Meet Maya aka ‘Sunny Flowers’: Genre-Bending Hip-Hop Artist on the Rise
In the modest space of Fremantle’s indie hotspot Mojo’s, watching Maya—aka Sunny Flowers—prowl across the stage feels arena-worthy.
Sampling her psychologist, ripping off her dress and pitching her voice up into the realm of the experimental, she’s a performer through and through. It wouldn’t be awfully surreal to see her as a support act for Tyler, the Creator or Childish Gambino (two of her biggest influences).
For our March series we chatted with 23-year-old Maya about her musical journey, creative direction, queerness, mental health, and the power of being yourself.
“I’ve always been a bit of an exhibitionist.”
Maya’s first musical epiphany was drumming at a party when she was five or six years old and thinking “this is my High School Musical moment".
After being encouraged by older band members, she took up drums and later dabbled in violin.
“I wasn’t a massive fan of that because when you play violin you can’t capture everyone’s attention. It’s not very rockstar,” Maya laughed. “I wanted to be front of stage, making less classical music.”
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She started learning guitar and formed a band at 11-years old before writing parody songs inspired by “Weird Al” Yankovic. She then discovered digital music production in high school.
“Once I thought I had a decent grip on it, I started recording my own stuff and that was when I got into hip-hop and R&B. After a couple years of experimenting, I was like, yeah, I think I can do this and perform on stage.”
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Having grown up in the dawn of YouTube and digital content, Maya taught herself a lot through online tutorials. She combined that with her skills in English and creative writing, and said “hip-hop was a good way to fit in lots of words and tell my stories”.
But hip-hop isn’t the only genre she draws upon. On her SoundCloud is a cover of Phoebe Bridgers’ downtempo “Savior Complex”, and she’s a self-proclaimed fan of hyperpop duo, 100 Gecs. Even more left-of-field are her childhood influences.
“I grew up listening to a lot of Australian country music—John Williamson was a big influence when I was younger,” she told us, also confessing to being a fan of Adelaide rapper, Allday.
“I’m kind of embarrassed to admit it,” she laughed, “but he sounds kind of feminine, and I was like okay, I can do that.”
As a trans woman, Maya has found great creative expression in genres like hyperpop which utilise vocal pitching.
“On my first EP I tried to sound more masculine than I really was to try and appeal to people who like hip-hop.”
Maya spoke about how vocals are often pitched down in hip-hop. In general, a lot of popular music is heteronormative because it supposedly appeals to the masses.
Having recently been featured on the triple j unearthed Pride playlist, Maya champions the spotlighting of queer artists in Australia.
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“Before I came out as trans, and during and after, I did struggle to find music that I could relate to properly because hip-hop is a very masculine dominated genre.
“So having something like a pride playlist is very—I don’t want to say validating, because I know I’m valid, I know I have worth—but it’s just good for that to be out in the mainstream.”
Maya spoke of how the sound of Sunny Flowers had evolved alongside her identity. “My music is always kind of an exaggerated, more confident version of myself,” she said, “…it’s all about being authentic.”
“I always have a feeling or picture in my head of what I want my music to look like.”
Maya not only writes and produces her own music, but has directed and edited her own music videos and created stunning visuals for Sunny Flowers. Her most recent endeavour was the music video for her latest single, “Start with a Coffee”.
“I studied graphic design and animation. I did a lot of art, like drawing and painting at school. So I kind of learned the skills to build my brand design before I made the actual product.
“I found the career paths associated with graphic design are very much for companies. I realised that’s not for me—I wanted to make cover artwork for bands and posters for movies and stuff like that. I like thinking big.”
“Mental health is kind of the driving force behind most of my songs.”
Despite creating in the space of hip-hop music, which often contains themes of excess, money and extreme self-confidence, Sunny Flowers is telling it differently.
“As soon as I feel like I’m being too braggadocious, I have to bring it back down and be like, look, you’re a person. And you can’t pretend like you’re okay all the time because you’re not.
“I think that’s something that a lot of people can relate to as well. Trying to put on a brave face all the time.”
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“Don’t try and say, ‘I am like this person’. You’re unique.”
For others wanting to pursue music or art, Maya encouraged having influences but not trying to imitate them.
“People maybe think Billie Eilish is really cool and then they make music like Billie Eilish. But it’ll never be Billie Eilish. So, just make music or art that speaks to you and don’t worry what you think other people will like.”
Seeing Maya steal the stage as Sunny Flowers, it’s clear to see she practices what she preaches.
You can follow the official Sunny Flowers Instagram page here, and be sure to check out all our March series profiles!
