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MARIYA MAY'S PROJECT STEP INTO THE KITCHEN SOUNDING LOVELY! ALBUM RELEASED ON JULY 13, 2023 
It's unusual to discover an album wherein all the tracks hold together so well that you find yourself under a kind of spell for its duration. "Sounding Lovely!" by Step Into The Kitchen kicks off with Mariya May's beautiful harmonic Oooh's and then drops the listener into a melodic groove that may have you dancing before making way for a dreamy horn blasting in from another dimension, reminding one of filmmaker/composer Mike Figgis. Trance-inducing, wildly spontaneous, and dusted with cosmic pixie dust, "Sounding Lovely!" is tribal and wild and Joyous and reverb-y - an enormous success in mood exhalation and world-creation. "Sounding Lovely!" provides Maximum engagement for the senses, and in the end you're like "No! Don't go away..." (Robert G. Nelson) "Communicating a Concern" is the new video from the album Sounding Lovely! by Portland-based Step Into the Kitchen. Borrowing from a wide, melodic pastiche of genre and mood and fusing the lot into a layered and harmonious soundscape, "Communicating a Concern" works as several musical pieces in one linear track, resolving thusly into bleary sonic groove, upbeat hum and syncopation, and singsong bass-laden dubscape. Step Into the Kitchen's resident songsters Mariya May and Mo Douglas have for years fashioned sturdy musical bedrock out of tossing the rubble of their wide range of influences into the tumbler, and then grooving on the idiosyncrasies that shake out. "Communicating a Concern" charts the shores of similar territory, with the track sailing easily between familiar ports and unknown waters, culminating in a color wheel flow of feel and melody that's vaguely familiar but wholly original. Stockholm, Sweden-based Bobby Nelson adds an additional layer of visual interest with his similarly flow-form produced video, hazily introducing celestial imagery and clandestine alien observers in the night sky as a compliment to May and Douglas' more earthbound musical sensibilities. They are among us, and you should give them a listen. (Reed Burnam) |
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OF HER COMPOSITION "MADE OF STARS" |
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Hazy and unfolding like a slow summer evening, Mariya May's unaccompanied live rendition of recent studio single "Made of Stars" lilts gently towards the darkened sky on an updraft of lightly picked guitar and silky vocals. Stripped of ornamentation and captured at the source, the acoustic version of "Made of Stars" puts a spotlight on May's considerable vocal talent, as well as her ear for melody. Recommended summer listening! (Reed Burnam) |
Mudrick and May Sing Johnston & Prine SPLIT EP BY THOMAS MUDRICK & MARIYA MAY FEBRUARY, 2022 There are so many songs about the futility of life, and a desire for something better. Songwriters like John Prine and Daniel Johnston are on two ends of a certain spectrum of disproportionately influential musicians whose work has found its way deep into the crevice of our collective psyche - staples in cover sets from bluegrass to shoegaze to psych rock for decades. Why? Do we find hope in the listless ramblings of imperfect heroes? Do we think we can tap into something that they knew when they wrote them? Or are we just asking the same questions over and over, hoping that if we reach a chorus loud enough the sky will open up and rain down the riches of whatever's on the other side? Thomas Mudrick's contributions to the Ten Dollar Recording Co. world of sound have brought technicolor splashes of rural bliss, a sort of dreamy space folk dragged out of the woods and into the light. A fine soundtrack to a chill fishing trip in heaven. His take on these two songs by Prine and Johnston are bare, direct, and earnest. Rich acoustic performances with subtle embellishment that let the songs and performance shine. On the flip side, we have Mariya May's brighter spin on both tunes - dreamy and playful, with layers and layers of gooey goodness to dig into, accompanied as usual by the inimitable multi-instrumentalist and engineer Mo Douglas. Listen to these - at this point we might as well call them timeless - and imagine your own future, including what might come at the end, because it will. This is a promise with a catch. (Bryan Bruchman) |
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 There’s a certain something to a hopeless tune paired with cheery music, and Johnny Cash leaned into that hard on his “All Of God’s Children Ain’t Free” - with plucky, winky-smiled singalong style. But what if we strip away that country sheen, shifting the tune to the classically downer minor chords to fix the vibe - after all irony was successfully killed off with the last century, right? Mariya May gives the song a spin, laying on a darker, more morose vibe that feels modern and timeless, because sadness is forever. The song is a hymnal now, the soundtrack to a procession of misery and despair for 2022 (with a little whistling to brighten things up for good measure), drawn out and spiced up with a tenor sax solo from the inimitable Peter QB that perfectly compliments the playing of Mariya and Mo Douglas. (Bryan Bruchman) Released January 7, 2022Stream/Download @ Bandcamp or Limited Run | ||
 Mariya May Releases "Seed Song" October 1, 2021
The new single from Mariya May is her second visitation to the Mountain Goats’ boombox-era catalog (following a 2016 take on “Orange Ball of Love”) - turning “Seed Song” on its head, flipping the groove from a nervous, harried anthem to a blissed-out, shimmery 60s pop gem. Instead of falling apart, it’s a sort of matter-of-fact empowering vibe - we didn’t need that man with the seed, and we’re just gonna keep on waiting and waiting and… you get it.
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Portland-based singer/songwriter Mariya May's third solo full-length Kiki & Mel's Drive-Time Circus arrives on cassette and on your streams January 7th, 2021. Despite the downturn in just about everything over the past year, 2020 was a busy year musically speaking for May, seeing her releasing an EP of deconstructed songs (Strictly A Cappella) and a new co-release with band-and-labelmate Mo Douglas (Prepare the Sauce) in addition to ongoing band work with What in Your Heart Can Put You in a Trance, all on Portland's Ten Dollar Recording Company label. A prolific singer, songwriter, and collaborator, May's presence can be found all over numerous other projects from labelmates across the TDRCo back catalogue, in addition to her own predilections towards penning intimate, sprawling, and dramatic indie-folk. With the playful, hummable, and at times wistfully melancholic Kiki & Mel's Drive-Time Circus, May adds yet another feather to her cap and another album to her steadily growing canon that's sure to be a shaft of sunlight through your winter window.
Cassette/Download/Stream: Spotify, Amazon Music, Bandcamp, Tidal, i-Tunes
|   Mariya May Second Album by Portland singer Mariya May released October 5, 2018 CD/Download/Stream: TDRCO, Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal
Her second solo album, Mariya May's self-titled release embraces an impactful sound with rock, folk, and jazz influence throughout. The tracks are often immediate and full of personality; engaging songwriting pairs with a versatile vocal presence, flexible in tone and emotion. "Got 'Em Buried" dazzles with its "layers and layers" of debonair vocal harmonizing, lamenting about the "weight of it all," alongside acoustic pulses and escalating emotion. The finale consumes with its intermingling vocal harmonies, a recurring strength through Mariya May.
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Call Me Back if You Can Dig The Music Debut Album by Portland singer Mariya May released May 17, 2016 CD/Download/Stream: TDRCO, Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal
Mariya May’s album Call Me Back if You Can Dig the Music finds the soulful, Portland-based songstress helming a deft concoction of lush neo-soul, rafter-rattling dub reggae, and verdant folk-addled adages to love and loss, all shot through with a keen pop sensibility and strident lo-fi attitude. Call Me Back if You Can Dig the Music manages to listen as both vintage and modern at once, familiar and yet fully in its own element. Backing up May’s vocal, flute, and piano duties herein is longtime co-collaborator Ryan Michael Block, who takes the reins on guitar, bass, and percussion, and Peter Qualtere-Burcher, whose soulful and omnipresent tenor sax pulls it all together and lends a smoky, jazzy air to a unique record that employs the added dynamic to great effect. Taken together with May’s haunting flute lines and strong vocal and songwriting presence, the total musical package comes off with an ease and timelessness that is a giddy, memorable listen and yet another great addition to the TDRCo catalogue.
VIDEO: "Out Walking"
May’s lyrical themes often dwell long on scenes of love, attraction, loss, and places in-between, adding to the classic throwback vibe and lending a heart-sweet quality to the album’s overall feel. Songs like the swirly and melodic “Out Walking” (featuring TDRCo wunderkind Thomas Mudrick on back-up vocals), the Winehouse-esque “Like Birds in the Spring”, and the richly textured “Let it All Fall Free” offer up odes to that sweetest of sentiments, while others like the bass-driven reggae shuffle of “Open Up (It’s Cold)” deal reciprocally with the fallout of desire and faded love. Other tracks have a characteristically bubbly, carefree quality about them, such as the slightly country-battered jaunt of “Deep Into the Trees”, or else a gravity of their own, as with blue-eyed soul toe thumper and album standout “I Remember”. Filling out the song roster are the dubbed-out shimmer of “From a Loft We Looked Across” and the melancholic beauty of “Bells Ring”. Call Me Back if You Can Dig the Music is definitely not short on either vision or listenability, and many of the tracks here are well worth some repeat uptake into your earholes.
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