Maisie Peters is a witch. Not the cackling, crooked-nose kind, but rather a “good witch”, which doubles as the title for her second studio album.
“A lot of the songs on this album feel like spells,” explains the 23-year-old pop star. “When you play live, there’s something really spiritual about having everybody chant the same words with you.”
And if the good witch could harness a superpower, she’d choose telepathy. “I was a ‘Twihard’ [an avid Twilight fan] growing up, so I’d like to read minds – but only certain minds. It’s a lot of responsibility.”
Sitting in the space between reality and imagination, Peters finds her song writing thrives in a romantic fantasy. “There’s a liminal space between the truth and fiction,” she says. “I like to look in those places and write about what feels true to me, but isn’t true to somebody else. It’s how I interpret it versus how it actually went.”
For example, last year the singer released a track titled “Cate’s Brother”, detailing a fictional relationship with her real-life friend’s brother.
After busking Disney tracks on the streets of Brighton from age 14 and uploading songs to YouTube, Peters signed to Atlantic Records in 2018.
Three years later she moved across to Ed Sheeran’s record label, and he’s become something of a mentor for her.
Earlier this year, she opened for Sheeran on his world tour, playing here in Australia. Performing at the MCG to 105,000 people was a highlight. “It’s amazing to get to play to a crowd that size,” she says. “Ed’s so generous and inspiring. It’s so cool to learn from somebody like that.”
Maisie’s album, The Good Witch, is out now.
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