What’s the story behind the song?
“Favor” is about a long-term relationship that I had stayed in long after it stopped serving me. It was built on a lot of broken trust and betrayal, and despite everything he had done to me, I still held on. I kept trying to see the best in him and make it work. In the end, he was the one who walked away from me. And while it really stung at first, it ended up being one of the greatest gifts he could have given me.
How did the track come to life?
The first thing that kind of clicked in the room was the guitar. There’s a chugging guitar that plays the entire time, and once I heard that, I just felt really inspired. It kind of reminds me of One Direction in some ways-like those early 2000s throwback vibes.
How did you come about your songwriting process for “Favor”?
This was definitely one of the faster songs I’ve ever written. The first thing that stuck in the room was that tag at the end of the chorus: “Oh, you did me a favor.” We were like, all right, let’s build around that. We wrote the song in like two hours and tracked the vocals. It was just one of those songs that kind of flowed.
What did you learn from this writing experience?
Unintentionally, writing this song healed something in me that I didn’t know needed healing.
When I wrote it, it was months after my breakup, and I thought I was over it… but there were still a lot of emotions that came out during the writing process. I think once the song was written and I could listen to it completely, it helped heal parts of me that I didn’t realize were still hurting.
With sharing such personal parts of your life, how does that come along when connecting with your fans?
They call themselves the Maevies. We do Zooms every month, I send them personalized letters as much as I can, and I try to respond to every DM I get. I love hearing their stories and seeing how they relate the song to their own lives in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I’ve gotten so many DMs from people saying that this song helped them through a friendship breakup. I didn’t write it about a friend, but I think it’s so cool that people can take the song and make it their own.
What would be the best way for someone to listen to “Favor” for the first time?
I live in New York, but I wrote the song while I was in LA. When I got back from that trip, I found myself listening to this song on a city bike, specifically an e-bike. It just gave me this rush of emotion, like that feeling of sticking your head out the window of a taxi or an Uber. Full speed, hair blowing in the wind… it captured that kind of moment where everything hits you at once.
What’s an emerging artist everybody should be listening to?
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