— New York City-based producer, songwriter, and vocalist Maiya Blaney releases her new album A Room With A Door That Closes via Lex Records.
The 11-track album was produced by Blaney alongside Alex Farrar (MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, Snail Mail), Harlan Steed (Show Me the Body) and Emerson Fossett and includes the track “Affirmatively,” which arrives with a video directed by Flatspot, along with the previously shared songs “Fumbled,” “Honey I,” and “Recognize Me.” Today, Blaney will do a guest session at The Lot Radio to celebrate the album release.
Speaking about the new album, Maiya Blaney shares,
“‘A Room With A Door That Closes’ is a love letter to, and personification of, my anxiety and depression (or my ‘blue’ as I refer to it on the album). It’s an elegy to these feelings that feel too big to hold — derealization, trauma, PTSD — and how I go about holding myself anyway when I experience them. I wanted to put a more 3D context to those feelings — to that light body I found myself in, and that shadow I felt. And the attempt resulted in this record.”
Blaney describes A Room With A Door That Closes as “a love letter to her blue,” an emotional state that she defines as “a kinetic, intense, and dark energy that needs to be expressed as soon as it is felt.” The collection of songs on the album span radioactive kiss offs, sorrowful meditations on yearning, and gossamer reveries about self image. The music has a fittingly tumultuous, intricate sound: 1960s soul samples melt into warm drum n bass percussion, blips of glitch ping pong against grating synth, and Blaney’s vocals range from searing punk exclamations to gentle, exploratory croons. It’s the sound of a singer peering deeply within herself and presenting the world with everything she finds, unadulterated, in real time.
Blaney had just started playing guitar and producing around the time she began writing the songs that would become the album. Being new to both producing and guitar playing opened up a sense of exploration and freedom for her. She felt emboldened to employ more adventurous riffs and unconventional song arrangements when she was writing.
A Room With A Door That Closes is a series of songs that rigorously pursue honesty and present feelings as they arise without rushing to categorize them or explain them away. In the process of understanding her rage or discomfort, Blaney often lands on a sense of pride and assurance, but that’s never the ultimate goal. She eschews the easy comfort of neat resolution for the excitement of ongoing discovery. The album is an exercise in unfiltered self-expression, and a celebration of life at its messiest.
Since 2019, Maiya Blaney has been releasing music lacquered with emotion. 2021 saw the release of her album 3, which meditated on neo-soul and R&B sonics. With her new material, Blaney fully dives into her unsavory feelings of anxiety and unease, creating an aforementioned tumultuous and intricate sound.
Check out A Room With A Door That Closes above and stay tuned for more from Maiya Blaney coming very soon.