Minnesota artist Mayyadda shares the stories behind her new, live album

[MAYYADDA, "RIP CAPTAIN SAVE-A-HEAUX"] MAYYADDA: (SINGING) I can't save nobody. I put my cape down, sorry. Going to need some boundaries 'cause I'm keeping my peace. I can't save nobody. I put my cape down, sorry. I'm going to need some boundaries 'cause I'm keeping my--

CATHY WURZER: Oh, it's so nice. That's Minneapolis singer-songwriter Mayyadda. She released an album last month called Try & Remember, The Acoustic Album. It features live, one-take versions of some of the songs from her 2021 album of the same name, plus some brand new songs. Mayyadda is with us right now. Hey, welcome. Thank you for being with us.

MAYYADDA: Thank you for having me.

CATHY WURZER: I love this track we just heard. It's so pretty. What inspired it?

MAYYADDA: Thank you. It actually was like a lot of self-reflection is what inspired it and realizing that-- kind of reflecting over a friendship that had ended and then seeing kind of the pattern of my own behavior in that friendship and a bunch of other friendships and other relationships in my life, and being like, look, Mayyadda, you're over here trying to show up for other people in a like superhuman kind of capacity, superhero type of capacity. Do you even show up for yourself like that? Do you actually understand what boundaries are for yourself, for other people? Do you know what that is?

CATHY WURZER: Good for you for the self-reflection.

MAYYADDA: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Yeah. I mean, not many people really do that, right? So, good. I mean, do you feel good about what you've been doing?

MAYYADDA: Well, what's interesting is I'm in another place in my life right now where I'm kind of having to do that reflection again because growth is not linear. It's cyclical, right? You come back kind of to the same spot, and you're like, OK, I am a different person now in a similar situation. Like, I've learned different things. I've experienced different things.

With what I've learned and experienced and actually processed, am I able to kind of move differently? So I'm kind of being tested on it right now again. But I'm confident that at least there's been enough growth since I wrote this song that I'll be able to handle this situation a little bit differently. That doesn't make it any less hard, though, so, yeah.

CATHY WURZER: Good for you.

MAYYADDA: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: I'm wondering here about the creation of this album because when I first heard it was, you were live, and it was a one-take versions of these songs. And I thought, OK, there's a lot of pressure there. You were at El Diablo Amps and Guitars in Northeast, right?

MAYYADDA: That's correct. Yes.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, how did it go? And why did you want to do a one-take version of some of these songs? Because that is a lot of pressure.

MAYYADDA: It's a ton of pressure. I think something-- I can't really explain it. There was just sort of this instinct that I had in December that I wanted to do this. I have been kind of doing covers of-- covers, I guess, but like acoustic covers of the songs from the original album on my social media for close to a year at that point. And people had really responded well to it. There's a purist in me, to a degree, where I was like, if I'm going to do this, it needs to just be the raw version of it.

And that kind of came out to like, don't try to cut it up into a bunch of takes. Let me just sit down someplace that's meant a lot to me because I've been going to El Diablo to have Alan maintain my guitars since-- let me see-- 2016? 2016 or 2017. And when I walked in, I had walked in with-- I had no cords. I didn't even fully know what my guitar needed, and he was just so kind to me.

As I've expanded, he's just made room for me. It just felt like this is the place that I need to do this. This is a place that has always had such good energy for me. And it's not a studio space. I've had, over the years, people frequently comment on the difference between studio version of something that I do versus just the raw in person. And I was like, let me see if I can actually capture that and give it to the people for once.

CATHY WURZER: Live has such a certain energy to it, a distinct, definite energy versus something like a pre-recorded something in studio. So I want to-- listeners have got to hear some other tracks, if that's OK. I'm going to play another one. This is called "Yesterdays to Tomorrows."

[MAYYADDA, "YESTERDAYS TO TOMORROWS"]

MAYYADDA: (SINGING) Just one of those days. Yeah, just one of those days. I've been running away from all of the navel gazing, waiting on my plate. My belly is an ocean full of commotion, back and forth emotions that I can't escape. Do I even want it? This life they flaunted, I won't be haunted by ghosts I hide away when I look in the mirror. It couldn't be clearer.

CATHY WURZER: Don't want to be haunted by the ghosts. Hmm. Who are the ghosts you're thinking about there?

MAYYADDA: Just a lot of things that I had not actually reckoned with. By the time I wrote-- I think I wrote this maybe in the last-- early 2021. And I think a lot of people in the kind of like heat of the pandemic when-- like, if you were in an actual lockdown situation, weren't able to leave, I was kind of just getting smacked in the face with a lot of stuff that I thought I had dealt with over the course of my life, childhood stuff, high school stuff, college stuff.

I thought I had, because I had survived it, that I had actually processed it. I was like, wow, there are a lot of ways that I have held myself back and not fully actually leaned into the dreams that I say that I have or pursued. I've self-sabotaged in a lot of ways, not realizing that it was kind of out of subconscious fear related to stuff that I hadn't actually fully processed or actually fully looked back at that had been in my past.

So it was kind of like my first really intentional look at, why do I actually move through the world the way that I do? Why do I make the decisions that I do? Why do I kind of say that I want one thing, but do things that are kind of in opposition to those very things? What is underneath all of that? I definitely don't have all the answers, but I think this song was coming out of me, like just actually getting angry with myself, being like, wait, Mayyadda, you're like the problem sometimes. You're your own worst enemy, in a lot of ways. Do you realize that? Get out of your own way.

CATHY WURZER: So when we have artists on the program, we always ask, what's inspiring them? What music are they listening to? And you sent us a song. This is Paramore with "Misguided Ghosts."

[PARAMORE, "MISGUIDED GHOSTS"]

PARAMORE: (SINGING) I'm going away for a while, but I'll be back. Don't try and follow me. 'Cause I'll return as soon as possible. See, I'm trying to find my place, but it might not be here where I feel safe. We all learn to make mistakes and run from them, from them, with no direction. We'll run from them, from them, with no conviction.

CATHY WURZER: Why did you pick this track?

MAYYADDA: This song is off of Brand New Eyes, and it was the first album of Paramore's that I listened to when it dropped. I kind of got into the rest of the catalog after listening to this project. But this song was the first one that caught me on that album. And it has just, for years, been something that I have come back to. And I actually just saw Paramore for the first time in like 12 years, last, when they were here in Minneapolis, in the Twin Cities. And it was like completely transcendent, amazing.

But Brand New Eyes was the tour that I saw them on first. And for years, I have loved this song. And I was always like, I don't fully understand what this means, and I'm finding with the season of life that I'm in right now, I am understanding this song so very deeply and in a way that I never have.

And in this period where I'm kind of considering what's next, what do I want to do next, how do I want to move in the world next, but also I'm feeling the need to kind of retreat, in some ways, a song can travel with you through seasons of your life. You can love it and not even know what it's about, and then reach a point where it makes sense to you in brand new ways, which is so funny because the album is called Brand New Eyes. But I feel like I'm looking at this song with brand new eyes and listening to it with new ears.

CATHY WURZER: I love it. I think it's great. Now I would be remiss if I didn't mention that you're performing live with our friend Nur-D at the Dakota this coming Sunday. Nur-D, we had the best time talking last year. Oh, my gosh. We laughed, we played music. It was great. Any collaborations with Nur-D planned?

MAYYADDA: Not planned currently, but we did put something out last year with his album, HVN. Oh, my goodness. "Higher Power," "Higher Power." I am on the chorus and bridge of that song. So we did have a collaboration last year.

CATHY WURZER: OK. And who knows what happens in the future?

MAYYADDA: Exactly.

CATHY WURZER: Speaking of the future, I can't believe this. We're heading into the fall. What do you have planned?

MAYYADDA: That is a good question. I think it's break time. I'm realizing I've been going with this for a very long time. And I think I'm going to just actually give myself a little bit of a break and actually kind of recalibrate myself.

CATHY WURZER: All right. You know what? It was great fun talking to you.

MAYYADDA: Thank you so much for having me.

CATHY WURZER: Truly, you are such a talent and a treasure.

MAYYADDA: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: Mayyadda, all the best to you.

MAYYADDA: You as well. Take care.

MAYYADDA: (SINGING) Everything is up in flames.

CATHY WURZER: Minneapolis singer-songwriter Mayyadda. She is performing this Sunday at the Dakota Jazz Club with Nur-D. Tickets are still available at dakotacooks.com.