Apples, Angst & Afterglow: Inside the Fluorescent World of Maisie Jean
‘At 18, you’ve released an atmospheric indie-pop album. What first made you fall in love with music and when did you realise this was something you wanted to pursue?’
Well music has always been a part of my life, socially, as a passing interest but also songwriting has been a way to express what was incommunicable to me. Songwriting felt so much more natural to me as a language than anything else and then it dawned on me that that’s what I wanted to base my life around.
‘Do you feel that your music has been influenced by growing up in Sheffield?’
Not necessarily my writing or lyrically but in the performance context I definitely sing with a northern accent which people have picked up on. I had a review recently commenting on the fact that my accent came through in my singing. I’ve been compared to Alex Turner and other artists from Yorkshire. I think I’d like to get a bit more Yorkshire slang into my lyrics though definitely.
‘How did you choose the order for your album, was there a specific reason you wanted ‘Apples’ to be the first track?’
I knew quite early on that I wanted ‘Apples’ to be the starting track as it conveys the spirit of the album well, it encapsulates the glitzy party aesthetic mixed in with grit and angst. I also knew I wanted to end with ‘One Way’ as a sort of cathartic battle cry. I think they are a good bookend and quite an effective contrast. The rest of the order sort of didn’t feel right until it felt right and then I listened to it, and it just made sense.
‘When you write, do you start with someone in mind like yourself, a character, a friend, or does it start of more abstract like a random phrase?’
I think I am always in songwriting mode so it will depend on the mood I am in. A lot of the time it is something I am feeling that I want to channel into something else. It used to be I was a character in a story but this came from a place of not wanting to be too vulnerable.
‘Do you have any favourite performances, or a best moment on stage?’
Recently, it was my most recent performance at The Washington (Sheffield), from the first song there were too strangers in the audience who had come to see me, and they were singing along to every single word. I can’t explain how much of a surreal feeling that is and such an ‘I made it moment’. They actually came up to me afterwards telling me that they listen to me in the car!
Honourable mention to Fagan’s (Sheffield)
‘If you could collaborate with any artist who would you be choosing?’
I think ‘Luvcat’ is just the ultimate choice, she is so unique, her worldbuilding and lyricism I think we would get each other. She’s also a fellow northerner and a Liverpool girl!
‘If your album ‘Fluorescent Girl could be a soundtrack to a TV series or film, what do you think it would work well with?’
I would have to say Skins!
Our writer Kimani Marcano Bruce’s thoughts – ‘When I first listened to Fluorescent Girl, it immediately reminded me of the 2020 Netflix show I Am Not Okay with This. Funny, awkward and just a little bit disturbing, the show follows a teenage girl attempting - key word – to navigate the many increasingly messy aspects of her life. Oh, and she has superpowers. Although the show’s current soundtrack features a more acoustic sound, I think that the electronic soundscape of Fluorescent Girl would capture its atypical atmosphere in a way that is unique but still fitting. The combination of raw vocals and unapologetic lyrics steer us away from the picture-perfect coming-of-age story wrapped up neatly and tied with a bow. Instead, Maisie Jean encapsulates the authentic emotions and complexities that accompany that phase of life, as well as what comes next, all to the tune of a synth beat you can dance to at the club.’
