By Megan Lorich

In 2017, a teenage Oaklander started releasing self-written songs on her YouTube channel under the name mxmtoon. The songs were recorded in the guest bedroom of her childhood home, using the beginner mixing software Garageband. The EP was entitled “Plum Blossom”, with individual singles featuring art by her late grandmother. These songs, despite their low production, shot her quickly into YouTube fame in April of 2018, gaining subscribers quickly — particularly after a collaboration on the lo-fi song “Falling For You” with Peachy, which has now reached a cumulative total of over three million streams on Spotify. She was quickly recognized as an art hoe aesthetic ukulele player who fit into the cultural phenomenon of teens in 2018.

Alongside YouTube musicians like Chloe Moriondo and Cavetown (whom she would later go on tour with), mxmtoon reflects a special time in internet culture and self-made bedroom pop. mxmtoon — revealed to be named Maia — eventually released her debut album. In September of 2019, “the masquerade” peaked at No. 45 on the U.S. album indie charts. “Prom Dress,” the leading single on the album, was quickly claimed by TikTok, with over a hundred thousand videos using the song. The LP significantly improved the production of “Plum Blossom,” likely a contributing factor to its popularity.

mxmtoon’s career did not start with TikTok, but she’s quickly gained a following due to her relatable content outside of her art. Going on to stream games on the platform Twitch, Maia has garnered an audience that is more than willing to follow her journey. Her gamer lifestyle has given her several opportunities, including performing as the singing voice of Alex Chen in “Life is Strange: True Colors” and a Simlish version of “prom dress” featured in “Sims 4.” “the masquerade,” was a stepping stone in mxmtoon’s career, inspiring her to make “dawn” and “dusk,” a duology of LPs, in 2020. The albums would later be combined into “dawn & dusk,” allowing fans to compare and contrast the albums in one sitting. mxmtoon, “Rising” was released in May of 2022, which was quickly followed by a tour featuring the aforementioned YouTube bedroom pop star Chloe Moriondo and Ricky Montogomery, who exploded on TikTok with his songs “Mr. Loverman” and “Line Without a Hook.” It's comforting to know that mxmtoon has stayed true to her bedroom pop roots despite the production of her albums increasing in quality with each release.

With mxmtoon’s popularity on TikTok and her frequent posts — members of the app often forget that, first and foremost, Maia is a musician and artist. This unfortunate ignorance of her music led Maia to make a TikTok describing her work, with a nostalgic recollection of “plum blossom'' and her high school crushes, described by her as an “EP for people that live in fantasies inside of their head, who make storylines before they go to bed so that hopefully the person they like will finally ask them out.” 

But “plum blossom” clearly stuck inside of mxmtoon’s mind after making this video, encouraging her to revisit the songs from her adolescence by improving the EP to have higher production value. Her newest 2023 release was a revisitation to her first work entitled “plum blossom (revisited),” receiving acclaim from critics for its modern take on the tracks. The release was quickly followed by an acoustic and intimate tour across the United States. 

With every rerelease of an artist’s old tracks within the last five years, an inevitable comparison is made within both critical and modern audiences — Taylor Swift. Swift is currently recording her past work as a reclamation from producer Scooter Braun, who acquired her catalog without her consent. However, mxmtoon’s rerelease is distinct from Swift’s (fittingly called “Taylor’s Version”). Swift seeks to recreate her older tracks (pre “Lover”) by making the songs as close to their original version as possible. These rerecordings are not simply reclamation for her emotionally and financially, they allow fans to listen to practically the original versions of her songs while not supporting Braun financially. mxmtoon is doing the opposite of this, creating versions of her songs that are entirely different from their original versions. This increase in production value gives her fans an experience that is distinct and arguably a “better version” of their original tracks. While mxmtoon is not seeking reclamation for her tracks, she is ruminating on her adolescence, and reclaiming her teenage years. 

Though Maia’s rerelease is an improvement upon the original release of “plum blossom,” her tour following the revisitation was an acoustic performance with small crowds. Her performance at Barbosa in Seattle had a crowd of approximately two hundred. These acoustic performances were a direct nod to the original versions of “plum blossom,” allowing and confirming to fans that this part of mxmtoon was not extinct. Additionally, Maia performed versions of songs from her other albums in this acoustic style, giving fans a glance into an alternate universe where Maia wrote these songs as a teenager. This recollection of her adolescence is not only cathartic to mxmtoon — it is nostalgic for her audiences. The encores of Maia’s performances was a single song, ukulele staple “Riptide” by Vance Joy. Though Maia never covered “Riptide” on her original YouTube channel, plenty of bedroom pop artists have covered the song. 

mxmtoon’s connection to her fans and dedication to her craft are what make her so relatable and inspiring to bedroom pop aspirers. Maia not only reminisced on her teenage songs while on tour, but she interacted with her mostly Gen Z audiences by discussing her experiences with first-person shooter Fortnite, allowing herself to be “Hutcherson’d” by her audience, and a group challenge where the entire audience of shows would crack their knuckles at the same time. It’s clear why mxmtoon is a TikTok staple and an internet sensation. While Maia will likely not revisit her LPS in the future, this revisitation is a joyous celebration of her teenage work. Healing from adolescence and girlhood is a popular topic within culture at the moment — with Gen Z being at the forefront of these discussions. mxmtoon has encouraged her audience to reclaim these same topics by doing so in front of the world. She is an inspiration to members of her generation and proof that artists are able to be vulnerable about their past experiences in front of their audiences. We can only hope that more artists follow in Maia’s footsteps, whether through their music, interviews, or new art.