“My dream is to create my own genre. Something that combines all my musical interests. It will be a combination of extreme and complex thrash metal. Carnatic music in traditional form. And it will be made like Alat’s music,” he said confidently.
Tool, the band Maya swears by, is a US-based heavy metal band that music experts say steered rock and roll from “the sullen Nirvana phase to the rhythmic post phase of 1993,” and the band’s guitar riffs are called. “elegant mathematical equations.”
In fact, when the world discovered her, post her June 25 performance for ‘America’s Got Talent’ – where she combined heavy metal with Carnatic music by sneaking Raga Natabhairavi into her interpretation of Papa Roach’s ‘Last Resort’ – Maya was back. Chennai.
“Everything is the same as before, except now more people are listening to what I do on my Insta page,” Maya told PTI via Zoom.
However, when you scroll down her Insta page, you can tell it’s not the same, no matter how much she insists.
Maya’s meticulous documentation of her incredible musical journey on Instagram over the past two years, including two months in the United States, when she performed for ‘America’s Got Talent’.
However, while there, he crossed the country, met and jammed with guitar legends like Alex Skolnick, lead guitarist of the thrash metal band Testament, formed in 1983, Eric Peterson, lead guitarist of California-based Testament and ‘thrash metal’. legend and guitarist of the bands Exodus and Slayer, Gary Holt.
For example, the last song he covered on Instagram on July 1 was rock and roll legend Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’, a 1970s masterpiece released by him at the end of the Vietnam war and the band’s fight against American imperialism. .
In a note accompanying the video, Maya says she picked up the little trick she uses in the song, called the harmonic pinch – pinching one of the strings after choosing to mute it, giving it a subtle twist to the tune – from rock stars Peterson and Holt.
“I learned, in fact, some other new techniques from Peterson, such as thirds (a complex technique that allows musicians to manipulate the intervals between notes) when I visited him in San Francisco,” says Maya.
His journey began at the age of six, building a guitar with the help of YouTube tutorials.
“I’ve been listening to Slayer, Metallica, Slipknot, Exodus and Lamb of God since I was two years old. I like thrash metal because of its energetic sound. Every time it plays, I always jump up and down,” said Maya.
So when she started learning, Maya says she jumped right in, choosing Metallica’s ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ as the first song she learned.
But Maya reckons it’s her cover of Tool’s ‘7empest’ – a 15-minute song where the guitarist casually bends scales and tones, until everything collapses into a crescendo – that finally lifts her into a league of her own. He said it might be one of those shows that got him an audition invitation from the ‘America’s Got Talent’ team.
“I was nine years old when I uploaded ‘7empest’. That same night, I was written about in a famous guitar magazine. Soon after, I decided to start an Insta page. My first follower was Adam Jones, the lead guitarist of Tool,” said Maya.
Around that time, Maya says she was also introduced to the music of Prasanna ‘Guitar’, another Chennaiite, who is credited with pioneering the use of the guitar to play Carnatic ragas.
“He is based in the US and so I learned to play Carnatic music on the guitar from him online,” he said.
Between her and the rock legend, Maya says she found her groove.
Despite her measured response to everything, Maya didn’t let the little girl get ahead of her.
Like when he handed out his first gift from a rock legend – an autographed guitar from Tool’s Jones. He jumped in excitement, pointing out the autograph and doodle that he drew for him on the guitar.
But Maya knows very well that her life is different – while most of her school age, she stays at home, continues her education online, but is actually there to play guitar, “six to seven hours a day”.
“Of course, I like to go to the playground with my sister like any other child. But I also know that what happened to me did not happen. So, I am more grateful,” said Maya.
Three things he has said so far. “I must always remember what started this journey, so that I don’t get caught up in all this and I must not let go of my love for playing the guitar. Most importantly, I must also give a lot, because everyone I have met so far has given a lot ,” Maya said.