For Maina Doe, the process of evolution has been part of her journey as a musician long before any of us heard a track. Growing up in Badung, Indonesia, with her religious grandma, Maina felt she wasn't able to fully express herself. In 2019, she told Afrikapital that it made her “more hungry to be a really creative person.”
With the encouragement of her mum, Maina explored that hunger when she moved to Australia at seven years old. Maina began writing songs at 13, and gradually became immersed in Sydney’s jazz and R&B scenes, eventually becoming a session and backup vocalist, and writer.
Maina attributes a large part of her success now to the time she spent in the background of the music-making process, which made her “really comfortable in the studio environment and on the stage.” That comfort in the studio working on other people's music gave Maina “a dope foundation to make my own music.”
But, her music would have to wait. After dropping singles “Delusions” and “Unwritten Laws,” any momentum Maina was able to pick up was arrested by the pandemic. She felt like it was the end of a career that had barely begun. “I was like, oh, there goes the career I didn’t have.”
But now, having had four years to recalibrate, grow, and evolve, Maina's gearing up to finally drop her debut EP, ODIWAMS (One Day It Will All Make Sense). On the EP, Maina is looking to strike a balance between gritty and polished, doing so with greater focus and resolve in what she wants to say. The EP takes in a broad array of influences, including Dijon, MIKE, and Cleo Sol.
With a new JD Sports x The North Face campaign out and ODIWAMS right around the corner, Complex AU sat down with Maina to discuss her new project, evolving as an artist, and the best way to get over stage fright.
When did you make the decision to pursue music seriously?
It happened gradually. I’ve always made music, and I was immersed in a lot of the jazz, soul, and R&B scenes in Sydney when I was younger, but I didn't really consider it a career option back then—I just really loved music. Eventually, I started getting work as a backing vocalist, and things started rolling in.
I would go to sessions to write vocal melodies for people, and that was my first exposure to seeing that people can actually do this for a living. I met my manager while I was working at a restaurant—she recognised me from one of my gigs—and that's kind of a weird synchronicity that pushed me towards being an artist. I guess things lined up in a way where I just couldn't ignore it, and it ended up being the biggest blessing ever.
Your EP, ODIWAMS, is out soon, what can people expect from it?
The EP is very organic and it highlights the eclectic nature of how I approach music. I go deep into some of the things that have been prominent in my 20s, so I think people can expect it to be a journey.
How do you feel your approach to making music has changed between your new EP and your earlier songs?
I kind of had this aha moment last year when I was putting together the EP—my music might not make sense to a lot of people. Often, my creative process doesn't even make sense to me, you know?
Then I thought about the subject matter of a lot of my songs, and I was like, “Wait a minute. All of these songs are just me trying to figure out different aspects of adulthood."
I think back to 2019 when I came out with “Delusions” and “Unwritten Laws,” and those songs were very much just me experimenting without even knowing what my sound was. As an artist, you're always trying to evolve, but I think now I'm just a little bit clearer on what I want to say and how I want to sing, and so the music is more finely tuned.
Who inspired you as you were making it?
I was listening to a lot of beautiful, organic-sounding music from SAULT and Cleo Sol. But then I was also listening to some really weird, grungy shit like MIKE, and I was listening to old Alchemist stuff with Danny Brown. And I was also listening to afrobeats and pop music, and you can hear that for sure.
The EP delves into this thing where a lot of the sounds are very organic, but there are a lot of electronic and pop elements in it, as well. It's such a weird thing because that's a balance that I've been trying to find for a very long time: how do I bring softness, like natural organic textures, into these more gritty, electronic-sounding things that I also love? When you're in that mindset, you come up with really interesting stuff.
You recently said that you used to get incredibly nervous before performing. How did you become more comfortable on stage?
I think it's just exposure therapy. I was really comfortable being in the background on stage for a very long time as a backing vocalist, and it's just so different when you're front of stage with people coming to see you.
The more I did it, the more I realised that I'm not going to embarrass myself and even if I did, who cares? I used to be so scared though, especially with the big gigs that I got straight after our lockdown finished. I hadn’t seen any other humans except for my housemates, and then all of a sudden, I was like doing the Opera House for the first time, and I was like, “Oh my god, this is too much.”
You’ve been gaining more international attention recently from the likes of Vogue France and BBC 1XTRA. How has that felt?
Having that international recognition start rolling in this way, it's just affirming. Vogue France does these seasonal playlists, and I ended up being included in the spring playlist, which was cool. With the BBC, that was so affirming because as an Australian artist, there's this fear that you'll never really make it out of here. It's so nice to be in Sydney—everyone's supportive and dope—but I think a lot of Australian artists go through the anxiety of not really knowing how to make it outside of our community here. When you start to see it happening, it takes away a little bit of that anxiety.
How does it feel to be a part of such a vibrant Australian R&B/rap scene?
I am actually so gassed about all the good music coming out of Australia. There are a lot of people I really admire here—people like GLO and Gruffs are really great community trailblazers in a lot of ways.
I love listening to Yibby and Josef. There's also Dylan Atlantis; she's amazing. Milan [Ring], Yasmina Sadiki—I think she's one of our best singers. It's nice to see that the quality is getting better and better every year, and the consistency and the support is just really amazing.
How was working with JD Sports on this latest The North Face campaign?
Yeah, it was really cool. I love working with JD Sports, I've done a few campaigns with them in the past and we have a really dope relationship. They're in the music scene in a genuine way—it's not tokenistic or anything like that—they actually love putting artists on, which is really cool to see. It was just a vibe to work on it with artists that I really love.
What has been the most challenging aspect of your career so far?
There are so many challenges that come with being an artist. Obviously, there's pay disparities for artists here in Australia compared to other countries. There've been a few challenges that I've faced that are specific to women of colour.
But my biggest challenge is having to wear so many different hats. You know, there's the internet game that you have to play as an artist, and there's also this wanting of more resources to make crazy things, and having to be patient aboout that. I don't really see myself as a content creator, so just finding my voice on the internet as opposed to being an artist—that's really difficult for me.
What have you learned, whether it be about yourself or the industry, in your journey?
I feel like being in the music industry is like being in the hyperbolic time chamber like in Dragon Ball Z where one minute equals one year. It moves so quickly, you learn so much every single day.
But what I've learned has been mostly about myself—getting over my stage fright and becoming more confident in my abilities and what I want to put out there in the world. I've also learned some dark things about the music industry, but I've made it a priority to keep my music environment clean and healthy and positive. I've learned that community is everything—it's the thing that’s going to inspire you. It's the thing that's going to help you build the music, and your vision, in the best way that you can.
You can shop the latest The North Face collection online and in store at JD Sports.
