Premiere: Meet Rat Child, who makes slow-stirring soul with new single, JoyThe dizzying, genre cross-pollinating debut from the Melbourne artist encourages people to check in with themselves in times of hardship.
Premiere: mxmtoon strips back Courtney Barnett's Depreston in new video
Armed with only a guitar, the filmed cover proves the US musician's worth as one of the stars of tomorrow.
Posted By Hayden Davies
4 years ago
Header image by April Blum.
If you're at all in-tune with the international stars of tomorrow, chances are you've already come across mxmtoon. Over the last two particularly, the Californian musician has crafted herself a place amongst the next generation of big-name musicians, gradually building an audience on social media through stripped-back covers that often feature the musician - who's also known as Maia - front and centre, weilding typically just a ukelele and her vocals to showcase her talent.
Eventually, that blossomed into a fully-fledged musical career, with mxmtoon now becoming a name synonymous of the internet's constant influence in the greater music industry and the names it ushers into the spotlight, whether that be on Instagram, YouTube or now, TikTok - three platforms that mxmtoon has well and truly mastered and utilised to push herself further into the public eye. Musically, it's not too hard to understand why people are so infatuated with her work - it's gentle and warm (like a comforting blanket), but isn't afraid to be reflective and emotional; modern-day music from a modern-day musician who knows what people are after in the current-day climate, and isn't holding back from giving it to them.
Take her latest EP dawn, for example. It's the first of two releases expected from Maia this year (dusk will come some point later in the year) and one that really highlights this comforting, otherwordly presence Maia has within her music; lush soundscapes and swelling productions forming the perfect underlay for her soft, warm vocal. "I wanted to remind people that things will be okay and even on the darkest day, the sun still rises," she says on the EP, which arrived back in April this year, in the thick of the global COVID-19 pandemic. "I want to lift people up. I still love making sad songs, but I wanted to make something that felt refreshing to me this time."
Today, however, we're taking things right back to the start. Premiering exclusively on Pilerats today, we're stoked to feature mxmtoon's cover of an Australian classic, stripping back Courtney Barnett's powerful song Depreston to its most intricate and subtle, allowing the energies within the original's lyricism to really make itself known. It's a highlight from Barnett's Sometimes I Sit And Think... record that almost feels like its been given a new life; mxmtoon finding the swelling emotion of the original and basking in it, providing a sense of catharticism to those who listen to the cover, much like the rest of her work.
This consoling and homely feel to mxmtoon's Courtney Barnett cover really showcases why she's a stand-out amongst the internet musician crowd, something that's really unique not just to this cover, but to everything she's put out. There's something really quite beautiful that'll whisk you away and allow you to lose yourself in her soft-sung melodies, presenting an opportunity of escapism that in a time like this, couldn't be more important.
Anyway, take a dive into mxmtoon's Courtney Barnett cover below, and see so for yourself:
Premiere: Meet Rat Child, who makes slow-stirring soul with new single, JoyThe dizzying, genre cross-pollinating debut from the Melbourne artist encourages people to check in with themselves in times of hardship.
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