Becca Stevens – Maple to Paper

By starrymag | December 4, 2024

By: Kaylyn Bell

 

 

Q) You’ve been immersed in music your whole life with a very musical family, what artists that you listened to when you were growing up that had an impact on you or the style of music you wanted to create?

 

A) Björk, Radiohead, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Bach, Bartok, Charles Mingus, Joni Mitchell…

 

Q) The music industry likes fitting artists into boxes but you’re an artist who pushes boundaries and genre constraints. Where does that drive come from and why is that important to you?

 

A) When I’m creating, I feel most inspired when I give myself the freedom to follow where the music wants to go (as opposed to where the genre or music industry wants me and the song to go). Genre and music industry reactions are exactly that – reactions, so I’m happy to let them remain as such. And reactions can change based off where the music wants to go. I’m content living in that fluidity.

 

Q) You’ve released many albums over the years, but Maple to Paper you’ve said made you a bit nervous to release because it’s so personal to you. How do you feel now that it’s out there and how do you feel about how it’s been received?

 

A) I feel oddly comfortable with it out in the world now that it’s there. After how uncomfortable it was to move through the emotions of creating it, I have no interest in stressing about it anymore. Any stress I could attach myself to now would pale in comparison to what I felt making it, so why even bother. I guess more to the point, I’ve moved through it and I’m excited to enjoy the process of sharing it, and even more excited to create new art.

 

Q) What about this album are you the proudest of?

 

A) The purpose it served in my grieving process. It carried me through the most challenging few years of my life. I’m also proud to have done it alone. I had a lot of people holding me up and supporting me, but the art was created, performed and recorded/engineered completely alone.

 

Q) Your music videos for the songs on this album are beautiful and really help listeners to get a deeper understanding of the message. When writing music do you see imagery innately with the lyrics or is it something you come up with for the music videos after hearing the completed song?

 

A) Sometimes I have images come to me, but these videos were largely dreamed up by their director Jep Jorba after the songs were recorded. Jep and I got on the phone and talked about each song and any images I had / thoughts I wanted to share and then he took some time and came back with video ideas for each song. Our main goal for these seven videos was simplicity (otherwise I don’t think we’d have been able to execute such a tall order!)

 

Q) You said you didn’t even know you were creating an album when you started creating these songs you just needed to express how you were feeling. Is there something specific you do or a place you like to be that helps your creative process and to get the words and feelings that are in you out?

 

A) It depends on the album. A lot of this album was written at home; in the room where I recorded, outside under a tree that I cried under a lot by a lake, walking around my home or out in the garden where my first born played in the grass and my second born grew in my belly. I was inspired to make the recording room “womb-like,” using only warm golden low lights (like salt lamps) and setting up a cozy mattress on the floor with lots of pillows to give myself permission to lie down if things got too heavy. Looking back, this was a really integral permission I gave myself. I don’t think I’d have made it through if I hadn’t built in grief-support and permission to go slowly through the creative process.

 

Q) What is your process for writing songs? Do you need music before you can craft the lyrics?

 

A) It depends on the song (every song is different for me) but in short: no! I don’t need one to come before the other. I’ll take whatever part of the song presents itself first. Most often the songs come together like a puzzle for me. Working from the corners / edges and sometimes not knowing what’s on the cover of the box until I finish the puzzle.

 

Q) Which song from Maple to Paper is most meaningful to you and why?

 

A) It’s impossible to pick one that is “most meaningful.” They’re all my babies and I’m theirs. They all carried me through different emotional experiences. But I will say that “Maple to Paper” the song came out of me with a glorious effortlessness that I still look upon with wonder. And “Now Feels Bigger than the Past” feels like a poster child / mascot for the whole bunch.

 

Q) What’s something people may not know about the making of this album that you’d like them to?

 

A) That it was in no way easy. There were so many days where I felt like the world’s most lazy person. That I pushed deadlines four, five or six times. That I wanted to give up 50,000 times and almost threw away multiple songs. That I had daily imposter syndrome and said “why would anyone want to listen to this” a million times. And that I’m so, so, so glad I stuck it out. This album delivered me through the worst pain of my life to a place where I can now stand outside of it, forgive it and dream of new things with the space it’s given me.

 

Q) What emotion or message do you hope lingers with audiences that explore this album?

 

A) I hope that somehow it gives others some space to go through their own version of that same process.

 

Q) You’ve done many collaborations with your last album Wonderbloom featuring over forty musicians. Is there an artist you haven’t worked with yet that you’d like to in the future?

 

A) Thom Yorke, Kendrick Lamar, Nai Palm / Haitus Kaiyote, Joni Mitchell, Björk, Arrow Aftab, Steve Reich, Little Dragon, Blake Mills, Apex Twin and Bassekou Kouyate to name a few.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who are fans and supporters of you and your work?

 

A) Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I couldn’t do this without you and probably wouldn’t.