Maya Azucena: No Sleep Til’ Brooklyn

There’s no rest for Maya Azucena.

The spellbinding Brooklyn songstress would trek from Brooklyn to Manhattan to Brooklyn to Manhattan again, then finally, back to Brooklyn on the day of this interview. She had to pick up a U-Haul in Brighton Beach packed with production equipment and drop it off in Chelsea for her video shoot the next day, then straight to DUMBO for an appearance on #BodegaRadio at PNC Studios. After that, a dinner meeting in The City before heading back to her creative haven in Flatbush — somehow squeaking in fifty-eight minutes to talk her latest release, Cry Love, over appetizers at re-Bar’s bustling gastropub on Front Street. In the background, Sillicon Alley techie-types decked in button-downs and flip flops revel in happy hour, sipping in the week’s end. Sitting in front, Maya skims the menu.

“I like the steak fries,” she says easily, as if oblivious to her loaded schedule; as if fatigue doesn’t exist in her world.

Visually, Maya Azucena is the picture of conquering resilience. Her eyes smile when she talks, remaining fixated even when it’s her turn to listen. Her laughs erupt freely. Her words seem to float like incense, drifting initially while first answering each question then landing resolutely on her ultimate conclusion. She’s a captivating communicator, really, both calming and disarming all at once.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Maya began writing and performing at 4 years old. Her father is a freelance journalist in the Washington, DC area and her mother worked for the Department of Corrections. “She was a parole officer that wore long dangling earrings and cowboy boots,” she says proudly. “She was fabulous at the same time.”

A creative gene is ever present amongst Maya’s siblings. Her younger sister focused on the visual arts, working as an illustrator for MTV and Nickelodeon, among others, during her career. Not only is her older brother a journalist as well, but also a mixed martial artist, body builder and front man for, what Maya describes as “death metal meets performing arts” band, Oxbow — a modern day renaissance man by it’s most modernest definition. “My brother is a person that is a genius,” she says. “He does a million things at once. When I was younger, I always looked at it like, ‘Hey, why do I have to do just one thing? Why can’t I do it all?’”

Her brother’s example quickly ingrained itself in Maya’s artistic journey. She studied classical voice at Manhattan’s LaGuardia High School and minored in acting at Swarthmore College. The secluded Pennsylvania campus offered a stark contrast to The City’s congestion, but once she realized that what she needed to experience couldn’t be learned in theory one-hundred and eleven miles south of The Big Apple, she dropped out in the Kanye-sense.

“I had a professor who literally said, ‘One day when you audition…,’” she says. “I’m like, ‘Did he really just say that?’ I’ve been auditioning for major things before I came here. I don’t need to spend $28,000 a year talking about ‘one day when I do this.’ I need to get in the game as soon as possible.”

Such a weighty decision came rather pragmatically for the raw soul singer. Her seemingly unwavering confidence, relentless work ethic and a voice empyrean enough to reverb the soul cemented the foundation of what’s grown into an impressive independent career. The Village Voice and Washington Post rained praise on Azucena’s live show, while The New York Post compared her to luminaries Chaka Khan and Roberta Flack. Billboard Magazine describe her vocals as “soaring” and The Austin Chronicle declared her possessor of “The Best Pipes At SXSW” — racking up two Porin Awards (the Croatian equivalent to the Grammy’s for her work with Gibonni), AllHipHop.com’s “Best Alternative Artist of the Year Award,” and business publication, The Network Journal’s “40 Under 40 Achievement Award” in the process.

“That was really deep for me,” she says about being recognized by a business community. “They’ve only acknowledged something like three artists in eleven years.”

She even received a Grammy Certificate for her collaboration with Stephen Marley on his album, Mind Control. “I recorded in Bob Marley’s house and Tuff Gong [Studios] in Kingston, Jamaica,” she describes.

“That was really surreal. A surreal moment was being in the office of Bob Marley’s house and Stephen Marley was there and Rita Marley. Rita Marley showing me the harmony to a Nina Simone song that I was going to sing. It was like this baton being passed feeling. I’m singing a Nina Simone song being produced by a Marley, harmonizing with Rita in Bob Marley’s house. It was just crazy.”

Maya accomplished all of this on her own. No budget. No sponsor. No booking agent. No record label. No manager. She’s self made, directing her career less like a bourgeoning superstar and more like a small business. Like her brother, Azucena does it all. “This is hard,” she reveals, finally taking off her cool.

“But then I always put it in perspective. Anybody starting a business: it’s hard. Anybody working for themselves: it’s hard. I’m not an exception to the rule. Freedom is hard. Freedom makes people want to kill you. People wanted to murder Bob Marley because he was free. He inspired people which meant he had control over people which posed a threat to those that wanted to control those people. Freedom comes at a cost. For me, it’s worth the cost.”

But what’s arguably most impressive is Maya’s staunch emphasis on humanitarianism. Rather than substituting her creative aspirations for philanthropic activity, or vice versa, she nimbly intertwines both. While on tour in Asia, performing before thousands each night, Maya and her band held music workshops with students in each country. While honing in on the sound and selections that would ultimately become her most complete offering, Cry Love, Maya co-founded MDGFive.com, a global platform for improving maternal health. While maintaining a laser-aimed focus on her career, Maya mentors high school students, shaping the futures of the future. Rather than merely singing to the heavens about social justice, she rep’s for it on the ground.

“I know my name is associated with respect,” she states resolutely. “People who don’t know me or haven’t seen me know, ‘people respect her.’ You can walk into a room and not say a word and project what you’re about. I desire to truly be what I say I’m about.”

The unavoidable irony is that, although Maya’s taken her message and music all over the globe, notching accolades and raising awareness seemingly everywhere she roams, she’s still shaping her broader name recognition. Since 2003, she’s released six projects independently, collaborated with Hip Hop notables Pete Rock and Redman and a dozen others, rocked the 2006 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival, even performed at a United Nations Summit — and, in her view, she’s still striving to tap mass consciousness. “The Tipping Point will be when something I do peaks into the more mainstream eye,” she describes. “My goal would be international exposure. In Croatia, I have that exposure. But I think what’s a mission for me is that what I sing be accessible to the world on as large a scale as possible.”

In that sense, Cry Love represents every narrow step along her journey merging at once. Songs like the empowering title track, “Cry Love” and the conquering, Vernon Reid-assisted “The Half” not only showcase Azucena’s soul stirring vocals and visceral song writing, but previous versions have appeared projects prior. “Live On” was originally written for Michael Skolnik’s prison documentary, Lockdown, USA and the anthemic, “Warriors” is now on it’s third incarnation. She’s a perfectionist, and can finally present her work the way she always intended it to be heard. “I had to sift through the fact that I didn’t have means provided for me,” she reveals.

“So a lot of times it’s like I’m aiming there but I don’t have the resources to expedite what I have here. I have all these earlier recordings that didn’t quite achieve what I had in my head or that wasn’t the right something but I didn’t have the money to say, ‘Yo, we need to bring this to another mixer.’ So, it’s taken awhile. I feel like this particular recording is saying what I’ve been meaning to say. That it’s achieving what I wanted people to hear.”

As we reach minute fifty-eight, appetizers half done, pints half finished, we wrap this interview. Maya has to leave and head to The City for a dinner meeting then get some rest before her “Cry Love” video shoot the next morning. In the coming week’s she’d trek to Miami, then Atlanta, then Croatia, then back to New York City for a few spot dates leading up to Cry Love’s official CD release at Southpaw in Brooklyn — performing, putting passion into action.

This is her life. Rest has no place.

“I’m campaigning,” she says plainly. “It’s like a politician going from city to city; shaking hands and kissing babies. I’m doing that. It’s just that I’m not elected yet.”

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Maya Azucena will celebrate her CD release party at Southpaw in Brooklyn on Wednesday, September 14th. For more information, visit MayaAzucena.com and follow her on Twitter @MayaAzucena

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