Q&A: MAY-A Says Goodbye, and Hello to Her Fiercest Self Yet
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photo Credit: Ruby Boland
GOODBYE ISN’T THE END — Genre-defying artist MAY-A is set to make a striking statement with her long-awaited debut album, Goodbye (If You Call That Gone), arriving February 13. A record that thrives in emotional honesty and creative liberation, the album captures the tangled aftermath of heartbreak and the slow, often uncomfortable work of reclaiming yourself.
Teasing the album is her newest single, “Catching Up 2 U,” a track born not from vengeance, but restraint. Written from a place of resisting the urge to mirror the pain inflicted by someone else, the song instead lets karma take course.
Across her career, MAY-A has consistently blurred the boundaries between pop, rock, indie, and alternative, refusing to settle into a singular genre. That fluidity is at the heart of Goodbye (If You Call That Gone).
“Goodbye (If You Call That Gone), is a mirror of the healing process in all its complexity, an amalgamation of loss, betrayal, anger, resentment, and, most importantly, the quiet triumph of moving through what once felt impossible,” MAY-A says. “When people talk about change, they often skip over the uncomfortable, messy parts. This record doesn’t. It dives into the raw, unfiltered emotions that come with transformation, amplifying the darkness that in turn, makes the light mean something.”
That darkness wasn’t easy to revisit. MAY-A admits there were moments where walking away felt easier than pushing through, but the need for catharsis kept her going.
“I wanted to take listeners on a journey,” she says. “We’ve all had someone who’s made us feel small, stripped us of who we thought we were, until we barely recognised ourselves. This record is about finding your way back from that.”
Photo Credit: Ruby Boland
LUNA: “Catching Up 2 U” is just a sneak peek into your upcoming debut album Goodbye (If You Call That Gone). What themes or narratives did you set out to explore with this project? What can listeners expect from you in this new era of music?
MAY-A: This project is definitely angrier and harder than my older music. I come from an indie-bedroom-pop / soft pop background so it’s been fun to explore more rock and band-heavy music. I’ve always loved guitar-led music and found that that’s where my real interest lies. I’m glad that I've been able to trust myself to make music in quite a different way and I’ve learned so much from the process. I think I'll always have bits and pieces of pop, rock, indie and alternative mushed together. I’m lucky that we exist in a time where everything is pretty genre-less.
LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on Goodbye (If You Call That Gone) — one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing of who MAY-A is right now?
MAY-A: I think my favorite changes each week- but I really love “Confessions” and “On The Way Down.” Those songs feel like I’m really entering a different chapter of my project that I’m excited about. I’m sure I'll continue to explore these sounds in the future in different ways.
LUNA: Have you taken any risks or experimented more, whether that’s lyrically, emotionally or sonically, with Goodbye (If You Call That Gone) compared to your previous releases and what does that look like?
MAY-A: I think, in some ways the whole of the album felt like a risk. It’s a very undefined body of work and doesn’t have super duper commercial singles ect. But that’s what I've loved about making it, I did it purely for myself. It’s scary changing things up when they seem to be “working” but I'm not someone who stays in a comfort zone for too long.
LUNA: What were some unexpected lessons you learned during the process, and how might those lessons shape the way you approach future projects?
MAY-A: There are definitely no shortage of lessons. I’d say the most important thing I’ve learnt from this first album process is that I need to trust myself more. To not give in to the fear of being misunderstood, to get weirder with it, to experiment even more. There were plenty of moments in the writing process where I thought that I was doing something super outside of the box and wildly experimental and it’s funny when I listen back to it now- it feels so normal, it barely sounds like a risk at all! So that would be my goal for the next body of work- get weirder with it, weirder than weird, and then maybe you’ll land somewhere interesting, you know? I put so much pressure on myself for everything to be phenomenal and I'm ready to just settle for honest, raw and real. It doesn’t need to be the best thing you’ve ever heard in your life, it just has to mean something to you.
LUNA: If someone is going through a time of feeling unrecognized or underestimated, what would you like them to take away from this album?
MAY-A: The only person you need to believe in you, is yourself. You have to take a chance on yourself, place a bet on yourself, back yourself. Famously, the best revenge is your own success and happiness.
LUNA: What inspires you to push boundaries within your sound? Are there any specific experiences, artists, or moments that have encouraged you to explore new musical territories?
MAY-A: So many people have contributed to me being the artist I am today, and the artist I will become in the future. Radiohead really blew my mind as a teenager, bands like Garbage, Evanescence, Paramore and Hole showed me that I could make heavy music as a woman. I’ve loved watching Clairo’s progression as an artist push further into jazz influence. The Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Wolf Alice, Fontaines DC, Willow Smith, My Bloody Valentine and M83 have all been big contributors to navigating my early 20s, all of these people helped me see outside of my box.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the upcoming year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
MAY-A: I’m very much looking forward to putting out this body of work and starting to play these songs live, touring is really where my heart lies. I love being on stage and putting on a show. I love travelling, meeting new people, sweating and screaming my heart out, and once the shows are done, I’m ready to get back into the studio and write another album all over again. Being a musician is really fucking all I ever want to do and I’m so grateful to be here, immersing myself in it.
Photo Credit: Ruby Boland
