MAISIE PETERS

Words by Tammy Walters

Since releasing her debut studio album You Signed Up For This under Ed Sheeran’s label Gingerbread Man Records in August 2021, Maisie Peters has been taking the world by storm.

2022 saw her further expand her relationship with the Bad Habits and Shape of You pop star, joining Ed Sheeran for a hefty 54 shows in the UK and Europe for his sellout + – = ÷ x Tour (pronounced The Mathematics Tour) and has recently wrapped up the United States run of both supporting and headline shows.

“It has been pretty nonstop but once this tour is over, which is in a few days, we’re not on tour again until January so I definitely have a month or two off to finish my album and get ready for the next big tour,” Peters explains.

The + – = ÷ x Tour saw Peters play a sold-out residency in her hometown on one of the world’s biggest stages, Wembley Stadium, a highlight for the new industry frontrunner.

“Playing Wembley Stadium was amazing because obviously that’s where I live, it’s where I’m from. So getting to sort of play it for a week as well, it was like a weird residency, was pretty iconic and was super fun,” she says.

“My parents came, my grandma came, my friends came, my sister came, my housemate came. Actually, my friends in Australia came. So yeah, I had a good amount of groupies.”

In similar fashion to Ed Sheeran becoming the next big thing following his supporting tour with Taylor Swift for the Grammygiants Red Tour in 2013, the 21-year-old has experienced many ‘pinch-me’ moments throughout the touring schedule.

“Well you get it all the time, I guess in waves, but I guess it also becomes fairly normalised because it’s what you do every day.

“I definitely never take it for granted, like what a huge opportunity this is, and I feel very lucky and grateful that Ed has taken me around the world. I couldn’t go around the world with anyone greater. So I feel very lucky.”

Now the ultimate duo are venturing south, with Peters supporting the sold-out AU/NZ tour, while also selling out and adding additional dates to her own eight headline shows for 2023, including two appearances at Melbourne’s Prince of Wales on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 March.

It’s no wonder with plenty of Australians following the likes of Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Sam Smith in calling themselves fans – a whopping 37 million Maisie Peters streams are attributed to Australian listeners, earning us her fifth-largest streaming territory.

“Next year is looking massive already and it hasn’t begun yet. I have another album coming out next year, I’m going to Australia with Ed, we’re going back to America. I’ve got my own tours in the UK and Europe and it’s definitely looking like a pretty busy year, but I’m really excited for it,” she says.

“I’m a big fan of Australia. I’ve never been but I have a lot of friends from there and I’m just really obsessed and I’m so glad – anything so I can stay in Australia for longer is good with me. I think Australia will bring the vibes.”

She continued, “I want to become a full-fledged Australian by the time I leave, like I want to be fully, fully taken within society. So that’s my plan.”

Whilst supports for the headline shows are yet to be confirmed, Peters aims to showcase the Australian artists that she loves.

“I’m not sure who I am bringing along yet but I will have some wonderful guests I’m sure. There are a lot of Australian artists that I love, so I can’t wait to stay with them and play and work with them all.”

The tour will follow the singer’s sophomore album release, due for arrival in early 2023. Leading in with the anthem Cate’s Brother, Blonde and the newly released Not Another Rockstar, the album continues in the same vein as You Signed Up For This, allowing room for experimentation and expansion.

“I love everything I did on my first album. I really only want to build on that and expand from that world, because I do think that I love so much of what we did with that album.

“I think that this year I’ve just had a little fun experimenting and throwing things out and seeing what feels fun and I had so much fun doing that. But I do think the album has a lot more depth to it than that. And it’s definitely a direction, but there’s also a lot of other different flavours and feelings to it.”

The album developed across countries with recording taking place across London, Stockholm and Bergen with Peters’ enlisting some familiar faces and some new ones as well. The album itself has nods to the likes of My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, All Time Low and Arctic Monkeys, while tracks like Cate’s Brother looked to punk-pop anthems Stacy’s Mom, Sk8er Boi and Teenage Dirtbag.

“I think with all the music I make, I always wanna make sure every note and lyric and chord is purposeful,” she explains.

“I had the idea of writing a song about my friend Cate’s brother going into the studio. I just thought it would be funny. And then I got in the studio with Max [Grahn] and I sort of told him the idea and we were talking about Teenage Dirtbag as well, and that era of music and then the song kind of came together pretty organically.

“I haven’t got to sing Cate’s Brother that many times to headline shows, but when I have it’s been so fun. I got to sing it in Toronto the other day and it was the most fun ever – when it says, “You said “Get a flight to Canada”, the singing was pretty loud. It was pretty good.

“I need to have a song with the word Australia in it. That’s my new goal.”

We’ll wait and see if we can slip in a mention on album number two or three. For the time being we’ll have to substitute country names when the song is played live next year.