Last month, NYC-based singer-songwriter Maya Engen released her debut EP Just My Luck. Being quite a soulful project, Maya invites listeners into a world where taking chances and embracing the result is celebrated, while jazz and traditional pop melodies intersect for a sound worthy of indulging in.
Here’s a few stories about Just My Luck’s formation, as told by Maya herself!
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Maya’s Origin Story
Maya Engen started playing the piano when she was roughly eight or nine years old. Around the same timeframe, she started taking vocal lessons, and also fell in love with theater. Having classical piano training under her belt as well as the musical theater experience allowed her to gain confidence as a performer early on, and eventually led to Maya writing her own songs.
Maya said, “I really loved singing covers growing up, so that’s kind of what made me truly fall in love with singing. It allowed my soul to enter the space of singing in a way that theater didn’t. Theater and performing in these other contexts was super great, and it’s why I feel so comfortable on stage, but I was always telling someone else’s story through my own voice. I think as I got older, I started really trying to find my own voice and how I could tell my own story through that, which is when I started to pick up writing.”
Growing up, Maya found inspiration in jazz music and Motown. Some of her favorite artists included Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse, and Etta James, just to name a few. These vocalists helped her aspire to create a “larger than life” sound of her own.
“I really like to make my songs the greatest extent of that feeling that they possibly can be,” Maya said. “Whether it’s horns or strings, or sometimes even just stripping it to just my vocal if it can carry on its own, that’s enough as well. I think that’s kind of how I’ve approached pop music.”
How ‘Just My Luck’ Was Born
Maya said, “The first song that I wrote on the EP was ‘Jade.’ At the time, I was so brand spanking new to being an artist professionally. Jade was probably one of the first five songs I had ever written in my entire life, and at the time, I had no idea what it would become. My friend Spencer and I wrote it together, just the two of us on this summer day in New York. I remember that kind of being my a-ha moment as a songwriter.”
The bulk of Just My Luck came together in L.A., and it all started at Maya’s very first professional session. After creating “Fool” at the session with her brand new co-writers and producers, Maya went back to school and started thinking about creating an EP. On another trip to the city, she also received her record deal offer, which changed the trajectory of her release plans.
“When I was getting signed and negotiating my contract, I kind of put my head down and wrote as much as I could,” she explained. “‘Spend My Love’ was one of the first songs that came from that period.”
Maya continued to write, focusing on creating an abundance of material to be able to choose from when the time rolled around to finalize the tracklist for her project. After officially getting signed in November, she entered even more studio sessions in L.A., finishing “Mercury” and “Midnight Blue” within the span of a week. By the end of the trip, Maya had chosen which songs would make the EP.
The following month, Maya started thinking of a theme for the EP. “Right around Christmas time is when I started thinking about what I wanted this project to be about,” she said. “I was just thinking about the common themes in all these songs, and I realized that luck and taking chances were something that they all shared. Any kind of playing or gambling analogy, winning, taking a chance to win the battle. That was a common theme that all of these songs shared.”
Naturally, Maya came up with the phrase “Just My Luck,” because it can be interpreted in a positive or negative way when looking at one’s life.
“I thought that was a really interesting term to use as the title for this project, because there are a lot of happy songs about falling in love,” Maya said. “All of the songs are mainly about harnessing vulnerability, whether they’re in a happy or sad context, and whether you’ve been screwed over or you’re experiencing the greatest love of your life. I thought that ‘just my luck’ was a really great phrase that captured both of the meanings.”
On Christmas Eve, Maya stayed up all night joyfully putting together a large slideshow presentation for her team to get acquainted with the EP and its lore. “I literally sent it to my team on Christmas morning,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Hey guys, so sorry. Don’t mean to talk about work, but Merry Christmas! Here’s a gift!’ My team was obviously overjoyed when they saw this, but they were also like, ‘What the hell is this girl doing on Christmas morning sending this?’ A presentation is hours of work, but I was just so excited about it.”
Maya’s Elevator Pitch For The EP
I asked Maya to imagine being in an elevator with strangers, and striking up a very brief conversation about being an artist who just recently released their debut EP. Here’s what she’d say to entice those who aren’t familiar with her to listen to Just My Luck:
“I want people to listen to Just My Luck and feel inspired to wear their heart on their sleeve. I want them to embrace their vulnerability, whether it’s a painful one, the kind that you feel when you’re really in love with someone, or being vulnerable when you’ve been around wrong and you don’t want to repeat that. I want people to harness that, reclaim it, and feel really proud that that is what makes them human. I want them to feel inspired to be the most confident versions of themselves and carry that energy with them.”
Maya’s Current Musical Obsessions
- “I’ve recently been tapping back into the Rolling Stones, who I’ve always loved… but I think that Sienna Spiro is absolutely killing it right now. I think she’s paving such an important route in pop music right now. I think it’s really inspiring to know that someone else is doing something similar to what I want to do right now.”
- “I really love Zinadelphia right now, I think she’s absolutely killing it. She’s also another artist that I’m super inspired by. I really love Luvcat, who is another UK artist that one of my co-writers, Tor Miller, actually played keys for on tour. I saw them perform together and it was so amazing.”
- “Someone I’m obsessed with right now is JUNGLE. I’ve always been into JUNGLE, but especially hearing now that JUNGLE is producing Leon Bridges’ next album. I’m like, target audience reached! That is literally my cup of tea. Could not be more my cup of tea. I love Leon Bridges, and so the idea of JUNGLE producing that… I just love how vibrant and bouncy JUNGLE is! I think they have such a way with melody and production that is so inspiring to me.”
- “Tiffany Springer has also been killing it recently, and Spacey Jane, and obviously the new Olivia Rodrigo album is phenomenal.”
- “I’m also just generally really obsessed with Al Green. When in doubt, Al Green. That’s kind of an artist I always come back to.”
Click here to listen to Just My Luck on your favorite streaming service!