Singer-songwriter Maya de Vitry recently released an alternate version of her song “Flowers,” drawing a parallel to an Edvard Munch display she saw on a trip to an art museum in Norway.
“He had all these different versions of his work, like this one was sort of blue-colored, and this one was multicolored, and this is just a sketch, and then this one is really vibrant or something. And I feel like this is the sketch,” de Vitry said in a recent call. “This is sort of like seeing the line drawing of the song instead of all the colors filled in.
“I like to listen to music in that way sometimes, so I thought it would be nice to have that as a companion piece or a way for somebody to listen and somebody might hear something different in the song if it’s presented in a different way, like maybe they hear the lyric differently or the meaning feels different in a slightly different instrument or setting.
The original version, from her 2022 album “Violet Light,” features keyboards, percussion, bass and a bassoon, but the just-released version is just de Vitry on the banjo.
”We were going back and listening to some recordings from around that time and realized that we had this version of ‘Flowers’ that was really close to how it was written because I wrote it on the banjo, and I play that clawhammer style,” she said. “So it’s not the bluegrass banjo style but kind of using the back of the right hand and the fingernails to strike the strings. I just love hearing songs in a really stripped-down way sometimes and hearing songs as close to how they were written as possible. … It feels like it’s nice to hear songs in different ways, to not have just like, this is the version, this is the ultimate version of a song.”
A former member of The Stray Birds, de Vitry comes from a musical family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, including a sister, Nina, who plays in Noah Kahan’s band. De Vitry has released four albums independently since going solo in 2019, including her most recent, “The Only Moment,” last year. She could play “Flowers” at her May 9 headline show — rescheduled from December because of a bout of laryngitis — at Mr. Smalls Funhouse in Millvale, but her set lists are ever-evolving and change as the night does.
In an April call from her Nashville home, de Vitry delved further into “Flowers,” an inspirational trip, a co-written song that’s been played by several different artists and more:
Playing around on the banjo, is that normally how you write songs or is it more an acoustic guitar?
I’m more of an acoustic guitar player. I think that’s also why (“Flowers”) felt unique to share because … if you hear the band version, there’s keyboards and drums, and I don’t think anybody would guess that it was written on a banjo. So it’s more rare for me to write on the banjo. I can play some melody lines and stuff on the banjo that I can’t really do on guitar. I just don’t have as much facility on guitar and of picking out the melodies, but the way the banjo is tuned, it just lends itself to being able to find certain melodies. So sometimes when I’m writing on the banjo, I just find something that I never would have found on guitar. And I think that’s what happened with “Flowers.” I never would have written that melody or any of the twists and turns of it without holding a banjo.
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You’ve had a bunch of albums over the last couple of years, so does this feel like a prolific time for you?
Yeah, it does. It feels just really, really fun to be able to have gotten that first solo album I put out in 2019, getting the first one out of the way, just being able to continue and put more things out and not be too precious about anything in particular. I can definitely be a little bit of a perfectionist in some aspects of my life, but I think it’s healing for me to be able to just make things and then let them go. And I know that I’ll be able to look back and see like, oh, I was interested in this right here or I was writing this kind of thing or I was putting this kind of a band together and then I pivoted in this direction and to feel free to let that music exist. I think I’m just always writing more, so it’s fun to follow the thread. But, yeah, it feels prolific. I just keep making more so then it just starts to add up. (laughs)
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What’s been inspiring you lately with your music?
Gosh, I just went to Texas (in April). I spent a week in Wimberley, which is hill country outside of Austin, and I was at a music studio and retreat center for musicians. I was on a songwriting retreat so there were a few other songwriters there, and I’ve never done anything like that. But I was so inspired by spending hours just gazing at this beautiful canyon. We were situated up on this hill and listening to the wind and walking through the trees and just being still and quiet and listening for the ideas.
I don’t usually get that kind of stillness or quiet because most of my writing has been while I’m in motion or maybe I’m scribbling something down on a train or in the five minutes I have before the show starts or while eating at a restaurant or something. This was just amazing and different to have this uninterrupted solitude and be able to sort of see the songs. I felt like I could watch them come and move through me a little more and understand how mysterious the process is.
I guess I’m just inspired by the feeling of being a vessel and receiving things, and then being able to give something, like music, that somehow is shared and can be healing or transformational to somebody else who’s hearing it, that I can somehow be a part of that. It feels really unique, and it gave me clarity on how important it is to share what I make, too, because I wasn’t really sure where that instinct was coming from. Is it just a habit that I have to go on tour? That I just keep doing this? Is it a habit I can’t break or something? (laughs) Or is it coming from a different place?
I feel like I got in touch with the fact that it comes from a very deep instinct, that it’s a part of the whole process of making a song, the going and sharing it, whether it’s just around a campfire or showing it to somebody on a couch or being in a live music concert space and not even knowing who’s coming and then getting to share something. But it’s like a cycle. I’m just feeling really in touch with that and inspired. And I’m honestly not always that in touch with that because it can be a grind to be out on the road and to be doing this, just feel like you’re driving in circles. But to kind of get back to the feeling of the source or something or the purpose is really inspiring.
With “Nothing Else Matters,” it’s been recorded by a couple of different people. Has it been interesting to hear all the different versions of it?
Yeah, it’s really cool. It’s always surreal to hear somebody else singing words and a melody that you picked out on an instrument one day, and then it just has a different life in another place. I feel connected to the song when I’m writing it — like really connected — and then I have to let go and know that I don’t really own the journey that the song is going to go on.
Was there any hesitation about using that title because of a certain heavy metal band having a song with the same name?
(laughs) No, I didn’t have any hesitation about that title. I just figured that the people who are listening to my stuff, maybe they’ll find something different in it. I don’t know how much crossover there is with those listeners.
The Venn diagram is probably not overlapping with Metallica and your fans, right?
Yeah. And if it does, and somebody accidentally finds it, then they’ll figure it out pretty quickly and be like, I don’t like this and then go back to Metallica, and that’s totally fine with me. (laughs) I think it’s really important to remember that my music is not for everybody. There’s so much music in the world, but I actually have had some people come to my shows and they’re like, other than this, I only go to see metal or something. And then they’re like, but I really love your music. And I’m like, wow, OK, that’s really interesting.
And I don’t think that they’re there because they found it through “Nothing Else Matters.” But I love that when sometimes people will venture outside of their comfort-zone genre and find one artist that’s in a total outlier genre and really connect with the artist, maybe just because the lyrics really speak to them or the vibe of the show or something. My shows are usually really kind of spontaneous. I don’t use a set list. It’s very reading the room and moment to moment and deciding, OK, we’re gonna go from this one to this one. Or actually I’m gonna tell this story now. It’s very fluid and spontaneous.
And that makes me feel really present. I know a lot of some acoustic music is, and not that my music’s all acoustic, but there’s some acoustic music that’s much more precise or something, like they know the set list ahead of time and a little more scripted maybe. And this is not like that. (laughs) So sometimes people like that part of it, that there’s a playful or spontaneous nature to the live show, too.