1824 & GRRRL Music | Maya Delilah is moving into Nostalgic Season with her debut album ‘The Long Way Round’

Written by: Ruby Usiskin

Maya is the type of artist you’ll naturally gravitate towards. The 24 year old London-based singer and guitarist’s sound combines elements of nostalgia, warmth and relaxation that makes you want nothing more but to start your day with her soulful tracks. She learnt guitar solely by ear as a child and began releasing songs in 2020. Her song ‘Breakup Season’ launched her into the spotlight amassing over 11 million streams on Spotify. Since then she released singles, ‘Begin Again’, ‘Necklace’ and ‘Actress’, which landed her on Spotify's 2025 Artists To Watch list. Her much anticipated debut album ‘The Long Way Round’ will be dropping on 28th March, it includes a beautiful mix of soul, jazz, pop and funk. She considers this album to be her life story, unearthing themes of love, trust and happiness. 

Committing To A Career In Music and Going To School In London

At one point Maya considered becoming a surgeon. Luckily the combination of her realising that she wasn't very good at science and her mum’s helpful advice made her choose to study music at BRIT School in London. Maya told us “I really wasn't sure that I wanted to commit to music school but the thing that pushed me to make the choice was my mum asking me ‘What would Prince do?’. I was such a big Prince fan at the time and obviously Prince would go to music school so that was what I did!” 

Coming from North London myself, I know how exciting the music scene is here. When asked about how her North London roots have influenced her musical journey, Maya said “The London music scene is incredible. It's very collaborative and so many of the people I work with today went to my school in South London. For example, John, my bass player who's on most of these records.” She also mentioned that she grew up in a North London jazz band which helped teach her to solo on guitar and build her jazz roots. Clearly, it’s the people that Maya has met by growing up in London that has made the city so integral to her growth as an artist. 

Learning Guitar By Ear And Developing A Style 

Guitar is such a key part of Maya’s artistry and her background of learning guitar by ear clearly plays a part in the sound that we hear in her music. “Learning by ear helps me connect with the music so much more. When people talk in really technical terms in the studio, it just takes me out of the room and out of writing the song. I'm very dyslexic so my brain works in a strange way. I find that when people talk in adjectives like saying ‘I want it to sound warmer’ or ‘I want the chord to sound like rain’, I find it so much easier.” The emotion that Maya conveys by creating songs in this way comes through so strongly in the album, particularly in the incredibly smooth guitar solo at the end of ‘Begin Again’. 

Maya achieves such a pure tone with her unique playing style on guitar. She mostly relies on her fingers rather than using a pick. When learning instruments she jumped from playing fingerstyle acoustic guitar with no pick to playing banjo which requires 5 picks, one on each finger. “I decided that instead of using 5 picks I would grow those five nails really long and do it that way. I just got really used to not using a pick and in quite a stubborn way, I kept that

habit when learning electric guitar too. I ended up finding that I could get so much more feel and emotion out of the guitar without a pick which is always my aim.” 

Nostalgic Season 

Maya explained “With my album, I hope it feels emotional, comforting and like home to people. When I was writing it, I was listening to a lot of records that I grew up on so it sounds really nostalgic to me. With the writing, there's themes of simplicity of life and coming home to yourself. It’s music you listen to on a chilled Sunday morning.” With what we have heard so far of the album, it certainly has that vibe and we can’t help but love it! 

In the interview, she exclusively revealed the names of two new songs which will be on the album including ‘I'll Be There In The Morning’ and ‘Did I Dream It All?’. She told us that ‘I'll Be There In The Morning’ is a very relationship based song and that when writing it, she got out exactly what she wanted to say. She wrote about how she felt in that moment in time, explaining that she felt like crap in the morning of writing it but once it was finished, she felt great. ‘Did I Dream It All?’ was the last song that she made on the album. She told us “It’s the most ballady song on the record and it really felt like the final piece of the puzzle.” The album also contains a lot about both her childhood and her friends' lives as she enjoys putting herself in her friend’s shoes to relive their memories and imagine how they felt. 

‘The Long Way Round’ Album Cover Concept And Lyric Videos

We had to know where the concept for the album cover came from, and Maya excitedly answered that she always knew it would pay homage to classic Blue Note Records through the font and colour choices. “I’ve always loved black and white photos. I had seen a hip hop photo that had a fisheye lens in the middle and a magazine that had a circular warped swirl on it so the inspiration came from those. I knew I wanted it to be in the studio and to have tape machines in it because half the album was made on tape. It all came very naturally.” It’s incredible how Maya seems to find inspiration from everything! 

For the ‘Squeeze’, ‘Begin Again’, and ‘Look At The State Of Me Now’ music videos, Maya really wanted a little character to tell her stories. She mentioned that she really loves Snoopy, Peanuts and that whole world. Spike, her character, was designed by talented artist Boy Tillekens and features throughout Maya’s musical world. 

Maya’s Favourites: Song, Venue Influence 

What is your favourite song off of the new album? 

At the moment, it’s a song that's not out yet, which is called ‘I'll Be There In The Morning’. 

Do you have a favourite venue or bar you like to go to to discover new artists and listen to music? 

There's a really cool venue in Camden called The Jazz Cafe, which is 450 cap, and it always has new music. My dad has a membership, so we go quite a lot and we'll discover new artists. 

Who are your favourite guitar playing influences? 

My absolute all time favourite guitar player is Derek Trucks from Tedeschi Trucks Band. He plays with slide and with the most emotion of anyone I've ever heard. Another one is John Mayer. I really look up to him for songwriting, singing and guitar playing. Also Antonio Forcioni who I used to listen to a lot when I was young, he plays acoustic world music and has also been a big inspiration in my learning how to harmonize and play finger style stuff. 

Listen to ‘The Long Way Round’ by Maya Delilah on all streaming platforms on 28th March. We also have her upcoming UK shows to look forward to which will be performed with the same musicians that played on the record, making the shows extremely special! Find out more on Maya’s website: https://www.mayadelilah.com/shows/ and keep up with her on Instagram @mayadelilahh