Introducing MAUMAUMAU
“I have this really distinct quote from myself when I was like 13 where, like, I remember looking at the adults and being like, ‘why do they make things so complicated? Just like live life and be happy.’ And now that I'm older, I'm like, I get it, I get how- how innocent, and just ignorant that comment was, like it's got a lot of intricacies and I love to explore that. So that's actually a large part of what MAUMAUMAU is about.”
Photo courtesy of Keybored Creative and Nathan Tecson
“But that wasn’t your question, your question was about how I stay creative” he adds with a laugh. Then, as if he queued them, drums start playing in the background, and while where I am it’s below freezing and I haven’t seen the sun in a week, MAUMAUMAU, or Mauricio Jimenez, is taking in what looks like a picturesque Los Angeles day in which the birds are singing and it’s so sunny he actually searched out the shade. Leaving me unable to stop myself from briefly wondering, “okay, is this scripted?”
But it’s not, in fact, nothing about MAUMAUMAU, the Los Angeles-based, Mexican artist who daunts a signature pair of big framed glasses and an even bigger smile is scripted. He explains that the drums I hear in the background are for a song he and some friends are recording, and we go back to my beginning question of how he stays creative.
“I guess the origin part, it's just been [that] I don't know how else to live, I guess, than to make music,” he says. “And that was part of my journey as a human being, to be at peace with the fact that my life will be really hard because of the path that I chose, and that there's literally nothing else that I would want to do in this world. Like, thinking of a day job in a cubicle or anything else that to someone else might be this amazing blessing, like, to me just sounds like I would rather die. [..] And it didn't hit me until I was in my like, mid-late 20s that I was like, I'm actually okay with this kind of lifestyle and sometimes having less food than other times just because I really have something to say and I want people to hear it and, and whatnot. So I guess that's how I stay creative, I don't know what else I'd do with my life.”
He goes into detail about his journey, how he’s originally from Mexico and has worked in music since being in the states and done everything from songwriting, producing, to even being a member of the band, Nightlights. All these experiences of course leading him to where he is now, working on his solo project, MAUMAUMAU. It is the artist’s first time embarking on a project which is totally his own and he describes it as being a very empowering journey for him since he now has the creative freedom to come up with sounds that appeal to him, and write about whichever topic is true to him at the time, whether it be more political, sad, or even something which might be taken as a more commercial, without his idea having to be so filtered through and straying from the original concept.
While his recent songs have covered heavy topics such as politics, police brutality, and life during COVID, he also writes his music in a way to connect with others. His first single, Mouthbreather, which has over thirty-thousand plays on Spotify, is how he described his frustrations he and many of us have shared in learning to live during a pandemic.
“I started getting messages from my parents being like, you should write a song like this. And it linked me with like, some person writing, like, ‘the day I get to touch somebody again, it's gonna be the day for me’ or something like that. [And] it was like, you know, cut in with all these pictures of like, medical, essential workers just walking around and saving lives in slow-mo and I was like, I don't want to write this. But I do want to write something about how complicated things are.”
Thus, Mouthbreather came to be. In contrast to the “corny” songs he describes being pushed to write, he made this song to give a sense of unity, reminding everyone we’re all still learning how to navigate life in a pandemic and all the complications which come with it, things like as the song describe, learning to breathe through our mouths because of our masks. “That's how I live my life now. And that kind of unites us, we're all struggling through the same stuff to a certain extent,” he adds.
Now, most recently, he’s released B!l!ngval, a song which chronicles those all too familiar sentiments many have come to know of trying to hold a conversation on politics with someone who has very opposing political views. Inspired by an actual political conversation of this sort which he had before writing B!l!gval and with the use of lines like, “I got Rosetta Stone just for this, just for this, so I can catch you in your drift” the song chronicles how difficult these complicated conversations are. Giving some background on the song, he says:
“[..The conversation was] just a really frustrating thing because it seemed very one-sided. Like I'm trying to understand you, but you don't want to understand me and you don't understand yourself, so how can we have a productive conversation, where I understand you better? And I just couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't, I tried so hard and so I had a whiteboard in my room, with like a bunch of song titles that I wanted to write and in there was Mouthbreather, and B!l!ngval.”
He explains how initially when he thought of the title B!l!ngval he intended on it being a song in Spanglish which he would eventually like to write. However, after the conversation, he knew that the song was meant to be titled B!l!ngval, to show how two people can speak the same language, and take in the same information, yet still when speaking on this same topic, not understand each other.
Cover of MAUMAUMAU’s latest single, B!l!ngval
In everything he does, words matter a lot to him, and amongst covering these heavy topics, he stays true to the motto which inspires him, “I write music to encourage anyone who has ever felt like the underdog.” A phrase that has actually developed with time. He recalled how when he was embarking on this project and came up with this motto it was originally worded, “I write music for the underdog.” However, later on, when he told his parents the motto, it became lost in translation due to there being no actual translation for the word underdog in Spanish.
“I'm sure in other languages it happens too, where the translation is, the disadvantaged, which is somewhat of a synonym, but the missing link here is that the disadvantaged can also be like, the victim, and the underdog, as the term is used in America is someone who is not a victim, who is a fighter, who is persistent, it says it's a story of like, of perseverance through hardship, and like the odds of being against you, but not falling into self-pity for it, and so they started dropping all this stuff on me and I was like, I didn't think this far into it. But it's really important, words matter, and especially when you're translating into different languages, that has to be worded in a different way [...] But like the guy that's going into the ring in the UFC is the underdog, [yet] he sees every opportunity of victory, that's why he's in the ring. He's like, I might be the underdog, but I'm gonna win, and like that's always the attitude of an underdog, like, I'm in it, to fight, to strive to persevere, and to get my goal. [...]. And so it became this really cool of a concept like, no matter who you are, or how good you are at anything, there's some area in your life, where you feel like the underdog, and I'm here to encourage you on that. And I just became obsessed with that concept. Because even if like in music now, I don't feel like the underdog [...] there are times in my life where I definitely wish somebody would just show up and encourage me. [...] So I've always written from that perspective of like, you may feel like a loser but like you have a place in this world, let me encourage you in finding it and getting there.”
He adds that in all of his songs, though the process and meanings to them might be different, they all share that aspect of encouraging anyone who’s ever felt like the underdog in their life. “[The songs] all have this aspect of like, I know what you're going through, we're going to be okay, let's keep pushing like, I don't know, that's kind of the vibe behind that.”
As an upcoming artist who is self admittedly still just getting established, he adds it’s inevitable to sometimes feel frustrated when any random thing can go viral in a minute thanks to TikTok, meanwhile, for most artists, it takes much more time before they receive a major acknowledgment. However, he still stays true to his work and his original goal of creating content that is honest and true to him, whether or not it will receive major hype. “I want to be known as a musician, so like I don't want to do stuff for the hype then be like, ‘Oh, he also makes music, oh, that's like a side gig’ and then I have to commit to-”, then pausing to mimic popular TikTok dance moves. He then later adds on the topic, “[..] Of course, I would love to have a song just goes huge in minutes and all the eyes are turning my direction, but at the same time, like, I think that when I'm in a sober state of mind, like when I'm not on social media swiping and being like, ‘Oh, I wish I wish I thought of that’. I think I always will prefer the chipping away here, you know.”
Earlier in the interview when we were discussing his decision to release Heartbreak Police, a song that voices his frustration towards the consistent rise in police brutality, as his second single he said something which really stood out:
Photo courtesy of Keybored Creative and Nathan Tecson
“I wanted it [Heartbreak Police] to be my second song, even though it's a little bit more heavy, just because it was like, I'm not gonna chicken out because I'm a nobody yet. Like, I want to be able to look back at my career, wherever it goes and say, like, I spoke up about things, not for the press, not for the glory or for like the, you know, symbolism, but because it was something that was on my mind at the time, and I stood up for it being who I was, which at the time is nobody you know, and I want to be proud of that.”
It’s easy to see that creating something which he takes pride in is an undeniable theme in his work and as he evolves and grows as an artist, one thing can be sure, to himself and his ideas he remains true. While he often covers topics that even the top of the chart artists don’t cover, he chooses not to shy from them, speaking honestly about what’s on his mind, whether it be on injustice, personal feelings, or learning to breathe through a mask. It’s this loyalty to himself and his true creativity that makes it easy to see that MAUMAUMAU is an endeavor that is made to last.
To support MAUMAUMAU, check out his links here.
