Maya Cumming, aka Sydney-born artist MAY-A, says her debut album mirrors the healing process, moving through feelings of rage, grief, and acceptance. The most significant catalyst for that emotional journey has been her “lived experience” in the music industry. “I’ve been in the industry since I was 13,” she tells Apple Music. “I was just so angry at the systems and the way it worked. It felt like it was either completely working for you as this machine you didn’t have any control over, or it was completely working against you, and you’re shut out of everything.” On her debut album, Cumming was determined to “step out of feeling controlled by the industry [and] people making all my decisions for me.” She’d already decided to trade the bedroom indie pop of 2021’s Don’t Kiss Ur Friends for a more guitar-heavy, full-band sound. She also eschewed LA writer rooms and expensive producers to knuckle down in a house with her partner and guitarist Chloe Dadd and write the album she wanted to make. “It feels like such a symbol of me standing my ground and knowing who I am and trusting myself,” she says. Here, MAY-A takes Apple Music through Goodbye (If You Call That Gone), track by track. “Catching Up 2 U” “It really signifies a different era, a new start, a new sound. And it kicks off the themes of the album, which is talking about karmic return—this is angry and a little bit spiteful and has this weird nuance of wishing somebody’s downfall, but you’re not going to do it yourself.” “Claws” “I listen to it and I get a bit sad, but then I also get angry about the way women are treated and our place in society, and the way that you have to fight so hard to be believed in or taken a chance on. I hope it becomes comforting for people who have experienced things like that.” “Taste My Tongue” “I really wanted to do something that felt warm and light. I was falling in love with my girlfriend, and I felt like I couldn’t say anything. It was that weird experience of being with somebody and not knowing what they’re thinking, but you’re thinking about them all the time and trying not to. But you’re like, I just can’t help this.” “(I'm here for the) GIRLS” “I wrote this song directly after we wrote ‘[REDACTED].’ I was like, I need to do something that’s the opposite. ‘[REDACTED]’ is so heavy on my soul. So, we started making ‘GIRLS’ because I was like, I need to write something that feels like a fun club dance anthem with really stupid lyrics.” “[REDACTED]” “I was spiraling out, living in LA. I was reading so much political drama and a lot of books on capitalism, lots of philosophy, commentary books on the state of the world, and was feeling like there’s no hope for us. It was the first time I’d really delved into that fully, and I wrote ‘[REDACTED]’ because I was so angry at the systems in place and the way we’re all kind of complicit.” “Slow Burn” “This one is about my relationship with Sydney and LA. A lot of the industry stuff that happened to me happened in Sydney. And I felt a bit of resentment like, I love my life here, but I physically can’t be here because of all my memories. I just knew it wasn’t where I needed to be to be a functioning, normal person. Which is funny because then it switches, and I was in LA for a while, and I felt the same way there. And I was like, I need to leave.” “Last Man on Earth” “It’s a song [about] one personal relationship, but I feel this way about so many men in power. I wouldn’t forgive you if you were the last man on Earth because of how you’ve irreversibly affected the planet or lied and covered up a multitude of things. After feeling so controlled for so long and repressed—and I had so many of my decisions taken away from me—it felt nice to write something like that, but also to prove that that’s not happening to me anymore.” “Tide” “This is very much the peak of the grief point of the album, where it stops being so angry. That feeling of grief is such a weird thing to experience when you haven’t fully lived in it before. And constantly thinking that you are over something, and then it just takes one reminder, and you’re suddenly right back in the thick of it.” “Am I There” “This one feels like you’re at the point where you’re able to make fun of something. You’re like, it’s been long enough now that it could be a joke. I just wanted something that felt silly and tongue in cheek and was a bit like, I don’t care anymore.” “Confessions” “I really wanted a song that I could scream in. I wanted something that felt aggressive but isn’t saying anything necessarily too aggressive, but you can feel it behind the words.” “On the Way Down” “It just feels like moving on. Realizing that you need to fix yourself. I think it really pulls together all the feelings and is indirectly talking about healing but doesn’t necessarily have to keep talking about everything that’s been spoken about before. But that’s also what trauma feels like—you’re just constantly in this loop of repeating yourself, and you’re exhausting everybody else. And that song could help me get over that in a way.”