{"id":3177,"date":"2020-11-02T08:04:48","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T08:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=3177"},"modified":"2020-11-02T08:14:31","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T08:14:31","slug":"its-not-all-about-me-says-maisie-peters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2020\/11\/02\/its-not-all-about-me-says-maisie-peters\/","title":{"rendered":"IT\u00b4S NOT ALL ABOUT ME, says Maisie Peters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

IT\u00b4S NOT ALL ABOUT ME, says Maisie Peters<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Norman Warwick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Olivia Petter, music journalist<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One night in lockdown, Maisie Peters<\/a> spent the evening screaming, according to the Independent\u00b4s journalist Olivia Petter on a microsoft news item on line at<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-gb\/entertainment\/music\/maisie-peters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

on Thursday 1st<\/sup> October 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Taylor Swift<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The 20-year-old had gone to the supermarket, left her phone at home, and returned to hundreds of messages. Taylor Swift<\/a> had written one word \u2013 \u00b4heavenly\u00b4 \u2013 below a video of Peters covering Swift\u2019s song Enchanted from her bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Me and my sister were just shrieking around the house,\u00b4 Peters recalls. \u00b4I didn\u2019t know what to do with myself afterwards, I was just pacing and screaming. It was so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks later, it happened again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4My ears have been blessed on this fine Tuesday,\u201d the Grammy-winner replied to another of Peters\u2019 covers, this time Betty from Swift\u2019s feted new album Folklore. Peters saw the message when she was in her bathroom..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I noticed my phone was blowing up. I was like, Surely not again.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not hard to see why Swift is a fan. Since launching her YouTube channel in 2015, Peters has become one of the most exciting singer-songwriters in the game. Her songs have amassed more than a quarter of a billion global streams, been featured in Hollywood films (Birds of Prey<\/em>) and earned her legions of loyal fans. Her self-described \u201cemo girl pop\u201d blends sonorous vocals with synths and dreamy melodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, her lyrics evoke a relatable kind of vulnerability: \u00b4You were my no sleep, cried for weeks, favourite ex,\u201d she sings on Favourite Ex. \u00b4I\u2019d rather you walk all over me than walk away,\u00b4 she admits on Worst Of You.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was supposed to be a big year for Peters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Partly thanks to two of her singles being played on Love Island in 2019, her fan-base was growing exponentially, and she was going to support Niall Horan<\/a>  (left) <\/strong>on his European tour. As has been the case for many musicians this year, the pandemic has ruined her plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4It would have been super fun,\u00b4 Peters says of the now-cancelled tour. \u00b4I can\u2019t imagine telling past me that she was going to go on tour with someone in One Direction. So it\u2019s a shame that it did not come through, but you know, things happen for a reason and opportunities come up again. \u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peters spent lockdown with her twin sister at their parents\u2019 Sussex home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4It wasn\u2019t awful,\u00b4 she told The Independent. \u00b4I did a lot of writing and that was really useful. But I don\u2019t really enjoy being in one place all the time, so it wasn\u2019t ideal for me.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does she make of the UK government blaming young people for the current spike in coronavirus infections?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4It\u2019s an unfair accusation to make when, at the same time, the government is pushing everyone to \u2018eat out to help out\u2019. Young people work predominantly in service industries, which they were keen to reopen. So there\u2019s a stark irony to it all.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peters is sharp. She and the reporter, Olivia Petter, had met before, and Maisie had been just as engaging in person as she is now,  over Zoom. She has a pixie-like face and speaks with the kind of self-awareness for which her generation is renowned. Take the time she spoke about her growing fan-base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I don\u2019t find it overwhelming at all,\u00b4 she insists. \u00b4I feel so comfortable and at ease (with the fans) because I feel like we\u2019re all very similar.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Swift, who is renowned for engaging with her fans in unexpected ways, Peters makes a real effort with her listeners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I\u2019ve known a lot of them since I started making music when I was 14, so we kind of grew up together. I feel like they\u2019re my friends \u2013 they just roast me all the time.\u00b4 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peters\u2019 fans have built a community together, launching WhatsApp groups and helping each other through difficult times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Sometimes they do Zoom calls and I\u2019ll just hop on to say hi,\u00b4 she explains. \u00b4I always say to them that I can\u2019t wait to be 70 and playing a greatest hits tour when we\u2019re all banging around in care homes and being old together.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might sound sugar sweet, but the Independent contributor obviously feels Peters\u2019 earnestness is convincing. Does Maisie worry, though,  about how her relationship with her fans might change as her profile grows?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Um, I think obviously when you get bigger, there\u2019s more people and less time, which is just maths. But in a very British way I just feel like, Oh it will be fine,\u00b4 she laughs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an unfortunate truth that female songwriters are scrutinised in ways that men are not, particularly when, as is the case with Peters, the songs they write are about relationships. The automatic assumption, one that strips women of their right to creativity, journalist Olivia Petter observes, is that they are anecdotal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Songs that people think are about my life are actually not about my life at all, and in fact are about friends or TV shows or books,\u00b4 says Peters, before describing herself as a private person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I\u2019m good at creating boundaries between my personal life and my work,\u00b4 she continues. \u00b4As a woman in music, that\u2019s less assumed.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just the other day, Peters was chatting with one of her housemates about dating, when they made a comment that inspired her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u00b4She was like, \u2018I don\u2019t think he realised that it was in his hands to fix it.\u2019 I asked her to repeat herself, so I could write it down. And now I\u2019m going to the studio tomorrow to try and write that song.\u00b4  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s almost impossible to know what the next few months will bring for the music industry. In the UK, at the time of writing coronavirus cases are on the rise for a second time, with rumours of another lockdown stalking the country. It\u2019s not clear when musicians will be able to resume live shows that don\u2019t impose social distancing restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I would be lying to say I wasn\u2019t worried,\u00b4 says Masie. \u00b4Live music is obviously a huge part of what I do and a lot of my close friends work in that industry. I\u2019d like to think that we\u2019ll evolve and adapt to the global situation, but I think there\u2019s only so much we can do. It\u2019s just quite awful for everybody.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever the optimist, though, Peters is planning on doing a gig \u201cof some form\u201d from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I want to make it different from just a normal live stream and make it a spectacle and a thing to be proud of.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until then, Peters is busy writing more songs, promoting her latest single, Maybe Don\u2019t \u2013 a bouncy pop track that she wrote pre-lockdown with JP Saxe \u2013 and teaching her 54-year-old dad to use TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4He spent an hour on it the other day just watching people jumping off things,\u00b4 she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Naoise Dolan, best selling author<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

photo 4 dolan<\/strong> She\u2019s also running her eponymous book club, which has amassed nearly 6,000 followers in just three months, featuring live Q&As with bestselling authors such as Naoise Dolan, Florence Given and Charly Cox.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What she\u2019s not doing, surprisingly, is performing any new material for her five housemates, all of whom are students at universities in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4No one\u2019s asked me to,\u00b4 she says, laughing. \u00b4Although sometimes I\u2019ll be playing my guitar in my room and they\u2019ll knock on the door and be like, \u2018Can we come in?\u2019. It\u2019s really sweet.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the type of relationship you can imagine Peters wanting to build with her fans, bespeaking an intimacy that\u2019s surely integral to her popularity. You only hope it keeps on growing as her profile does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
JP Saxe<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maisie\u2019s new single \u2018Maybe Don\u2019t\u2019 Feat. JP Saxe (above) is out now <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Maisie Peters<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00b4I can\u2019t imagine telling past me that she was going to go on tour with someone in One Direction.\u00b4 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aata","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3187,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions\/3187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}