Rapping To Outkast As A Kid, Being Flown To Spain & Writing 'Tennies'

When asked whether she knew she was onto something with her 2013 single Brontosaurus, Tkay Maidza replies, "It was more just, like, I didn't know what would happen with it because, when I was writing those songs, I was also learning as well." On this breakout release, the singer-rapper admits to "not really knowing how much power it had or who would listen to it, really".

To prepare for her first-ever public showcase at BIGSOUND three years ago, Maidza performed "a rehearsal-slash-trial show" in a pub in Adelaide. "It was just to my manager and whoever was there," she recalls.

Fast forward to 2016 and her debut album TKAY is ready to drop. We've already been blown away by its lead single, Carry On (featuring Killer Mike); all badass beats, sirens and fierce flow. Killer Mike first discovered Maidza when Run The Jewels were in Australia touring with Falls Festival in 2014/15. The Adelaide rapper was also on the Falls line-up and, when Killer Mike gave a lecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in April, 2015, he was full of praise for the young star-in-the-making. In the middle of a bit of an Iggy Azalea diss, Killer Mike championed, "The person that all the Australians were talking about was a black girl! Her name was Tkay something; I saw her perform, she rocked the house!"

"We were all just playing around, hanging out one day and the chorus to Tennies just came to mind as a joke, and then we were like, 'Oh, this is actually kinda cool!'"

Wait 'til you hear another standout track from TKAY called Tennies!? Here, Maidza adopts a more nonchalant flow that calls to mind MIA for this pair of ears. "Oh, that's interesting," the singer-rapper considers. On how this particular track took shape, Maidza enlightens, "I used to play tennis a lot when I was younger and my producer who I worked with, his manager really liked tennis. So when I first met them he was wearing a lot of tennis gear and I was like, 'Oh, you're wearing this brand,' and he's like, 'Yeah, how do you know?' And I was like, 'I just know, because - tennis,' and then, yeah! We were all just playing around, hanging out one day and the chorus to Tennies just came to mind as a joke, and then we were like, 'Oh, this is actually kinda cool!' And then I just built up on it and then he added more production and the rest equalled the song!"

Maidza describes her collaborative songwriting approach as "kind of varied". "It could be an instrumental sent to me before," she clarifies, "or they start with me from scratch - we'll just work together from scratch from maybe, like, a guitar, or the producer starts the instrumental himself and I'll just be saying, 'I like this or I don't like that,' and then I'll write with him. But usually, you know, I'll do my thing and he'll do his. And then sometimes I will write something; I'll give it to a producer to build around it - like, a vocal."

When Maidza was about ten years old, she studied piano for a couple of years. "I can't read [musical] notes at all, but I have the knowledge to, like, know the melodies and what should come next," Maidza explains. "Or usually I can sing melodies as well, so I'll be like, 'Oh, this feels like this comes next almost'." On why she stopped taking lessons, Maidza recalls, "I came second in an eisteddfod and I think that made me really sad and so that's why I stopped playing." Sad because she didn't win? "Yeah, and I think my mum was like, 'Oh, you should've practiced more,' and I was like, 'I did!' [laughs]. And then, yeah! I think I was just really upset."

On whether finding the motivation to practice was a problem for ten-year-old Maidza, she confesses, "I wasn't, like, super-crazy about it, but I practiced every night kinda thing and then I'm like, 'That's good enough'... You know, when you give a little kid a responsibility they'll do it 'til they're like, 'Ah, I'm done,' rather than being really responsible almost."

"It was almost sorta like an achievement if I could remember all of the words so, yeah!"

We discovered Maidza's parents have impeccable musical taste via the presser for TKAY, which reveals Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was often pumping through the family's car stezza. So how old would Maidza have been around this time? "2002/3, I would've been, like, seven." On whether she'd try to learn the lyrics and rap along, Maidza shares, "Because I was a lot younger it was almost sorta like an achievement if I could remember all of the words so, yeah! I would try to remember it and then be like, 'Look what I remembered!'"

When asked whether she has a favourite Outkast song, Maidza answers immediately, "Yeah, I really liked Hey Ya!. All the singles... because that's all I knew when I was younger, but then as I've grown up I've really listened to everything else and it's amazing." Andre 3000 or Big Boi? "Ah, I really like Andre 3000, but I really like Big Boi's Phantogram stuff (Big Grams) and that made me listen to [him] a lot more. But I think I favour Andre more."

While discussing what Andre 3000's been up to lately, Maidza points out, "He features on a lot of albums. I think he's just doing whatever he feels like doing [laughs]. He always pops up and the songs that he features on - they sound like his songs... Like, when he was on the Frank Ocean song [Solo (Reprise)], it feels like a Andre 3000 song almost - d'you know what I mean? - the sound of it. It's just, like, a set-up for him to just blow [it] outta the park, basically."

She's racked up an impressive amount of feats herself this year, including Martin Solveig's Do It Right and Down Like This by Motez, about which Maidza enthuses, "I think it's just exciting if it's people that I've always wanted to work with. I think when I first started it was harder to work with a lotta people 'cause no one knew who I was, but it's a really cool feeling when you become someone who people go to." Maidza is now in a position where collaborators can be accessed "through labels and stuff". "We have, like, a connection with a lotta people now so it's kind of easier," she allows.

But Maidza takes it all in her stride. Have you seen the spectacular location where the clip for Do It Right was filmed? Did she get flown in for that? "Yeah, we went to Calpe, which is in Spain." The music video is set around the exterior of a housing project called La Muralla Roja (which translates to The Red Wall) and this extraordinary building even has a cross-shaped rooftop pool! "It's like an apartment building so a lotta people live there," Maidza tells. So did Maidza get any time off to have a look around while she was there? "It was like a three-day shoot so we had a bit of time."