mazie makes music that mixes modern malaise with vintage psychedelia: nostalgia laced with an impending sense of doom fueled by a world in ever-deepening crisis, as heard on her new single available today. She released her single “dumb dumb” last month, which caught the eyes and ears of The New York Times, Consequence and more, and she has confirmed a September 26th slot at this year’s The Governors Ball in New York City along with her first national tour supporting COIN this fall. Today, the LA-based, Baltimore-raised musician shares her existential pop gem “make believe.” The new track is the latest from her upcoming debut EP, the rainbow cassette, out August 25th via Good Boy / Virgin Music. 

Written a few months after moving from Baltimore to Los Angeles, mazie and her producer / childhood friend Elie Jay Rizk crafted “make believe” in a place of immense gratitude. “Our lives were (and are) so amazing here that it was overwhelming,” notes mazie. “Elie and I also really share in existentialism and nihilism and were discussing how our lives innately have no meaning but the meaning we place in our lives is so special and that we are so f**king lucky to live the lives we do. Our families are very traditional and we were reflecting on how lucky we are to be able to pursue something so untraditional and that is exclusively in the pursuit of creativity and happiness.” 

While mazie may be a stage name, it’s certainly not a character. The emotions behind the songs — the highs and lows and pain and hope and sadness and joy — are as real as can be, even when they all happen at the exact same time. She pairs fatalistic lyrics with shiny alt-pop arrangements that are as infectious as they are unpredictable. “The lyrics are the core piece to my songs,” mazie explains. “I feel like every song places a feeling of mine under a microscope and really allows me to dig into grander ideas and emotions I have towards those feelings.” This combination has seen the quick ascension mazie, with the rainbow cassette early singles resonating deeply with her peers, garnering close to 10 million streams to-date. 

mazie and Elie spent years experimenting and collaborating before they landed on her breakout debut single “no friends.” The utterly addictive single exploded online, earning widespread acclaim and quickly racking up millions of streams. In the months to come, the pair would follow it up with singles including the trippy “sippy cup” and lilting “i think i wanna be alone” which were deceptively cheerful, full of jaunty melodies and earworm hooks and accompanied by DIY artwork and videos that resembled outtakes from some deranged children’s TV show. But the inspiration for “i think i wanna be alone” was rooted in something deeper, written and recorded the day after mazie came back from protesting in support of the Black Lives Matters movement in Washington, DC as she was processing what was happening.