Neu On the Same Page: Maggie Rogers

Maggie Rogers is trying to get over the Internet. The 22-year old singer-songwriter found herself sitting next to Pharrell Williams back in May, playing him ‘Alaska’, the lead single from her ‘Now That The Light Is Fading’ EP. The meeting was recorded on video as a part of New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music course, which Maggie graduated from last May.

The clip blew up, racing over two million views.

Watching it later you might note Pharrell’s jaw loosen, lips parting delicately, as he grapples with the brilliant track for the first time. He and Maggie throw each other furtive, sideways glances. It’s cute, and launched a bidding war for the singer-songwriter that one anonymous A&R called “the biggest derby of the year.” The video is watching a person self-actualise in real-time. When ‘Alaska’ ends, Pharrell simply says: “wow.” This is how the world finally met Maggie Rogers.

She’s no newcomer to music, having grown up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland playing the banjo and writing folk songs. And after releasing two LPs of folk compositions, she began experimenting with production while at New York University. “When I first started writing, I would sit down with a guitar and a banjo. It was a quiet, slow, emotional, kind of dramatic process. What’s changed so much for me in learning production at university was I would start with the rhythm.”