mxmtoon

Hailing from California's Bay Area, mxmtoon crafts lo-fi electronic pop that weaves in jazz, hip hop, and country while integrating live instrumentation such as ukulele and computers. She first gained notice through vlogging, sharing clips on assorted subjects that often highlighted ukulele covers or her original tunes. As her audience swelled into the hundreds of thousands, she began issuing her own material on an official basis, establishing her jazz-tinged approach via the witty, introspective material on her 2018 EP plum blossom. Her first full-length effort, the 2019 release the masquerade, climbed to number 17 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart and opened doors to joint work with figures from Noah Kahan to G Flip. Ukulele still surfaced amid the sleek pop and indie electronica of her follow-up album rising in 2022. Additional joint singles came afterward, among them the 2023 track "Nobody Loves Me" alongside Cavetown and Ricky Montgomery plus the 2024 cut "The Situation" with Kero Kero Bonito.

Under her given name Maia, mxmtoon launched her first online videos in 2013 while barely a teenager, centering them on travel adventures, daily routines, and original songs. After experimenting with comedic material she moved toward more personal and reflective territory, penning words about crushes, future doubts, and other teenage realities. Her viewership surged with each upload, allowing a music career to develop in tandem with her growing vlog following. Home demos appeared from 2015 onward, yet properly produced singles began surfacing in 2017, starting with "Falling for U."

Her listenership then ballooned rapidly. Fresh tracks, standalone releases, and acoustic renditions continued to arrive, several of which were gathered into the 2018 EP plum blossom. Early in 2019 she issued the four-song EP the masquerade (IV), which explored youthful relationships and encounters. Later that year the complete album the masquerade arrived, featuring the single "Unspoken Words" and reaching number 17 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. Two further EPs emerged in 2020—dawn in April and dusk in October—later compiled as the dawn/dusk set. She also contributed to Noah Kahan’s single “Pride” that year. In 2021 mxmtoon appeared on recordings by G Flip and Ricky Montgomery, while her own True Colors EP, tied to the game Life Is Strange, surfaced in September and contained renditions of Radiohead’s “Creep” and Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun.”

Her second album rising, issued independently in May 2022 and fronted by the singles “mona lisa” and “sad disco,” prompted extensive touring across North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. The joint single “Nobody Loves Me” with Ricky Montgomery and Cavetown followed in June 2023. She next lent her voice to Lyn Rapid’s 2024 song “Back from the Dead,” then released the country-leaning solo track “I Hate Texas.” Subsequent material included “Rain” and the Kero Kero Bonito collaboration “The Situation.”