07:30 PM
Growing up in Oregon splitting time between her mom’s Japanese-speaking home and her father’s English-speaking home, Maita-Keppeler found an expressive avenue out of her shyness through music. “I was getting so much out of songwriters like Elliott Smith, Feist, and Cat Power at a point when I really needed them,” she says. That fiery devotion brought her to perform at open mics in college, to connect with other people through art.
“I write songs by listening and watching, trying to get to the truth of it all,” she says. The catharsis produced in that process comes naturally, and conveys to the listener just as easily as it does to Maita-Keppeler. In those moments of disconnect, of confusion, of isolation, I Just Want To Be Wild For You thunders ahead, forging unexpected connections along the way