Tom talks to Maya Jane Coles ahead of her bank holiday appearance at Eastern Electrics.
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Hype is a funny thing. I remember at a Trouble Vision party at the start of the year almost being able to feel it in the air. I remember the chatter spreading around the club about the second room headliner: “what time is she on?”, “have you seen her before?” The funny thing was, most of us hadn't, but such is the nature of the hype beast we'd all bought our tickets that night wanting to experience, to become part of, the buzz surrounding a young female producer named Maya Jane Coles.
Almost six months on and I'm finally able to catch up with the Londoner while she's having a break from touring in Osaka, Japan. “It [the hype] was totally unexpected for me as I was just going along doing my thing the same way that I had been doing for quite a while,” she says. “I guess it always takes just one thing for people to really catch on to and then suddenly you no longer have to fight for an audience because people are already waiting to hear what you do next. Then you can totally focus on the music. That's the most amazing feeling. For me nothing compares to making music. It's what I've always wanted and I've always promised myself that I wouldn't settle for anything else.” And she adds: “It's so nice to finally feel like I'm really on the path towards where I wanna be.”
As London's house heads know, making music isn't the only string to her bow – she's not bad at playing it either. Having treated hundreds of fans to a superb set at the last 2020 Vision Bank Holiday party in May, she returns for another Sunday night showdown at Eastern Electrics this weekend. “I'm really looking forward to it,” she says. “I've been to Eastern Electrics quite a few times so I know to expect a good party.” She's more cagey when I ask what to expect from her set this time around though: “I don't like describing what kind of stuff I play because it's hard to paint the right picture with words. I guess what I play is just what I would ideally like to hear if I was on the other side of the booth dancing away. That's all I can do. I'll always drop some unreleased stuff of mine and stuff that I'm working on too.”
Much of her initial success came off the back of the début EP 'What They Say', which dropped last year like a bucket of ice cold water over the head of sleeping clubland. The title track is already on its way to becoming a modern classic, so what of the album which has fuelled the rumour mill over the last few months? “I'm still working on it. Only one in every dozen or so tracks that I make gets on the final album cut so it's definitely not a quick project! I'm working with quite a few guest vocalists too so it's not something that can be whipped up easily while I'm on the go with gigs etc. It's needed real proper studio time so far and still quite a bit more. I've set aside some big chunks of time during the next few months though so I'm hoping to have it finished very soon.”
Like a tornado causing a storm before moving on to the next town, sometimes hype can be destructive rather than constructive. Thankfully for house fans across the world however, Miss Coles continues to ride the wave unperturbed.
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Photo by Jennifer Iliffe
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