INTERVIEW: MAUVEY: CHANGING THE WORLD WITH LOVE
The description of your YouTube channel says you're here to change the world by distributing love, and also to remind people that they are important. When did you realize that music, or even just art in general, has the power to change the world?
This is a bit of a long story, but when I was 16 I had a writing teacher. And it was a tough time at my high school, so she taught me how to write, basically. She'd give me a task of writing a poem every night after all my responsibilities at school. I went to this boarding school. And so at the beginning, all my poems were really descriptive, around six pages. She taught me how to turn six pages into six lines. That was where writing was really ingrained in me as a form of therapy and as my medium. Around the same time, I remember having a conversation with my parents, and I'd always be saying, "I'm going to change the world." And then I think finally my dad replied, "How exactly are you going to do that?" And it was one of the best questions ever posed to me. Because it made me stop and think, instead of saying this really ambiguous, huge thing, I need to figure out practically how exactly to do that. So then I started off by thinking of what the world lacked the most and what it needed the most, and I think that we have a love and respect problem. So I thought, “Okay, if I could somehow distribute love and respect, then that could be a part of changing life and our experience”. So very fast forward, when I started, I knew that music was the path. I knew that I had a medium. Opportunities on stage in between songs, online, my face-to-face interactions, where I could distribute love, and how I choose to distribute love is by telling people and trying to convince them that they're important. And I felt like if I can convince you that you're important, then you will be inspired to convince someone else that they're important, so on and so forth. Then we'll treat each other with love and respect, and then we'll treat the world that we only have one of with love and respect. And then the world will be changed.
That's beautiful. Can you think of a specific moment when you realized that your music has had a positive impact on someone, whether it was an interaction face-to-face or a comment online?
I've had some really amazing kind comments, almost mini novels people write to me after shows. And first of all, those things really spur me on. And yeah, interactions at shows, I think it's always really important to give people as much time as they need. I know that bit can be difficult because you just never know what's going on in someone's life. So I really want to be able to give people the time that they need to share whatever they want to share. And then oftentimes it's those interactions that can kind of really start to create something special, such as a moment that they'll remember forever or I'll remember forever.
Is there a song, album, or a movie, or even a painting perhaps, that reminds you that you are important? Because sometimes we're really good at telling other people that they're amazing and they matter, but we have to be kind to ourselves, too.
I need to hear more of that. This might sound weird, but I truly think that it's my job, my purpose, to distribute it for other people. And I rarely think of myself in that respect. But I actually do have an answer. There's a painting called Black Pope by Charles White, and I first saw it at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. And this was around the time of starting to do Mauvey and I guess that was the first moment that I looked and thought, “I saw this black pope”. I wrote a song called "Black Pope" shortly after. I guess at that point I looked at more of Charles White's work, and I just realized that in this story, I'm important as well.
I hope that just me asking the question is also a reminder that you are important.
You'll see tonight, I yell it at shows because I'm desperate for people to take it on. But it's actually in those moments, I'm just communicating it out. But it is a good reminder that I need to take it in myself too.
You have a new single coming out in a few days called "Big Boy Appetite." and I watched an interview you did with Because Design Matters. You mentioned how you have so much music and it's hard to know what to put out first or what to put out at all. So I was wondering why you decided to put out "Big Boy Appetite" right now?
I had this project series called Before the Album. I've done Before the Album 1, Before the Album 2, Before the Album 2.5, and I needed to complete the trilogy. I've been hinting at Before the Album 3 for the last three years. And this year, I've been waiting for a lot of things that ultimately didn't come to pass, and so I've really held myself back from when's the right moment to drop Before the Album 3. Maybe I was scared of dropping Before the Album 3, so finally this year, I just woke up and thought, "Okay, now is the time. Before the Album 3." And I knew that it had to be this project. I remember I was in Toronto, it was winter and I was just walking, and I was listening to all the music that I had. And then I came back to Toronto a little bit later in March around Junos time, where I had that interview. And I listened to all my music again, and it kept coming back to the same project. And it was an entire project that I wrote and recorded in Vancouver with an amazing duo called Big Kill. And instead of chopping and changing and picking the best song from here and the best song from here, I really felt compelled that this project in its entirety needs to be what Before the Album 3 is. And "Big Boy Appetite" specifically is, for me, it's the mood and highlighted by that one line in it, "Black cowboy, I'll be anything I wanna be." And I wanted to set the mood for the project of “it's not that difficult”. You can be anything you want to be, and then that starts with me acknowledging myself, “I can be anything I want to be”, and then sharing that message forward. So I knew that if it was going to be that particular project that I put out, I always knew that it was going to be "Big Boy Appetite" to come out first. And I'm glad to have just submitted it because I probably would've changed my mind if I didn't.
Are you the type of person who changes their mind a lot?
I think I change my mind quite a lot. I think that when I do land on something, it has to be really special. Because I change my mind so much, if I land on something that I'm happy with and then it gets over the line, then it's gone through all the indecision possible and made it through, so it's special.
And is there anything else you would like to share about that song specifically before it comes out?
I'm really excited. It got a world premiere on BBC Introducing in the UK yesterday, so that was a great moment to have such a notable radio station play it first. I was excited about that and I was listening to it live, and so it was really cool. And it's exciting embarking on this tour that I'm on right now and I feel proud to have that song be the flag bearer for the stuff coming up in the future.
I'm assuming you're playing it tonight?
I'm playing it tonight. It's going to be in the set tonight along with the next single that nobody knows yet, but I'll say it tonight.
You used to play professional basketball in Europe. What kind of advice would you give someone who perhaps has a whole career and want to switch to do music, whether they're also playing a sport or any other career?
First of all, oftentimes having something that you've done before, that you've dedicated your life to can give you a different type of discipline for the new thing. So if you are, sports, for example, it lays the foundation for how disciplined I am in my approach to music. I wake up every single day and I practice. I wake up every single day and I write. And that's because when I first started playing basketball, I sucked at playing basketball, and then I practiced every day, and then I got good at playing basketball. And it's just not rocket science. Every day you work at it, and then you become something. And the same thing with music. Instead of having my emotions drive music, for me, my purpose drives music. So my purpose is distributing love and changing the world. So with that purpose, I have no choice. I have to work a certain amount. It doesn't matter how I feel that day. I'm not thinking, "I'm going to make art if I feel good, and if it comes to me." No, I wake up, and I work. And that's what I've brought from it. And I think oftentimes if you're coming from a different career, you have that level of discipline and a level of humility that it's not just going to come to you just because you want it. You have to go and work for it.
In that same interview you did for Because Design Matters you mentioned that the music that inspires you the most is singer-songwriter and country music because of great storytelling. Can you think of a specific country song that, for you, is a perfect example of great storytelling?
There's a particular song by probably my favorite country artist. It's such a big song, so I don't necessarily love it as an example, but it just hit me in a way, and that's "Tennessee Whiskey" by Chris Stapleton. And I just love Chris Stapleton, and that was what really got me into the storytelling. And from there, there's an artist in the more folk singer-songwriter world called Nathaniel Rateliff. And I think he's one of the most gifted songwriters, if not the most gifted songwriter that I've ever heard. He’s experienced, and he's got a song called "Shroud". His storytelling and how he conveyed it is just guttural, and it really changed my life. And other artists such as Passenger, Ben Howard, they really kind of provided these canvases, these paintings that I really learnt from and was inspired by how to paint with words and story.
I learned that you used to write seven-minute-long tracks and also that you were not the best at singing. So if you could talk to that version of yourself now, what do you think you would tell him?
Even at that time, I knew that I wasn't willing to give up. I knew that something that resembled today was possible because of my work ethic. So I would only say, "Good job. You're doing what you need to do." And I would say, if I was in front of him, I would tell him, "Yo, we both know what's going to happen at the end of this, so I'm just here to tell you that it's going to happen, so just keep doing what you're doing." But to be honest, I really enjoyed that time because my favorite thing, I've said a few times to people, is the work. I really enjoy the process. Yes, the result is awesome, but the process is just the most magical thing to me. The blank page turning into a song after two hours. The day is 9:00 a.m., and then 5:00 p.m., you've got a song recorded. Or on paper, you write, "I want to tour," and then two months down the line, you've got shows booked. So the work is always the most important. I enjoyed that time, and sometimes I miss that time because I'm on a different journey of artist development and self-development now than I was back then. But those first little bits where you're learning how to learn are so exciting to me.
Can you remember the moment where you realized, "Oh, okay, I'm actually getting better at singing?"
I went on a do-it-yourself world tour. And I designed that tour thinking "Okay, by the end of these 11 months, I'm going to know how to perform, and I'm going to know how to at least use my instrument, my voice. I don't know what that's going to sound like, but at some point, I have to get comfortable. I don't have formal training, so I have to get comfortable with what I sound like both as a singer and a rapper”. And in those 11 months, I learned how to be okay with how I sounded.
And are you the kind of person who reflects after every show, such as what went well, what could've gone better, or you just thinking about the next show?
I'm a fan of game film. So when I played sports, I would look at game film. I would look at practice film, and I would get better by observing what it is that I did. And I've tried to take that on as a musician to film my rehearsals, practice, to listen back to demos and and actually just assess, "What am I trying to do here? How can I get better?" I do that often. But I think music being a little bit of a different beast, I don't want to make a habit of beating myself up. Perfectionism is not what I'm trying to go for. I'm just trying to communicate. So when I look at a film, I'm just looking at how I'm communicating this message. It’s not "Oh, what do I sound like?" or "How can I be better?" I'm over that because perfection is the devil to me. It's very difficult for me to live life in pursuit of perfection. So I only care about what I'm trying to communicate, “Has that been communicated?”
You made your directional debut back in 2021 with "The Florist." In an older interview, you said that in another life you would be an actor and a director, working on big blockbusters movies, but also small indie films. Out of the movies that you have seen, is there a blockbuster or/and a small indie film that you would've liked to work on?
I think the first movie would be He Got Game by Spike Lee. It has Denzel Washington and Ray Allen, and it is a masterpiece in my opinion. Also, it follows the life of a young basketball player going from high school to pro. So I resonated with it personally. I'd love to be involved. I would've loved to have been involved in The Matrix series. And also The Lord of the Rings series because I'm the biggest fan of Tolkien and the multiple worlds he created. And the depths in order to create this world that we just turn on the movie and watch for three hours, we're talking about decades. Inventing languages just so that certain character groups would be believable. There's so much that goes into it. To be a part of that level of world-building, that's insane. That's what I would love to be involved with.
Do you think you might try to go into movies at any point in time?
I'm currently doing that. I've got an acting agent and I'm continuing to do my own films. I'm beginning on my first feature film. For me, instead of waiting for a big film house to pick me up or this person to do this, I just do it myself. So I wanted to do a film series. I just did it myself because no one's knocking on my door to do it. I've got it mostly written and I've begun searching because one of the things I love about film is producing too. Finding the locations, building how it's going to happen as opposed to the directing portion of it or the writing or the acting, which I love doing each of those aspects too. But the producing is pretty fun because you're really thinking, "How exactly is it happening?" It is pretty awesome.
You played Glastonbury twice. And it's one of the biggest festivals in the world. Does your approach differ from playing such a big festival and playing a more intimate venue like the one tonight?
Honestly, no. And I think that's perhaps why I got the opportunity to play Glastonbury because for me, my commitment and my performance doesn't change. I don't even know how many people are coming tonight, but I don't care. I only care about the people who are coming I don’t think about, "Oh my gosh, how many tickets have I sold?" I used to care so much about essentially the people who weren't there.
Was it ever a concern, the number of people showing up?
Yeah. Even tonight. But I've played festivals where it's multi-venue festivals and maybe there's not that many people at each show. You hear all the things such as, "Oh, it's hard to get people out. It's hard to sell tickets in Montreal," all that sort of stuff. I know I love Montreal and I’ve got a connection here. I wanted to put something on for the people in Montreal who have invested in me already and for the artists who've supported me. So this event is a celebration with two artists that I absolutely love, and it is a thank you to the people who have been to every show that I've had here. So it's exclusively for the people who show up. And I'm only caring about that and that's why I am stress free because I'm not thinking about, "Oh my gosh. I hope people are buying tickets." I know the people who are coming and who are always going to come, and I'm really, really excited to put on a show tonight.
It's better to have, let's say, a smaller crowd of people who want to be there than a big crowd who is not even interested, right?
100%.
You said you have a special connection to Montreal. Do you have a favorite memory that you've made here over time?
I think my favorite memory was playing the first M For Montreal festival. It was post-COVID and I was lucky enough to play. And a lot of the music industry in Canada was around, and it was one of the festivals that helped take what I'm doing to just a little bit to another level. People started really noticing what I'm doing, and so that would've been November 2021. And that was the beginning of what made me keep coming back to Montreal.
And besides playing the show, was there anything you were really looking forward to tonight? Seeing friends, perhaps?
I want to see Prince Amine play. I want to see Arsoniste. And then just being able to hug people who I haven't seen for a while. I wish I was here for longer. I want to cancel my train so I can spend a few more days in the city.
Your favourite interviewer who is very grateful for the opportunities she has had so far,
Ariane
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