“I’ve never had that kind of inspiration working with another musician. When we say she’s special, it’s because she’s really f—ng special!”

– Alex Lifeson

Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul, is often depicted wearing butterfly wings representing the trials she’s endured. Like Psyche, Maiah Wynne wears butterfly wings to symbolize hard-won hope and a lingering belief in beauty despite all her trials. “I found a lot of meaning in butterflies that I could connect to. Their ability to grow and transform, their strength, and chaos theory and the idea that a single flap from a butterfly could change the world. When I’m feeling small, I remind myself that I can still make big changes,” says Wynne.

Those changes happen in her music as she tells her own stories, alchemizing her victimhood into agency. “This album touches on themes of hope, failure and triumph, joy and sadness, pain and growth,” Wynne says of her debut solo LP Out of the Dark, which she also self-produced. “It’s an eclectic mix of heartfelt singer-songwriter ballads, alternative rock, and uplifting cinematic folk-pop. There are a lot of unique instruments on this record and a lot of talented musicians that have lent their skills.”

 While those motifs re-occur, the musical variety sets the songs apart. Wynne is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist with a downright fearless curiosity about trying new things. “I own over 50 instruments and love playing all of them. The collection continues with some of my latest additions being the harp guitar and cigar box guitar.” Her live performances offer a taste of this, with her playing various drums with her feet while her hands circulate among guitar, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, or other stringed instruments, all while singing.

It would be tempting to call Wynne’s voice ethereal, but there’s just too much human pathos in it. In many songs, she offers the calm presence of a trusted confidante. “I look for threads of meaning and personal connection in everything I do. I want to relate to what I’m singing. If ‘I’m resonating with the music, I think others will too,” she says. Lead single “Come On” begins timidly with Wynne seeming unsure of herself, a softness she transcends by the song’s end. “I wrote this song when I was 16 and it was my mindset at the time right before I left home,” Wynne says, referring to her choice to run away from home, a journey that led her to experience sexual abuse and trauma. She describes “Out of the Dark” as “a soft hug, and wrote “Don’t Wait” to encourage her friend—and herself—to follow dreams.

Wynne’s music still has humor and edges to it, though. In “Butterfly,” a song about being underestimated, Wynne issues the reminder that butterflies are scavengers and chaos agents as well as delicate beauties. “Cause I’m a butterfly / Feeding on the corpses of my enemies,” she sings in the alt-pop song. I’m not afraid to break my bones if it means that I’ll grow,” she asserts in the song’s bridge, reminding listeners that change is hard, even for a butterfly. “What a Shame” brings the “heaviest and most grunge/rock song on the album. A commentary on the way society treats and sexualizes women (and all people in the public eye) from such a young age, only to discard them as they age,” explains Wynne.

Though this is Wynne’s first solo LP, she’s hardly new to recording. She has written and recorded songs for film and TV, as well as charity compilations. Starting in 2020, Wynne gained an online following for recording songs written by Lucy Gray in the Hunger Games book, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. She donned costumes and recreated scenery to perform her arrangements of the songs, which went viral.

Wynne’s other main project is Envy of None, who has released an album and an EP so far. The group began when Andy Curran told Wynne about music he made with his friend Alfio Anibalini and Wynne offered to contribute. They brought in Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, who reported to Rolling Stone, speaking of Wynne, “I’ve never had that kind of inspiration working with another musician. When we say she’s special, it’s because she’s really fucking special!” Wynne credits Envy of None with a lot of her growth. “From introducing me to new genres and musical worlds to helping me navigate the industry, to dealing with online hate, to helping me feel confident and finding my footing as an artist, they’ve been such a blessing in my life.”

Out of the Dark is a record of Wynne’s growth. “This album has been a very long time in the making. I wrote the first song 10 years ago and the latest song just a few months ago. In a lot of ways, this album tells my story and is the culmination of my journey for the last 10 years of my life. I’ve poured my heart into it.”

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