At just 24, the Australian singer-songwriter Maya Cumming \u2013 known to fans as May-a \u2013 has already experienced the promise and heartache of Los Angeles as a star-making town. In 2021, she signed with Atlantic Records in the US ahead of her debut EP, Don\u2019t Kiss Ur Friends \u2013 a moment she described at the time as \u201ca dream\u201d. The following February, she featured on Flume\u2019s precision-made festival anthem Say Nothing, which went on to win the 2022 Triple J Hottest 100.<\/p>\n
Amid that whirlwind period, Cumming was flown back and forth to LA for arranged studio sessions with producers and artists she felt little connection to, ultimately relocating there in 2024. What should have felt like a career arrival was instead a dispiriting eye-opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cI moved to LA for the label and then did the sessions that they put in for me,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd then I was like, these are sucking everything out of me and leaving no trace of my personality in any of this music. It was just feeling very stale and devoid of personal touch, like canned Christmas music.\u201d<\/p>\n
After what she describes as \u201cso many compromises\u201d on her 2023 EP, Analysis Paralysis, she split from Atlantic in late 2024, having already begun work on a debut album fuelled by resentment at the music industry. \u201cI had lost who I was because of trying to please corporations that just wanted me to write singles and hits,\u201d she says. Bunkering down with her partner, the guitarist and engineer Chloe Dadd, Cumming wrote fully formed songs that alternated between righteous anger and personal revelation. \u201cSo much of it was driven by spite,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt like no one believed that I could write my own songs or have my own vision. I was like, I\u2019m gonna do this, because fuck you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I got a little bit scared of being put in a box \u2013 like, she\u2019s a lesbian artist for lesbians and no one else.\u2019 Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
To help shape a sound distinct from the hushed bedroom pop of her past, Cumming called on experienced hands in rock and pop-punk, including Paramore producer Carlos de la Garza, songwriter and Yungblud collaborator Chris Greatti and Foo Fighters drummer Ilan Rubin. The sessions clicked and the resulting album, Goodbye (If You Call That Gone), is released this month. \u201cI think I associated LA with purposelessness for so long,\u201d she says. \u201cNow I can see the potential there, because there are goals, not just throwing shit at the wall until it sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n
May-a\u2019s video for Catching Up 2 U<\/p>\n
We meet in an aggressively air-conditioned room at the Sydney office of Sony Music Australia, which signed Cumming in 2020 and now oversees her worldwide rights. Despite a full day of press, she is engaged and plain-spoken, noting that talking \u201cin-person and in-depth\u201d about her work feels new after years of coverage as one-to-watch. \u201cIt\u2019s been fun and cathartic, because I have a lot to say about [the album],\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
Steeped in Bob Dylan by her amateur muso father, Cumming busked at markets and shopfronts around Byron Bay and Bangalow as a young teen. At 14, after the family moved to Sydney, she met her mentor, the producer Christian Lo Russo, by strolling unannounced into his Randwick studio. Already a teen YouTube creator, her earliest songs were shaped by the diaristic pop of artists like Lorde and Taylor Swift.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved so many different bands, but they were all fronted by men,\u201d she says. \u201cI was like, well, there\u2019s no woman in the Red Hot Chili Peppers or the Strokes, so I guess I\u2019ll be Taylor Swift.\u201d In her early 20s, she discovered the likes of Garbage, Hole and Veruca Salt and decided \u201cthis is where I\u2019m meant to be\u201d.<\/p>\n
May-a is grateful for the steady support of her parents; her mum, a makeup and hair stylist, was on hand for her Guardian photoshoot. Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Goodbye (If You Call That Gone) centres on the steely Last Man On Earth, which distils the album\u2019s ire into the line, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t forgive you \/ if you were the last man on earth.\u201d The fizzy, party-ready (I\u2019m here for the) Girls marks a clear evolution from early single Apricots, which captured the tentative queer longing of her teenage years. After that song, she says, \u201cI got a little bit scared of being put in a box \u2013 like, she\u2019s a lesbian artist for lesbians and no one else. With this album, I don\u2019t care who puts me in what box. I just want to write what I want to write.\u201d<\/p>\n
(I\u2019m here for the) Girls by May-a<\/p>\n
With the 2025 Triple J Hottest 100 just days away when we speak, Cumming recalls finding out Say Nothing had won while she was on tour in snowy Berlin. \u201cI knew it was going to place because it\u2019s Harley [Flume], but winning was completely unexpected,\u201d she says. While thrilling, its success shaped what collaborators expected from her in those despondent LA sessions. \u201cThey were like, \u2018sing like Say Nothing, quiet, and y\u2019know, get the Billie Eilish fans.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Our conversation turns to the word \u201clucky\u201d tattooed on her throat. \u201cWhen I got it, I was definitely not in a good place \u2013 because no one\u2019s in a good place when they get a neck tattoo,\u201d she says, with a laugh. \u201cAt that point, I was in a place of, \u2018You\u2019re lucky to be alive and you need to be reminded\u2019.\u201d Now her feelings on luck have evolved into gratitude, including for the steady support of her parents; her mum, a makeup and hair stylist, was on hand for her Guardian photoshoot. \u201cThey have just been there for me, and I\u2019m fucking crazy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Last year, Cyndi Lauper invited Cumming to perform Girls Just Want to Have Fun alongside her in Sydney, dressed in matching red-on-white polka dots. The arena call-up helped usher in this next phase of May-a the artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was phenomenal to watch [Lauper] perform at 71 \u2013 she was so there, rolling around on the floor,\u201d Cumming says, still clearly in awe. \u201cI was like, well, at least I have my goals set out for me now.\u201d<\/p>\n
May-a: \u2018What song do you want played at your funeral? I mean Party Rock Anthem would be pretty funny.\u2019 Photograph: Jessica Hromas\/The GuardianMay-a\u2019s songs to live by<\/p>\n
Each month we ask our headline act to share the songs that have accompanied them through love, life, lust and death.<\/p>\n
What was the best year for music, and what five songs prove it?<\/p>\n
This is an impossible question, but considering I\u2019m 24 and most of my musical discovery was early teens, 2015 personally shaped me the most so it\u2019d have to be that. The early 2000s were great for rock music \u2013 the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Killers \u2026<\/p>\n
What music do you clean the house to?<\/p>\n
Probably Chappell Roan or Rage Against the Machine\u2019s discography, depends on the mood.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the song you wish you wrote?<\/p>\n
Bitter Sweet Symphony by the Verve.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s one song you wish you didn\u2019t write?<\/p>\n
Amiinmyhead? I was like 16, so I\u2019ll give myself a pass.<\/p>\n
What is the last song you sang in the shower?<\/p>\n
You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette. But in a gremlin-like voice.<\/p>\n
What is the song you have listened to the most times this year?<\/p>\n
According to stats fm it is Everything is Embarrassing by Sky Ferreira, close second being Lonely Girl by Tonight Alive.<\/p>\n
If your life was a movie, what would the opening credits song be?<\/p>\n
You Get What You Give by New Radicals.<\/p>\n
What classic song should be stripped of its title?<\/p>\n
Anything by R Kelly \u2013 fuck that guy.<\/p>\n
What song do you want played at your funeral?<\/p>\n