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Maia Friedman Opens up About Her New Album ‘Goodbye Long Winter Shadow’

Ben Pagani

 

Maia Friedman is feeling a lot of emotions right now–and it’s not difficult to understand why. The multidisciplinary artist, who writes and records successful solo records, along with being a member of popular bands Dirty Projectors and Coco, is about to share her latest project: an album called Goodbye Long Winter Shadow. It’s an LP Friedman wrote on her own, though she found herself working with great creative minds in the process. And no, not just fabulous producers who could assist with arranging her compositions in the studio (though she did have two of those). Friedman got assistance by visiting her parents’ California home, reading a poetry book written by Jim Harrison, experiencing the seasons change, becoming a mother and certainly many other things. No wonder all her emotions are swelling.

Goodbye Long Winter Shadow arrives Friday, May 9. It’s fitting that winter has disappeared and now spring has shown its endless colorways right in time for this appropriately-named record’s release. To support her latest album, Friedman will perform a couple of special shows in the coming weeks. She performs at Glass Hill in Los Angeles on a shared bill with Reggie Watts and Arc Iris on Saturday, May 10. She’ll also play at Public Records in New York City, where she currently lives, on Saturday, June 28. Tickets for those shows are available here.

Friedman wrote the songs fans will hear on Goodbye Long Winter Shadow on her own, but handed off a number of tracks to producers Philip Weinrobe and Oliver Hill (Friedman’s Coco bandmate). Those two helped rearrange the songs to match the sound Friedman was after once she entered the studio. The final result is an otherworldly, deep in nature, deeper in thought and ethereal sounding record.

Now Friedman is opening up about her second solo album. While the artist lives in a bustling metropolis, that seems a world away while Friedman muses, with grace and thoughtfulness, on the meaning of her latest work. Be sure to pre-order and pre-save Goodbye Long Winter Shadow here.

Beyond The Stage: It’s time for the world to hear your new album Goodbye Long Winter Shadow…how do you feel now that your creation is out there in the world?

Maia Friedman: It feels like freeing a caged bird! It’s a blend of emotions – I want the bird to be free, but there is also a sense of concern for how the bird will fare out in the world. You spend a lot of time writing the songs, editing the lyrics, making the record and there’s this build, build, build to a single day [release day], and then suddenly whoosh! It’s no longer just mine to have and to hold. But that’s what it’s all about – the music is to be shared. I’m so excited for people to hear this one, I feel really proud of the record and stand behind every track.

BTS: It’s interesting that the first song on this new album is titled “Happy,” because that’s exactly the sort of emotion its instrumentation evokes from the very first note. There are also few lyrics in the song, but lots to feel. Can you talk about how you tried to draw out emotions on that track?

Friedman: “Happy” initially had more lyrics with a traditional song form, but the words beyond the first verse (which is what you hear on the album) all felt forced. It’s like I was trying to adhere to what I thought a song needed to be. Philip Weinrobe, who engineered the record and produced along with Oliver Hill, encouraged me to think of the song more as a mantra. We focused on allowing the music to change and develop around the lyrics each time they would repeat. It’s funny, even though the song is called “Happy,” I’ve never thought of it as a happy song per-se. To me, it captures the feeling of a yearning, insatiable desire.

BTS: You began writing Goodbye Long Winter Shadow after visiting your parents and reading the zen poetry book After Ikkyu by Jim Harrison at their home. In what ways did poetry inspire the writing on this record?

Friedman: I love the concise nature of Jim Harrison’s writing in After Ikkyu. Because each poem is sparse, each word has meaning. While writing the songs for Goodbye Long Winter Shadow, I wanted to take time with the lyrics. I wanted them to be direct and to the point while also evoking feeling and emotion with scrumptious nuggets of imagery. One of my favorite poems from the book [After Ikkyu] is this one: 

Time eats us alive.

On my birthday yesterday

I was only one day older

though I began 10 million eons ago

as a single cell in the old mud homestead

That line, “…though I began 10 million eons ago as a single cell in the old mud homestead” — it’s just so funny! And though it’s simple, it really tickles my brain with a nice shift of perspective.

BTS: The editing process can be rigorous for many writers, and that was the case for you while working on this album. It can be exhausting at times. Do you have an inspiring message that you want to share with fellow lyricists?

Friedman: It’s advice I could certainly do a better job of listening to myself! An ethos in my band Coco (with Oliver Hill and Dan Molad) is that we really do our best not to pre-emptively edit ourselves before we have anything on the page. We write down and talk out any and every idea, no matter how “dumb.” With a little excavating we can turn it into something we really like. When I was writing lyrics for the record, I would work myself into a meditative state where I would just write and write and write without judging, without thinking too much, but trusting that I would be able to find the kernels after I got it all out and onto the page. Also – RhymeZone.

BTS: You first wrote this album playing chords alone on a guitar. Then you turned everything over to producer Oliver Hill to arrange string and woodwind compositions, which are a major part of this record. How did you feel those added instruments transformed the album into its finished product?

Friedman: Played alone with voice and guitar, the songs are quite intimate – they’re sparse! Once the collection was complete, I knew I wanted to translate them harmonically into a small string-and-wind chamber ensemble. It was a bucket-list desire, so to say. I think the arrangements whisk the listener into another world, into another dimension. I imagine Dorothy at home vs Dorothy after the tornado, stepping into a world brimming with dynamic color. The title Goodbye Long Winter Shadow could mean many things.

BTS: This record is being released at the peak of springtime, and the lyrical themes deal with warmer, happier activities than the ones that could happen in the colder months. Why do you explore so many themes of nature here?

Friedman: Nature is a source of great inspiration for me! I grew up in the wilderness of central California and the light, the scent, the landscape, the plants, flowers, birds, trees have all resonated with me since. Nature is our greatest teacher – here long before we existed and hopefully here long after we are gone. Many of my songs are written from a place of aspirational groundedness (I aspire to be balanced, I aspire to be calm), and in nature is where I can most readily access these states of being. Do you believe your moods are stronger and vary by which season it is? 100%. So much of my mood is dictated by the weather, the temperature, the season, the light or lack thereof.

BTS: You’ve just been on tour with Basia Bulat. How do you perform songs with complicated instrumental arrangements live?

Friedman: It was a journey figuring out how to perform the songs without the full chamber ensemble. Before rehearsing, I went through the album and wrote notes for each song highlighting which parts felt most necessary to recreate. I have a very detailed color-coded google doc floating around so everyone knows what parts they’re to cover. I brought in a few truly incredible musicians to help translate the music into a more “efficient” arrangement (i.e. fewer than 10 people). My friend Núria Graham plays bass and synthesizer, Sean Mullins plays drums and a mellotron, Adelyn Strei joined for the midwest leg on guitar and Clarinet, and Adam Brisbin will join on the west coast playing guitar. I feel so lucky getting to play with them each night.

BTS: What other upcoming artistic endeavors or plans in 2025 can you share today?

Friedman: Hopefully I’ll have more opportunities to perform this music through the summer and into the fall. Speaking of full ensemble, I have two album-release shows booked with full band + 6-piece string and wind ensemble: May 10th in Los Angeles at Glass Hill and June 28th in New York at Public Records. I am so excited to play the album surrounded by such beautiful instruments and magical players. I truly can’t wait.

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Ben Pagani
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Ben Pagani

Ben is a music journalist living and working in Chicago. They joined Beyond The Stage as an intern and have stayed on the staff for several years. Now serving on the editorial board, Ben is proud to be BTS' Music Projects Manager, coordinating coverage between international record labels and our staff. Ben has interviewed, photographed and written about bands from across the world. Ben has lived all over the United States working in television and media. They are an Emmy Award-winning writer. Ben can be found spinning records as 'DJ Wearing Sunglasses' in clubs and basements across the US.