mxmtoon

About mxmtoon:

Since she was 17-years-old, mxmtoon has made exquisitely catchy pop songs that capture the kind of complex and tender feelings we often keep hidden from the world. Over the years, the Oakland native and now Nashville-based artist’s unguarded self-expression has earned her a devoted global following, led to collaborations with the likes of Carly Rae Jepsen and Noah Kahan, and propelled her through an expansive career that’s also included hosting a podcast and authoring a pair of graphic novels. Now 24, mxmtoon found her relationship to songwriting profoundly transformed in the making of her third album liminal space, a body of work informed by a period of major upheaval and uncertainty in her family life. When met with a bigger and bolder sound threaded with elements of folk and indie-rock—achieved thanks to her all-female creative team —the result is an up-close exploration of what she sums up as “the messy, dark, complicated, and also very beautiful chaos inherent in mother-daughter relationships.”

“From the beginning I wanted this album to be about familial bonds,” says singer/songwriter otherwise known as Maia. “Then last year my mom was diagnosed with cancer, which solidified that idea and led me to dive deeper into our relationship. I watched her face and live through something so unexpected, and I ended up building the album around questions like, ‘How do we as people cope with tremendous amounts of change?’” To that end, the title to liminal space refers to the unnervingly surreal quality that defines moments of transition. “After my mom’s diagnosis, I felt like I was navigating an endless hallway with no clue how to get out,” she says. “The idea of liminality became a theme for the album: so many of the songs have to do with decision-making, and either turning away from hard decisions or leaning into them more fully.”