Maple St.
LA-based queer duo Maple St. unveiled their latest single “Love Me Less?” on March 13th.
Comprised of Alyssa Wilkens (producer) and Jillian Allen (songwriter), the indie-pop duo combines 80’s pop with modern pop to create their unique sound.
Produced by Wilkens and DJ De Neve, “Love Me Less?” is about the moment in a relationship when the honeymoon goggles fade and you’re forced to face the real versions of each other; usually, the time when you find yourself asking questions like, “do you love me a little bit less than when we first met?”, says the band.
The duo will be revealing a new single every month, followed by the release of their debut EP.
“Love Me Less?” is now available worldwide.
Photo credit: Emma Wahlstrom
Introduce yourselves - what's your story?
Hi! We're Alyssa & Jillian, we're two queer twenty-something musicians! We met taking after school guitar lessons at the beginning of high school, and we've been making music together ever since. We are both pursuing careers in music (Jillian as a songwriter and Alyssa as a producer) and although we love our work, Maple St. is the place where all of our weird lyrics and weird ideas go, a place for us to put the music that we write just for ourselves.
How would you define Maple St.?
We really admire artists that can blend the typical pop sound with lyrics that hit as hard as the ones in indie music, and that's what we're always striving for. We want all of our songs to be feel-good car jams, but to have a lot of meaning both to us and to anyone who hears them. (you could also argue we're trying to bring back anthemic 80's pop, but ARIZONA might have beat us to it...)
'Love Me Less?' is your new single. What's the story behind this song?
After struggling to find our sound for months, we finally wrote Holes In My Shoes. We were terrified that we wouldn't be able to follow it up with anything cohesive, but sitting in the kitchen after lunch one day, Alyssa picked up an acoustic guitar and played the main riff in the song. JIllian started humming the melody to love me less over it, and most of the song came out in about 20 minutes (disclaimer, it almost never happens like this!). Alyssa co-produced the track with our good friend DJ De Neve, and we were instantly in love with the sound. It wasn't until after we'd written it and reflected a bit that we realized it was about us in several ways. We were hesitant to release something so personal, but we also wanted to break the stigma about queer relationships being these perfect magical things, and not real relationships with real problems.
Could you describe to us the songwriting/production process? Who helped you create this record?
For the most part, Alyssa produces and Jillian writes, but it depends on the song. Typically Jillian will bring the start of a song written on a guitar or piano - maybe just a chorus, or a few lyrics, and we'll sit down and hash it out together. Our friend DJ De Neve (mentioned above) helped out on all of the songs in this EP, co-producing and co-writing, while we simultaneously worked on the songs for his new project (not release yet!).
What made you want to release 'Love Me Less' as a single?
We are planning to release all of our songs as singles going forward (one each month), then grouping them into EP's after they've been released. They are typically written with one central theme in mind, aka they belong on an EP together, but we love each of them with all of our hearts, and they are each "single-worthy" in our eyes.
What do you like the most about this song?
There is something so satisfying about one-liners that say everything you want to say (Jack Antonoff always nails this in Bleacher's songs with lines like 'I want to get better'), so when we wrote the line "do you love me less than when we first met?" we knew it deserved a whole song. It carries so much weight, but it's conversational. It was everything we were both trying to say but weren't able to, and it perfectly wraps up how we felt about growing up and changing together. There's also the irony that the song is upbeat, and sounds at first more like a love song. I think these types of feelings are inherently confusing, we wanted the song to be too.
What can you tell us about the artwork?
Jillian makes all the artwork by hand, we love the collage look :)
As artists, what do you want to accomplish?
We would love to be in a place where we can tour, but for right now, we are happy just putting out music every month and growing our fanbase.
What's the best part about creating music as a couple? Are there any challenges?
It does get hard at times. Our job as partners is to make each other feel loved unconditionally, and our job as collaborators is to push each other to be better, and those are contradictions for sure.
What message do you want to convey through your art?
Let us get back to you on that in a few years...
What advice would you give to the LGBTQ+ youth?
You will thrive after high school, so just hold on.
How would you define love?
There are two types of love, love as a feeling, and love as a series of actions. Looking at someone and imagining a life together (aka what the view is about) is wonderful, but the sense of accomplishment and companionship you get when you put in the work to make someone feel loved is where it's at.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
If everyone went to therapy we would be unstoppable.
Connect with Maple St.: