Maya de Vitry was at home in Nashville, TN, when we spoke via Zoom. She was enjoying the cool indoor air. “I work part-time in some gardens – as a gardener – so I was out all morning. It’s very, very hot here, so I’m relieved to be back home in the air conditioning.”
For the record, the temperature was well over 90 degrees with a fair amount of humidity to go with it. Maya’s job as a gardener and her career as a singer, songwriter, musician, and producer are not incongruous. That became apparent as we discussed her recently released album, All My Faith. It is an album obviously about faith, but also about life, love, redemption‚ and celebrating everyday joys. Are these themes she has explored on her earlier albums?
“I think some of the things‚ some of the themes are similar,” Maya allowed. “But maybe just (using) different approaches. I’m always trying to push myself as a writer into new challenges.”
The process begins with the inspiration, which can be found everywhere according to Maya. The challenge comes in finding the “time to follow that spark of inspiration and actually nurture it to be a full plant.” It is not unlike when you “nurture the tomato from the seed all the way to when there’s fruit.”
Sometimes inspiration comes in a moment when time is set aside for songwriting. For a songwriter that is both convenient and serendipitous. Inspiration usually is not so cooperative and often will strike when you are not looking for it. Like most songwriters, Maya has developed strategies for not losing those bursts of inspiration.
She may jot down her inspiration in the notes app on her phone or perhaps she’ll sing a little into the voice memo app. “I carry a couple different notebooks,” Maya said. “I always have a notebook in my guitar case. I have a notebook in my purse that’s a really tiny notebook. Just little notebooks to write things down.”
Every inspiration may lead to an idea for a song but not every idea will make it to song. According to Maya, “I know well that of every idea I write down maybe, like, 3 of them are ever going to be revisited with enough care to become a song.”
The care – the nurturing if you will – requires time, something Maya refers to as a container or space in which to allow the song to grow and flourish. But when do you know the time is right to act on the inspiration you have found?
“It’s kind of like getting hungry,” says Maya. “Or something like (when) you’re thirsty where you’re just like, ‘It’s time for a snack’ and I wanna taste what this is, I wanna taste what this idea is, and maybe I’ll take, like, one little spark of inspiration.”
Once Maya starts on a song she has the patience of a gardener to grow the song and let it reveal itself. Giving up on a song is something she is reluctant to do. “I’m always trying to just keep writing to see what’s there and not be too satisfied too quickly. I don’t want to take the easy way out of a song. I want to see what it is really trying to say, what’s really in there.”
Some of the gems on All My Faith include “Nobody Else” (a love song exploring what was behind the argument in the kitchen), “Bachelorette Lessons” (a song about the importance of lending a hand when it is needed), and “Traveller” (a tale of life and mortality viewed through a moment shared between a child and an elderly grandmother).
Maya was full of praise for the musicians who played on the album. While not expressly stated by Maya, it was apparent she wanted musicians who would not merely accompany her on the recordings but would bring them to life. To do that, they would have to commit to doing live, one-take recordings. No over dubs. No splicing of different takes. Just finding the perfect take going with that.
The musicians joining Maya de Vitry on All My Faith were: Shelby Means (harmony vocals); Joel Timmons (harmony vocals and acoustic guitar); Jo Schornikow (keys and piano; Ethan Ballinger (electric guitar, electric tenor guitar, mandolin, and Trautonium); Spencer Cullum (pedal steel); Ethan Jodziewicz (upright bass, electric bass, and fretless electric bass); and Dom Billett (drums).
“I was guessing that all of these people would be down with the idea to record live,” said Maya. And how did that work out? “It was like a dream.”
The album artwork for All My Faith is by Lee Ferris, a musician and “amazing visual artist.” Maya sent him the recordings without any instruction or guidance and “he listened and then interpreted the music and created that beautiful, evocative, colorful (artwork) and I’m so happy that that’s the cover!”
For someone who nurtures her songs much like a gardener may nurture plants, what does Maya hope people will come away with listening to her music? She hopes to open our minds to the possibilities all around us, to the possibility of noticing something strange or noticing something beautiful.
“That’s kind of what I want for my music,” says Maya. “For people to see something differently.”
