This week's female DJ is the beautiful and talented MAYA JANE COLES! A week ago Coles released her first EP in twelve months and shortly after got the honors of Beatport’s ’Track of the Day’ for the title track ’Easier To Hide’. In addition to this, she just recently started her own label called I Am Me. Maya Jane Coles is #197 overall and #4 female DJ in The Official Global DJ Rankings.
You’re probably eager to get a taste of her latest ear-candy, so we’ll start off with the 4-track ’Easier To Hide’ EP!
In the past couple of years, Maya Jane has established herself firmly on the house music scene. She’s capable of making both deep house tracks as well as more of a pop-influenced version of electronic music. After releases from labels like Hypercolour, Real Tone, 2020 Vision and others, she’s decided to start her own imprint I Am Me. The above-heard EP is bound to be the debut-release from the label, projected to get its full digital release on December 16.
Cool she’s established her own label, huh? What’s even more impressive is the fact that the vocals heard on the EP are her own.. and so are the beats, the bassline, the synths, even the artwork. So the fresh labelhead is the sole writer, engineer, producer, performer, mixer and vocalist on ’Easier To Hide’. Oh, and did I mention she could DJ as well?
Now that Maya has been hyped enough, let’s have a little look into the origins of these skills. As she said to DJMag when her meteoric rise got underway:
“I never expected this much hype in such a short space of time, but I've been making music for a lot longer than a lot of people realize, so for me it's been a much longer journey. A lot of people think stuff like this happens over night, but that's not the case — it takes a hell of a lot of hard work over time.”
Maya was born in 1988 in London of British and Japanese descent. She grew up listening to a variety of sounds from punk to soul, 90s hip-hop and r’n’b to jazz and world music. She’s told if she had to choose two people to go on a deserted island, they would be Joni Mitchell and Jimi Hendrix. The young music love didn’t set any boundaries on the genres she digged. Surrounded by these sounds from a very young age, Maya started to make music herself at the age of 15. An open-minded family atmosphere let her develop as a musician. At the beginning she ran demo-programs on a Mac, messed around with ’Q Base’ and used her school’s humble studio rooms. That's where she also got acquainted with multiple instruments like drums, bass, electric guitar, saxophone, cello and she independently learned keyboards. Although Coles didn’t become a master of any of the instruments, it helps her with the music production now.
And that music is house. At first, a hip-hop producer, Coles turned to house music when she started partying. She had no idea that dance music could be so good until she discovered the underground house scene. This resulted in her development as a house producer and first releases under labels such as Dogmatik, Loco Supreme and DJ gigs at events like BBC Electric Proms, Sonar and Bestival.
Watch Maya talk about her background while DJing in the background! This is a beautiful feature for DJ-Kicks!
It’s always interesting to see whether an artist was a DJ or a producer first. Well, Maya has said that her main trade is producing. She considers DJing as a bonus, something she can really enjoy and get a kick out of. However, by the looks of her skills you couldn’t say that. She displays her versatile skills under different monikers. Maya goes by her real name when she produces her main dish of house. But she also has a small dubstep side-project under the moniker Nocturnal Sunshine and a collaboration project She Is Danger with Lena Cullen. These acts acquire different skill-sets as she elaborated in an interview to At One:
’I DJ under my own name and play live as part of She Is Danger. When we perform I trigger FX and loops running Ableton, play some synths and do spoken word, and Lena does main vocals, plays synths, uses delay loop station and plays melodica, so we've got quite a bit going on between the two of us!’
Check out Maya Jane Coles performing on the Xone: DB2. Her DJ skills and equipment at display on this one!
Over the years, Maya has gotten recognized for various releases and remixes. She's done remixes of Massive Attack, Gorillaz, Florence and the Machine, Todd Terry, Tom Middleton and many more. But ’What They Say’ is the title track of the EP which got Maya Jane Coles the breakthrough in 2010. Released from ’Real Tone’, it caused instant ruckus winning the hearts of both techno fans and critics. A simple, classical composition takes you back to the underground tech house vibe. Those vocal samples, descending organ riffs and catchy drums have a way of getting stuck in your hear!
In 2011, the awards started to roll in. ’Producer of the Year 2011’ by DJ Mag, ’Best Breakthrough DJ 2011’ by Mixmag; #9 on Resident Advisor ’2011 DJ Poll’; 'Best Newcomer 2011’ at the Ibiza DJ Awards. Of course there were numerous magazines queuing up to get the exotic and fashionable Maya Jane Coles on their covers.
In 2011, she got her first Essential Mix down for BBC 1!
In 2012 she had been booked in over 20 countries in the first 6 months. Simultaneously she’s been working on her debut album set to be released in the first half of 2013. Exciting buzz has been surrounding the talks about the long-awaited album. Another top female DJ, Miss Kittin is going to make an appearance, as well as Hercules and Kim Ann Foxman, the singer from Love Affair. Maya has also said that there’s 7 tracks with guest vocals, whilst other tracks are sung by herself. Also, there’s going to be an instrumental piece. She’s got all the creative freedom in the world as she’s the boss of her own label, now. Really exciting to hear how the album turns out!
A taste of her side-project Nocturnal Sunshine and a track called ’Can’t Hide The Way I Feel’!