Hailed as "easily the hottest emerging talent in dance music" by Mixmag, nominated as “Best Breakthrough Producer” by DJ Mag and with the likes of Anja Schneider, Jamie Jones and Damon Alburn queing up behind to offer their praise; it would seem that there may be something rather special lurking in London's fair walls and indeed there is, in the form of a rather unique 23 year old British/Japanese producer/DJ by the name of Maya Jane Coles.
For many, it Maya's debut EP on Franck Roger’s Real Tone that first switched them on to Maya Jane Coles. Supported by a list that boasts Laurent Garner, Tony Humphries, Ekkohaus, Steve Bug and Dj Gregory amongst others; ‘What They Say’ oblitereated the sales and critics charts on Beatport; with the track enjoying a no1, no2 and no 3 placing on Resident Advisor's chart in October, November and December 2010 respectively!
Further releases have only added to this success with impressive showings for Maya's Humming Bird EP (Hypercolour) and “Beat Faster EP” (Mobilee) garnering peer support as varied as John Digweed to Roger Sanchez to Rulers Of The Deep. The trend is set to continue when Maya's next EP lands on Ralph Lawson's 20:20vision in May – just before her Essential Mix for Radio 1 in June as it goes!
Not one to fall victim to the pitfalls of being one of the scenes ‘buzz names’; Maya has built on her flourishing production reputation with a slew of dj gigs across Europe holding her own alongside world renouned names such as Anja Schenider, Jamie Jones, Seth Troxler and Paul Woolford. So much so her schedule for 2011 is already jam packed with dates across Europe, North & South America, Asia and Australasia taking in clubs like London’s Fabric, Batofar and Watergate as well as festivals such as Glastonbury 2011 amongst others having previously played at Sonar, Bestival and the BBC Electric Proms.
Maya has also performed guest mixes for the likes of Resident Advisor, Louche, Trace A Line and Defected with remixes in 2011 set to drop on labels such as Crosstown Rebels, Leftroom, Exquisite Pain, and Real Tone.
Whilst most people learned about Maya in 2010; Maya is far from an over night sensation...
An eclectic daughter of similiarly eclectic parents; Maya was surrounded by a mixture of sounds from Dub to Punk to Soul and Jazz to World to Classical music around the house. Having learnt to play a few instruments and started to songwrite, production felt like the natural next step.
First producing hip-hop at 15; Maya was determined that she should be able to learn the skills to realise her own vision at every part of the process from production to performance. That's why now, on a typical Maya Jane Coles record, Maya will have written, produced, engineered, arranged, mixed and performed every element of the track; sometimes she even designs the sleeve artwork too!
Driven by a constant urge to push herself and evolve; Maya migrated to dubby sounds and eventually to drum'n'bass around 17; before a huge water shed moment in her life, Maya experienced good underground house! As a result, Maya started on her current journey as a house producer releasing on labels such as “Nobody Else” (Dogmatik) and her "Bubbler" EP (Loco Supreme) as well as chalking up DJ gigs at events like the BBC Electric Proms, Sonar and Bestival along the way.
Indeed Maya’s diverse influences means she even exists outside of the confides of the realms of house and techno. Under the guise of her live dub-electronica hybrid, ‘She Is Danger - alongside instrumentalist/vocalist Lena Cullen - Maya played at gigs from the world largest fetish club Torture Garden through to opening for The Orb with their tracks played everywhere from Radio 1 through to KCRW and Per Se.
She is Danger are, however, probably most famed for their remixes of artists from Gorillaz to Groove Armada and Gorillaz with an acclaimed dubby reworking of Massive Attack's 'Girl, I Love You' included on the band's 'Heliogland:Deluxe' album! Picking up plaudits such, RCRDLBL 'Track of the Day', Qmagazine 'track of the day' and 'Daily Download' on NME.com and smashing the Hypemachine top 10 mutliple times.
Whereas, fans of Maya's Dubstep project 'Noctural Sunshine' include key tastemakers, Joy Orbison, Skream, Benga, Craig Richards and Scuba to name but a few!
For most people the mere mastery of music would be enough but not for Maya, her brain just wasn't build to be constrained so in the future we may more of Maya talents from the world's of fashion, photography and art but for now Maya is clear – MUSIC definitely comes first!
Currently in development; is Maya's first full length album. Her current aural diet consists of the cutting edge of tech and deep house and everything from Little Dragon and Fourt Tet through to Warpaint and the XX, So what can we expect from Maya's debut? Only one thing is for sure; it's going to be an electronic odyssey with Maya firmly at the helm; and there's a rather good chance that when it lands, the name 'Maya Jane Coles' is going to be around for a very, very long time to come.
In short, 2010 was the year that people took real notice of Maya Jane Coles and 2011 onwards is about showing people that this is just the tip of a very, very large iceberg indeed!
Don't believe us? Well, this is what other peeps have got to say...
"Easily the hottest emerging talent in dance music"
Mixmag
"THE one to watch"
DJ Mag
“An emerging tech house superstar”
Resident Advisor
"The new queen of house"
Pete Tong, Radio 1
"She has what makes me move"
Ellen Allien
“Loving Maya jane coles!”
Electronic Beats
“Sooo talentedt!”
Heidi, Radio 1
“The 'buzz name' on influential lips is that of 22-year-old Londoner Maya Jane Coles.”
Ibiza Voice