In Conversation With Maddie Jay
Photo by Emil Ravelo
Based in LA since 2018, Canadian native Maddie Jay has established herself as an independent, DIY artist with her hands in every aspect of music creation and production. From making her own arpeggiators to collaging together her own cover art, including for her newest single “Gutterball”, she is a musician much more than the sum of her parts. Still, she continues to pay tribute to her original bassist roots in her harmonies and beats, even playing gigs as a bass player for her friends and contemporaries like Summer Walker. Ahead of more singles and a new album, she is currently on tour with Remi Wolf throughout the U.S. and will be joining Lorde’s world tour this summer.
Zooming from Remi Wolf’s tour bus on her day off, Maddie joined Unpublished over Zoom to chat about her new song, her early life in a small town in British Columbia, and how she balances solo work with collaboration.
Photo by Emil Ravelo
[UNPUBLISHED]: Before moving to LA, you grew up in Smithers, a small town in British Columbia, Canada. Can you speak more about that experience?
[MADDIE JAY]: It’s an extremely isolated town. I still have a lot of love for it and I love visiting my family there but when I was there, I could not wait to leave. It’s like 5,000 people, really far north and not close to any major city. It’s a 16-hour drive to Vancouver. I just didn’t have anything in common with the people there because I was obsessed with music and art. There were musicians and artists there but they weren’t into the same kind of music as me, weren’t doing what I wanted to. There were people that made it amazing but I wasn’t well suited to it.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How has it influenced your sound and lyricism?
[MADDIE JAY]: I talk about my home a lot in the abstract. “Gutterball” is the first real addressing I did about growing up there, trying to connect my current life to that past life, and also separate from it. It’s about growth and confidence and shaking off the idea that there is something inherently wrong with me. I have a much more realistic view of myself and relationships now, and this song happened as I was doing that work.
[UNPUBLISHED: How does growing up in Smithers compare to living full-time in LA?
[MADDIE JAY]: It’s a completely different world. Where I’m from, if you’re going to “the big city,” you’re going to Vancouver. So when I’m in LA, they’re like, “It’s the big big city.” I did live in Boston for school in between Smithers and LA, so that was a good way to get used to public transport and all these people around. I don’t think I would’ve been able to go straight to LA from my hometown, that would’ve been too big a jump.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How did you make your first foray into music?
[MADDIE JAY]: Music has always been a part of my life. Before I started playing bass, my parents had me in violin lessons. I was very involved in the traditional Canadian fiddle scene. I started to make it on my own when I was 16 and started playing bass, and I ended up going to college to study jazz bass. I was always writing songs as a hobby and focusing on becoming a professional bass player. And then when I moved to LA in 2018, I was touring, playing for people, and enjoying writing my own music too much. I was like, “Ugh, every time I’m playing with an artist, I wanna be the artist.” Now, I do both!
[UNPUBLISHED]: You’re currently on tour with Remi Wolf playing bass! How has that experience been so far?
[MADDIE JAY]: Super fun, great crew. We’re all the same age so it feels like a bunch of friends hanging out. And the shows are extremely fun, her fans go crazy.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What has been your favorite city that you’ve visited while on this tour?
[MADDIE JAY]: Yesterday we had the day off in Missoula, Montana and it was really nice. It actually reminded me a lot of my home, the mountains and the snow and there was a nice restaurant on the river. It was great.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How did you get the gig with Remi? Did you have to audition or did she already know you?
[MADDIE JAY]: We have a bunch of mutual friends, which happens when you’re in LA for a while. And we’re in similar age groups, we both went to music school. Our worlds just collided. That’s how I get most of my gigs actually, I’m just adjacent to people.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Do you consider the artists you play with as inspirations or influences to you?
[MADDIE JAY]: Definitely! I don’t take gigs unless I love the music and feel good being a part of it. When I first got to LA, I was taking every single gig, which is what you’re supposed to do. But now I’m so invested in my artist project that I only want to be doing things that align with that and make sense in the world that I’ve created for myself.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Besides being a bassist, you’re also an artist in your own right. You write, record, and produce all of your music, and you do all your visuals yourself. Can you speak a little more about what that entails?
[MADDIE JAY]: Because I’m a small independent artist, I'm very involved in every aspect. When I was starting, that wasn’t as common and now every independent artist is doing it all. My friend Audrey and I work together a lot because she’s a photographer and creative director. For the “Gutterball” cover, I bought clothes online that I dyed with my friend. Then we went to the top of a hill and took photos and picked out the photos, then collaged them. I did a little animation for it as well. It makes it cohesive too, all part of my brand.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Despite how much you take on yourself, do you also enjoy collaborating with other creatives in the industry?
[MADDIE JAY]: I wanna do it more, try to work with friends. Playing bass for other people helps with that because I get to experience other artists’ processes and be inspired by that. I wrote “Gutterball” with a friend of mine. He helped me write the lyrics and that’s unusual for me, I don’t usually write with anybody.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How did you enjoy that collaboration?
[MADDIE JAY]: It was great. I had the instrumental for the song and a bit of melody that I was stuck on but I liked it and wanted to finish it. So he was at my house, we were hanging out, and I showed it to him. And he was like, “What if it was like this?” and I was like, “Oh my god, how did I not think about that?” It was the smallest thing but he cracked it wide open. And I think I finished it a few days after that.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Who are others in the industry that you would love to work with?
[MADDIE JAY]: I really like Charlotte Day Wilson, Syd from The Internet. I love the producer Vegyn. There are so many amazing artists out there, I would love to work with everyone.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What excites you about finally releasing “Gutterball”? What do you love about the song?
[MADDIE JAY]: I really like the drums on it. There’s this sprinkly, sparkly arpeggiator in the chorus that I made and it took me hours to get it right but it’s perfect and I love it. I also collaborated with Dolby Atmos! It’s multi-channel mixing so instead of just having a left and right, you have channels that are behind your head and underneath you. It’s like surround sound in a movie theater. So on Apple Music, there’s a Dolby Atmos version of the song. It’s very cool, very unusual. That was really special because it was the first time I’d done that with a song of mine.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Looking ahead, what’s next for you following the release of this single?
[MADDIE JAY]: I’m working on an album, I’m doing Remi’s tour and then Lorde’s tour. So it might be a little slow but that’s okay, it’s just the season of my life right now. But hopefully some singles off the new album in the next few months.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is something not many people know about you?
[MADDIE JAY]: I’m obsessed with the Fox show Bones. I watch it all the time. It’s so stupid and pure camp, like you know they’re gonna solve the case but I watched it growing up so I think it’s comforting. I love it!
