Many folks may know her at as the multi-instrumentalist, power-house vocalist that made up 1/3 of now disbanded raucous roots trio The Stray Birds, but time and reflection has unearthed a new side of Maya de Vitry that, while is equally as powerful, has a stirring and intensely personal framing that is leafed in beautiful honesty and deep expression of this new found outlet for artistic creation.

We could go into great detail here about how these songs dare to venture into realms of self reflection that can be trepidatious and difficult to face head on. How the sounds and sonic landscapes explored here may be different than those previously explored by de Vitry, but she excels at handling them in a way that feels natural and right. But, we prefer to hear those layers and stories direct from the source, so we caught up with Maya to talk about Adaptations, her experience in trekking out under her own name for this project and the inspiration that can be found in any number of atmospheres and places.

Read on…

photo by Laura Partain

RLR: I guess I’d like to start at the beginning. When did you first pick up an instrument and what was on the radio or home stereo at that time? Did what was being played through speakers or headphones impact you in a way that developed your current influence and sound?

MDV: My first musical experiences with instruments… probably messing around with my dad’s fiddle and guitar when I was really little! And then my parents taught me how to play the 3 chords in Iris DeMent’s song “Our Town” on a tiny guitar which I played for show and tell in kindergarten, which is hilarious when I think about that lyric content now. Started piano lessons when I was 7 with my grandma, and then violin when I was 8 in the public school. My parents and their friends played old time and bluegrass music at campfires and festivals, and we also listened to lots of songwriters from Gillian Welch to Lyle Lovett, and a lot of the Beatles, the Band…

RLR: Similarly, I have always had this “these are my folks” kind of mentality. The songwriters and musicians that influenced me to write songs or want to rip on guitar. Who were your’s when you first started out? Who are they today? Do you find that sort of influence evolves over time or can remain the same?

MDV: I was finally convinced to dedicate to writing songs when I heard Townes Van Zandt’s To Live is To Fly, like it took me to a more active and responsive place where I was suddenly like, I want to make these kinds of shapes with words and melodies. I was about 19. But I was totally obsessed with Nickel Creek as a kid and teenager, and I also really loved Gillian Welch songs, and I was also honestly just really immersed and obsessed with classical orchestral music, which I was playing a lot in school and other orchestras, as well as oldtime fiddle music. I remember seeing a classical violinist named Lena solo with the Lancaster Symphony, and I was totally inspired to dedicate myself to violin with a fresh intensity, that was when I was about 14.

RLR: As this is a new release, I don’t want to dwell on past projects, but I think venturing out on your own can be a fairly polarizing endeavor. Either incredibly freeing or incredibly difficult, or a combination of the two. For you, as someone who has really had a solid foundation with two other people for a long period of time, how did you find the process of crafting these songs? Did you find it to be a very different dynamic than you previously were used to with The Stray Birds?

MDV: It is incredibly freeing. Mostly, I am enjoying the freedom to work, create, and tour at my own pace- that rhythm is so personal, and difficult to balance in a band situation. For me, being in a band became a quite isolating experience, because there was such time and loyalty demanded to that specific setting and I felt limited in who I could creatively work with, or how I might grow beyond or outside of that setting. 

RLR: ‘Adaptations’ is a great title for this collection of tunes I feel. Its a kind of changing, a metamorphosis or just being able to deal with a new situation I suppose. Was there a specific reasoning or moment behind calling this record that and putting this collection of songs under that title?

MDV: I named the record about a year after recording it. I guess it took that long for the songs to simmer in my consciousness, for me to really understand the thread between everything. For some reason I felt really strongly that I wanted a one-word title. I was driving my car from Nashville to Pennsylvania in July 2018, and I thought, okay, on this 12 hour drive I am going to name this damn record. As I drove up Route 81, I started at the beginning of the alphabet, and landed on the word Adaptations, and knew it was a fit.  

RLR: If you had to pick one song from the album that you would want to become a classic, or a standard, or just effect someone in 100 years in a way that certain songs effect you today, what song would that be and why?

MDV: ‘Go Tell A Bird’ has been really resonating with people, and I think as we continue to deal with resources, scarcity, borders, movement… seeing the effects of global capitalism on people and the environment… and seeking freedom within ourselves and also within society… I think it will remain relevant. 

RLR: On community, the record has a lot of friends and contemporaries adding to the mix.  First, what does that community aspect of music mean to you and how do you find support in it?

MDV: I guess I would say to never underestimate your potential to be a catalyst to someone. Anthony da Costa was really encouraging at the very beginning of this process. He would come over to my house and we would sing and play some of these songs in a duo arrangement, and he helped me to feel empowered to make a record. And then meeting with Dan, who produced the record, Dan had the idea to bring Sam in on bass and Jason in on drums. Lindsay Lou has been a very supportive friend to me, creatively, emotionally, since moving to Nashville, so she was a natural choice for some of these harmonies. I also feel lucky to have had Courtney Hartman singing on the song we wrote together, and also to have written two of these songs with Ana Egge. Neither Courtney or Ana live in Nashville, but knowing each of them and working creatively with them has been transformative for me– they are just such deep artists. And all of these people are out there bringing their own visions into the world too, and just having the privilege to intersect and inspire each other when we can… it’s the best. 

RLR: Second, who from that community of your peers are your particularly digging or feel inspired by lately?

MDV: This week, I am wearing out Seth Walker’s new album Are You Open? I just saw Birds of Chicago and Seth Walker the other night at an event in Nashville, and was totally blown away by both sets. I opened for Birds of Chicago last fall, and I’m so inspired by their craft and their joy. And actually I’m so into Seth’s album that I’m gonna cover one of his songs on this upcoming tour! Also, I listened to a BBC session covering the Shetland Folk Festival recently, and heard some music by May Erlewine — she is phenomenal!! Also she is touring with Charlie Muench on bass right now, who I used to play with in The Stray Birds, and hearing his voice in another 3-part harmony context was totally thrilling. He is such a great musician and singer. 

RLR: Is there an instance where someone came in who is featured on the record that made a particular impact on a track that took it in a different direction or feeling?

MDV: Oliver Wood’s voice is so unique and unmistakable… I think he really made an impact with his harmonies on “How Do I Get To The Morning”. And also, Russell Durham, who did the orchestration for tracks like “Wilderness” and “Go Tell A Bird” and “You”… those songs just bloomed in new ways with his string and woodwind parts. 

RLR: Right off the bat ‘Wilderness’ just knocks me down. I feel like in the past I have been kind of used to this “holy crap, bowled over by the power of Maya’s voice” in some of the more raucous tunes from your work with the Stray Birds. I am not sure why that vibe sits out in my head. But you have tempered a lot of theses songs with a gorgeous softness. The tune doesn’t even have that many words but they hit really hard. “Time is more like a pilgrimage” is a particular line that stays with me. It’s a beautiful sentiment. Where were you at when you were penning that song? And what does that particular line mean to you personally.

MDV: I remember where I wrote the first verse, but I can’t remember where or when I wrote that verse or that particular line. For a lot of the time I was writing this album, I was really into reading poem a day books… like collections by Rilke and Rumi… and also other minimalist poetry. 

RLR: Travel or geography or guidance seem to be a common thread here. “There’s an ancient wind the sailors read” , “How do they know their way around / Any way I hold this old map  /The roads are upside down” , “I just been out in the woods walking in the wild “. The sense of being lost and trying to find your way. When you were writing these songs did you take a lot of time to travel or get out in the woods? What was your environment like or perhaps the next question will answer that…

MDV: I spent a month in Cuba, which was really eye-opening on many levels. During that month I was completely disconnected from the “outside” world, and had no contact with anyone other than the people I was physically with. I also went to Cuba totally alone, knowing no one on the other side, so that was a tremendous experience of growth and trust. My inner compass pulls me to be a writer, a singer, a singer-songwriter, and I think that writing this album has simply led me back to that. Being in a full-time touring string band (The Stray Birds) I was very close to that, but in that context I wasn’t fully inhabiting my self, or fully trusting that compass, and in some ways I was very, very lost. The real wilderness and the real geography that I am trying to navigate back to is my own instinct.

RLR: Are you a “sit down and finish a song” type of writer or do things kind of accumulate and then piece together over time? Or a mix of the two perhaps? What does a perfect day of songwriting look like for Maya de Vitry?

MDV: It’s a mix. I very, very rarely sit down and have a “day of songwriting”. But I do write in some way every day, even if it’s not in the context of a song, and I am working on things in little blasts all the time, running lines and melodies in my head all day and probably all night. But now and then I do spend a day writing… some of my friends introduced me to the concept of a “song lodge”, where you set out to write 20 songs (or at least 20 ideas, choruses, etc) in one day. It’s good to do that and just move through all the emotions of the creative process and not get too attached to anything as you work. There’s plenty of time for meditating and crafting and editing and solving later, but sometimes you just have to unblock the dam. 

RLR: Anything else you want to really say about these songs, this record, this next step on the journey of your artistic path?

MDV: Just that I am so thankful to be in this moment!! Also, I’ve spent the last 9 months working as a barista in Nashville rather than touring– which has been the best thing I think I could have done for my well-being. But at least for these next 2 weeks, I am clocked out of there and I am clocked in to these songs! 

Maya is currently on tour with a trio in support of Adaptations. Check out her East Cost dates below and be sure to get out and see her and the band if you have the opportunity. These new songs are gorgeous…