notable press
NEW YORK TIMES - Notable Tracks, June 2024
FLOOD MAGAZINE - First listen of “break up x3'“
NPR - All Songs Considered 2022
KEXP- KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2022
AUSTIN CHRONICLE - 101 Essential Acts at SXSW 2021
NPR MUSIC - No. 1 Albums And Songs Of May 2020
WILLAMETTE WEEK - Portland’s Best New Band 2020
CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND - “A Beast” Premiere
SPIN - “MAITA’s Debut Album Got Kill Rock Stars Founder Slim Moon Back In The Game”
PORTLAND MONTHLY - 50 Essential Oregon Albums that Define our State
watch
BIO
When Maria Maita-Keppeler was in college, she studied the ancient art of Japanese woodblock printmaking. “By the nature of the medium, you have to be bold,” she says — but, you also have to be delicate, deliberate, exacting. All those little cuts on their own add up to the whole — to a picture, a story, a life.
The Japanese-American singer-songwriter applies that same approach to her band, MAITA; she only writes songs she intends to finish. She only makes cuts in service of the whole. And once the debris has been blown away, the melodies remain — vibrant, sharp, and often heartbreaking. The band’s latest LP, want, out July 25 via Fluff & Gravy Records, is all of the above. A razor’s edge look at a relationship in turmoil, the record serves to strip away everything undesired in Maita-Keppeler’s life, leaving behind only that titular word: want.
“The album allowed me this opportunity to be a little more courageous about my feelings,” Maita-Keppeler says. “I grew up feeling very much like the peacekeeper. Now, I have to be really assertive about what I want for myself.” See? Bold.
Recorded at Echo Echo in Portland, Oregon in the winter of 2022, the record serves as the most crystallized of MAITA’s works thus far; like Maita-Keppeler’s screen prints, which she does for each song she writes, it’s a stark, arresting image of a place in lost time. “We felt like the songwriting had a kind of visceral quality to it,” she says. “I love high highs and low lows.” Through it all, though, runs the theme of wanting. “These songs all explore desire within the framework of a long-term relationship where you're just trying to push and dig deeper,” Maita-Keppeler says. “I feel like not a lot of songs really get to the core of those struggles and how nuanced they actually are.”
LISTEN
‘want’ radio highlights
-NACC Top 200 - #17
-KEXP Americana Chart - #4
- NACC Top Adds - #6
quotes
“An intimate, possibly somber guitar strummer in the opening lines grows into a jaunty tune that grows and eventually cathartically erupts.” - KEXP
“A clear-eyed look at growing up and holding yourself responsible for actively creating the life you want to live.” - NPR
“ ...that rarified class of artists with the ability to enthrall the listener right from the jump.” - SPIN
“ ...her lyrics are the shrapnel that linger long after the blasts of power pop and misty-eyed folk laments have come to an end” - The Line Of Best Fit
"One of the most impressive and shining acts to come out of Portland in quite some time"- Portland Mercury
“She just has this sensitivity to her sound that I really really love." - Bob Boilen (NPR)
“A band that has stolen my heart”- Cheryl Waters (KEXP)
NEWEST RELEASE
want (2024, FLUFF AND GRAVY RECORDS)
PREVIOUS RELEASES
BEST WISHES (2020, KILL ROCK STARS)
Festivals:
-SXSW 2022 - Austin, TX
-Treefort Music Fest 2018-2022 (Boise, ID)
-Noise Pop, 2019-2020 (San Francisco, CA)
-Lincoln Calling 2022 (Lincoln, NB)
-Lose Yr Mind Fest 2022 (Portland, OR)
-Walnut City Music Fest 2019-2022 (McMinnville, OR)
Artist Opened For:
Broken Social Scene, Typhoon, Horse Feathers, Blind Pilot, Owen (Mike Kinsella of American Football), Mirah, Laura Gibson, Eric Bachman (Archers of Loaf), Helio Sequence, The Deep Dark Woods, Wild Pink, Shana Cleveland