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Photo Credit: Nuvany David

Ever have a childhood secret that you want to stay locked away? I’m sure you do, everybody’s done something incredibly cringe or strange in their childhood that maybe they don’t talk about. Weird kids are of course the coolest people after all, and on Pixel Perfect, Adri Maiella dusts off the old bright pink, voice-activated diary she had growing up and lets us in. The second EP from screenager takes these diary entries she wrote growing up in early-2000’s New Jersey and makes them jump right off the page almost as if they were your own memories. With this shimmering, glittery Y2K nostalgia aesthetic, crashing into these cavernous, midwest-emo type guitars, Maiella’s delicate vocals float to the top like a note passed in the back of your third grade elementary school class telling the girl in the front you had a crush on her. 

What kicked off as a COVID-era songwriting project is now a full band, with Immanuell Pennington (Lowertown) on drums, Ian Eylanbekov (Snail Mail) on guitar, and Cameron Bash on bass. They’ve become a fixture at rooms like Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn and the Meatlocker in Montclair, New Jersey. When you listen to Adri Maiella’s songwriting and production on these new screenager tracks, fans of Mazzy Star, The 1975 Soccer Mommy, and even early Avril Lavigne will find something to love but I think it’s still worth noting that this EP doesn’t dare follow too closely in the footsteps of its influences it traces itself and is a one of a kind project all on its own.

Some of my favorite moments on this EP are “Rockstar” and “Three of Me,” listening to Maiella work through insecurity, heartbreak, and social pressure with a rawness that makes it feel like you’re reading her write the songs in that little pink diary over her shoulder. Her mission in this EP is simple but don’t you for one second think that it’s not important, and it’s to show young women everywhere that there is beauty and courage in falling apart. I had the chance to catch up with Adri, who has perhaps been at the top of my list of ones to watch (wink wink) ever since I watched her release her first single all those years ago. 

OnesToWatch: First of all, congratulations on releasing Pixel Perfect. It’s a beautiful project, and I couldn’t possibly say enough incredible things about it. I wanted to give you a bit of a chance to start at the beginning and tell us at Ones To Watch how screenager first came to life. Pixel Perfect finds its roots in that bright pink, voice activated diary you kept growing up in early-2000s New Jersey. What made you go back to it, and what about that specific place felt like the right source of inspiration? 

Adri: Writing from my childhood home sometimes brings up things that I didn’t know I remembered or felt. I had recently started keeping a diary for the first time since I was an 8 year old and I felt kind of silly writing in it. It reminded me of the times when I begged my mom for that electronic diary. Truthfully, I kept more video diaries on my computer that I look back on frequently and those videos inspired the world of the EP. I wanted to channel the younger me and embrace the lyrics and writing of mine that can be dramatic or messy. We filmed most of the visuals for the EP in my childhood home in New Jersey or the surrounding areas, including a castle-theatre from the 60’s. All of the videos have an element of drama and ridiculousness and I think it looks like iif my diary entries were turned into a dream somehow. 

Now the diary only opened with a voice-activated password of course, do you remember what it was, and did you ever think you’d be sharing those pages with an audience like this? 

I don’t remember what the password was. I remember sharing it with my little sister and eventually we lost it. I had so many iconic trinkets, I had a Disney princess CD player that I would listen to Miranda Cosgrove CDs on. My sisters and I were always making singing or dancing videos on my computer as if we were performing for the world. I really couldn’t wait to grow up and make my own music and have my own CD’s. 

What was it like to read your younger self’s words as an adult? Did going back in time like this surprise you at all?

I used to keep primarily video diaries on my computer and watching them back reminded me of how energetic and animated of a child I was. If there was a camera present, I was shoving my sisters out of the way to be in the center frame. Showing each friend this capsule of videos has slowly become my version of initiation. They’re so embarrassing but really motivating sometimes because I was being unapologetically me and I miss feeling that way. 

Now through this tracklist, there’s so many standout moments within each of the songs, were there any tracks that changed once you got into the studio to record them, or did you have an idea of how they were going to come out from the beginning? 

My producer, Connor Hanson, and I worked on all of these songs together. We are always on the same page about how the songs were meant to sound but his superpower is producing and making things sound better than I could’ve imagined. I never properly demo things, it’s historically been my acoustic guitar and a voice memo that started each song. I try not to set expectations about how things will sound when a song is still in that early phase because I like working from scratch with Connor in the studio. Watching the bare bones of a song turn into something tangible is easily my favorite part of the experience of being an artist.

“Three of Me” is one of my favorite moments on this record, with these big, thick guitar tones on it and incredible songwriting analyzing these themes of reinvention, self-reflection, and tracing memories. What was writing this song like for you, and what’s something you want listeners to take away when they listen? 

I really appreciate that! Writing "Three of Me" was a process that kind of followed me around for a few years while I was touring or working. I had presented the draft of the song I had to Connor and we got in the studio as soon as we could. I finished the lyrics while Connor worked. He plays the beautiful lead line in the song that I’ve grown so attached to. The lyrics were a stream of consciousness and I barely edited the first draft. I was frustrated with where I was as an artist despite years of blood, sweat and tears. On top of that, I’m one of many to face sexualization and mistreatment while working in the industry that I dreamed my whole life to be apart of. "Three of Me" is about that, and I feel like any female artists ever feeling depressed should just scream it in their car and they’ll probably feel better. 

Now the mission behind this record is to show young women that there’s beauty and courage in falling apart, which I think is such an incredibly important message to independent female musicians coming up in the space and you’ve done such a job already so far at setting an example of turning imperfections into strengths, where on the EP do you think this idea comes across and hits the hardest? 

I think each song of the EP touches on an aspect of womanhood from my lived experience, and there are fun moments but also dark ones. I wanted both sides of my writing to live on the EP because as a girl, some days I experience so many highs and lows emotionally within the span of an hour. It’s really not an easy time to be a woman right now. To be anything right now. I think you can’t have really beautiful moments without having some crashing and burning as well. Just Hair is my favorite example because lyrically it’s kind of just a tantrum of mine in the bathroom mirror. And listening to it for the first time in the studio really evoked something in me, and it felt like a tiny moment like that, a small piece of what girlhood feels like for me, was simply captured really beautifully by everyone who worked on it. We all felt seen by that song. 

Pixel Perfect pairs Y2K nostalgia with electric midwest emo energy. Was that blend intentional, or did it happen naturally once you got the band in a room together? 

I think I listened to so much Demi Lovato, Hannah Montana, and Avril Lavigne growing up that it’s forever altered my music taste and I reach for those sonics to this day. My favorite band in middle school was The Fray. I don’t take a lot of influence from many midwest emo artists but I really love that my music has a home somewhere in that community too. I think screenager’s music has a home kind of anywhere and it’s really cool to see different audiences find my music and resonate with it.

Now from the time I’ve been following you, if there’s one thing that’s clear it’s that you’ve always been one of the hardest working musicians I’ve known, becoming a fixture throughout New Jersey’s indie music scene and in rooms like Baby’s All Right as well, how has your path through the homegrown and indie scenes shaped screenager along the way? 

A lot of people don’t know this but my dad and I ran a DIY music venue in Jersey in the basement of a cafe during my high school years and that’s where I was able to place my roots in the music scene here. Before I started screenager, I would work the door, run sound, or just run the space as my high school job every Friday and Saturday night. Getting to see local band after band play our space really showed me how hardworking and unique the musicians of New Jersey truly are. I fostered friendships and supporters of the band that exist in my life to this day. After the venue closed, I was able to focus on screenager instead of being the person who made other people’s shows happen. My goals with the band have remained the same since my days of working the door at basement shows- to put New Jersey on the map as a hub for independent musicians who work harder than anyone you’ve ever seen. I think New Jersey only gets a bad rap because people from here are quicker to defend the people or the thing that they love. And I think that’s why I’ll never leave.

Now as is typical for my OnesToWatch interviews, I always love to ask who’s your OneToWatch? Which artists are on your radar that we should keep an eye on? 

Vivienne Artur. She’s incredible and also a Jersey girl. Izzy Oram Brown, she plays guitar in screenager here and there but this is her own musical project and her voice gave me chills the first time I heard it. 

Listen to 'Pixel Perfect' below: