#206 Brittany Maggs
Escaping into Disney movies Brittany loved to sing and would put on ticketed shows at her house whenever people would come around. the typical outgoing child who loves to entertain and share her passion of music but what wasnt so typical was having to grow up too early being the only girl in a family of four and her mother suffering multipal brain tumors and the constant ongoing of having a mother in and out of hostpial never knowing if she was going to come home.
In this podcast Brittany shares her joys, lessons, passions, how and why she now trusts herself 100% when it comes to her artists nature. Flying in and out of LA and now full time in Sydney she is on a new venture and taking full control of her futre in the Australian country music scene.
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Transcript
Rae Leigh: Welcome to a songwriters with the most incredible Brit mags. Beautiful as ever, even without makeup. But what's more beautiful is her voice and her songwriting. It's gorgeous. I like to start, Brittany, by getting you to tell us all a little bit about yourself. Who are you and where do you come from?
Brittany Maggs: Well, thank you firstly for having me on. I'm very excited. But my name is Brittany Mags and I'm from Sydney, Australia. I live in a little. Little, I like to call it little place, but it's not aural. So it's kind of country meet, Meet city. And yeah, I've been living here for like, the last 11 years and I love it.
Rae Leigh: What got you into music? Like how did this start?
Brittany Maggs: Well, okay, so I grew up really obsessed with Hannah Montana, like Saddle Club, pretty much Disney Channel. I, I, um,
Rae Leigh: Yes.
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, so my grow, my mom was really sick growing up and I always thought, like it was always kind of, you know, while dad was at a point like put on TV or something like that. Like it was always tv. TV and because I grew up really. Disney Channel has a lot of music to it, so I feel like that's kind of what started it. And I wanted to be Hannah Montana more than anything. I wanted to be a part of Saddle Club, like I wanted to be on Disney Channel. And then it really solidified when like Camp Rock came through all of that.
And I was like, That's it. I used to say to my mom all the time, I'm gonna be a singer. When I grow up, I'm gonna be a singer. She was like, Oh yeah, yeah, right. Whatever. And I'd force people, anyone that came to the house, I'd like draw little tickets and I'd like give them to them and force them to sit and watch me.
I'd not know what I was doing. I'd just get up there and just start randomly singing to the, you know, the CDs. You could get like the hottest summer hits, like summer.
Rae Leigh: Yeah.
Brittany Maggs: I sort of press play on that, and then I just like dance and sing around. I just loved the idea of sitting. People would sit down and just watch me and I, I'd like, I'd be getting to sing. So I think that's kind of what started it. The idea. Ooh. Singing constantly and you get paid for it.
What,
Rae Leigh: that's up for debate, but yes,
Brittany Maggs: like I'm older now and I realize that Oh, little me would've been like, Oh
Rae Leigh: Yeah, true. So you said your mom was unwell and that you were, obviously watching these Disney shows and I think everyone of our generation can relate to Disney on some level as a kid. What did it mean for you and like, have you done much thought around.
What that provided for you as a child going through whatever it was that you were going through in your family situation, to have Hannah Montana and to have those shows there, like
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, so my mom, she had brain tumors. Majority of my childhood. She'd get one, they'd take it out, it'd be a whole pre, and she just kept, it kept kind of happening. And then she lost her hearing completely. So my mom's deaf. So there was a lot of times in my childhood, like we had to live with my grandparents.
My mom was like basically on life support. It was so hard on our family. Like they basically said to my dad to turn off her life support, and dad was like, No. She'll push through. Like she'll be okay. And if you saw my mom now, like you would not know a single thing. Like, she's like the healthiest. She's so gorgeous. Like, she just looks amazing.
Rae Leigh: Wow.
Brittany Maggs: so you wouldn't even know. But I think as a kid, I, I try to escape a lot of it, and so I'd go and watch shows because I could just zone out and it was like my way. Oh, I don't have to deal with that. Like I'm just watching and kind of like, I don't know, if you watch a kid now watch tv, they're kind of just their mouths open. Like, Oh. Like I think,
Rae Leigh: yeah, yeah, yeah. I got three of them. I get
Brittany Maggs: yeah, I feel like that's what it did to me. It made me, um, not have to think and not have to worry if mom was at home. It was really hard because we all had to really pitch in. Like me especially, I felt as though I had to pitch in and I had to do a lot.
So when, when I
Rae Leigh: Mm. Are you the oldest or
Brittany Maggs: I, now I'm the, you. But I'm the only girl, so I felt, I feel like it's just me and my brother, but I felt as though like I had to take on that responsibility. Yeah. So like when I was in high school, my first week of high school, my mom went in to get a cochlear put in so she could hear, and I'm supposed to be, not a simple procedure, but it's supposed to be something that.
You know, like, you should be okay once they do it. And when they went in it hit her vestibular balance nerve and she literally forgot how to walk and talk and like dropped down to like two kilos, like was rehabbed for like a whole year, wouldn't drive. I was like, what, what age do you, when you first go to school?
I was, I mean, year seven, I was like, what? 13? Yeah. 12 or 13. I used to, like, when my mom came home, I used to like not go to school for like weeks cause I'd just sit at home and help her. And then when I got my license, it just meant that I could drive her to all of her appointments. So like that was a lot of my things.
So even to this day, I watched things to zone out, like when I'm cleaning. I was just talking about this to my cousin, I'm cleaning. I have to have something playing in the background so that my brain doesn't overwork itself, like to sleep. I listen to sleep music, so
Rae Leigh: Yeah, right.
Brittany Maggs: probably really bad. I probably should like try and get my brain to just like slow down, but it just doesn't, It's got so much going on 20.
Rae Leigh: Well, they totally. Yeah. I mean, and that makes sense. I mean, you had to become the parent. There was massive role reversal for you, um, from such a young age. Like you'll be supposed to becoming a woman, you know, and like your mom's supposed to help you. Well
Brittany Maggs: You're supposed to be like enjoying
Rae Leigh: know your body and like boys and
Brittany Maggs: blowing up, like going out with your friends, like, you know, for dinners, that type of stuff. I didn't get to do a whole lot of that. Because, um, like my dad wouldn't take me. And then my mom, obviously I didn't wanna leave her by herself, home alone, you know, my brother's four years older than me, so he was, what about to go turn 18?
That type of stuff. So I was more like, Okay, well I'll stay home. You kind of go be 18. And then by the time I turned more health things happen. So I kind of didn't get to have that, like that teenage.
Rae Leigh: Write of passage. adolescent
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, like that rebel stage or like that party like, So I feel like I grew up real big. Like I matured probably way too quickly. But that's, that's, that's why I wrote,
Rae Leigh: relate to that.
Brittany Maggs: yeah, that's why I wrote when it was easy, because I was kind of just like, Hey. I kind of wanna go back to like that time so I can do it all again and then say to my brother, Hey, you know what, You can take a night. I'm a go party for one night with my friends type of stuff. But I mean, you know, it's my mom. I'd do anything for her. So I don't, I don't really care. I don't even like partying that much. So it's fine.
Rae Leigh: Me either. I, I found it a bit of a waste of time.
Brittany Maggs: And money.
Rae Leigh: that's, that's incredible. And, and money. But, there is a part of just being able to be young and reckless. That like Yeah, it is that rite of passage, I guess, as an adult to be able to be young and make mistakes and it's like you're allowed to at that age and then all of a sudden when you become an adult that's gone your right to make mistakes at some point disappears, which I think is .
Everyone has the right to make mistakes no matter how old you are, but there's like a social. Yeah, like there's a human thing. Did you play an instrument as well to help with your music or,
Brittany Maggs: I played, so I did piano, um, and I was classically getting trained where they like literally put the rubbers on your hands and if the rubber falls off, like they'd snap you with a ruler. Like it was like, so,
Rae Leigh: that's not
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, it was so like, properly, like actually terrible. I hated it. So it really made me like kind of fall outta love with it. And then one day I came home and just like singing. I thought, you know what? I'm just gonna teach myself. So I just taught myself how to play the piano. Like, not play, but like learn instead of playing like, you know, like classical, that type of stuff. I'm gonna.
Rae Leigh: Mm.
Brittany Maggs: Chords. And then from there, if I played all these chords, Sorry, let me mute this thing.
I didn't realize it was still on. Um, if I did, if I did like, um, like if I was sitting down and I'd write, I always found myself starting to do all these chords and then that helped me to start writing because before that I'd kind of just write to nothing and nothing had a tempo, nothing had a beat, nothing had a structure.
So it's kind of really
helped me.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Brittany Maggs: Make it be something now I play and,
Rae Leigh: love that.
Brittany Maggs: but back then it was just the piano and kind of, I'd actually find backing tracks on YouTube to write to like Google, like backing tracks, write music too. And then I'd do that.
Rae Leigh: Oh, that's so cool. I was the same. I did piano and I did piano lessons and they were not, for me, I was like, I don't really care about how to read music. I wanna write music . I just wanna be able to feel it. And then yeah, learn guitar later on. But, it's interesting how that's actually quite a common story and I actually, I've never heard of the rubber band thing that sounds like child abuse,
Brittany Maggs: It was really bad. Yeah, . It was so bad. It was like,
Rae Leigh: I get how they probably do that, but yeah. Ugh. Anyway, I mean, yeah, obviously lessons are good
Brittany Maggs: I'm not gonna be, in the orchestra. Like, it's, it's fine. I don't need, I'm just learning this. Just because the, No, they didn't really care.
Rae Leigh: I'm gonna be a popstar.
Brittany Maggs: Just like, no. It's like, okay, whatever.
Rae Leigh: Yeah. That's okay. Interesting. I, I can totally relate to just about everything you've talked about so far, which is sad, but also, I can empathize. On a deeper level. So when, when did you actually go from, I'm a kid, I'm giving everyone tickets and I'm just gonna do my thing at home, to actually, you know, making people realize, hey, this is actually, I'm serious about this.
I'm gonna make this my career. I'm gonna start releasing music to the world. When did that transition happen?
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, I was, Oh. I think I was like 13 or four. No, no. Okay. So I was 13 and this is just before, No, maybe I was 14. I don't know. It was like, I'm pretty sure it was just after mom had had her whole sickness thing, because I remember she came to the first thing and she was like, skin and bones. Um, and it was just before.
Like I was gonna get my license and all that, so I still had to rely on my parents type of thing. So I, I, I used to just post videos of myself on YouTube under like this really bad account name that I would never, ever, ever share because it would be so funny if people find it. And then I would
Rae Leigh: Has it been deleted or is it still
Brittany Maggs: No, I don't remember the passwords at all. And the email, I don't remember what email it was linked to, so it's there somewhere, but it's under a name that like, nobody could ever really guess. I mean, yeah, it's so, it's so bad.
Rae Leigh: have to find
Brittany Maggs: Yeah. No, it's so
Rae Leigh: It'd be like Hannah Montana, but like an acronym or something.
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, no, it was, it was really bad. But, um, so I had, I don't know how,
Rae Leigh: I have that.
Brittany Maggs: but I had my email. Or something. I don't know. I don't even know why I was posting on neutral. I was so young. But I think I started posting on Facebook as well. And then, I don't know, somehow someone messaged me and they're like, We're holding this competition in Bondi. You should come down to it and sing. And I like waited up to my mom and I'm like, Mom, look, these people, she goes, Brittany, have I not taught you anything about the social media?
Like you can't talk to strangers? And I'm like, I was like, Yeah, but. They want me to sing and she's like, You don't know what they are. Like it's in Bondi. Like they said, it's in an underground club. Like it sounded really dodgy, to be honest. So, I like begged and begged and begged my mom, and she's like, No, I can't drive you.
Your father will be away. And I'm like, begging. I'm, please, please. Like, I just wanna do, This is my opportunity. Anyways, um, we ended up being able to get my auntie and my uncle to take us. And I went, It wasn't dodgy at all as an actual competition. Um, and then I came second and it was, so I sat up, I full, brought my keyboard with me, like my portable keyboard, bought it with.
Rae Leigh: Yep.
Brittany Maggs: up on the stage song. That was my first time singing to like a proper crowd. And then, came second. And then from there, the people that ran it did music camps, like summer music camps. So I'd go to them. Then I got lucky and I started working with the music teacher, like vocals, which I hate doing that because I was told when I was younger that I couldn't sing at all.
So I hated, Yeah, I hated doing lessons. So I started working with this new guy and he was awesome, and he gave me the opportunity to head over to LA with him just to see what he did. Yeah. Just to see what he did. And, he goes, Now nothing's gonna come of it. Like, it's literally just, you know, you'll meet everybody I know.
That type of stuff. I'm like, I don't care. I always wanted to go to la This was when I was 50. So I went there and, um, it was, I think we were there for 12 days and every single day was so busy. We were like thrown into like meeting, after meeting, after meeting. And I sat in a room with Tommy Brown who produces for like Ariana Grande.
Like Justin bva does, like all the biggest pop hits there. Um, me and a couple other girls, we sang. And then there was a lady in the room who then became my manager, flew me back out. Like I flew home and I think I flew back out to LA like a week later. Um, and then I ended up being there four years back and forth constantly and, um, like building myself as an artist.
But that was also really, really, really bad for me as an artist. Uh, because like, you know, when you're 15, you don't know who you are, you don't know anything, you don't. What songs you like. Like I knew I wanted to do country, that was always what I wanted to do and they were pop star. They wanted me to do pop music.
And then, so we met in this middle and we were like, Well, let's do this pop country thing. This is what, like
eight years ago? So, Pop country wasn't a thing at all. It was either your country and you are a straight country or you are a pop and you are a straight pop. There was no kind of middle besides Taylor Swift when she was starting to do that whole reverse thing, but that was kind of
the.
Rae Leigh: She like paved the. way.
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, and I used to always say, I just wanna be like Hannah Montana. Like I just wanna sing my songs will have elements of country that have elements of pops. Like, that's just what I want. I want those big songs anyways. And then, um, obviously like when you're in meetings with very important people, labels, that type of stuff, and they're telling you who you're gonna be, what you're gonna look like, what weight you'll be, how your hair will look, that type of stuff.
You know, at 15, 16, 17, you're. Oh, okay. Right. Whatever. That's cool. Yeah. Okay.
Rae Leigh: You just say, Yes, you're a
child
Brittany Maggs: Yeah. I completely lost myself as an artist, like completely. So that's why I came back to Australia and I was like, Nope, I'm doing what I wanna do. I like put my foot down. I was like, Dump.
So,
Rae Leigh: well done.
Brittany Maggs: Yeah. That's kind of lit.
Rae Leigh: I mean, are you, are you still proud of that or you regret, like do you think, ever think, well what if I had have just followed their advice and done what they wanted me to
Brittany Maggs: No. Cause I wouldn't have been happy. I would've been fake. I felt like in the pop world, I was putting on a persona and I had to look a certain way. I had to be a certain way. I had to have this like aura about myself type of thing. And I felt like every time I stepped onto a stage or something, I felt like I was kind of not myself.
I was playing Britney Mags, the artist. I wasn't playing. . Whereas now, like the world I'm in, I'm a hundred percent myself. I'm, I'm me, on and off the stage. Like if you saw me just sitting on the couch, I'm still the exact same and my music is the, like, is what I write. Whereas I was always writing these tracks and then a producer would turn them into a pop track, but they were literally
written like country, you know what I mean?
So I'm a lot happier and there are times where I'm like, Oh, I wonder what, like what would've happened in terms of like if I had put my foot down there. But no, like if I had gone along with what was happening, I reckon I would be shelved. I'd be probably quite depressed cuz I wouldn't know who I am as a person and I'd be extremely lost. So I think coming home the best thing that I could've done.
Rae Leigh: And just the fact that you had the confidence to put your foot down and say, No, this is not me, says so much about your character. And that it means that you have, you are yourself. And the confidence to be able to do that, speaks volumes. So well done. I, I think that's an amazing trait that not everyone has, and that's okay.
And that, that story of either being shelved or. Signing up to a management or record label deal and then being told exactly what you have to do and who you have to be because they want, they have a picture and an idea of you're gonna be the next Taylor Swift, because it's a factory and you can just pop out Taylor Swifts, like, like that.
Um,
Brittany Maggs: how they think of it.
Rae Leigh: The reality is they don't really know what they're doing though either. You know what I mean? Like, um, copying a formula in in art is not art. It that's, um, it's duplication. And that's, it's not a factory art's, not a factory. So, um, it, it's funny how many times I've heard that same story, and yet people seem to keep trying to do it, but it never works.
I've, I've never heard a story of, Oh yeah, I went to these guys and they told me exactly who to be, and then now, I'm a new version of
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, like it, it doesn't work at all. And then even if in the slightest it does work, everyone constantly like you will get the bad hate for, Oh, you're trying to be this person, You're trying to be this person. So my motto is, I'm just me. I'm unapologetically me like all good, the bad, the ugly, Like it's me.
That's who I am. Like I used to get told, I used to do 16 hour studio days when I was. Biggest days, like I would go in from like 12, like midday or 10 10 even, and I wouldn't come out until like 4:00 AM like it was like brutal on my body and they wouldn't let me eat. That whole time. So you think time zone differences, whatever.
I'd wake up. I'd not be hungry. I don't wanna eat breakfast because, Oh, I feel like I've just woken up. Like I was waking up like 10 minutes before I had to be at the studio, but I was expected to be in the studio in full glam. So like it was just all this constantly. It was constantly like this. And then I'd do these massive days.
Not eating because they wouldn't let me eat. Oh, you can't eat. You can't eat. You can't eat. You can't eat. If you wanna sing, you can't eat. You can't eat. And then I like, I dropped down to like 50 something kilos. I was tiny. I had bones popping outta me. I didn't feel healthy. My hair was black, like I had black hair.
Like I just looked like a ghost, and I remember I was in the shower and there was like a mirror there. I just stared at myself and I was like, I'm not happy. I used to count down the days from the moment I would get on the plane to go
there. I'd count down till I would be leaving. Like I had a journal and I'd be writing.
Rae Leigh: Yeah, That's
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, at the very end I'd be like, Only 22 more days to go. Only 10 more days. Oh my God, I get to go home tomorrow. Like that type of stuff. Like I was so depressed because I had nobody as well, Like I was kind of doing it myself, like I didn't, all my friends, you know, don't understand it. At the time, they were like, Well, you can't shop to my birthday party.
Why can't you come? Well, because. Trying to do something else. And so just, it, it was one of the best things that I learned as an artist. Cause it made me strong in who I am, what I believe in. I will eat if I am hungry and I will eat if I want to. Like, nobody can ever tell me again, like you cannot eat. Like, no, that's not happening. And yeah, I think it made me strong in that way and it opened my eyes a lot because I learn a lot about the music. Whereas I feel
Rae Leigh: yeah, And you do.
Brittany Maggs: don't have that opportunity,
which is probably better for them to
be honest. So they don't have to do that, but yeah.
Rae Leigh: Oh, seriously. Like I,
I definitely am learning a lot
talking to people who are either teenagers or have been in the industry as teenagers because I didn't have that experience because music was my lifeboat and if someone criticized my music, I thought that I might lose it somehow, . And so like I, it kept it, I kept it secret and very, very much protected.
And I think, I'm glad I. For my circumstances. I think that I'm glad I did. I'm definitely glad I did. But um, I can definitely see how it could be very damaging to a person as well, cuz your, your art is your soul and if you haven't got that confidence in who you are and you've got other people trying to tell you who you are, you can have a real identity crisis at a
young
Brittany Maggs: And it all kind of feels like a personal attack too. Like anything like, yeah, you, you, you start thinking, Cause they're not thinking of you as a person, right? They're not thinking of you as,
Rae Leigh: Yeah, Your
Brittany Maggs: Oh, you're 16, you're a product. You are, you are built to be their product. And they're what they're selling, they need their money.
So they don't care about your feelings. They just care about. The world scene. So yeah, so I love, I did go back
though, and I, I like was, I met up with my man, like old manager and stuff and like, it was very different because I think the world's become a bit different and I was very much so, like, I'm, he like, I was like, what, 51 kilos there.
Of course, I'm gonna look a little different now, but, I was just like, No, I'm happy in myself and nobody can change this. And it just felt nice at this time. I felt like I had a say in everything and I felt like, go me. Like yes.
Rae Leigh: Awesome. Well done. I,
I'm screaming go. You too. So how do you think all that experience has impacted your life now as an artist? Like, what's different and what are you doing differently in what you're doing now that is making you enjoy it and, and happier?
Brittany Maggs: I completely trust myself. Like I, if there's a song I wanna release and I believe in it, that song's gonna come out. Like, I'm gonna make sure that that song hears the light of day. Cuz yes, other people's opinions, a hundred percent, they matter. . But if I truly in my heart I believe in something, I'm gonna do it.
Cause as I said, like I'm me and I, to me it's not about the numbers. If something flops to me, it doesn't matter because I got that story out to the world. I got that, what I was feeling at that time. I got that out and I can move on from it. Like I use, I use music as therapy. I don't like therapists. It doesn't really work for me cuz I just, I just don't like someone going, Yes. Okay. And how's that like To me, music is so much better. I open up completely. I'm like, here's all my life. This is all my trauma. I write it all and then I close that. I put that song out to the world and I just feel like that kind of helps me the most.
Rae Leigh: What does it mean? I mean, like writing the song and getting it out of your body. Fantastic. But that step of releasing it for other people to, to witness and, and see or, or connect to, what's that process that part of it do for you? I.
Brittany Maggs: It's kind, it's, it's scary. I get big anxiety, with Carefree and when it was easy, I felt very. I felt like I was in a good place. Like these people, like Carefree is all about like what I, what I feel in this life right now. Like I just wanna live, I just wanna be happy and I just wanna do what I wanna do.
Like let's just be happy, let's be carefree. And when it was easy is still along that vibe, but it kind of. You know, it slowly dips into that world of, Hey, sometimes I like to think back on this and think, what's this? And um, so I use like, they're a bit happier. Like my pop stuff. If you look at like my Spotify, I still have everything up for my pop days.
There was one reasons that I wrote about a breakup and um, that song was the most personal I've ever been. And when that came out, I had moved past the breakup, but when it came out and everyone's messaging. Oh, I didn't know you feel this. It brings up the emotion again. But at the same time, I kind of feel like, like I've moved past it.
Like I know you guys are hearing it for the first time, but I'm only telling you because I'm strong enough, even myself, Like I would never released it if I was still held, like hung up on the relationship. Do you know what I mean? So I, I wait until I'm fully healed in that moment to put that song. So that would, no matter if someone says it's the worst song or they have hate towards, it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter to me.
Like it's not personal. Like,
Okay,
Rae Leigh: You're done.
Brittany Maggs: yeah, I'm done with
Rae Leigh: Yep. I think that's really beautiful advice because like music is therapy. If you're doing it properly. I think it's therapeutic. Um, but to give yourself the time and space. To heal from whatever it is that that song was manifesting in you personally, and then giving it as a gift on for like forwarding it onto the rest of the world or anyone else who wants to hear it, to then be able to use it in whatever healing they need to go through without it impacting your healing process.
Um, I think it's beautiful cause I've definitely done the opposite where I've released songs before I even realized what the song was about and then, Yeah, it's like, oh actually I don't even like doing interviews. When people are like asking you about the song, you're like, uh, dunno.
Brittany Maggs: Yeah.
Rae Leigh: actually .
Brittany Maggs: And it's hard.
Rae Leigh: probably rushed that.
Yeah. Tell me about your collaborations, cuz you, you've obviously worked with tons of different people in Australia and overseas. What's that journey of learning to work with other people being like, or co-writing and doing that sort of stuff. Do you have any advice or biggest lessons that you've learned from that experience?
Brittany Maggs: Everyone has their own brain, so everyone's gonna think a certain way and no one's right and no one's wrong. I think that's something I've learned. Even in the past two years, like I've sat in writing sessions where I'm going, What is going on? I don't understand any of this. Like then no, that's not, But then I have to correct myself and be like, Well no, it's not wrong, it's just how they write.
Everyone writes differently how I write, how my partner writes music completely different, you know, even how down to how I record. So I think in a session like I've learnt how. Really listen in on their ideas, and even if I don't like the idea and they really love the idea, then I'm like, Okay, how can we find a way to make it work with what's.
What we are doing right now currently, like, you know, if they're thrown out a whole sentence, maybe the meaning of that sentence can be amazing. The sentence itself might not work, but what they're trying to get at. So I think I learn how to be patient, how to really properly listen and how to like actually collaborate instead of just No, no, no.
You we're writing for me. We're writing for me. It's all that matters.
I don't know everything at all. I don't, I don't even probably know half the stuff like, you know, like, so I like to take other people's life lessons, other people's life problems. And if find, if you listen, you get a good song cuz you know, people will tell you if you are open to hearing it. Like that type of stuff.
Rae Leigh: You gotta be open to hearing it. That's
Brittany Maggs: Very open to hearing.
Rae Leigh: If you could go back in time, now that you've been in the industry and you've, you've experienced what you've experienced, is there something that I guess you, you wish you had, someone could have told you when you were younger? Or say for example, someone is in a, in a similar situation, just starting out, or maybe they've got offers from overseas or whatever. What, what did, what would you say
Brittany Maggs: I would say eating does not affect your singing. Granted, probably don't go have a milkshake or something, but you know, fuel your body so you have energy to make your vocals work. You got no energy, your vocals aren't gonna work. Don't listen to how people think you should look, you know? Um, You. You know in yourself what you want to look like, how you wanna be who you wanna be.
Don't let other people decide your personal appearance, your personal things. They can help decide contracts and that, but they cannot decide what is yours, which is yourself.
Rae Leigh: I love that.
Brittany Maggs: exactly. That's literally just be yourself and be. Take everything in. Take the good and the bad, and no, doesn't always mean the end of it.
If you're hearing no and you're talking to the wrong person, go talk to somebody else because they'll say no to you, but this person will say, Yes, but you didn't talk to this person cuz you just heard them and you just got sad and then you stopped. Just keep going.
Rae Leigh: Yep. Don't take No, for an answer.
Brittany Maggs: yeah, that's my motto and
everything in life now.
It's probably a bad thing.
Rae Leigh: I love that. I know. I, I call it, um, I don't call it rejection, I call it redirection.
Brittany Maggs: I love that. I have not had one
Rae Leigh: Yeah. You need to know that one. As an artist, like, Yeah. I mean, doing acting and modeling and singing, all of that stuff. You audition for so many things where you speak to so many different people for opportunities.
Like I've, you know, reached out to countless people to collaborate on all these duets. I keep on writing duets, but I haven't like, found the right person to collaborate with. And it's so, like, all of them so far are like, you know, it's not my sound or I'm not interested and like, that's fine. Doesn't mean I'm gonna, I won't, I'm not gonna force someone to work with me.
Brittany Maggs: well you,
Rae Leigh: but I'm also not gonna stop
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, exactly. That's perfect. You want to be genuine. You don't wanna force somebody like you. You know that eventually it'll be Exactly, how it was meant to be. Like it'll fall.
Rae Leigh: Exactly, and I think all the best things do fall into place. I don't, Yeah, usually anything I've had to force usually doesn't work out
Brittany Maggs: That's probably another thing I'd say is if you have to force it, it is not working. Like I've changed managers multiple times and that's not my fault. That's not through their fault. It's just I'm not gonna force something that's not working. And then I'm really big on when one door opens, like when one door closes, another one opens, like, you know, If it feels like it's not working, close that door and I bet you another one will open and you'll fall into another opportunity. Like kinda just take everything in and always trust God. Always trust your cause. I,
Rae Leigh: yep. Your body Your
Brittany Maggs: Yeah. I haven't before and it's got me in situations that I've gone, well, that would've been avoided if I had just done by court. Yeah.
Rae Leigh: Yep. Yeah. Sometimes we feel like idiots when
we don't trust our bodies because there's no logical reason for it. It doesn't always have to be a logical reason to trust your body. Your body just knows things without logic. It's weird.
If you could collaborate with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Brittany Maggs: So I would like childhood Me would die to have a song with Hannah Montana, like old school, Hannah, Montana. I love, I still love, I still love and adore Miley Cyrus. Like now I like, I would love to. Done something with her. So if I could like regenerate her type of thing and bring her into now, I would absolutely love that adult me, like me right now. I would love to have like a, a a dot, like a collab with Morgan Wallen. I feel like
Rae Leigh: Oh yeah.
Brittany Maggs: would be so good cause he's got such a husky voice. I have a husky voice. I just feel like I'd do amazing. And like it.
Rae Leigh: Right. You just feel like it would be, it would
Brittany Maggs: Yeah, like I, I know when I'm driving, I harmonize to hear songs. I'm like, We break together
Rae Leigh: We
Brittany Maggs: Like one day. one day maybe. Hopefully, fingers crossed, but like that'd be really,
Rae Leigh: When I talk to him, I'll, I'll let
him know. You
Brittany Maggs: please do. Just hey from, she'd love. She'd love to.
Rae Leigh: What have you got coming up? We've got a
minute left. It's the sort of the space of the podcast where you can share whatever you'd like to share. Future events or music or
Brittany Maggs: Perfect. Well, my single, when it was easy just came out like a week and a bit ago. So when it was easy out, I'm doing Tamworth. I'll be at Tamworth this year and I'm currently
perfect. Yay. And then, um, I. Have new music coming in January and yeah, getting as many gigs as we can possibly get. My new management team has just jumped on board and um, it's gonna be incredible. So I cannot wait for 2023. It's actually gonna be good, so thanks.
Rae Leigh: It's gonna be amazing. No matter what happens, everything is going workout. Just perfect. I can tell.
Brittany Maggs: Thank you so
Rae Leigh: Well done.
Brittany Maggs: Thank you
Rae Leigh: Thank you so much for joining me on the show. It's. God, I feel like I could talk to you forever.
Well, yeah, no, thank you so
Brittany Maggs: No, thank you. I really, really appreciate it.
