Maylee Todd

Multidisciplinary artist Maylee Todd resists easy stylistic categorization. Her gently sung vocals and exploratory approach have carried her across bossa nova-tinged easy pop, live-band disco, electronic pop, modern R&B, and retro-soul. The 2010 album Choose Your Own Adventure first demonstrated her refusal to settle on a single genre, while the assured 2017 release Acts of Love shifted textures track by track. Maloo, issued in 2022, inverted that pattern by immersing itself in science-fiction electro ballads that proved equally compelling.

A Toronto native, Todd began in comedy and performance art, including work at Second City and independent projects, before transitioning into music. She contributed vocals and guitar to the pop collective Henri Fabergé & the Adorables, appearing on their self-titled 2006 album. Subsequent collaboration with the electro-pop group Woodhands yielded guest spots on both the 2008 album Heart Attack and its 2010 follow-up, Remorsecapade. By then she had started recording solo material, issuing Choose Your Own Adventure in 2010 via the Do Right label. That collection merged laid-back soul, bossa nova, and summery easy pop beneath Todd’s understated vocals. The 2012 single “Hieroglyphics” foregrounded disco elements and included a remix by noted disco specialist Kon of Kon & Amir. Escapology, released in 2013, matched her compositions to a loose live-band aesthetic again rooted in soul, disco, and pop.

Todd sustained regular performances while expanding into ambitious events. During summer she premiered Maylee Todd’s Musical Planetarium at The Great Hall Toronto through the city’s SummerWorks program. Its success prompted development of a new installation, Virtual Womb, which incorporated projections, live video, 3D projection mapping, and Todd’s live music. Audiences entered via a simulated vulva and reclined on the floor to absorb the immersive visuals and sound, material later drawn into her subsequent album. The 2015 single “Lonely”/“Poetry [Of Intuition]” signaled a sharper electronic direction. Acts of Love arrived in 2017 and explored techno, disco, late-night R&B, and introspective modern soul. Virtual Womb subsequently toured to Vancouver, the Philippines, and an additional Toronto venue.

After relocating to Los Angeles and refocusing on music, Todd joined Stones Throw Records to prepare her fourth album. Pandemic-era experiments with virtual reality shaped the project, which centers on an avatar named Maloo; the tracks function as sparse electronic ballads voiced from that character’s viewpoint, some constructed on the Yamaha Tenori-On sequencer. Co-produced by Kyvita, Maloo appeared in March 2022.