Mxmtoon

mxmtoon (born July 9, 2000), also known as Maia, is an American singer-songwriter and social media personality from Oakland, California, known for singing and playing the ukulele. Her 2018 self-released EP, plum blossom, recorded in her parents' guest bedroom, has been streamed over 100 million times. Her 2019 international tour has nearly sold out, and her debut album the masquerade was released in September 2019.

Maia was born on July 9, 2000, in Oakland, California, and grew up near Lake Merritt. She is Chinese-American on her mother's side and German and Scottish on her father's side. She describes herself as "Hapa", as she grew up culturally Chinese. Throughout her school career she enjoyed taking art and architecture classes. She became interested in music from a young age. Her brother took violin lessons, and in first grade, Maia joined him. A few years later, she began playing classical cello and trumpet. In fifth grade, she auditioned for her school rock band. Expecting to audition for cello, she was asked to sing Oasis's "Wonderwall", and ended up joining as a vocalist, where she recalls singing "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World. In sixth grade, she began playing guitar, learning in part from her father. Maia first coined the name "mxmtoon" on her Instagram account where she drew cartoon sketches for her 500 followers, most of whom were strangers. She started her YouTube channel and began playing the ukulele in middle school. She wrote her first song at age 13.

2017–2018: Falling for U, plum blossom

Recording with GarageBand in her parents' guest bedroom, creating percussion tracks with hair straighteners, Maia began self-releasing songs on YouTube as "mxmtoon" in 2017. After initially attempting to write comedy songs, she began writing songs that embodied her emotions such as "feelings are fatal", which only required a USB microphone and GarageBand. The song currently has over 23 million streams on Spotify. Her 2017 collaboration with Japanese lo-fi producer peachy!, "Falling for U", reached nearly 40 million streams on Spotify by June 2019. Maia began secretly releasing music to the public, but was later compelled to tell her friends and family after experiencing viral success online. In 2018, Maia released her debut EP, plum blossom, which was reviewed by Earmilk, i-D and Hypebeast, and gained more than 100 million streams on Spotify by August 2019. The EP's single "i feel like chet" is a tribute to one of her favorite jazz musicians, Chet Baker.

After high school, Maia took a "gap year" by postponing college to focus on her music. She was planning to study architecture after graduating high school, until her music went viral in April 2018. In November 2018, she announced her "plum blossom tour". Her first tour, initially scheduled for five US shows with fellow Californian singer-songwriter khai dreams in March 2019, sold out, and was extended to include additional concerts in North America and Europe, including opening appearances for bedroom pop YouTuber Cavetown in the United Kingdom. Maia made her first appearance on a billboard in Times Square when Spotify advertised her single "dream of you" for their New Music Friday playlist.

2019–present: the masquerade, Kobalt

Prior to the release of the masquerade, Spotify announced the release of 21 Days, a music podcast that follows Maia while she works on the album in New York City. Liz Gateley of Spotify praised Maia's online following as well as her social presence, stating that "She obviously has lots of followers already, but that's not enough. The person had to be the right human too, and we felt she had both." The podcast is an eight-episode audio diary that includes interviews with family, friends and collaborators, including the album's producer Cavetown.

Maia's debut studio album the masquerade was released on September 17, 2019. The album peaked at 17 on the US Heatseekers Chart and at 45 on the US Indie Albums Chart. It features "prom dress", a "light and peachy tune" described as "relatable, infectious hook-led pop that speaks to millennials". The single is inspired by experiences from her own big night and deals with social anxiety and the problems that come with being a teen in modern society. The song has been streamed over 30 million times on Spotify, and has been used in 100,000 videos on TikTok. Maia's back catalogue of songs have also received tens of millions of online streams.

Joshua Bote of Paste described the ten-track album as "comforting twee-pop that wrings out genuine pathos from mxmtoon’s internet celebrity". Matt Yuyitung of Exclaim! wrote "[Maia] brings her wry sense of humour and diary-entry lyricism to her debut record, recalling the lo-fi relatability of Frankie Cosmos."

Maia embarked on her sold out "the masquerade Tour" of North America and United Kingdom in September 2019. She released her first graphic novel "The Adventures Of Mxmtoon: The Masquerade" in October 2019. Kirsten Spruch from Billboard wrote, "The novel seamlessly pairs with the album, encapsulating her introverted, teenage tendencies and free-flowing creativity." Gabe Bergado from Teen Vogue described the book "a captivating, charming visual journey that complements the dreamy album." She released an accompanying animated short film for the graphic novel in November 2019.

In November 2019, Maia announced via Twitter that she would be joining American singer-songwriter Lauv for his 2020 summer tour of Asia supporting his album how i'm feeling.

On November 19, 2019, Kobalt Music Group announced that they would be signing mxmtoon to their label under a global publishing deal. This deal will include administration and creative support for current music catalogue and future works. Creative Vice-President at Kobalt, Melissa Emert-Hutner, stated "Maia is truly the voice of her generation; by sharing her beautiful, heartfelt music with the world and growing her brand organically, she exemplifies the DIY spirit and aesthetic that Kobalt embraces." Emily Bines, a senior creative director at Kobalt added “Mxmtoon is exactly the type of forward-thinking creative that we dream about working with at Kobalt. Her vision, matched with her team’s passion to bring it to fruition is unwavering. We will be hearing from Maia for a long time to come.”

Maia released the masquerade (the edits) on November 22, 2019. The EP features remixes from songs on the masquerade from names like Chloe Lilac, Alexander 23 and Chloe Moriondo. In November 2019, Dork put Maia on their Hype List of 2020, alongside names like girl in red, Beabadoobee and Maisie Peters.

In December 2019, Maia re-recorded the song "prom dress" in Simlish, the fictional language used in The Sims games, to help promotion. The Simlish version was added to The Sims 4 on December 12, 2019. Maia reacted on Twitter with "countless hours of playing the sims has helped me become fluent in simlish... and guess what?? prom dress was just added to #thesims4 today!" A week later Maia released the music video for "unspoken words", which revolves around her Chinese-American upbringing as well as her relationship with her Chinese grandmother.

Maia released her first single of 2020, "Fever Dream" in January 2020.

I can be as ridiculous as I want but I can also be an emo teenager and people like both sides.

— Maia a.k.a. mxmtoon

Maia has been credited with having an "endearingly intimate presence". The singer-songwriter's music has been described as "warm folk-pop tunes with acoustic ornamentations", "one part acoustic-pop a-la Kina Grannis, mixed with sharp lyricism and avant-garde, off-kilter melodics akin to Fiona Apple or PJ Harvey", that explores "themes such as the trials of love, being a burden to those close to you, and connecting with your family's heritage" and "encapsulates many of the values her fellow Gen Zers possess". Joshua Bote of Paste wrote that Maia "might be the songwriter a new generation needs", noting that she is "made for these times" and is "armed with a ukulele, a sardonic charm and social media savvy." Grant Rindner of Nylon wrote: "With a commitment to covering topics she rarely hears addressed by other artists, and a keen understanding of how to bond with her audience, she's emerged as a charming and relatable singer-songwriter with a massive platform." After attending Maia's performance at the Gramercy Theatre, Briana Younger of The New Yorker wrote, "She sang of routine high-school problems, such as crippling self-doubt and unrequited love, with an emotional sophistication that reminded us that there are some things we never outgrow." Joe Coscarelli of New York Times has compared Maia's bedroom pop style to that of girl in red, Clairo and Beabadoobee, as well as the folk-pop "simplicity" of Regina Spektor and The Moldy Peaches. Her manager, Max Gredinger, has presented her with Billie Eilish and Shawn Mendes as models for potential super-stardom.

Coscarelli wrote: "Maia, who overflows with earnestness and giggles, has assembled an independent, D.I.Y. mini-empire almost by accident." Bote described Maia as "really, really good at the internet". Maia makes comedy videos on the video sharing platform, TikTok, where she has amassed 1.3 million followers and 46 million likes as of October 2019. To date, she has made appearances on Vine, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitch, Snapchat, Bandcamp, Pinterest and SoundCloud as well as TikTok. Her music has been streamed over 300 million times across all online platforms collectively. As of October 2019, her YouTube channel has over 43 million total video views and 504 thousand subscribers. As of October 2019, Maia has almost 4 million monthly streamers on Spotify.

Influences

Maia has cited Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys, Sufjan Stevens and Elliott Smith as her influences.

Maia identifies as "a young bisexual woman of color from a family of immigrants" and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she writes, records and produces her own music from the guest room of her parents' home. She graduated from high school in June 2018. While Maia was growing up, her parents played R&B and hip-hop, including Salt-N-Pepa and A Tribe Called Quest, which she still listens to for nostalgia.

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Headlining

• plum blossom Tour (2019)
• the masquerade Tour (2019)

Supporting

• how i'm feeling tour (2020) (with Lauv)