonies. I thought, yeah, love doing singing harmonies, I'll do that. I believe it was sold out, and we decided to do another one. I yeah, okay, I'll do that. Three years later, I was still saying, Yeah, okay, I'll do that. I ended up playing bass on a couple of songs, which was really good fun. I'd never played bass in public before. It was great fun, it was quite challenging at times, as big bands can be, because I think there were seven of us. Yeah. And trying to arrange rehearsals and get gigs, trying to, you know, everyone's diaries. But it was great fun, and I I have to admit that before I joined the band in Bob We Trust, I was not hugely familiar with Bob Dylan. Imagine that. I hadn't heard some of the songs that we actually played, and I kept it that way because we were not a tribute band. You can't be female and Scottish and sing in a Bob Dylan band. So it was a real eye-opener when I actually heard some of those songs for the first time a long time afterwards. But yeah, I mean I'm a fan of Bob Dylan in many ways now, particularly I think because of that experience. And it got me to explore the way he wrote songs, his lyrics. It was a great time.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

But I also have a distinct memory of you during a rehearsal day, because we'd take a whole day, obviously, that in the breaks, you'd be singing something that you'd just written of your own.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

I remember thinking, wow, these are really good songs. And they really suited your voice as well. Thank you. So was that happening? It was, yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

I bought myself a guitar when I was 40 years old. I'd never played guitar. I was a single parent. I was at home a lot in the evenings. I didn't watch telly and just started learning chords. I didn't have lessons, I had a chord book. And then one day I remembered that I'd written poetry since I was about 14. And I suddenly clicked and went, oh, maybe I'll try and put some words to the music. And so yeah, I started tentatively writing songs only in my 40s. I'd sung and played for other people quite a lot, but not done my own songs.

SPEAKER_05 10:06

You were a session singer as well for some time, weren't you? You talked about the chance of harmonies you jumped at, and that was one of your jobs, was it not?

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Yes, it was a brief but very successful financially, I would say. Success is a funny thing to define, isn't it? So yeah, that was in the early 90s, just before I had children, because I was actually pregnant when I did my first session, I think, with Dirk Campbell. Am I allowed to say his name?

unknown 10:39

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 10:39

Why not? He's a well-known musician and composer.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Actually, I saw him a few weeks ago.

SPEAKER_05 10:44

He looked very well. So this is Dirk Campbell, film composer, a member of the experimental rock group Egg, way back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

He was. Yeah. I was pregnant. Aaron and I, my first husband, we had been travelling, came back to the UK and ended up living with Dirk and Adrienne Campbell near Wadhurst. And Dirk knew that I could sing. I gave him, tentatively gave him one of my demo tapes because I'd done loads of recordings over the years for friends. And I said, Oh, I sing. I quite like to do some singing. If you ever have anything that you think I could sing on, let me know. It was quite a funny story because I was really hungry one morning. Maybe about seven months pregnant, and my porridge was ready. True Scott's cliche. And I remember Dak knocked on the door and he said, I've got something I'd like you to sing. And oh, can I just finish my porridge first? He said, No. And I thought, what? Can't even wait till I finish my porridge. And I dithered about this. I thought, oh, shall I finish my porridge or shall I go and sing for Dak? Yeah. Luckily I went and sang for Dak because that first one was a ridiculous story, which ended up being a highly successful advert and earned me enough money for a deposit on a house.

SPEAKER_05 12:02

That's extraordinary, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 12:05

It was downhill from there on.

SPEAKER_05 12:07

Come on, tell us what was the advert for? It wasn't for porridge oats by any chance.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

No, shame. Yeah. It would be more culturally appropriate. It was actually for Lilt, the fizzy drink. Hang on, it's not the totally tropical taste. It is the very one. That was you. That was me. In the background, you can hardly hear me, which is why I think it's quite funny as well. Like I did something like five or seven-part harmonies on that. And it was very quick turnaround. I was in the studio about three days later in London, having never been in this high-energy environment. Like, quick, we've got to get to London. We've got to get Soho. Jump in a taxi. And in the taxi, Dirk said, Oh, I've changed the tune.

unknown 12:51

Uh-uh.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

And I won't swear, but in my head, I was going, Yeah. Ah. He quickly sang it in the taxi. Arrived at the studio where there are many, many people waiting for us to deliver. I said, I'm just gonna pop to the loo. And in the loo, I just spent about two minutes going over and over and over the jingle. Because jingles do stick in your heads, luckily. So and that was that, and came out pretending like I was a pro. Which you are. But in my head, I was freaking out. So that was the first, and then I did mainly just did demos for people. So our lovely friend David Anderson. I did a few for him.

SPEAKER_05 13:31

Who was also in Bob We Trust, the band playing Dylan Cow.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Who was also, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah. You've got a really natural gift for harmonies. Do you think you're born with it, or do you have to learn it? Have you got a particular sort of ear to be able to harmonize so beautifully with things?

SPEAKER_02 13:49

And singing is my main thing. Like I can play a little bit on guitar and piano, but voice is number one for me. And I remember singing in church. We all went to church. We're not a religious family, it was just what they did. And I can remember being in church singing and then being in the choir when I was about 11, then learning these exquisite harmonies, which I'm now very thankful for. So very complex. And that's when I don't know whether it's your ear or a bit of learning, but I picked them up very quickly. And I was then asked to be head choir girl, but I was quite shy. I was probably about 13 at the time. But I declined because I didn't want to be centre of attention. And in fact, not only did I decline, I didn't like the pomp and circumstance that was involved in the choir. It was Church of England in Scotland, but you got different cassocks depending on where you were in the choir. So if you're at a certain stage, you got a ruffle and then you got something else. And I just thought it was BS. I thought, nah, not for me. So I went back into just the congregation, and that's where I learnt to experiment free from all the rules, which had actually served me in terms of learning the harmonies, but then I could just experiment and play. And I distinctly remember being in church and just playing around all over the place with harmonies. So I think it's a combination of learning and ear.

SPEAKER_05 15:23

That shy person who didn't want to be front of the stage eventually stepped forward and we heard the song New Horizons at the start of this podcast. Can you tell us about the song and about what got you going on making that EP, which is also called New Horizons? How did you step forward and do that?

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Yeah, I was quite shy, and in a way I s I can still be, but I've written many songs, many, many songs, and performing felt to me like the end product of making the tunes, writing the songs, and it just felt like a complete picture. Like when I started performing, you know, very tentatively at Open Mics. Before I've recorded the EP, you know, I'd been to open mics and done it. And there was something I don't know. I think my a lot of performers say this, a lot of you know, artists and whatever, there's a sort of terrifying moment or terrifying moments. Am I gonna remember the words, even though they're my songs? A bit of nervousness. And then for me, if I know things inside out and I know what I'm doing, then there's a moment when I start singing and playing where it feels right. So I think for me the recording of the songs was the next step because I performed them, and then I wanted something. I guess it's like being an artist, I'm an artist as well. It's like having that completed artwork. Yeah. It's like that completed musical me. It was an amazing process. And New Horizons, the song. So songs are written different times, I use them at different times. It was kind of an amalgamation of a few years of changing the way I lived. And sadly my first marriage broke down. And I think you know, there were some reflective songs, and that this one, New Horizons very much about looking forward, but not really knowing what was ahead, as we don't, we never really know, do we?

SPEAKER_00 17:22

So yeah. But you mentioned just there that you're also an artist. So two questions really. Are you still continuing with visual arts? And it often strikes me how many vocalists are also visual artists, and I'm wondering if that's the impermanence of being a singer, whereas that visual art gives you something fixed.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Hopefully, I can remember all that.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

What were the questions again? First of all, do you still continue with your visual arts? That was number one. I do, yes.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

I don't want to sound really smug why I have an amazing studio at the back of our house in some dappled woodland. Well, actually, the the interesting thing is, yes, I am, but I've had a bit of a pause, which wasn't supposed to be such a long pause. I do make things still, I do collage. I know you're a fellow collagist, Andre, and I love your collages. I love doing collage and I've taught it as well. But I've been in a position where I was able to just take a break from what I was doing because I've been teaching, doing community arts. I did that for 20, 25 years and teaching all ages to private communities. I was going to jump right back into that up here, but there isn't the same structure up here for that. There's no adult education as such. So that didn't happen. I've taught some private workshops, but I think the pause, which was not intentional, is making me think more now about what do I want to make. You know, I've done commissions, I've done prop making, so making for other people's briefs. It's like weeding the garden. I'm kind of weeding things out and I'm trying to find what I want to do. So yes, I'm still doing things, but I haven't got any shows or anything at the moment.

SPEAKER_05 19:12

I also saw a lot of postings back in the day on social media of your furniture reclamation, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 19:20

Really exciting stuff.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

That's something that I've done for a long, long time, just for myself, all my houses, you know, where I've lived, I've never had any money. So I just bought well-made but cheap furniture, you know, just sanded it, painted it. And in lockdown, I only had a couple of jobs online, and then I had lots of time. And to have a project, I quite like a project. And I did up some furniture that I found lying in the street in lockdown. There was a chest of drawers outside someone's house down the road. Sold that, and then yeah, just painted a few things. And I yeah, I really enjoy it. And in fact, conversation recently, I one of my daughters and my husband Oliver, I was like, Why don't why don't you paint furniture again and sell it? They they want me to be doing that, but I I don't know. It's the annoying artist creative in me. It's like, yeah, I love doing that. And it was a period of time. I got quite a bit of work. You know, I did upholstery and pubs and painted things, and then then I didn't. I don't really know why. This is sort of slightly touching a nerve because I am known for having a zillion ideas and maybe not sticking to them, doing them for a period of time. Yeah. And then I go, okay, that's that. What will I do now?

SPEAKER_05 20:43

I relate to that because I think of my creativity as being kind of monorail. So this month I'm a musician, but the previous month I was a novelist, and I know I can feel I can feel the musician I've reached the point where I'm delivering something, and then I'm pretty sure I'm going to revert. So I get what you're saying there.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

This is what I'm working with at the moment and myself is whether I should just concentrate on one thing for like a month. Do you do that or do you switch between them?

SPEAKER_05 21:14

Because I find it quite hard to switch between different switch comes for me kind of automatically. I can feel when something is ending. Oh, that's good. I'd like to say, by the way, that for our listeners, when you were painting furniture, you weren't just giving it a coat of magnolia, were you? You these things are incredibly vivid with all kinds of images on them and very, very bright colours.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Yeah, you were fantastic. Well, I've had quite a lot of therapy in my life and I've read a lot of books to understand. I'm very interested in the way we tick as humans, which starts with myself, of course. And I look at what I've done and why I've done it, and I don't think you need reason for everything. But I've been trying to understand this why I might switch from one thing to another. And someone said, Maya, you're a multidisciplinary artist. And I'm like, oh, that sounds good, doesn't it? Yeah. But why don't I stick to one thing? I believe it's because I didn't do a lot when I was younger. I wasn't encouraged. I did a degree in my 40s. But I think there was a huge gap where it wasn't it wasn't a thing in my life. The damn burst when I went to university and did foundation. And I think I'm still catching up. That's what I think. It's like the playing that I didn't do.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Maybe a lot of people did when they were younger, I'm still doing that takes me back to part two of my somewhat over-elaborate question about multidisciplinary artists. I'm floating the question don't many, many artists, particularly vocalists, for instance, are also visual artists at the same time. And is that something about creativity? It doesn't naturally just flow in one direction. It needs balances and writing and painting is permanent. Vocalization and music isn't. It's kind of ephemeral unless you record it.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Yeah, no, that I think it's interesting. And thank you for breaking it down into two questions.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Yes, I know there's a lot of people who do other jobs. You know, many artists have lots of different jobs to try and make things work. You don't need to have one thing. I think there's something in me that admires it, but maybe it's through social media. I'm just seeing the amazing printmaker who's making these amazing prints. Maybe you don't see all the other stuff they make. I don't know. Social media's changed the way I think about it because I I do it a bit. I don't have a love-hate relationship with it. I do Instagram a little bit. And I think that's uh probably made me feel a little bit like I should be focusing on one thing because you see these beautiful Instagram accounts that are all monochrome or they're all everything flows neatly and tidily, and mine is probably a reflection of my studio. It's a mess. And it's like lots of different things. I've got lots of different materials, and yes, I think people do uh switch between things, but I also know a few artists who are very focused and single-minded about that one material that they use. I've got my foot in both cats.

SPEAKER_05 24:36

My claim for myself is that I don't do painting, I don't do music, I don't do writing, I do creativity.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 24:44

That covers all the bases as far as I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

I hope that I get to that place where I feel as confident and happy and at peace with that decision.

SPEAKER_05 24:56

Talking about happiness and peace, we started the show with New Horizons, and I get this feeling from a lot of your songs of melancholy and hopefulness. And two of the lines that I really relate to. It didn't work out as planned, but I'm doing the best that I can, which sums up to me a lot of our attitudes for many of us. Can you talk about New Horizons and could you then introduce home, which we're going to play a little clip from?

SPEAKER_02 25:26

I I'm definitely on the melancholic side of songwriting. It's interesting that you said it like that, melancholy but hopefully I like that. I might put that in my website or something. It's a good line because I'm probably gonna go and analyse my songs now. Because yes, there is a bit of processing. So I process through my writing. I write in a journal since I was a teenager, not about the weather or what I did today. So I think there's definitely a bit of processing, and that involves looking at the stuff that's troubling me, you know, stuff I'm going through, and then through that, yeah, I do come out the other side. I like that you can see that and hear that in my songs on particularly new horizons.

SPEAKER_05 26:12

Well, uh introduce us to home. You've already told us it's about being at home in Lewis in England. So can you give us a bit more flavour about that?

SPEAKER_02 26:22

The track home was written in Lewis about 15 years ago-ish. It was a dark, uh quite a stormy night in the winter. I was at home alone. And I was thinking about how when I was in Scotland, I lived in two places. I lived in the borders, and then I lived up on the east coast near Dundee. And my dad was a cartographer and a mountaineer, a hill walker. So he used to take groups out and we could go with them. Sometimes we were made to go, I think. So I spent time walking in the mountains, and I grew up in amongst mountains, like very rural. And when I was sitting in Sussex, I was just noodling on my guitar, and it was really wild, and it just reminded me of this time a couple of years before in Scotland when I was driving with my dad on New Year's Eve back along the coast from Arboreth to Kanousty, and there was a storm coming in, and you could see it coming in over the sea. And it was unbelievably dramatic. There was sun, there was rain, there was everything. And I asked them to just drop me off so I could walk along the beach, walk the last couple of miles home. So I was sitting in Sussex, and that's what I was imagining. Just this the sky is grey and the sea is black, and the sea was black, but it you know, it's coming to the end of the day, last day of the year. And I vividly remember that like it was yesterday. That was the opening line: the sky is grey and the sea is black. The wind it howls, but it calls me back. And that was the feeling of Scotland had this pull. I used to come back regularly to see my parents and my family and friends, but I wanted to be somewhere wilder. So I knew 15 years ago I was thinking about coming back, but it wasn't the right time. You know, my daughters were in a place where I didn't want to disrupt their lives, so yeah, it's about that.

SPEAKER_05 28:16

So this is home from our guest on Creativity, Maya Eden. Here's home from New Horizons.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Wasn't that gorgeous? Fabulous, amazing, love it.

SPEAKER_05 30:12

Thanks, Maya. You mentioned a husband, a second husband. So is he partner to your creativity? Is he a musician? Does he work on the sand with you? Ah, getting personal.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

I love so Oliver, my husband, he works in sustainability by day. She's very successful in that. And he also is a musician. We actually met through music, and we were both performing at a street party in Lewis. And he does a very different kind of music. So we are very supportive of each other's music, and he's very supportive of what I do, and I love what he does. There's a phrase, and I think you will know it, it's like the tragedy and the comedy. It might be a Shakespearean thing. So I'm the melancholic songwriter, and he's the fun jester.

SPEAKER_05 31:13

This is not about Oliver, but what does his music sound like? Is he a comedy musician or he does a mixture of things?

SPEAKER_02 31:20

He's a huge fan of the blues. Okay. He's just started a new blues band. He's also in a band called The Magnificent Kevins, which are a musical with a bit of theatre. There's six of them. And they laugh at themselves, they laugh at the world. A little bit political sometimes, and it's great fun, and it shouldn't work.

SPEAKER_05 31:44

And it does. Okay, but look, that's that's enough of the magnificent Kevins.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

Yeah, enough about them. They're always getting airtime.

SPEAKER_05 31:52

However wonderful they are, we want to hear more about you and what you're doing. And you've got a new album coming out.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Oh, I was gonna say it's EP.

SPEAKER_05 32:02

Okay. You've got an a new EP coming out, which is called Little Triumphs. Yes. And we'll be playing out later on with one of the tracks from that. But what's the process of making Little Triumphs? Do you have other musicians? Are you the engineer and producer? What's the score?

SPEAKER_02 32:19

It's a very different score this time to how I recorded my first EP. I knew exactly what I wanted, which is quite a new feeling for me in terms of music because I'd never done that before, so it was completely down to me. Who do I want and what do I want them to play? So on New Horizons, I had four or five musicians come in and do their part. This time for Little Triumphs, it's very different. It's just me, uh wonderful guy Barry Reid, who has a recording studio in Murivoard called Rosecroft recording. I have one other guy, Steve Bull, who plays a little bit of electric guitar and a little bit of bass, but it's mainly Barry and I. And the way I would describe this is like painting a picture with someone. I've never done this before. So it was quite intense at times. So I went to him with my idea of creating these five tracks which were vocally based, like stronger on the vocals, and with subtle layers of sound. And I wasn't exactly sure what those sounds were going to be. I knew I wanted it to be as spacious as possible because I felt like my last EP. It's always the same, you do something and then you know what you what you don't want to do next time. So it I'm very happy with my first EP, but I don't want to do that again. I want to do something else. So I told him my idea of being vocally led, spaciousness. I can play guitar, there's a bit of guitar on it. And then we just discussed how to create the sort of sound and the feel that I wanted. So I'd go with it with song references and say, I'd like this bit to sound like that. How do we do that? Do we do that with a keyboard? I played a mini moog for the first time, which is amazing. So yeah, it was very much my direction and his brilliance at being able to understand what I was asking for.

SPEAKER_05 34:19

Is there a significance, I'm sure there is to the title Little Triumphs?

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Yes, absolutely. And weirdly, it's not my favourite track. It's more that it's the subject matter. Uh Little Triumphs is about the daily small wins, big wins, whatever they are, that I believe we all do and feel and get through each day with these often just little wins. If things it's usually things are difficult. I've had a difficult few years for various reasons. There's been quite a lot of tragedy in my family in recent years. I was having some coaching. I remember this coach just saying, What did you do this morning? Celebrate those little things that you've done and just keep uh remembering that. So yeah, it's about that, the little daily triumphs that we all celebrate.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Yes, that's a lovely title and really resonates. That's how you get through difficult days, isn't it? Just celebrating your small triumphs as you go. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:18

And this is available on your own label or on another label? There is no label, it's just me. It's physically available though, isn't it? As vinyl and various other formats.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

So yes, little triumphs is available on vinyl C D and you can find it on all streaming platforms as well.

SPEAKER_05 35:39

Woohoo. Indeed. That was a very professional sounding bit of promotion there.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

So a big question here, what keeps you being creative as you go along in your life? It's a compulsion, actually.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

It's like this need to express in terms of music, because I think there's a different impetus for them both. Music, it's uh this writing that I've been doing since I was a teenager to process uh life. And I needed somewhere for it to go. And I think that that's still there. And for little triumphs, I'm self-funding this. I'm hoping to through my mailing list and people who support me to hopefully get some of the money back on the cost of doing this. And I did worry at one point, is this just a vanity project? Someone mentioned it once about someone had done a vanity project. And what does that mean? Am I doing a vanity project? But there's a compulsion to write and to get it out there and to be proud of something I've done musically because it's been hard for me to do it, but I'm very proud of it. So I think the writing, it's like a compulsion. The visual art side, it is a compulsion as well, but it's slightly different. It's kind of led by materials, I think. I love materials, I love playing with materials, and I could almost just experiment and never have finished pieces because when is it finished anyway? I love going into my studio and just messing around. I think I'm about to start painting furniture again. Because there's some stuff in the house that needs done. And at my age, a few of my friends have retired. Um, it's not really in my vocabulary because I'm not sure as a self-employed person what I'm retiring from. But I'll just keep going because I enjoy it and I hope even when I'm not able to go out hill walking and things that I can sit and uh do my collage. So I guess it's a mixture of compulsion to make, create, express, and that's it.

SPEAKER_05 37:39

But I really want to go back to what you were saying about vanity projects because it's really interesting to me. Do we wait until a gallery discovers that we are the greatest painter in the world or the most innovative musician, and only then are we recognized for our creativity? Or do we just put our money where our mouth is and say, Well, okay, so I haven't been so-called discovered by a record company exec, therefore I will put out my own EP, I will publish my own book, I will book a gallery to show my own paintings. And I'm very much of the that second opinion. And that there's no such thing as a vanity project. I think this is a very weird idea that was current at one time. But why not be an independent? Why not back your own creativity? So hats off to you for doing it.

SPEAKER_02 38:30

Yeah, yeah. It's all just part of the creative process and and not being recognized. I mean, I I don't need to be recognized and I'm not going into it to be recognized. The other reason, whilst I was doing it, actually, there were points where I was finding it quite hard, you know, in the studio and wondering what to do next. And actually, one of the things that kept me going was that I want to do it for my daughters as well. I want a legacy, leave them a legacy. So I'm not after world domination. It's deeply personal. It's a personal project which I'm really proud of. And then I can let it go. It's like letting your children go out into the world, they're gonna do their own thing, people are gonna think what they like, think nothing, whatever. It's not a vanity project, it's a creative project.

SPEAKER_05 39:16

Hallelujah. Yeah. We're going to play out with Starting Over Again, which seems a very fitting title from your EP Little Triumphs. And thank you so much, Maya. It's been wonderful to re-meet you in my case after quite a lot of years.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 39:32

Thank you so much and lovely to hear your music, great. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

Sometimes it's hard to stop when something doesn't work. Sometimes it's hard to carry on. Failure and disappointment will stop us in our tracks. Find the strength to carry on because there's no turning back. So easy to be complacent and hard not to give up when life throws us curve balls and wear down on our luck. Some days I just like to change and crawl out of my skin. Walk away, be someone else, begin my life again. Today I feel so restless with an ache that's hard to face. I want to make some changes, but I'm stuck in the same place. The only changes I can make are not about being free. It's time to change this life I live, but where does that begin? Take a look inside myself and start from within.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

Creativity. If you think you're too old to be creative or too creative to be old, tune in to the Creativity Podcast.