From viral bedroom covers to internet stardom, mxmtoon shares her journey into music and how she fully embraced the digital world—from posting her art to streaming games.
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00:00My family were like, yeah, it's interesting, Maya.
00:02She really likes to sing songs in her room
00:04in the middle of the night.
00:05Like, that's really interesting.
00:07They had no idea I was posting it.
00:09You were 17.
00:14I assume that was when you wrote Prom Dress,
00:17or was that a bit later?
00:19That wasn't the year you wrote it?
00:20It was the age when I wrote Prom Dress,
00:22which is funny too,
00:22because I don't think I'm exempted.
00:24I'd really blown up in the way
00:25that I knew it was going to at that point.
00:27Obviously, Prom Dress is a big moment for that,
00:29but yeah, it's so cool to think like,
00:31I've got this plaque on my wall
00:33about Prom Dress going platinum now,
00:35and I think about the fact that I was just 17
00:38when I wrote it,
00:39and I was just airing my frustrations at the world.
00:41And guys, you gotta be more kind to your 17-year-old selves.
00:44Like, it really, you've got good ideas when you're 17.
00:47Don't ignore them.
00:47You might write a platinum song.
00:49You would have no idea, but you might, yeah.
00:51And I'm glad that I trusted my gut, yeah.
00:54I was gonna say, you got 47 million views
00:56on that music video on YouTube,
00:58and that's honestly so much more than a lot of artists.
01:02It's crazy.
01:03I can't believe it, yeah.
01:06What was the feelings
01:09that went into writing that song, though?
01:11Because obviously, a lot of people relate,
01:13and it's kind of a sad song,
01:15and I feel like we all go through that phase in life.
01:19I think it was so much around,
01:20and I think what is so special about Prom Dress, too,
01:24is I think that it's a feeling
01:25that obviously extends beyond
01:27the teenage years of your life,
01:28and it is so easy, though, when you're a teenager,
01:32to feel like everyone else around you
01:34is experiencing a much different version of life
01:37that is far more exciting and joyous and, I don't know,
01:41just experienced than most of what you're experiencing
01:45in your own life, and I felt that way so heavily
01:47when I was 17.
01:49I'm just wondering, am I missing out on something right now,
01:52and nobody's telling me?
01:53Am I doing something wrong?
01:55Am I missing steps that I should be going through?
01:57And yeah, I just played the ukulele
01:59in the background of everything and didn't stop,
02:02and I would post them online,
02:03and my parents had no idea that I was posting online
02:06and making covers of songs.
02:08I remember my family were like, yeah, it's interesting.
02:11Maya, she really likes to sing songs in her room
02:14in the middle of the night.
02:15That's really interesting.
02:17They had no idea I was posting it,
02:18and so that was a whole other thing
02:20of when MXM Tune blew up,
02:22introducing them to what exactly had been going on
02:25in the background that they had no idea about.
02:27I guess that's also something that I wanted to ask you
02:29because I feel like not a lot of people
02:31get that experience.
02:32What was it like just suddenly blowing up?
02:35It was so scary because nobody knew anything,
02:37and I remember thinking I was just so mortified
02:39by the idea of people in my real life
02:42figuring out what I was doing online.
02:44It felt like, I don't know, so exposing
02:46to have had all this content that I was putting out,
02:48whether it was YouTube or songs that I had written
02:51about my crush at school.
02:53Oh my gosh, the horror of having the idea
02:55of my high school friends figuring out who I liked
02:58based off of a song that I had written about him.
03:01That is so embarrassing, and it was really scary,
03:04and I remember thinking,
03:05oh my God, am I gonna delete everything,
03:07and I'm just gonna run to the opposite end
03:08and hope that nobody remembers this chapter of my life?
03:13There were definitely moments
03:14where I really heavily considered
03:16kind of saying goodbye to everything
03:18and letting it kind of wash over and disappear,
03:23but I'm really glad I didn't.
03:24I'm really glad that I stuck through it and everything,
03:27but yeah, it was really scary
03:28because I was 17 at the time too.
03:30I was so young, and gosh, being 17
03:34is just embarrassing when you're 17,
03:35but it is just more embarrassing
03:37when you have so many people paying attention
03:39to what you're doing, yeah.
03:40What were the main things that,
03:43okay, if somebody was going through the same thing
03:45that you went through,
03:46so they're just suddenly blowing up on TikTok
03:49and they've got labels in their DMs being like,
03:52hey, sign to us.
03:53What are the main people
03:54that you would advise someone to get in touch with?
03:57A lawyer, get a lawyer before you get anything else.
04:00Find somebody that is looking out
04:02for your best interests and nothing else.
04:05I think a good lawyer is gonna be somebody
04:07that is always trying to think of ways to protect you,
04:11and you can love and be so appreciative
04:15of the people that you're working on
04:16in different elements of your team,
04:18whether it's your managers or your label or whatever it is,
04:21and also it's really important to have someone there
04:23that is not just there for your business,
04:26but more so there for you as a person,
04:27and yeah, I'm so lucky.
04:30I think I got really lucky.
04:31I found, my lawyer is lovely.
04:34I know him because of my middle school band director,
04:37and the guy who taught me how to play ukulele
04:39just happened to be in a band with somebody
04:41who then happened to become a lawyer,
04:43and so finding those connections in my life
04:45felt really easy and natural,
04:46but I definitely, the biggest advice I have to people
04:49is yeah, find somebody that can look out
04:52for your legal best interests,
04:54and I think the rest will hopefully fall into place,
04:57but yeah, that'll definitely scare off the sketchy people
05:01before they have a chance to take advantage of you,
05:05so yeah, find protection and make sure
05:07that you're keeping yourself safe.
05:09Did you have a lot of sketchy people in your DMs?
05:14I didn't actually, and I think I was really lucky
05:16that I had a lot of people that were just nice
05:18and excited for me.
05:20I think the internet might've been nicer
05:22at that era of when I blew up, but you know, who knows?
05:25I think I got lucky too, but yeah,
05:28it's just, it's always tough to know,
05:30but thankfully I don't have any horror stories,
05:32which is really good.
05:33♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪
05:37♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪