A set from Maella from this years Eurosonic Festival in Groningen, Netherlands – recorded on March 10 of this year by West German Radio.
Maella is a Czech alt-pop artist based in London. Blending her Slavic roots with the multicultural London scene, she started by playing underground venues and became BBC Introducing London’s featured artist. Her 2022 EP Slow Burn earned her place on Times Square as an ambassador of the month for Spotify Equal. Last single ‘Losing Game’ appeared on UK tv shows Love is Blind and Temptation Island and her track ‘Tudu Tudu Tu’ is in the Netflix show Geek Girl. Maella’s second EP, If Only was released via AWAL this June.
The “If Only” EP is a collection of six songs that each explore a different side of desire, anxiety, romance and the darker parts of myself — the things we feel but don’t always say out loud. I started producing it alone in my bedroom before taking it to my co – producer Steven Ansell. There is a lot of dark dance energy that lets you move through the sadness. It’s vulnerable and seductive, but also chaotic and emotional. That tension between wanting and losing control is at the heart of the whole EP.
Growing up in Prague, the daughter of a local jazz musician, Maella would often visit the dimly lit, smoke-filled basement jazz bars in the city centre. Watching bands through a glowing haze of cigarette smoke that thickened throughout the night, she found herself feeling like she was listening alone, trapped in the aura of the music.
Moving to London at the age of 20, she started developing her own production skills. Maella’s period of sonic reinvention led her to refine her dark alt-pop sound to much acclaim.
After supporting a Warner-signed artist on a European tour, January 2023 she started the year representing Czech republic as one of the top 5 national finalists in the Eurovision Song Contest. The rest, as they say, is history.
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