Maia Friedman

New York musician Maia Friedman presents a gorgeous new single/video, “On Passing,” via Last Gang Records/MNRK. This is Maia’s first new piece of solo music since 2022’s Under The New Light, her “immersive and intricate” (The Line of Best Fit) debut. Co-produced with Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Billie Marten, Florist) and Oliver Hill (Magdalena Bay, Helado Negro, Wet), “On Passing” unfurls beautifully with fingerpicked guitar and serene woodwinds. The track’s sublime lyrics illustrates her embrace of her own poetic lens, focusing on the beauty of the miniscule: “As you drift along // you float on course to Eden // hoping the waves will take you all the way to where you come from // Where we all come from // And from up above // the leaves fall as they ought to // crossing in hatchback upon currents in the air.”

The accompanying video was made by Ryan Faist and is composed of footage shot by Maia. 

Maia penned “On Passing” “as the health of two close friends were in rapid decline, with illnesses that led to both of their untimely deaths,” she elaborates. “Processing end-of-life is at once entirely natural and human, and at the same time, entirely abstract and unimaginable. It feels impossible to fathom, thus we vacillate through emotions; despair, anger, disbelief, confusion, and often eventually settle into a permanent melancholy (the quiet sadness) that will forever be tied to the memory of those we’ve lost. I find it healing to celebrate these memories in ephemeral moments of magic; a leaf falling from a tree, the glint and reflection of sun on water, a particular scent in the air, a bird that visits our windowsill unexpectedly.”

The palette Maia Friedman summons in her music has been described as lush, wise, and evocative. Drawing from her upbringing in the Sierra National Forest region of California, she often invokes a devotion to the natural world in her writing—an attunement to what is wild and divine in both the existential and the everyday. Her voice is a captivating centerpiece, lending a unique quality of warm comfort to every syllable.

Under The New Light garnered support from Rolling Stone, NPR Music, and BBC among others, and amassed over five million streams with widespread playlisting support. She performed the record in the US and Europe, sharing stages with Bedouine, Charlotte Day Wilson, Lord Huron, and Durand Jones & the Indications. In the two years since Under The New Light, Maia wrote, recorded, and toured with her various collaborative projects and gave birth to her daughter. This series of transformative experiences inspired new creative desires – to observe the world with unwavering empathy, to explore fresh musical colors, and to commit fully to world-building. There will be more new music from Friedman coming in 2025.