100% Miraa May: the Tottenham singer with zero fucks to give
The brazen artist with grime connections talks about what she likes, loves and loathes and her new EP Dark, out today.
Music
Words: Amy Francombe
Ever feel yourself needing a reminder that you are, in fact, a bad bitch? If so, listen to Miraa May. She’s a fiercely proud Muslim Algerian immigrant, outspoken with a thick North London twang, and uses her sharp-witted tongue to comment on everything from Insta-obsessives and fuck boys, to those who chat pure shite. We all know a few of those people, don’t we?
Having already released three projects with the last being a collection of heartfelt tunes exploring gaming, anime and her love of cooking, her new EP Dark is a comparatively angrier follow-up. Adopting a noticeably more defiant attitude, May channels her stand-offish energy (“Yeah I got a pussy but I ain’t no pussy /tryna be a lady but you keep tryna push”) into six genre-blending tracks, merging pop, R&B and garage. Recent single Angles, featuring BBK legend JME and a playful video starring Grime Gran, is included as a bonus track.
Below, we give May the 100% treatment to find out what she loves, loathes and what musicians can do to save the world…
10%: Where were you born, where were you raised and where are you now based?
I was born in North Africa and I was raised in North London and now I reside by the river.
20%: At what point did you realise you’d be able to do what you love for a living?
Probably a couple of months ago. I got signed this time last year but it took me a couple of months to get into it. When I was in LA, I clocked that I could be doing this pretty much for a lifetime, ‘cos all I’m doing is going to sessions and writing songs which I’m really good at and I enjoy.
30%: What’s a piece of advice that changed your life?
There’s not one piece of advice that’s changed my life. It’s having a support system that’s changed my life – that’s my piece of advice.
40%: What kind of emotions and experiences influence your work?
All of them.
50%: What can you tell us about your album, which is out today?
I try to make my EPs very self-explanatory. The EP is called Dark and it’s a pretty dark EP.
60%: Break down your typical day at work…
I can’t. Every day is different. I don’t have a schedule. I just wake up, my manager phones me and tells me where I have to go and what I have to do.
70%: What can artists do to help save the world?
Use paper straws.
80%: You rule the world for a day, What went down?
I would gather up all the flippin’ evil, racist, predatory people in the world and just lock them up somewhere far away. I would also leave a plan to rebuild and rehabilitate the planet.
90%: Love, Like, Hate?
Love cooking, like chocolate, hate Trump.
100%: No.1 holiday destination.
Bali.
