News feed
CROPPED INTERLOOP BLAZER, SHOP SIMILAR, DION LEE INTERLOOP HIGH WAIST PANTS, SHOP SIMILAR. HAND MADE LEATHER CHAIN TOP, ONE TEASPOON, SHOP SIMILAR. EA2136 SUNGLASSES, EMPORIO ARMANI AVAILABLE AT SUNGLASS HUT, SHOP SIMILAR
“Music still completely boggles my mind because I think, ‘I am doing what I believe in and what I want’, and people care about it. That’s pretty amazing.”
LEFT: CONTRAST TRIM ASYMMETRICAL T-SHIRT, LOUIS VUITTON, SHOP SIMILAR
RIGHT: SINGLE-BREASTED JACKET IN FLUID GABARDINE, SHOP SIMILAR, GABARDINE PALAZZO TROUSERS, SHOP SIMILAR, EMPORIO ARMANI. CROCHET CORSET TOP, DION LEE, SHOP NOW. RIVERA 5.5K DIAMOND NECKLACE, ALINKA, SHOP SIMILAR. 1960S MODERNIST STERLING SILVER NECKLACE WITH SOLITAIRE STONE, GEMS ET CETERA, SHOP NOW. BALL SPIKE EARRINGS SILVER, SHOP NOW, CHUNKY CHAIN NECKLACE, SHOP NOW, SENER BESIM. RING WITH INTERLOCKING G, SHOP SIMILAR, BRACELET WITH INTERLOCKING G, SHOP SIMILAR, GUCCI. VIV’ GO-THICK METAL BUCKLE BOOTIES, ROGER VIVIER, SHOP SIMILAR
CROMBIE COAT IN GLOSSY LAMBSKIN WITH INTEGRATED WRAP OVER SCARF IN WOOL FLANNEL, SHOP SIMILAR, HIGH-WAISTED TROUSERS IN GLOSSY LAMBSKIN, SHOP SIMILAR, JUMPING BOOTS, SHOP SIMILAR, HERMES. BALL SPIKE EARRINGS SILVER, SENER BESIM, SHOP NOW
SUMMER 23 LK45 GRAFFITI SKATER TAILOR JACKET, SHOP SIMILAR, GRAFFITI SKATER TAILOR PANTS, SHOP SIMILAR, TECHNOCLOG, SHOP SIMILAR, BALENCIAGA
Some people are lucky. Then, some people feel it so much they get the phrase permanently emblazoned in black ink across their necks. MAY-A, kindly make note of the dash, is the latter.
A Sydney-based songstress by way of Byron Bay, MAY-A, whose real name is Maya Cumming, is a nascent star already contending with the supernovas of Australia’s music industry as one of the most promising talents we have to offer. For most 21-year-olds, this milestone year is one marked by shedding the last remnants of adolescence. But for the chronically online MAY-A, her 22nd lap around the sun has already brought more than most achieve in a lifetime. Ushering in the next chapter in her sonic offering with the tonally diverse singles ‘Sweat You Out My System’ and ‘Your Funeral’, touring internationally in Europe and the United Kingdom with Dylan Minette’s (13 Reasons Why) rock band Wallows and now, stepping in front of GRAZIA’s camera to explore this renewed darker side of her artistry.
“I didn’t see myself represented in the music I liked, so I went for a singer-songwriter girly thing because that’s the type of female-fronted things that I was being presented with,” MAY-A explained over Zoom. “Performing live totally changed my perspective on what I want to write as well as the spaces where I want things to sit. I think I experienced a lot more anger to do with working with people as a young woman and getting treated like a young woman. It pushed me in the opposite direction…I’m not a ‘less is more’ person, is what I have discovered,” she notes.
“I’ve become more comfortable in myself, and testing out different styles early on helped me figure out what I don’t want more than what I do want.” She attributes this independence of her artistry to two factors.
The first is Flume, the Grammy Award-winning DJ whose Triple J Hottest 100 winning track, ‘Say Nothing’, Cummings vocally featured. “Flume really helped me with that as well, taking me into a different space that, like, wasn’t mine, and helped me prove I can do this,” she adds. The second is her upbringing as a bona fide internet celebrity on social media platforms like YouTube and Tumblr.
“That’s the first thing that happened before YouTube. I had a popular Tumblr account,” she says. “I did anything that probably should have stayed private, that kids would do in their room. For some reason, I just like to put it on the internet,” MAY-A reflects on her first taste of virality.
“I stopped because I lost the clarity of why I was doing it. At first, it was just pure and super creative, but then I got into the whirlwind of ‘I’m losing followers’ and ‘what trends can I follow to keep relevant’, and I just very much started to lose myself. I honestly think that stopping that was probably one of the best things that I did.
“I’ve kind of learned a lot of my lessons from that YouTube period of how bad it felt to make decisions based on what you think people want to see from you. I’ve learned to be like, ‘Yep, That’s just there now’, and if that means something to someone, that’s cool… like a soundtrack to their existence. That stuff is pretty insane, too.”
CROPPED HOODIE, SHOP SIMILAR, GIV CUT UNISEX SUNGLASSES IN NYLON, SHOP NOW, GIVENCHY
LEFT: TRENCH COAT, SHOP SIMILAR, DRESS, SHOP SIMILAR, CHUNKY CUFF, SHOP SIMILAR, SAINT LAURENT
RIGHT: BOMBER JACKET, SHOP SIMILAR, MIX JEANS, SHOP SIMILAR, CROPPED HOODIE, SHOP SIMILAR, GIVENCHY. MALACHITE SIGNET RING, SHOP NOW, LINEAR TRIPLE BAND RING SILVER, SHOP NOW, COCKTAIL RING, SHOP SIMILAR, SENER BESIM. GRECA DOUBLE RING, VERSACE, SHOP NOW. GEMS ET CETERA 80S GOLD PLATED CUBIC ZIRCONIA CLUSTER RING, SHOP SIMILAR, VINTAGE SILVER RING WITH JET PAVE, SHOP NOW, 1960S MODERNIST SILVER YELLOW GOLD RING WITH BLUE SAPPHIRES, SHOP NOW, 1970S WEST GERMAN SILVER PLATED LARGE FANCY DOUBLE LINKS WITH FOB CLASP BRACELET, SHOP NOW, GLASS ET CETERA
BOMBER JACKET, SHOP SIMILAR, MIX JEANS, SHOP SIMILAR, CROPPED HOODIE, SHOP SIMILAR, GIVENCHY
“I think I’m getting too literal about relationships that are currently happening. Doing it in music is a dangerous thing for me because you are quite literally letting people into something very private.”
LEFT: JACKET, SHOP SIMILAR, SKIRT, SHOP SIMILAR, MIU MIU. TANK TOP, STYLIST’S OWN
RIGHT: OVERSIZED PARKA IN PLONGÉ LAMBSKIN, SHOP SIMILAR, LOW FLARE JEANS IN DARK UNION WASH DENIM, SHOP NOW, CELINE BY HEDI SLIMANE
MAY-A is understated in the merits of her talent and the role it plays in her meteoric rise. Her lyrics are almost love letters written on the mirrors of club bathrooms in smudged lipstick, so it’s not hard for an outsider to see why a generation of burgeoning music aficionados struggling with their own understandings of love or sexuality resonates with her sung poetry.
But for MAY-A, she believes her success is rooted in something completely out of her control: luck. “I feel like I just got super lucky with it,” she admits. “I believe in fate and destiny. I don’t know if it’s in a career sense. I just think that it could have been anyone that walked into that studio randomly, at that time,” she says of her serendipitous encounter with her now-manager, whom she stumbled across while waiting at a bus stop.
“It just was very lucky that it was me and lucky that the person working there was the person that they are with the history that they have,” she tells me.
Like most 20-somethings, MAY-A isn’t immune to the plights of being constantly online. And though she’s permanently reminded of her “luck” every day through her tattoo, she’s also susceptible to the condition of being vulnerable on the internet.
“I love being open. But I think that it’s a level of self-preservation is needed,” she explains. “Sometimes you can get a bit down thinking ‘I’m not as good as I thought I was’, but then I’ll hear a song that is out that I wrote, and it’s just taken on so much of a different life that I don’t even remember writing it now. It’s hard to believe that that was for me. I feel so different.”
“Every artist will struggle with that. I don’t think that I think if you didn’t have impostor syndrome, you’re probably psychotic. It’s just ingrained. Sometimes it can feel like you don’t match up to the person that you are when you’re performing. But you’ve got to find the love for yourself. In both separate senses.”
Photography: Carlotta Moye
Fashion Director: Aileen Marr
Hair: Michael Brennan
Makeup: Annette Mckenzie
Fashion Assistant: Kelly Harty
Shot at PIX on Location Studio
TOP BANNER IMAGE: SILK AND WOOL TUNIC, SHOP SIMILAR, DIOR TRIBALES EARRINGS IN GOLD FINISHING METAL, WHITE RESIN PEARLS, SILVER CRYSTALS AND MULTICOLOUR LACQUER, SHOP NOW, DIOR
