LD Systems Live Sessions: Maya Lane

In this LD Systems Live Session, powered by Headliner, London-based artist Maya Lane performs original song Four Leaf Clover at Darkwood Studios in Hertfordshire. Lane performed through an LD Systems MAUI G3 rig, and Headliner caught up with Lane after the performance to find out what makes her tick.

What have you been up to lately?

The last few months have been really busy. The main thing I've been doing is lots of gigs and I’ve been on tour with my friend and fellow artist, Edie Bens. We put out an application online to have people who wanted to host us play in their living room or in their garden, or wherever they wanted. We got loads of applications and did a run of nine shows across Wales and the South of England, and we're opening up the applications again. 

For the Living Room Tour, we wanted to find a way to make touring really accessible for us and also for the people watching. We had a lot of people who maybe don't have venues near them, especially in some parts of Wales. Being able to go to people's homes and reach them, their friends and their family was really cool. 

It was a lovely, intimate way to play songs, and we did it all unplugged as well. I've also been releasing music. I've had three singles out this year, and then my album, Diary Of An Overthinker.

How did you first get into music?

I first got into music through my dad. Neither of my parents are musicians, but I grew up listening to a lot of different types of music, and a lot of music would be played around the house. Whenever we got in the car, we'd be forced to listen to all types of genres. So I grew up listening to a really wide range of stuff, but the music that I always loved was folk, country, and ‘70s music like Joni, Mitchell and Fleetwood Mac. 

I grew up loving them and being mesmerised by the vocals, the songwriting and the guitar playing. When I was four, I was given a tennis racket; I flipped it around and started playing it like a guitar. I think that was the moment my parents realised I liked this and wanted to do it. I started guitar and vocal lessons quite shortly after that, and haven't stopped since. 

I started gigging when I was 12. I would apply to festivals and local gigs – basically anywhere that would let me play. I would apply to hundreds of festivals at a time and hear back from maybe two or three, but it gave me a chance to play, and it started my love for live performing and has continued on ever since.

What inspired your most recent single, Four Leaf Clover?

I wrote Four Leaf Clover with a guy called Dwight Baker, who's in a band called Far from Saints. I was feeling like a really unlucky person. I felt like everything was going wrong, and I was trying to do all the right things, but nothing was going in the way I planned. Six months to the day of writing the song, I was on a theatre and arena tour with Dwight and his band, supporting them, which then made me feel like the complete opposite of that, and like a very lucky person. 

A year to the day, I released the song. It feels like a really nice full circle song and full circle moment. The song is about feeling unlucky and looking for all these signs, but thinking that even if I did find the signs, or even if everything was going my way, would I still be feeling content? Which I feel like is often not the case. 

We always want more and beat ourselves up for what we don't have. It's just a little sign to trust the process and hope that things will work out when they're meant to.

What was your impression of the LD Systems MAUI G3 rig you performed though?

I found the LD Systems rig really good to use. I was able to hear such a clear, lovely mix between the guitar and vocals, which is something you often don't get when you're listening back through a PA speaker; often it can sound murky or muddy. 

Having such a clear difference between what's the guitar, what's the vocal, and being able to hear every word I'm saying and every sound I'm playing was really helpful when recording and singing live. I’d definitely recommend using the LD Systems MAUI G3 rig to my fellow musicians if they want to get a super clear and beautiful sound.

Photos: Olivia Brytz Media