M.I.A. Talks ‘Maya’, Creative Process & More w/ Billboard

On Maya:

Due July 13 in the United States on the singer’s own N.E.E.T. Recordings imprint through Interscope, “/\/\ /\ Y /\” is sure to steer at least part of the conversation regarding M.I.A. back to her music. It’s at once her most accessible and most experimental album, as defined by the sweet synth-pop melodies of “XXXO” as by the juddering electro-punk beats of “Born Free.” In “Tell Me Why,” over a sample of a recording by the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers, M.I.A. flexes a disarmingly plaintive singing voice, while “Steppin Up” finds her warning all comers, “I run this fucking club.”

In the retail space, “/\/\ /\ Y /\” will arrive in the 12-song standard edition as well as in a deluxe package with a lenticular cover and four extra tracks, including a Blaqstarr-produced slow jam called “Caps Lock” that Mark Williams says “shows off an entirely different side of Maya.”

On the creative process

“We really don’t have any kind of formula,” Switch says. “All the records come around by watching something on YouTube and an idea comes, or by going out to the clubs or something. We basically just mess around till something makes us excited enough for her to jump on the mic. We’ll have her run on the track for 10 or 15 minutes, then I’ll come and edit the bits and bobs she likes together. Then we’ll flip it, reverse it, turn it backward and build a song from there.” ~Billboard

Maya hits shelves July 13th.