It’s rare to find a combination of soft, simple and soothing music together in a track, and that’s just what Maggie Rogers does best. The 24-year-old American singer rose to fame in 2016 when Pharrell Williams while visiting NYU Tisch School of the Arts reviewed her self-produced song “Alaska”, and was really impressed as was seen in a video on YouTube that garnered over 2 million views.
Rogers was born in April 1994 and she grew up in Easton, Maryland. At an early age she developed a penchant for music and instruments and by the time she was in high school she had begun songwriting after wining the Songwriting competition at the Berklee College of Music program during the summer after her junior year.
She has two albums and one EP (extended play) to her credit. The latest one being “Now That The Light Is Fading”, which was released in February 2017. This is her first major-label debut album and features five tracks:
Color Song
Alaska
On + Off
Dog Years
Better
‘Alaska’, ‘On + Off’, and ‘Dog Years’ were also released as singles along with videos.
A close analysis of her lyrics reveals a love for embracing change and staying fearless. The words have been inspired from everyday life of Rogers. Alaska came out of a trek that she undertook there, Color Song was inspired from a song she used to sing at summer camp in Maine, Dog Years is about valuing time, On + Off is about a back and forth relationship she had.
Maggie incorporates a lot of natural sounds in her music. Sounds of insects, trickling water, hitting bottles and birds just make you want to appreciate the elemental nature of each and every sound she’s presenting you in a track. Whereas the powerful vocals just accentuate the whole experience.
Tanmay Raj Anand is writer/editor for Catharsis Magazine.
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