Maura Weaver - Sound In The Signals Interview
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| 📸 Sydney Sebastian |
I recently had the opportunity to interview Maura Weaver. We discussed the writing and recording process for new album ‘I Was Due For a Heartbreak’, musical inspiration, filming a video for “Jefferson Highway”, collaborating with Don Giovanni Records, favorite past moments from being in Mixtapes, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Of course, thanks for having me!
You recently released your album ‘I Was Due For a Heartbreak’. Can you tell me about the writing and recording process of the album?
"Crush On You Pt. II" and "The Confines" came first, in 2020. I still had no idea about the overall tone of the record until I wrote Jefferson Highway. John Clooney, who drummed and played a lot of instruments on the record, worked out the structure with me. That song became a touchstone for the rest of the record. I wrote most of the other songs in 2021. I tend to write a lot in winter and spring, as a natural reaction to being inside more often but also as a way of dealing with my seasonal depression.
Recording took a long time because John Hoffman, who engineered and produced the record, was doing it whenever he had time (he's very busy). It is very much a studio record. A lot of the production is centered around Hoffman and I getting super high and messing around with his large collection of analog gear. "Crush On You Pt. II", "I Was Due For A Heartbreak, I Guess", and "Languish in Anguish" are the results of that. Other ones, like "Goner" were tracked mostly live with a full band.
The album has great pacing and your vocals sound fantastic. Musically it sounds like you’re drawing from some influences that we haven’t heard you incorporate before. What bands or sonic elements influenced these new songs?
Thank you so much! I am always influenced by power pop such as Marshall Crenshaw, The Lemonheads, & Elvis Costello. I delved super hard into the genre years ago, and I don't think that's been reflected in any of my projects until now. I was also listening to a lot of the Magnetic Fields, Lucinda Williams, and classic country at the time. The Magnetic Fields were a huge one for me--I love their production style, it feels experimental, DIY and pop all at once. I am constantly going down rabbit holes with different influences though--my friends joke that I am a fan of every genre.
I’ve read that the album is about finding yourself through heartbreak. Can you tell us more about the lyrical themes? Was it more cathartic or more difficult to write about these things?
It was. In the past, I was a huge perfectionist with lyrics to the point where it was really difficult for me to write freely. I was always judging myself harshly with creative stuff. There was also a period where I was actively against writing about romantic love. It's embarrassing to admit now, but when I was younger I had a lot of internalized misogyny where I was trying to be "different" from other women and I also felt boxed in by a lot of expectations.
It's taken me a long time to realize that I have to just write what comes to me naturally, and focusing so much on what lyrics are "about" can suffocate the creative process. I went through a really rough breakup during the process of writing the record, and ended up turning to songwriting as a form of self-care. I stopped worrying so much about the music and just let it come out. That was very cathartic and different from what I've done in the past.
I really like “Jefferson Highway”. Can you tell me about writing that song? At what point in the album process was it written?
Jefferson Highway was maybe the third song written. I actually dreamt almost the entire melody--I still have the voice memos I recorded while I was waking up from sleep and trying to get the song out. I'm sure they sound super funny and chaotic. In my half-dreaming state I imagined the melody as sung by a crooner-y, almost Roy Orbison-like voice. It took on more of a country lean when I added the lyrics and sung it in my own voice.
The song is about something specific that happened in my life but I imagined a "character" that was trying to leave town and get away from regrets, packing a suitcase and staring life down with a bit of an attitude. In reality, this person is trying to cover up how much they still care. It's really about changing your environment and finding that you are still stuck with yourself.
You released a video for “Jefferson Highway”. It has an interesting concept. Who came up with the idea for the video and who did you work with on it?
I worked with Zack Moser, the director, editor and videographer of Jefferson Highway, in my other band The Homeless Gospel Choir. He was really fun to work with and has a really strange and off-kilter visual language. It's very vivid. Zack has so many ideas and we talked about raising money to make something with a big production but honestly we ran out of time and also resources, haha. But the initial idea involved cowboys and aliens. He came down from Chicago for a weekend and we pieced together a loose storyline. I based my clown makeup off of a 1960's clown doll that's sitting in my apartment.
We borrowed a friend's car and Zack and Megan Schroer (my best friend and frequent collaborator who also co-produced and played on the album) shook the vehicle and operated lights to look like headlights so it seemed like the car was moving. Megan drove around my hometown in a minivan while Zack filmed out the back with an open trunk and I followed on my bike. Zack had a lot of specific visuals in mind--I'm pretty sure he based the color palette off of "Mr. Lonely" by Harmony Korine--but for the most part he kind of came up with everything on the spot. He edited it super quickly and the entire thing was done in maybe two weeks.
You released the album through Don Giovanni Records. How did it work out for you to be on the label? What made you want to sign with them?
Well, The Homeless Gospel Choir recently released a record, Fourth Dimension Intervention, with Don Giovanni and we found Joe really easy to work with. I've also known Joe for a long time, mostly as an acquaintance but we shared a lot of mutual friends. I love so many of the bands on Don G! Laura Stevenson, Mikey Erg, Tenement and Screaming Females are just a few. I like that he has a very diverse roster and a lot of bands from the punk world who have branched out into other genres. I reached out to him to see if he'd be interested and we hit it off from there!
You’re well known for Mixtapes. That band really had a meteoric rise in that era of pop/punk. When you reflect back to that band what are some of your favorite moments from it?
We did and it was so wild. I was so young, I was still in high school when we started the band! And we started touring pretty heavily when I was 18. I freaked out every time we played with a band that I loved when I was younger. I was a huge Bayside fan and doing an entire tour with them and befriending them was pretty incredible. And every tour we did with the Wonder Years was amazing. Also another moment I loved was the first time we played Fest and played in the Holiday Inn lobby. That was the first time that a huge room full of strangers sang all the words to our songs and it was surreal. The most memorable tour was probably Warped Tour, though. It was also the most fucked up and hard, but when you befriend people on that tour, you form a super strong bond.
For anyone who wishes there was more Mixtapes music, or more music like that from you, would you ever want to revisit that band or that pop/punk sound in the future?
I can't say whether we would revisit Mixtapes or not in a serious way, but I doubt it. We played a reunion show in 2017 and it was fun, but I don't have much of a desire to pursue it again. That being said, I always love making pop-punk--I don't listen to pop-punk as often as I used to, but there's a chance I'd come back to that sound in the future.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
I am performing with a full band in December! It's my first run with this project as a band. We are doing 12/6 in Cincinnati, 12/8 in Pittsburgh, 12/9 in Columbus and 12/10 in Louisville. And thanks for the interview! And to everyone who listened to, bought, or shared my record this year. It's been an amazing year :)
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