July 17, 2023 • 15 mins
Celebrating their smash "AM:PM" hitting #1 on the dance charts, NOTD and Maia Wright share how the song was born. Maia also talks singing in both English and Swedish!
They also take on #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out about:
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on dance stations around the world!
AmericasDance30.com
They also take on #FinkysFirsts!!
Find out about:
- the first thing they wanted to be growing up
- the first songs they wrote and produced
- the first time they performed on stage
- the first English curse words they learned
- the first dance song that got them into EDM
- the first thing they would eat if it were the only food they could eat from AM to PM
Follow: @AmericasDance30 on all socials!
Count down the biggest dance songs in the country every week with Brian Fink on America’s Dance 30; listen on dance stations around the world!
AmericasDance30.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Dance counting down the biggest dance songsin the country. This is America's Dance
thirty. Sam and Toby noted,welcome back to America's Dance thirty and Maya,
this is the first time we're gettingto chat and meet. Welcome to
America's Dance thirty for the first time. Thank you so much. I love
(00:34):
that this is a full on Swedishtakeover. Are you guys all in Sweden
right now? Yes? Yeah?Well I think so, yeah, man,
Toby, Yes, came back fromthe States this morning, so let's
now we're back in Stockholm. Soyou guys have got to be tired.
Now, how closer? I haveno concept of Sweden? How close are
(00:55):
you guys? Close? Right?Like, well, I live in Stockholm
and it's not super big, soI guess kind of close. And then
Maya, are you you're in Stockholmas well? Yeah, exactly, yeah,
so do you guys? And obviouslyI don't want specific addresses or anything,
but are you guys like within thesame neighborhood, not like the same
(01:17):
neighborhood, but like you can takethe sub and it's like fifteen minutes,
so like pretty much everywhere in Stockholmso yeah, it is. Well,
congratulations on AMPM going number one.That is so amazing for you guys.
Thank you so much. Before wetalk all about this smash and find out
(01:40):
how AMPM was born, let's getto know Noted and Maya right a little
better with Finky's first. Let's go. Yeah, now, Sam and Toby,
you guys met when you were younger, like before high school in chat
(02:01):
right, Yeah, that's right.We actually met like through SoundCloud before high
school and then we ended up atthe same high school together and that's where
we final limit. Now, whenyou were growing up though, was music
the first thing you wanted to door was there something else you wanted to
be when you grew up? Imean, for me it was a soccer
(02:21):
I played soccer for ten eleven years, so I thought it was going to
be the next and Lionel Messy.But yeah, for me, it's kind
of always been music. I grewup playing guitar. I stopped playing guitar
and I was like eight years old, so it's been always like some something
with like music. And then Maya, did you always want to be a
(02:42):
singer songwriter or was there something elseyou wanted to be when you were growing
up. I actually also played soccerfor like fifteen years and ten fifteen years.
What happened to you guys switched list? No, but music has always
been a huge part of my life. I always I was always singing growing
up, but it wasn't I wasn'tsure that I wanted to be an artist,
(03:07):
but I was sure that I wantedto make music when I started in
a music school. Now, speakingof music, you've got some smashes with
armand van Buren, with Griffin withCream Tritonal of course, now with Noted
as well. But do you rememberthe first song you ever wrote? Oh?
(03:27):
No, I don't. Actually it'snot that meaningful to you. No,
no, I don't know. Ithink like the first things that I
like, the first songs that Iwrote weren't really like finished songs. They
were just like, I don't know, snippets or choruses or a verse or
(03:49):
something. But I can actually rememberthe first song that I put together.
I remember some of the early songs, but like not the first one.
And when did you actually start writing? I started writing when I stopped school,
so I was about nineteen, Ithink, And then noted, of
course, you guys had the biggestsong with so Close, and you've had
(04:13):
so many smashes since. But doyou remember the first song that you guys
produced? I don't remember what youwant to do for note that? Which
one was stuff? I mean Ithink it was remix we did together sund
Castles. Oh, yeah, that'strue. Yeah? And what about that?
Yeah? I mean, do youremember as well? It's a pretty
bad one. But I but Idon't believe that. I don't believe that.
(04:40):
All I know is pretty much everybody. I asked that question too,
They're like, yeah, it wasbad, but you gotta start somewhere telling
me. This is like when Imade my first song, she was like,
this sounds really good and I waslike, oh, whoa, maybe
I can pursue a career and thisand the when I listened back to it
(05:00):
now, I'm like, she likedyou can never trust anything. Your mom
says, yeah, I know you'reMy mom always tells me I'm pretty too,
and I never listened to her.Now noted the first time that we
actually got to meet you guys,I yell At brought you through Miami Music
(05:23):
Week and we got to have dinnerand chat with you guys. Of course,
you guys are also doing shows inthe US for the next few months,
including Red Rocks in September. Correct, Yes, that is right.
Do you remember the first show youever did as noted? Yeah, I
(05:44):
think the first or like it dependswhen did play some like radio stuff and
something like smaller shows, but thefirst official one was actually in Gothenburg in
Sweden, and I think it waspretty good, Like for a first show,
I was. It was pretty solid. I mean now, looking back,
probably not the best one, butsat exactly exactly. Maya. Do
(06:18):
you remember the first time you performedon stage? Yeah, my first jow
was actually with the Griffin. Thatwas your first performance. Yeah, like
as an artist. I performed inschool and stuff, but nothing nothing as
an artist, so yeah, itwas super weird, Like I had no
clue what I was doing. Iwas so nervous and I just walked up
(06:41):
on that stage and I can't rememberanything from when I was up there,
so it's a three minute just blankfrom my head. But I will say
that Griffin is an amazing artist.If that was your first performance, he's
such a nice guy, so I'msure that went great. Yeah, Yeah,
he's super nice. I felt comfortablewell, even though I was so
nervous. Now, speaking of yourperformances, not only do you perform in
(07:05):
English, but you've also got yourother artist side project JUNI Correct, which
is all in Swedish. Yeah,yeah, exactly. Yeah. Is it
tough going back and forth between Englishand Swedish. No. I think it's
actually nice because you get like alittle breather from the project. So sometimes
(07:26):
I just go into the studio,I'm not like, I'm totally focused on
like the Swedish stuff, and thenit's nice to get that break when you
go back to the English stuff.Got actually enjoy it. Speaking of being
multi language, what was the firstEnglish curse word you learned? I have
no My dad is English, soI think I learned them from a very
(07:50):
early age. It doesn't hold itdoesn't hold back on them either, so
I don't know. I have noidea. Actually, so funny. Normally
parents are like, don't curse infront of me, but you're learning it
from your dad. What about you, guys, Sam and Toby? What
was do you remember the first Englishcurse word you guys learned? I mean
(08:11):
it was probably like the most commonone, Like that's a good one,
that's a good one for the firstone. Now, of course, as
we mentioned, you guys are allfrom Sweden, home of the legend of
Vichy Rest in peace. Of courseSwedish house mafia a lesso so much dance
(08:35):
music. Do you guys remember thefirst dance song that got you into edmum?
For me, it was probably somethingby Avici. I don't remember,
like specifically which one, but Iremember listening to him a lot, especially
his album True. I was like, I listened to that so much from
that came out and it was sucha great album. The ironic thing about
(08:58):
it is when it was initially releasedhere in the US, everyone was kind
of like, what is this?We didn't know how to react to it.
It maya what about you? Ihave no idea, but I think
it was probably a bitch as well. Um. I can't imagine who else
it would be. Yeah, thattotally makes sense. Now. Finally,
in Finky's first in honor of AMPMgoing number one, if you could only
(09:24):
eat one food from am to PMevery day, what would that food be?
Samum, sushi is a good one. I would probably do suh Yeah,
sushi train. Yeah. I'm alwaysbetween sushi and pasta. But I'm
going to say pasta just because Samsaid sushi. I am totally with you
(09:48):
on that pasta. Man, Iwould just eat that every single day.
I am super picy, so Iwould go with something basic like chicken,
old rice and grave we have likethis grave in Sweden which is super good,
which is the one that served withthe meat balls at Ikea that like
brown. I have very picky aswell, so that's why I would have
(10:13):
to choose something simple as well.But I would think that as much as
I love chicken, I think everyday chicken would just get so old.
Yeah, for sure. Let's talkabout this smash AMPM. How was this
(10:41):
song born? I mean it startedwith we got the song pitched to us
from Devon and Grant her amazing producerand songwriter, and me and Sam immediately
fell in love with it. Iwanted to take our take on the production
and the other thing with it.And then uh yeah, we sent it
(11:01):
over to you, Maya, andyou changed some lyrics and stuff like that.
So Maya when it got to you, was it pretty much done before
it got to you? Yeah?Kind of. And I just I just
loved the song, and I alsolove noted so I was like, I
need to do this song. Soyeah, and then how long ago?
(11:22):
How long ago did it all start? Oh, I don't know, probably
like maybe like a year ago?Now, wow. Yeah, it always
takes takes a while with the songsout, but it's always worth it.
Yeah, I gotta be honest.A year isn't actually that long from what
I've spoken with artists like Nina Nesbittold me that she had her number one
(11:43):
song on her hard drive for fiveyears before it was even put out by
Millennium, which is wow, yeah, that's crazy. Maya do you do
You do you have songs that oldsitting on your hard drive? Yeah?
I do. Those songs are nothing. They shouldn't been released. They're in
(12:07):
your hard drive graveyard. Yeah.Now, something I love to find out
is how many different versions there aretweaked from when you start working on it
too when it's finally released. Notedhow many different vs were there of AMPM
for us, Like the idea camedown like pretty quickly, so it wasn't
(12:30):
like a lot of changes to it. But like it's always like there's a
couple like tweaks and stuff, butprobably like ten versions maybe, but those
are all like pretty similar to eachother. We worked a lot on the
structure of the song, like howto be like oh the course and verse
and bridge and like where the dropwas gonna be and stuff like that.
(12:50):
So I think that was the mainthing. And you guys mentioned that Maya
actually changed some of the lyrics.What were the lyrics that were changed?
Do you remember, Yeah, it'sthe second verse, right, yeah,
I think so. Yeah. Wasit something that you weren't comfortable with the
way it was flowing or you justwanted it to flow better. It was
just one line that I thought,like, this can be a bit stronger
(13:15):
own. The idea was still there. When you're writing songs, do you
change your songs a lot? Oris it pretty much you know, what
comes out and goes on paper ishow it comes out. I think it's
more like I don't really change alot after Like it's if it's I make
the song and if I like it, then I do. But I'm not
(13:37):
very like I don't really go backand forth with like a lot of different
versions. I think I just gowith the first thing that feels right.
But I can take my time withlike getting the song down. So yeah,
I don't know, I just Idon't really go back and forth like
that. And this is probably goingto be one of the most ignorant statements
(13:58):
ever. And I'm sorry you've heardthis book for but it's incredible how much
your accent doesn't show up when you'resinging in English. Yeah, I don't
know, it's just I think Ithink it's just because you you listen on
you um what's it called? Yourepeat? You kind of practice when you
(14:20):
sing other songs. Was there onesong when you were learning how to sing
in English that you kind of practicedwith? I no, I can't remember
one specific song, but my accentwas My English was acted a lot better
when I was younger because I spokeEnglish with my dad at growing up.
But now I don't. I don'tknow what happened to my accent. It's
(14:41):
completely gone. I had. Ihad a super British accent. Well,
it totally makes sense that you wouldmimic songs and that's how you would sing
them. That totally makes sense.Well, congratulations on AMPM going number one.
That is so incredible for you guys. No, died, I are
right, Thank you so much foryour time on America's Dance thirty cool,
(15:05):
Thank you, thank you so muchfor having us. America's Dance thirty,
counting down the biggest dance songs inthe country. America's Dance thirty
Dance counting down the biggest dance songsin the country. This is America's Dance
thirty. Sam and Toby noted,welcome back to America's Dance thirty and Maya,
this is the first time we're gettingto chat and meet. Welcome to
America's Dance thirty for the first time. Thank you so much. I love
(00:34):
that this is a full on Swedishtakeover. Are you guys all in Sweden
right now? Yes? Yeah?Well I think so, yeah, man,
Toby, Yes, came back fromthe States this morning, so let's
now we're back in Stockholm. Soyou guys have got to be tired.
Now, how closer? I haveno concept of Sweden? How close are
(00:55):
you guys? Close? Right?Like, well, I live in Stockholm
and it's not super big, soI guess kind of close. And then
Maya, are you you're in Stockholmas well? Yeah, exactly, yeah,
so do you guys? And obviouslyI don't want specific addresses or anything,
but are you guys like within thesame neighborhood, not like the same
(01:17):
neighborhood, but like you can takethe sub and it's like fifteen minutes,
so like pretty much everywhere in Stockholmso yeah, it is. Well,
congratulations on AMPM going number one.That is so amazing for you guys.
Thank you so much. Before wetalk all about this smash and find out
(01:40):
how AMPM was born, let's getto know Noted and Maya right a little
better with Finky's first. Let's go. Yeah, now, Sam and Toby,
you guys met when you were younger, like before high school in chat
(02:01):
right, Yeah, that's right.We actually met like through SoundCloud before high
school and then we ended up atthe same high school together and that's where
we final limit. Now, whenyou were growing up though, was music
the first thing you wanted to door was there something else you wanted to
be when you grew up? Imean, for me it was a soccer
(02:21):
I played soccer for ten eleven years, so I thought it was going to
be the next and Lionel Messy.But yeah, for me, it's kind
of always been music. I grewup playing guitar. I stopped playing guitar
and I was like eight years old, so it's been always like some something
with like music. And then Maya, did you always want to be a
(02:42):
singer songwriter or was there something elseyou wanted to be when you were growing
up. I actually also played soccerfor like fifteen years and ten fifteen years.
What happened to you guys switched list? No, but music has always
been a huge part of my life. I always I was always singing growing
up, but it wasn't I wasn'tsure that I wanted to be an artist,
(03:07):
but I was sure that I wantedto make music when I started in
a music school. Now, speakingof music, you've got some smashes with
armand van Buren, with Griffin withCream Tritonal of course, now with Noted
as well. But do you rememberthe first song you ever wrote? Oh?
(03:27):
No, I don't. Actually it'snot that meaningful to you. No,
no, I don't know. Ithink like the first things that I
like, the first songs that Iwrote weren't really like finished songs. They
were just like, I don't know, snippets or choruses or a verse or
(03:49):
something. But I can actually rememberthe first song that I put together.
I remember some of the early songs, but like not the first one.
And when did you actually start writing? I started writing when I stopped school,
so I was about nineteen, Ithink, And then noted, of
course, you guys had the biggestsong with so Close, and you've had
(04:13):
so many smashes since. But doyou remember the first song that you guys
produced? I don't remember what youwant to do for note that? Which
one was stuff? I mean Ithink it was remix we did together sund
Castles. Oh, yeah, that'strue. Yeah? And what about that?
Yeah? I mean, do youremember as well? It's a pretty
bad one. But I but Idon't believe that. I don't believe that.
(04:40):
All I know is pretty much everybody. I asked that question too,
They're like, yeah, it wasbad, but you gotta start somewhere telling
me. This is like when Imade my first song, she was like,
this sounds really good and I waslike, oh, whoa, maybe
I can pursue a career and thisand the when I listened back to it
(05:00):
now, I'm like, she likedyou can never trust anything. Your mom
says, yeah, I know you'reMy mom always tells me I'm pretty too,
and I never listened to her.Now noted the first time that we
actually got to meet you guys,I yell At brought you through Miami Music
(05:23):
Week and we got to have dinnerand chat with you guys. Of course,
you guys are also doing shows inthe US for the next few months,
including Red Rocks in September. Correct, Yes, that is right.
Do you remember the first show youever did as noted? Yeah, I
(05:44):
think the first or like it dependswhen did play some like radio stuff and
something like smaller shows, but thefirst official one was actually in Gothenburg in
Sweden, and I think it waspretty good, Like for a first show,
I was. It was pretty solid. I mean now, looking back,
probably not the best one, butsat exactly exactly. Maya. Do
(06:18):
you remember the first time you performedon stage? Yeah, my first jow
was actually with the Griffin. Thatwas your first performance. Yeah, like
as an artist. I performed inschool and stuff, but nothing nothing as
an artist, so yeah, itwas super weird, Like I had no
clue what I was doing. Iwas so nervous and I just walked up
(06:41):
on that stage and I can't rememberanything from when I was up there,
so it's a three minute just blankfrom my head. But I will say
that Griffin is an amazing artist.If that was your first performance, he's
such a nice guy, so I'msure that went great. Yeah, Yeah,
he's super nice. I felt comfortablewell, even though I was so
nervous. Now, speaking of yourperformances, not only do you perform in
(07:05):
English, but you've also got yourother artist side project JUNI Correct, which
is all in Swedish. Yeah,yeah, exactly. Yeah. Is it
tough going back and forth between Englishand Swedish. No. I think it's
actually nice because you get like alittle breather from the project. So sometimes
(07:26):
I just go into the studio,I'm not like, I'm totally focused on
like the Swedish stuff, and thenit's nice to get that break when you
go back to the English stuff.Got actually enjoy it. Speaking of being
multi language, what was the firstEnglish curse word you learned? I have
no My dad is English, soI think I learned them from a very
(07:50):
early age. It doesn't hold itdoesn't hold back on them either, so
I don't know. I have noidea. Actually, so funny. Normally
parents are like, don't curse infront of me, but you're learning it
from your dad. What about you, guys, Sam and Toby? What
was do you remember the first Englishcurse word you guys learned? I mean
(08:11):
it was probably like the most commonone, Like that's a good one,
that's a good one for the firstone. Now, of course, as
we mentioned, you guys are allfrom Sweden, home of the legend of
Vichy Rest in peace. Of courseSwedish house mafia a lesso so much dance
(08:35):
music. Do you guys remember thefirst dance song that got you into edmum?
For me, it was probably somethingby Avici. I don't remember,
like specifically which one, but Iremember listening to him a lot, especially
his album True. I was like, I listened to that so much from
that came out and it was sucha great album. The ironic thing about
(08:58):
it is when it was initially releasedhere in the US, everyone was kind
of like, what is this?We didn't know how to react to it.
It maya what about you? Ihave no idea, but I think
it was probably a bitch as well. Um. I can't imagine who else
it would be. Yeah, thattotally makes sense. Now. Finally,
in Finky's first in honor of AMPMgoing number one, if you could only
(09:24):
eat one food from am to PMevery day, what would that food be?
Samum, sushi is a good one. I would probably do suh Yeah,
sushi train. Yeah. I'm alwaysbetween sushi and pasta. But I'm
going to say pasta just because Samsaid sushi. I am totally with you
(09:48):
on that pasta. Man, Iwould just eat that every single day.
I am super picy, so Iwould go with something basic like chicken,
old rice and grave we have likethis grave in Sweden which is super good,
which is the one that served withthe meat balls at Ikea that like
brown. I have very picky aswell, so that's why I would have
(10:13):
to choose something simple as well.But I would think that as much as
I love chicken, I think everyday chicken would just get so old.
Yeah, for sure. Let's talkabout this smash AMPM. How was this
(10:41):
song born? I mean it startedwith we got the song pitched to us
from Devon and Grant her amazing producerand songwriter, and me and Sam immediately
fell in love with it. Iwanted to take our take on the production
and the other thing with it.And then uh yeah, we sent it
(11:01):
over to you, Maya, andyou changed some lyrics and stuff like that.
So Maya when it got to you, was it pretty much done before
it got to you? Yeah?Kind of. And I just I just
loved the song, and I alsolove noted so I was like, I
need to do this song. Soyeah, and then how long ago?
(11:22):
How long ago did it all start? Oh, I don't know, probably
like maybe like a year ago?Now, wow. Yeah, it always
takes takes a while with the songsout, but it's always worth it.
Yeah, I gotta be honest.A year isn't actually that long from what
I've spoken with artists like Nina Nesbittold me that she had her number one
(11:43):
song on her hard drive for fiveyears before it was even put out by
Millennium, which is wow, yeah, that's crazy. Maya do you do
You do you have songs that oldsitting on your hard drive? Yeah?
I do. Those songs are nothing. They shouldn't been released. They're in
(12:07):
your hard drive graveyard. Yeah.Now, something I love to find out
is how many different versions there aretweaked from when you start working on it
too when it's finally released. Notedhow many different vs were there of AMPM
for us, Like the idea camedown like pretty quickly, so it wasn't
(12:30):
like a lot of changes to it. But like it's always like there's a
couple like tweaks and stuff, butprobably like ten versions maybe, but those
are all like pretty similar to eachother. We worked a lot on the
structure of the song, like howto be like oh the course and verse
and bridge and like where the dropwas gonna be and stuff like that.
(12:50):
So I think that was the mainthing. And you guys mentioned that Maya
actually changed some of the lyrics.What were the lyrics that were changed?
Do you remember, Yeah, it'sthe second verse, right, yeah,
I think so. Yeah. Wasit something that you weren't comfortable with the
way it was flowing or you justwanted it to flow better. It was
just one line that I thought,like, this can be a bit stronger
(13:15):
own. The idea was still there. When you're writing songs, do you
change your songs a lot? Oris it pretty much you know, what
comes out and goes on paper ishow it comes out. I think it's
more like I don't really change alot after Like it's if it's I make
the song and if I like it, then I do. But I'm not
(13:37):
very like I don't really go backand forth with like a lot of different
versions. I think I just gowith the first thing that feels right.
But I can take my time withlike getting the song down. So yeah,
I don't know, I just Idon't really go back and forth like
that. And this is probably goingto be one of the most ignorant statements
(13:58):
ever. And I'm sorry you've heardthis book for but it's incredible how much
your accent doesn't show up when you'resinging in English. Yeah, I don't
know, it's just I think Ithink it's just because you you listen on
you um what's it called? Yourepeat? You kind of practice when you
(14:20):
sing other songs. Was there onesong when you were learning how to sing
in English that you kind of practicedwith? I no, I can't remember
one specific song, but my accentwas My English was acted a lot better
when I was younger because I spokeEnglish with my dad at growing up.
But now I don't. I don'tknow what happened to my accent. It's
(14:41):
completely gone. I had. Ihad a super British accent. Well,
it totally makes sense that you wouldmimic songs and that's how you would sing
them. That totally makes sense.Well, congratulations on AMPM going number one.
That is so incredible for you guys. No, died, I are
right, Thank you so much foryour time on America's Dance thirty cool,
(15:05):
Thank you, thank you so muchfor having us. America's Dance thirty,
counting down the biggest dance songs inthe country. America's Dance thirty
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