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“To Love a Boy“ is the first of two singles released by Maya Hawke, called To Love a Boy / Stay Open. It was released on August 16, 2019.
The song is subdued and simple, allowing Hawke’s soft and pristine voice – and the emotion behind it – to shine. The piano and guitar blend to create a classic and intimate opening, almost like you’re seeing Hawke perform the song in your living room. The first verse is open, self-aware, and vulnerable, with Hawke recognizing her insecurities and telling them to you like you are her best friend.
It’s a starkly transparent opening, especially when you factor in that Hawke – daughter of actors Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke – grew up in Hollywood, where almost everything you share with the public is calculated and may not be entirely authentic. But here Hawke is owning her voice and herself, vulnerabilities and flaws included, and breaking the cycle. Her famous last name does not stop her from sharing everything with her audience, because everyone has felt this way, and she’s like everyone else.
“After seeing the movie Call Me by Your Name for the second time, I left the theater and I was walking home to my apartment in Brooklyn, and I just started thinking about the images of water and the romantic feeling in that movie. I was just filled with this intense jealousy and desire to be in love and feel that way. Then I wrote the lyrics to “To Love a Boy” as a poem, and I sent them to Jesse Harris, and he wrote that melody, and I loved it. It’s about this dream reality where you could love somebody in an all-consuming way, where it feels like when you’re swimming in the ocean on a hot summer day.
When I was brainstorming about the video, I started thinking about a mermaid coming ashore and wanting to love a boy as much as she loved the ocean. Then I decided the video would be more interesting if the love interest of the video was the ocean, and it was about her pursuit to get back to the ocean. I’m a professional actor, but I’m not a professional musician, so I wanted to do the whole thing really not professionally. So I spent all my own money to make the video and I had to rent the mermaid costume, which ended up being incredibly shitty, but in a way that I think is really funny.“
Source: Pitchfork
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