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Photo credit: Peyton Incollingo

We stumbled into Maya Kuriel digitally one day in May, and we’ve been unpacking this ephemeral artists ever since. Her sound can be dreamy, inviting, but then pivot to something more dark. On her album, A Quiet Collapse, the sinister part reveals itself, as the innocent, dreamy harmonies hide a much darker layer, a pained searching persona muddied by doubt. In short it’s a very personal album one, that carried us into a spell of curiosity. Summoned to our content lair, we dug in with Maya, who was kind enough to give us a loudly introspective deep dive into the record & more:

OnesToWatch: Who are you? 


Maya Kuriel: My name is Maya Kuriel. This is my first time at OnesToWatch. I'm super excited. I'm a Korean-American pop artist. I'm independent, so thank you. I'm happy about that part right now. I have an EP dropping next month. I make cinematic pop, leaning towards the dark side. 


Love it. How long have you wanted to share music with complete strangers? 


That's a good question. So since I was four, I was singing on the camcorder as my dad recorded me. But I would say I knew I wanted to release music to the world when I was 16. 

What made you take that leap? 

My parents, for my 10th birthday, so 6 years before, got me a studio session for my birthday. It was a really nice present. They always encouraged me to put myself out there and I feel like it was never really a question, more just “I’m gonna do this.” 


How about this? Alternate universe, you don't perform. What are you doing? 


Well, right now I actually have a day job. I do social media management for creators. 

That's cheating because that's the same thing as being an artist. 

It's very interchangeable and I use all of my knowledge for my own stuff, it’s true. But I would say maybe a veterinarian. I love animals. I would not be okay with putting down animals, though. I'm a dog person at heart, but I’ve just recently become a cat person, too. 

What changed that?

Being around them and not being scratched and bitten by them. 

That's fair. How does your writing process begin? 

A lot of it comes from my notes app, so I'll write down phrases, titles, concepts, very poetic and metaphorical to start. Then, I think about what I have gone through recently that would make sense for this concept / topic. I also voice memo during my long drives. I'll just be singing melodies into my voice memos. 


Then what's the extraction process? 
Do you sit behind a piano, work with people? 

I have a keyboard in my own house, and my best friend is actually my producer. 

Convenient. 

We were producer and artist first, and then realized we’re very much the same person. So, I'll go over to his studio, we'll usually start with laying down scratch, gibberish vocals. That's how my creative process has been as of late.

How do you know a song is done? What's the moment it's done?

That's the kicker for me.
I feel like it's never done. It's hard for me to put it down, I am a perfectionist in that way. Somebody did tell me something that stuck with me, which is that art is never finished. To me, that meant that at some point I have to put my hands up. I'm a big harmony person. So when the vocal arrangement sounds really good in my headphones and in the car, that's when I feel I can put it to rest.


Okay, let's talk about your upcoming project. There is this sort of angel, but maybe... fallen vibes? 

Exactly. That's actually the exact vibe I'm going for. So “Heavenly” is the intro track. All the visuals are angelic and it starts in this very heavenly, delusional place. It’s 7 tracks, one of them is an interlude and it basically deconstructs everything that I've learned about the entire lifecycle of a relationship. So, it starts with delusion and love, then deconstructs the relationship and by the end, it's a total release and walking away. I would say the first 3 songs are Act One, then there's an interlude and then Act Two. So Act One is in the relationship and then Act Two is female rage, release, relief as well and healing. 

I like the idea of heaven as delusional. Do you feel like love for you is deceptive in some way? 


I think so, because I feel like that's more of an internal thing. I've always felt a little bit behind in that department compared to my peers. In high school, everyone was exploring and falling in love for the first time, and I was like, where do I fit into this? I'm in a five-year healthy relationship and I still feel a little like I'm learning it over and over and over again and I'm trying to understand what love is to me. 

Are you then channeling these ideas via other people's relationships and stuff? 


Prior relationships, and also my best friend’s, as I co-write with her. So a lot of our shared experiences are in this project. 

Well stay safe out there. What's an ambition that you have for this EP – personally and for your audience? 

For myself, I think the ambition has been to let go of comparison. Comparison has really been a thief of joy for me in the last few years and I'm finally trying to let that go. I also feel like I want to really work on the touring end of things. I want to be able to perform my songs and obviously, touring is expensive and it can be tricky. It's a hard pill to swallow. I just want to be in a place where I can actually sing the songs in front of people and have them sing back the words and have that shared experience. And then for my supporters, I would say that there's definitely a song for everybody in this project. I would say it's okay to feel what you're feeling and it's okay to kind of live in that feeling as long as you don't do anything crazy. Your feelings are valid. 

I'm gonna pivot to some more fun questions. A group of your friends, maybe you and your producer, best friend, your partner, whoever, show up at your door, can you whip up a meal? If so, what would it be? 

Oh, that's a good question. My chocolate chip cookies are really good. Is that too basic? 

No, that's just too good.

I'm recently on a chocolate kick, too. I wasn't really a sweets person. 

Give me a recipe. 

It's in the butter. It's too much butter. Levain Bakery has this double chocolate chip cookie. So I put in extra chocolate chips. It's a lot of sugar. 

If you could be transported to your most zen state. Where are you? What are you doing?

I'm probably at a Korean spa in Los Angeles. One of those sauna steam rooms. I'm Korean, but I recently discovered Korean spas in the last year. There’s this one place that also has the cafe, they’ll give you a big bowl of soup and you can just stay for the whole day. 

If I were to give you the power of manipulating time and space – you can go forwards or backwards. Do you want to? And if so, which option would you choose? 

I'm a very anxious person. I don't know if I would time jump. I don't know if I would feel confident in time jumping. But if I were to choose one of those, I’d choose past, and I would probably go to elementary age, when I was still under my parents' roof, I was still going to Blockbuster, and I still had no cares and worries in the world.

Now, I’ll give you another power, which is to create your own festival. You can perform with any artist or band. What's your dream lineup? 

Harry Styles. Loved him since the One Direction days. Up and coming artists, I’d say Erin Lecount, Audrey Hobert, definitely like popping off right now. Labyrinth. And Lady Gaga is my one.

Last couple of questions. I’d love a non-music recommendation. 

I would say Japan. I've been twice. 

What are some places that I must go to? 


Kyoto. Just as a place in general, the people there are so kind and welcoming. The food is great. It's definitely the slower paced side of Japan. 

I’d also love a music recommendation. 


I actually was listening, on the way here, to Audrey Hobert’s “Silver Jubilee,” it's a really fun song about girlhood and she's telling her sister your secrets and it's super fun and quirky and there's a really good breakdown at the end. I would say that. 

Lastly, in your words, anything you want to share.

Hi, mom and dad. Love you. Thanks for letting me chase my dreams in Los Angeles. I'm from Seattle, so I am not with them a lot. Thank you for the 10 year old birthday present. 


They really kickstarted it. Thank you so much.