Photo Credit: Clare Gillen
[Maty Noyes](https://www.instagram.com/matynoyes/?hl=en) is ready to prove her worth as a solo artist, if she hasn’t already. The talented singer-songwriter is truly in her own lane, with her own quirky personality and one-of-a-kind spirit. At age 12, she received an acoustic guitar and was writing her own songs within a week.
Describing herself as “an all-around artist from the South, a hippie who loves to make music and art.” Her favorite pastimes are hanging out with her dog and close friends, living life to the fullest so the stories inspire her. She continues, “when you’re creating, you try to force it all the time or recreate something from before. It never works out that way, you have to live your life and trust that the melodies and words will come.”
Maty has accomplished what most artists could only dream of. Writing for Celine Dion at age 17, collaborating with The Weeknd on “Angel,” being the female vocalist on Kygo’s “Stay,” it’s safe to say Maty is on her way to becoming one of the greatest.
Now, she premieres her own visual for “Wrong,” exclusively on Flaunt. We caught up with Maty who was located in Los Angeles — her home for the past 5 years after moving from Nashville, Tennessee.
**How did you get to write for Celine Dion? That’s legendary.**
You always know you're going to work hard and get there, you never know how it's going to happen. It was random opportunities where I was writing every day about stuff happening in my life. Certain people heard the songs. Kygo heard a song, wanted to put it out in his project. Celine Dion heard a song, wanted to put it out for her project. It's never easy to give my songs away because they're all my babies, but sometimes you have to compromise and know that it's worth it.
**Especially for songwriters, you guys are always artists to begin with. I know the songwriting bag can be good as well.**
There's definitely a battle and a compromise. I'm lucky I got into it really young because at this point, I know enough about how much I can compromise and how to stick up for myself. When you think you're taking a short route by compromising, sometimes it ends up being the really long route because you weren't 100% yourself. At the end of the day, really dedicate trying to figure out what 100% yourself means. I'm really getting closer every day. I hope this new music coming is a reflection of that.
**Talk about your love for guitar, I know you got it as a Christmas present at age 12.**
I do love guitar. The worst thing is I shot this dope video, my girl who always does my nail art hooked it up and did 4-hour hand painted acrylics. They’re so fire! But I can't play guitar with them and it's driving me crazy. Half of me wants to rip them off, but half of me is so happy to have fire nails. It's my birthday month, I wanted to go all out.
**I always wonder how girls text, but playing guitar is a whole other battle.**
It's really hard! You have to know I'm going to be spelling half of the stuff wrong. Accept it and try to understand what I'm trying to say.
**When's your birthday?**
August 25th. I'm having a mini-Burning Man party with my really close friends. It's canceled this year, we're doing a little mini-version at my place.
**Are you a Burning Man attendee?**
I went once last year and loved it. My best friend and roommate is also a musician and artist, her birthday is the day before mine so we're celebrating together.
**How has the quarantine affected your life and career?**
Quarantine helped me approach songwriting and art in a different way. Before quarantine, I was moving a million miles a minute every day. Going to sessions, going here and there. You forget how much work you do, how sometimes you should stop and figure out what you can do with what you've already made rather than keep going and going. My biggest fall as an artist is I have 5 albums done or more that I should’ve been putting out years ago, but I couldn't because I was with a major label that didn't let me.
You have to keep putting music out, it sucks to not have been able to do that before. Quarantine really taught me to not worry so much about what it all means or what will happen. The most important thing is to remain consistent and keep releasing music. There’s so much, only me and my friends know how dope it is. I know how dope I am, but nobody else knows. \[laughs\] Quarantine had me focused on finishing the videos, bringing the album to life, finishing the album. That's all really happening so that's awesome, because it takes a lot more than what people would think.
**How did you connect with The Weeknd on”Angel”?**
We were working with the same producer Stephan Moccio in the studio. One night he played me a song they were working on, he said, “fuck it, try something on it. Sing something, who knows. It probably won't happen but I'll play it for Abel and see.” I did, he played it and Abel loved it so he kept it in there. Really random, that's what led me to Kygo too. I also did the Celine Dion track with Stephen, he's one of the first big producers who took a chance and believed in me.
**New single, "Wrong" out now! Bring us back to that studio session.**
"Wrong" was me trying to make light of one of the most miserable times in my life. I was dating an extremely kind, good dude. There was nothing really wrong with us. We could have been together, worked it out, it could've been great. There was no lack of love, but I knew deep down us as individuals still had to grow and do things on our own. Us separately could not be together because we hit a point where we stopped growing. He needed to do things for himself he wasn't doing, I needed to work on myself and do things I wasn't doing.
That breakup has been one year. Now coming out, I finally can feel peace because I see I was right and it did work. I addressed all the things I wanted to fix about myself and fixed them on my own. That's what 'Wrong’ is about. In the video, I actually fuck myself. That’s symbolism of loving yourself first before you have that once in a lifetime thing. I'm not saying that once you're with someone, you're never going to need to improve and you're going to be perfect. There's always room, but really things needed to be fixed before I could truly be with someone forever.
**One thing you want fans to get from the record?**
It's so easy to get caught up in the human bullshit that doesn't matter, like insecurity and jealousy. It's really easy, but if you can take your supplies out of your body, choose the higher road. You have to accept and let go, it's meant to not happen. You're not learning the lessons you need to learn anymore and that's okay, change is necessary. The sooner we can all accept that life’s an ever-changing day, the more at peace we can be rather than trying to fool ourselves that we're ever going to find true stability and happiness all the time. For me, happiness comes in learning how to deal with the waves of life.
Photo: Clare Gillen
**3 things I need in the studio?**
Honestly, it depends on the session. Usually I need a true pen and paper. I'm the girl who will doodle and be drawing the whole time. I don't like to type or be on my phone. I like to write out the words, dissect them and put them together. I love to have a notepad and paper. I love to have tons of water because I'm so thirsty. I love having my dog with me because he calms me and brings a good vibe to everyone. Everyone loves him, he's so cool.
**That's adorable, what's your dog's name?**
Atlas, but I also call him Elvis. \[laughs\]
**How would you describe your fashion sense?**
My fashion is very color-based. I like to be a color. Sometimes I like to be purple, green, or blue. I try to mix in pieces that look good on my body, the right thing for my boobs. Everybody has that fit that fits them right. There are so many different cuts of tank tops, etc. I have a total formula: a mix of comfy, sexy, colorful. Lots of patterns too, my closet is very eccentric.
**Best memory opening for Noah Cyrus on tour?**
That’s a good one. Honestly on that tour, we were best friends for that month. It was a month-long sleepover; we’d do face masks every night. We’d always get hotel rooms with huge bathtubs and take baths. Smoke a joint in the bath, it was so fun. That was the best part.
**Did you learn anything from working with her?**
She's a really amazing writer, that's super inspiring. It is really awesome to be around her as a writer myself, to see another young female telling it how it is. Really pushing herself to have great music despite everything else in the world. She really always challenged herself to make really great songs, that’s dope to see.
**Do you miss performing?**
I miss some performing. I was never able to perform the way I've wanted to; it’s always been a compromise. If you're on tour, a lot of times if you're opening, there's an extremely small budget and you can only go out with a track. For me, I've never gotten to fully set up a show how I’d want: with all the instruments I want, all the details, designs, costumes. I’d make it a true experience, that takes a long time to build.
**What's one thing fans may not know about you?**
I do a lot of really random extreme sports stuff. I learned randomly how to pole dance, do aerial yoga, climb boulders.
**Aerial yoga is so hard!**
It took me months! Now I can do a full-on routine.
**Do you have like ropes in your crib?**
I'm ordering one, but I have a private class with this girl who trains me. Not only my trainer for aerial, she works with me on how to do random stuff with my body like headstands and splits. Aerial’s the hardest thing I've ever done, you have to know how to pull up your own bodyweight. It's really awesome, I love it. In the first class, I said “I'm never doing this again.” Now I'm covered in bruises all the time. People are always coming up to me asking me “what happened, are you okay?” I promise I'm okay, I started doing crazy stuff with my body. I'm that bitch always jumping off a boat in the lake, running into a table. I feel like the world’s in my way. I'm tall and booming through, there's all this shit in the way. I run into stuff: beds, tables, chairs, windows, doors. I can't help that everyone puts stuff everywhere. When the cavemen were around, they could run free. I’m adapting to everything. \[laughs\]
**What can we expect music-wise?**
Expect something for everybody. There’s some bangers, there’s some booty shakers, there's some crying in the bathtub, there's some call your ex, there's some don't call your ex. There's a song for the road trip, a song for making love, a song for everything.
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