"DAY JOB", track-by-track by Maggie Andrew
Day Job - I quit my job working at a Save-On Foods while I was living in Squamish, BC to move back to LA. I remember I was working and my phone rang - my brother (Trevor) had called me and told me their house caught on fire and he needed me to come back. As soon as I got off the phone I went inside and told my boss I had to leave. The song kind of paints the picture of leaving your job, your relationship and everything behind to pursue your passion and the reality of it. Los Angeles is not like people see it as in the movies, there is an unspoken darkness of Hollywood; it’s not all flashing cameras, celebrities and fame. It can be a poisonous place at the same time as it is beautiful, sunny and fun.
I moved there and left what I knew behind because as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a pop star. I left my family, my friends, relationship and job. The life I had wasn’t the life I wanted and I had an incredible opportunity in front of me I couldn’t turn down. I wanted to make music and having the opportunity to move to LA, I didn’t know what to expect. The first time, I was just grateful to be leaving Nova Scotia and felt like something new was coming, I actually didn’t mean to end up staying there but it just happened and was the right thing for me. The second time I was working a job just waiting to be able to move back and the time came to do exactly that. Moving away changed my life in all of the greatest ways and I can positively say that without taking a risk like I did, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Better Than You was a song that started at a songcamp with Carleton Stone and Willie Stratton, it was our first day writing together and we started this idea. I lost my voice the night before so I didn’t have access to my whole range. It was a petty idea for a song about being better than someone, better than your ex boyfriend, better than your ex bff, better than any person that you don’t fuck with anymore - again it sat on Carleton's computer unopened for a year before I was able to take it to Corey again and we finished it, I had Willie play all of the electric guitars on the track and the bass lines were done by Sara Eve - it ended up being a super fun song with contributions from some of my best friends.
Biting Ice cream was written one afternoon while it was 40 degrees outside in Modesto, California, I had just come back from picking up my new grill from my Jeweler. I had a beat and we just got into it and wrote a song about it. It doesn’t have a deeper meaning beyond just having fun and writing a song in the literal heat of the moment.
Time In Space - Was originally written in 2021 right after I wrapped the filming of my Trilogy with Andy Hines. Originally the song was a duet with myself and sunsetto, because we made the song together but that didn’t work out - it seemed that we wrote a song about our relationship ending before it was really over. It seemed like a bit of foreshadowing and I revisited the song in 2023 and asked my friend BASYL to try something on it with me - he did and once I heard our voices together on the track I knew it was meant to be.
The song explores the push and pull of relationship struggles. One is always waiting and the other is always late, things just aren’t working in favor of being together and it’s sad but the chorus leads you to a place where there is no time in space and in another world if you could fly away together maybe it would work and all the problems would go away.
Come Clean, I wrote during the pandemic with my friends Rachel Kanner and Sam Balcom, we wrote half of it on zoom and then i recorded all the vocals in sams room. I sat on the song for two years and then I took it to Corey Lerue and we reimagined some of the song and then finished it and release it in 2023.
Hurt Myself was inspired after a conversation about drunk tattoos - then turned into hurting yourself for someone else to prove how much you care about them and they never return the gesture or even notice so you go even further to stretch yourself so thin to suit their needs. (getting a tattoo of someone's name on your body, dressing nice and never getting a compliment, doing something nice for someone and not getting a thank you or being told you’re appreciated etc).
I wrote this song with Carleton Stone on an acoustic guitar and then the next day we got in the studio with Corey Lerue and sketched out the idea for the song. We worked on it for a few months and then we weren’t really sure what to do with it - I met Jared Manerika in December 2023 and in January 2024 I sent the song to him and he knew exactly what to do to put the song over the finish line.
Come Clean, I wrote during the pandemic with my friends Rachel Kanner and Sam Balcom, we wrote half of it on zoom and then i recorded all the vocals in sams room. I sat on the song for two years and then I took it to Corey Lerue and we reimagined some of the song and then finished it and release it in 2023.
That Bitch - I originally wrote this song in LA with Riley Buccola and Whakaio Taahi. We had spent the week writing songs and wanted to create a bit of an escape from “reality” as we knew it. Just making something fun and confident with no real serious topics or ‘trauma’ around the story. The song is as the title says “That Bitch” and that's exactly what it sounds like.
About Us is a really important song to me. I wrote it in my bedroom one night around 2am. I was just sitting by the piano thinking about my experiences in a past relationship and basically just freestyled about it. Once I brought Carleton into the mix it took another year and quite literally 12 versions of the song to get it finished but we did it.
I wrote this song about the feeling of being trapped in an abusive relationship with someone struggling with anger issues and battling substance abuse. You want to stay and leave at the same time but you feel conflicted between what the person says to you and how their actions show differently. Being called “princess” and getting punched in the face ending up at the dentist getting a ‘“crown’”, then calling you an angel and almost dying on the floor in front of you for it to make sense.