Mae Stephens is a UK pop newcomer known for her witty, relatable songwriting and bold personality. Breaking through with her viral hit ‘If We Ever Broke Up’, she’s continued to prove her skill for catchy hooks and honest storytelling, making her one of the UK’s most exciting rising artists. 

We sat down with Mae as part of our Seven Questions with Music Is To Blame series, getting a closer look at the rising star behind the music.

Introduce yourself and where you’re from.

I’m Mae Stephens, I'm 22 years old and I'm from Kettering, Northamptonshire.

What do our readers need to know about you?

I am a neurodivergent artist who embraces dopamine, decorum, maximalism, basically anything that makes you happy! I also specialise in nostalgia and enjoying the fact that you can still enjoy the little things, like being a kid or being a fun adult, and enjoying life. 

What have you got coming up that you’re most excited for?

Well I mean, I’ve just released a single and now it’s kind of onto the next one. We’ve got this really, really cool track, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say who it’s being produced by and stuff now, but it’s very different to the last few releases and it’s a track that I’m really really excited about. It's going to be, I think, a little bit more to the maturer audience, the higher age range of my fanbase… we’ve done a lot of songs that resonate with everyone, and we’ve got the younger generation; however, I want to target that specific audience to give them a bop. 

I’m really excited for that and we are really starting to create an awesome little brand for Mae Stephens and really hone in on that dopamine, decorum, all of these bright colours, the maximalism and just sort of bring to life this really crazy, weird, wacky, Mae Stephens world and then bring it to the screen, it’s going to be sick!

What’s the best run-in you’ve had with a fan?

So, funnily enough one of my biggest fans is now a close friend. It’s this girl, her name is Alicia and she has been following me since the beginning. I mean, she has an edit fanpage, she’s been to almost every gig she can get her hands on, bought every piece of merch, listened to every song, she is honestly a very, very hardcore fan. I saw a lot of myself in her, I was in the exact same mentality she was when I was 15/16 years old. The stuff she’s going through in her personal life is also so similar to mine, and in my childhood, and what I had at school, and so I ended up becoming like a big sister figure for her, and that has just merged into a friendship. I never had a little sister and always wanted one. So, now she has almost become a little sister, and I'm sort of guiding her from Year 11 to now. She’s going to college and starting to figure out who she is, and we’ve just built this really beautiful friendship. We check in on each other. I had some bad news recently, and she’s been checking in with me. It’s just blossomed from artist and fan to really, really good friends, and she is just an incredible person, and so a little bit of a shout out to her. 

What’s been your biggest ‘I’ve made it’ moment so far?

I’ve had a few people ask me this, and when I’ve told them the answer, they’ve kinda gone “Oh, okay”. I feel like every kid has this because obviously parents pay for things, and you know when you finally get that bit of pocket money, it’s like “I’ll buy you an ice lolly” or something like that. My biggest moment was when I got into the industry and I made a little bit from ‘If We Ever Broke Up’. I bought my dad dinner for the first time, and it was just a bowl of ramen. It was just a really simple thing, but I had a really emotional moment because I've never been able to buy my dad or my parents a meal, and our love language is food in my family. So I had a real moment simply from buying my dad dinner. 

But I think also standing on the stage at BST Hyde Park and hearing people sing that song back to me, or even every time I'm on stage and I announce the name of the song, it’s like everyone knows it and they sing it back to me, and I don’t think it will ever get old. I think the fact that something came out of my brain is now in hundreds of other people singing it back to me, I think that moment in every gig I’ll ever do will always be surreal to me and will always be a moment of like “WOW! This is reality”. 

What are your three “desert island” albums?

‘Brat’ Charli XCX

‘Witness’ Katy Perry

‘Demon Days’ Gorillaz

Sum up your sound in three words.

Dopamine, Nostalgia, Harmonies.

Chloe Ridgley

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