Maya Delilah Talks Debut Album 'The Long Way Around'
- Sabrina Shahryar
- Apr 7
- 4 min read
North London singer-songwriter and guitarist Maya Delilah recently released her debut album, The Long Way Around, on March 28, 2025, via Blue Note Records. The album consists of a twelve-song tracklist.
You were named Spotify's 2025 Artist to Watch. How does it feel to be spotlighted in that way?
Maya: Oh my god, it feels incredible. Very surreal. I started releasing music on Spotify when I was nineteen, and it feels like it's taken so many different turns to get to this point. When you start out, it's like let me try and get on playlists and have people try and listen organically. It's such a journey when you get to the point where people start to know who you are, and people in the industry know who you are. It's a very big honor, very exciting.
What led you to your guitar playing style only using your fingers instead of a guitar pick?
Maya: When I started playing guitar, I was solely just playing fingerstyle acoustic guitar and for that you don't use a pick. From that, I moved on to banjo, and for that, it's five picks. So it's super different, you have a pick on every finger. I decided instead to grow my nails super long and do it that way. So then I was like, well, I don't need a pick for this either. Because I had gotten super used to not using a pick that when I switched to the electric guitar, I was like I'm going to stick to what I know in a stubborn way. I don't want to learn how to use another tool. I found over time that playing electric guitar you get so much more feel out of the guitar and emotion. That's always my aim when I play guitar, to have as much emotion as possible and I find using my fingers that comes through so much more.
When it comes to songwriting, are you more deliberate or are you spontaneous?
Maya: Whenever I write, I'm always in a room with people. I'm not a bedroom writer, I don't write on my own, I like to write with people. Depending on the people in the room, if they're more instrument-based musicians, it'll start off with a jam like how I do table times and stuff. If I'm in a room with more writers, it will start more in that way, where we think about what we want to write about and build a world around that. It really varies. I like doing both a lot.
What message or feeling do you hope listeners take away from your music?
Maya: With my album I really hope it feels like home for people. When I was writing it I was listening to a lot of records that I grew up on. For me, it sounds really nostalgic. I really hope with the writing as well, there's a lot of themes of simplicity of life and coming home to yourself. I hope it feels emotional and comforting like music you put on on a chill Sunday morning.
What is your favorite song off the new album?
Maya: I would say at the moment, and it does change quite a lot, a song that's not out yet, which is called "I’ll Be There In The Morning."
How did you decide on the artwork for the album?
Maya: I knew that I wanted the album cover to pay homage to Blue Note and classic Blue Note Records that was always in my head. I knew I wanted the fonts to reflect that. I love black and white; I think it usually makes pictures look better. I was really thinking about it, and I saw this hip-hop photo that had a fisheye lens in the middle, and I got the inspiration from that photo. I knew I wanted it to be in the studio and music-based with tape machines in there since half the album was made on tape. I wanted that to be a part of it. We took the photo and I sat down and next to me was this magazine that had this warped swirl of a circle and I was, well, that's sick, lets do that with it. It all came super naturally.
Do you have any fan interactions that stick out to you?
Maya: I think the best possible thing that I've had said to me at a show is that I inspired them to play the guitar. That's happened a few times and those are always the ones that stick with me because that's just absolutely insane to me.
When did you know that album was finished?
Maya: That was a journey. I’m such a perfectionist that it was hard to put it down. I feel like the amount of times I thought of times I thought it was finished has actually blurred my actual memory of when it was finished. The final stages, when it goes to master, and you get back all the mastered levels it's quite a technical last part. I lay in bed and listened in my headphones in full, and was like yeah, okay, I need to put it down at some point, now is good. In terms of writing and the songs, I think the last song I made on this record is “Did I Dream It All”. It's the most ballad-y song on the record. I knew it needed that, that's what it was definitely missing, so when that song was done and I was happy with it it felt like that was the missing piece of the puzzle.
What is one thing you're most excited about playing your new tracks to fans?
Maya: I would say I'm really trying to perform them in the way they were recorded. The difference between these new songs and my old songs is that a lot of these were recorded with a live band straight in the room. Being able to perform them the way they were made is really exciting. It's nice to not need to reimagine them too much with a band. I like doing different arrangements for live, but it's so much easier to be like, well, we all know how to play this,s we all made this. Getting to do it with the people I made it with, I'm playing all my UK shows with the people I made the record with, and that's really nice and exciting.