Hey Helen Maw, welcome to BuzzMusic! We’ve entered musical heaven after listening to your emotionally-rich single “Mine Tonight”. Could you share how you found the right lyrics to portray your message on ‘Mine Tonight”? What was Helen Maw’s songwriting process like?
Hi! Thank you, great to speak to you guys again! Thanks so much, I really enjoyed writing Mine Tonight actually! I had the melody first and knew I wanted the song to be romantic in nature and the phrase Mine Tonight was stuck in my head and the lyrics came from there. I wanted it to be a reminiscent song that explored how you could go from that initial exciting place of meeting someone and falling in love to then being at a strange place where you're somewhat estranged and so you just want to recapture the feelings that you once had, even if it was only for one more time.
Your single “Mine Tonight” is a beautiful ballad letting your voice and melodic piano stand alone. Where did Helen Maw want the underlying instrumentation to take the song, and how did you find the chord progressions to support your lyrics?
For this song, I wanted the lyrics to take the lead. Therefore I kept the instrumentation to a minimum. The piano needed to be the main instrument but I also wanted the harmonies behind the lead vocal to add another layer to the song. With regards to the chord progressions in the song, I wanted it to have a country/blues feel and so I played around with the chords to achieve this and added the ascending bassline to accentuate the chord changes.
It’s evident that your latest single “Mine Tonight” surrounds the heart-wrenching emotions of wanting someone and remembering the love that both of you have for each other. Could Helen Maw elaborate on the moment you knew you had to take these emotions and create what is now “Mine Tonight”?
I'll admit, I've never been in a situation like that romantically but I have had relationships with friends and people where unfortunately you ultimately grow apart. It's always sad when you fall out of love with someone and I just wanted to try and put that emotion into a song as for me, it's easier to put my feelings into a song than it is to speak them out loud!
Off your latest EP titled “Everything in Between”, Helen Maw is said to cover the positive and negatives that come with love, much like your single “Mine Tonight”. What do you want your listeners to takeaway from the EP as a whole, what messages do you want to stand out?
I want people to reflect when they listen to this EP. I think everyone at some point will go through various experiences of love, whether that be positive or negative and so they will be able to relate to some of the messages in my songs. Most of all though, I just want people to enjoy it.
Listen to "Mine Tonight" here.