Not Staying Silent: MaeThePirate on “bang bang bitch” and What Inspired Her to Fight Back

Interview by Mallory Thompson

Graphic by Rebekah Witt

When I first heard about MaeThePirate, I was immediately drawn to the infectious energy accompanied by her powerful songs. MaeThePirate is an up-and-coming singer-songwriter known for her blunt lyrics with powerful messages and eccentric melodies. In May of this year, Mae released her single “bang bang bitch,” a post-COVID power anthem that was built from her frustrations with corporations exploiting the working class and employees.

When the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many of her friends and colleagues into unemployment, she felt she couldn’t stay silent. The urge to fight back and speak up for what she was seeing around her created a power inside her that she knew she wanted to scream one day in a song. Through her song, Mae hopes that listeners can hear the frustration and bitterness in the lyrics and resonate with the need for socio-economic reformation.

I got to sit down with Mae earlier this year over Zoom, and over the course of our interview, we talked about everything from working-class exploitation weird social media usernames, and even our mutual love for AJR. I am so excited for more people to hear her music and join her in the fight to bring social change to a world that truly needs it.

How are you doing right now?

I’m doing pretty well. I mean, I’m really excited that my music’s coming out. With all things considered, I’m doing pretty well.

You’re in LA, right? How’s everything?

It’s been pretty wild. Things have been opened up and then shut down. People have gotten their jobs and lost them again. I’m lucky that I work in the film industry; they were able to resume most of the time in LA. My day job is in dialogue editing; for example, if there’s a snow machine that’s too loud, I’ll edit that out. We do that kind of stuff.

I’m interested in learning how you got into music. How long have you been making music? What’s your story?

I started when I was really young. My oldest sister really loved opera, and it’s funny ‘cause she currently works in costume at the NYC Opera. Growing up, she always loved opera so she would teach me when I was a small child. I’m six years younger than her, but I was small with an operatic voice. That’s how I got started originally. She would teach me all these songs from different operas she liked. I also sang in the church as well. I was one of those choir-singer kids, but eventually, as I got older, I started playing piano and I really wanted to do more contemporary stuff, but I was originally taught a very classic way of singing.

Opera is very different from what I’ve heard in your music! How did you make that transition from opera to what you do now, which is more electronic?

There was one website I want to shout out, MuseScore, and it’s a free program for writing sheet music. I got it on my computer since it was free and started writing all my piano songs out. There used to be a really great community of people who would also write, so they were really encouraging; that’s actually how I got the name MaeThePirate, as well. I made my little account on there when I was maybe 13, but I got thousands of views, which was amazing. People were commenting, and it was a very supportive community. People were teaching me how to orchestrate things and that made me really want to play the cello ‘cause I was doing a lot more orchestra stuff at that point. I think it took until college and then I decided that I really wanted to go more alternative after growing up in that kind of Irish-Catholic opera singer at the church environment from childhood.

That’s so interesting how you made that jump into electronic alternative music after being in that church environment. From what I see now, your sound is so different, and I wouldn’t have expected you to come from that environment. You’ve fully done it all, from opera to Irish-Catholic church music and now electronic-alternative. Did you just like the name MaeThePirate, or is there any specific reason you’ve stuck with that through the years?

I remember I’d never really had a username growing up that stuck, back in that era where people would have “Belieber96” or something, and mine was something stupid like “PenguinHaha80.” It was something so embarrassing. In fact, I still have the email, and I think I’d grown out of that, but I realized there’s already a famous Maeve Higgins out there. As much as I’d love to be known as my name, there’s a famous Irish comedian named Maeve Higgins. I also just felt I was a little rebellious, so I did a pirate, which aligned to those rebellious values, even though I was like 12 years old. I kind of feel like that has the aura to my music a little bit because it’s kinda cutesy, but you know pirates are not nice.

You’re like, “This is the name I’ll stick with for my artist project because it’s edgy.”

Yeah, and I already had people that seemed to resonate with it and think it was funny and liked my music under that name, so why wouldn’t I just do it? That was kind of always my persona online versus my persona in reality, and I just kind of kept with it.

You mentioned that you played the cello, so what made you want to learn that? Have you used it in your songwriting?

When I started writing orchestra music, it kind of dawned on me. I’m not sure if you’ve been to LA, but when you say “I’m a singer,” you’ll get a certain look, and then if you’re like “I’m a cellist,” you’ll also get a different look. In high school, I was getting that look, and I started playing it when I was 13 or 14, late for most people who play strings. I told my parents adamantly, “If I don’t learn this right now, I’m never going to learn it.” I think it took me about a year of saying that repeatedly until they were ok, but I definitely had a lot of catching up to do.

I wasn’t the best and I feel like, since I started so late, it kind of turned me away from classical because I had teachers that would do jazz and Celtic music, which is very quick. A lot of the way I play is very contemporary, I would say. I really loved film scores and dramatic anime music, and that’s really why I wanted to play the cello. I always add in the background this little chug of the cello that really keeps the energy going, so that’s mostly what you hear in my music but in the background, a lot of the rhythmic elements are a cello, and I try to put it in every song if I can.

It’s a very interesting instrument to know the type of music you make, so it’s cool that you’re able to add it to your sound.

It’s definitely been a challenge. When you play it legato, it sounds dramatic and emotional and pretty, but sometimes I don’t want my sound to be dramatic and emotional all the time. It comes down to weaving it.

I feel like it would definitely change the vibe of what we see in general; for electronic, it can really change the sound if you were to add the dramatic and emotional sounds of the instrument. I think it would still be really interesting though.

Yeah, I try to add it as much as I can—there are some songs where I’ll actually put guitar amps on it because I don’t know how to play guitar, but I can play the cello.

So, how would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard your music?

I think I would say alternative, happy feelings with dark lyrics and a cello.

So in May, you released the single “bang bang bitch,” and what fueled the idea for this song? Why was 2021 the right time to release it?

I mentioned before that I work in film, and I was very blessed that they just had very strict things we had to do, but the overall work slowed but continued. Most of my friends work in the music industry, and we had two roommates who had to leave immediately. They both worked in booking shows so they were like, “We have to leave, we can’t afford to stay in LA.” Film miraculously went on and all these people were living their ordinary lives, and I was watching some of my friends go home. Some of them got hired and fired and hired and fired, and it was just so bad and when I started to think really deeply about it. Where I used to live, there was a bunch of families and actually a taco stand there. There would be kids with scooters who I knew, and now they suddenly couldn’t do that, and it made me think of people who make minimum wage who still have children, and I couldn’t imagine that. I was getting so frustrated thinking about the people who were not as lucky as I was to be able to work in an industry that somehow lobbied and snuck its way in. The film industry had the connections and was able to get by, but that’s not something every person has. It just felt like the world wasn’t helping people that I knew were out there, and every day I was getting more and more frustrated. When I wrote that song, I was just like SO MAD at all these people.

So you channelled all the anger from everything that was going on around you into a song?

Yeah, exactly.

How was the songwriting process? Did it just come out all at once or over time?

I actually pick a day to write a week and just hold myself up in my room. My boyfriend knows not to bother me when I write a song. That week had just been particularly bad, especially seeing a lot of people being so rude (especially at restaurants and shopping centers), and I just said, “I’m gonna write about this topic.” I knew what I wanted and wrote the track that day. I was like done and everything, but I had fake horns in it and showed it to my friend who plays trumpet, and he’s like “NO WAY, you’re not releasing this until I play to cover those fake horns, you can’t release it with those.” He just blew it away, and I loved the song so much more. It’s has a lot more of a sultry feel to it, so that was how the song really came about and that’s why I invited Michael into the cover of it—it was too good and wouldn’t have been the same song without him.

Is there a story or reasoning behind the name? 

My favourite line of this song is “The lower middle class is getting fucked up their ass.” That is the line of the song, that’s the line I was sold on and I loved it, but that’s not a very good song title.

It would be a statement though!

It would be a statement, but I still want my parents to be able to listen. At the end, I was just like “bang, bang, bitch” in the chorus, and that really became the highlight instead of the other more vulgar line. I also think ‘bang bang’ encapsulates kind of the same feeling as the other line without being as direct and obtuse.

Why was mid-2021 the most important time to release it?

I feel like we are a point of cultural change, and it seems to me that there’s almost a shift in what work is necessary, I mean the 40-hour workweek is a little overrated, and a lot of people can do work from home, so it feels like that shift is ready. Things are opening up again so there’s more of a positive feeling. I feel like if it was released during COVID, it would’ve been more like a war song, but now it’s almost more of a power song. Like it’s over, but we know what you wronged us for, so I wanted to wait until things were slightly open again to release something like this.

It makes sense to me honestly because it sounds like you’re keeping the momentum alive. COVID was really hard for a lot of people, but by releasing this song, you’re keeping the conversation going. What you’re saying and wanting to convey is super important, and it’s not something a lot of people are talking about, especially in music.

Exactly. I can just imagine this because I used to work at a pizza place and I don’t work there anymore, but I already feel like I can yell this song angrily, but I imagine if I still worked at this pizza place with the worst boss ever. I would’ve screamed this song so loudly. Do you know what I mean though?

Especially now, I definitely think this is a time when a lot of people re-evaluated their situations and how they were working and wanted to shake things up and almost question what they were doing. Will you continue to use your music to help implement change in society?

100% - we’re talking specifically about one song, but I have an entire lineup. I’m ready. I feel like what I write about most is social things that I see that I want to bring attention to, and I hope one day to have the means to bring actionable change, but I’m still kind of bringing awareness to issues. The next one I’m working on talks about social media and people’s borderline phone addiction; at this point now everyone uses a phone, but the way that they’re designed is kind of malicious at some point, and it’s not really talked about. There are some malicious setups on social media, so I’m kind of trying to sing about that without trying to be on the nose with issues that arise like that. It’s not a clear battle, as we’ve seen the past few years.

I’m really happy you’re using your music to talk about these issues and these questions you want to be answered because I think it’s really important.

Thank you – I’m really excited for all of this music to come up.

What would you say is the most important thing to you about making music?

For any musician, you kind of need to learn that you’re your harshest critic at times, and just as long as you like it, there isn’t really that much you can do about what the world says. I feel like that is step one in being comfortable as an artist is being like if you like your own music, not to let anything else sway it. On the flipside, music just enlightens everyone’s life, so another aspect would be like just bringing joy to people rather than terror. Promoting positivity is what I would want to do with my music, besides the fact that I need to like it first.

Who are your biggest musical inspirations? Do you take any specific inspiration from anyone you listen to?

I think it has to be AJR by far, I’m in love with them. I’ve bought VIP Tickets twice; I was that fangirl for them.

But they’re so good!

I know they are so good and also so nice. I feel their newest album has made me love them even more because they really did say things they felt like they had to say. I know they’re worried about their following if they won’t like it, but they said what had to be said, and that’s something I deeply admire. In the end, if you’re just writing music to get famous and be famous, are you really helping anyone at all? Or are you just helping yourself? I feel like they really care about that kind of stuff. I really like how what they put out is different from anything else.

Exactly, it’s really unique.

I really love how they have a unique but polished sound. As someone who writes music, when you start out, it doesn’t sound good, so I always admired being unique and polished because I feel like sometimes those things are a little hard to get.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I think you’ve pretty much covered it. I mean, I could go on and talk about political and socioeconomic issues all day, so I’m not gonna do that, but I’m so glad you let me talk about everything. I appreciate your time.

Mae’s song “bang bang bitch” is out now and can be streamed wherever you listen to your music. She also recently released a new single called “Broken Glass,” which deals with feelings of self-deprecation.

“Broken Glass” was written and produced by MaeThePirate and mastered by Garrett Edson. Mae wrote this song after having an especially bad breakdown and suffering from self-loathing. Through this experience, Mae had to learn to love herself. She hopes that listeners will learn the same lesson of self-acceptance. I’m so excited to continue following Mae on her music journey. She is constantly releasing music that touches on subjects that aren’t discussed, and she has a really bright future ahead of herself, and at KCM, we’re happy to be able to showcase it!

To continue following MaeThePirate on her music journey, please visit Spotify |  Facebook | Instagram | Twitter