Maya Payne Releases New Single + Video ‘Bluebird’
Emerging from a place of darkness, feeling lost and recently losing her dad, Maya Payne today releases her heartfelt new single, Bluebird.
After a 7 year hiatus from recording music, the New Zealand singer-songwriter is plunging back into the music scene with a reinvented, honest, unforgiving and emotional sound. Intertwining indie folk, pop and rock elements, Bluebird is a powerful ballad of reflection and will be the titular track of Maya’s second EP which will release later this year.
“A couple of years ago, I came up with the first verse’s melody of Bluebird and I was in a pretty dark place at the time,” says Maya. “I was lost and dealing with very difficult situations in my personal life. I didn’t see myself putting music out into the world again.” Battling low self confidence, the singer adds: “Bluebird is about letting go of that, and what would happen if I didn’t let go of that. It’s the feeling of your soul screaming for something, but your mind telling you you can’t do it”.
With musical influences including Damien Rice, Daughter, Angel Olsen, Alice Phoebe Lou, Sharon Van Etton, Tom Odell and Mitski, Maya cleverly plays with perspective in the song – taking on the persona of her older self, singing out to her younger self. The singer laments: “I believe that I had it in me. I believe that I could been everything I dreamed.”
With a proclivity to people please, Maya confronts a continuous inner battle of ‘what will they think?’, through her musical creativity.
Maya says:
“This song is about my fear of failure. Not putting anything out there because of judgement or I don’t feel like my best self yet. I’m learning to let go of that, people are going to judge regardless so let them. It’s better to just do what you love, show up as you are so you can grow and let go.”
Lyrics that Maya came to write on two sides of the globe, from her bedroom in Ōtautahi/ Christchurch, to living in the UK. “I was subletting in London and my landlord had a piano, when she wasn’t home I would sit and write. I had a chest infection so I wasn’t at work for a couple days, and I just sat down.. and the song happened in 10 minutes.”
The song then found its final form in Glasgow, Scotland with the track being produced by Jamie Holmes in collaboration with musician David Milne, and mastered by Robin Sutherland. Making the most of Scotland’s picturesque landscape, Bluebird‘s music video features stunning clifftops from the Isle of Skye, Neist Point Lighthouse, and coastal shots from Musselburgh, matching the dramatic tempo of the track.
Maya’s second EP will be an ode to her twenties, featuring songs of heartache, healing, existentialism and learning to let go, set to release late 2026.
