British singer-songwriter Maisie Peters released her sophomore album “The Good Witch” on June 23, 2023.
It is her first body of work in two years since the 2021 debut album “You Signed Up for This”.
The album comprises 15-track, produced by Joe Rubel, Elvira Anderfjärd, Oscar Görres, Matias Téllez, Afterhrs, Ben Ash, Brad Ellis, Brad Ashurst, and The Nocturns.
The album is inspired by Greek mythology, and she wrote the album over the duration of a year while touring.
Maisie Peters said of the album, “This is my heart and soul, my blood on the page, the collection of stories that I’ve managed to capture in the past year. A true chronicle of my life in recent history, it is my own twisted version of a breakup album and it all draws upon the same couple of months’ worth of experiences and inspirations. It ducks and weaves between the real and surreal, and centres my own universe, of which I am of course the keeper of the keys and the holder of the cards – the good witch, if you will. It goes from light to dark in the flip of a switch and I hope takes you on a journey whereby the end you feel like you’ve gotten lost in someone else’s planet for a bit.”
She shared on social media, “I spent most of last year either on stage singing my lungs out for u, or in the studio, furiously documenting everything I was going through. there was this current flowing through the writing of these songs, where i felt like i stepped into this power, this control - the universe shifted, and i was steering this ship of something bigger than me. i was the holder of the cards, the puller of the strings; heartbreak I was going through became something I could wield and use as I saw fit, transforming something painful into something raw and special and magic.”
She continued, “These songs feel like spells, some of them manifestations, some of them hexes and curses and charms of protection for myself and my friends - it’s my pen, my book, and you are all my coven. This album contains my great, my bad, my ugly; it is the truest reflection of my life this past year, and I hope you see that. The good witch era begins.”
She added, “So much love went into this album it’s absurd - I’m so proud of this universe and I can’t wait to live within it for the next few years. what a ridiculous joy it is to document your life and then hear it sung back at you, what a wild thing. I’ll forever hear this album and think about being 22, being on tour, being in love, being obsessed, writing on planes and dreaming in stockholm and bergen and amarillo.”
Maisie Peters explained track-by-track for the album.
“The Good Witch”
“happy good witch season! seeing as it’s fifteen weeks til the album drops and there’s fifteen songs on the album, i’ve decided to do a tarot card countdown where every week i drop a new card and tell u a little bit about one of the songs, from the very beginning to the very end.
so here we go, the first song, the title track. the good witch. i had this title in my mind (planted by a higher power it feels) but i knew for it to be the title of the album, i wanted it to be the opening track too. call it superstition, but the ysuft opener felt so right for me in that era that i knew her successor needed to create that same magic. i wanted another mission statement, another beginning for us to all center ourselves with, the ginger, the cleanser, the fresh page.
so i wrote tgw on my last day in decoy, a residential studio in suffolk i also visited for ysuft. coincidentally (fatefully), i wrote her on our last day there, as a final hail mary on the piano with joe sat in the other room working on want you back - if u trace back two years, i also wrote ysuft on my last day in decoy that first visit, also with joe sat in the very same chair.
this song has so much of my heart in it - written on that creaky piano, fuelled by romantic vision and rooibus tea, it really is the calm before the storm.”
“Coming Of Age”
“card number two, coming of age. i fell in love a couple of times during this album process, and maybe the truest time of all of them was with stockholm. i went for the first time right at the beginning of writing tgw, and found the spirit of making music there so inspiring, so full of heart and passion and craft and dedication, the snow and that studio so important to this record.
i made coming of age on my last trip there, with two amazing writers and producers elvira and tove. we unpacked our lives at babette and then spent two days writing two songs, both of which i think you’ll hear in this era. making music with them was like making music with myself we were so in sync, our lives so intertwined, and i’ve since brought them to london where we did moth club and the world cup and columbia road and mcdonald’s at 3am (that’s a different story).
coming of age is a song about redefining your role in your narrative; for so long i gave so much magic and story and power to other people, orbiting around them, believing they were the special. writing this album was me realising that maybe i gave them the speaking parts, but i was the playwright in the first place - the girls and i kept talking about that moment when u finally see someone for what they are, just a person, an interlude, a part of your history no more no less. if ysuft wasn’t a john hughes movie, tgw is MY directorial debut, and i will be casting it; it’s my song, my stage, and my coming of age.
and i’m pleased to announce i was wrong and the ugly riff note did make the pre chorus.”
“Watch”
“track 3!!!! the oldest song on this album!!!! i wrote this on my first trip to stockholm, the day after i wrote cate’s brother, the first time i met @oscar_gorres, and it’s one of the most fun songs on this album for sure 🥰
i wrote this song about watching someone forget about my existence at lightning speed - it hurt my ego and my heart (a little bit) so i vented for three minutes and it became watch lol. ‘telling the wide web this is my era then writing a lot of heartbroken music’ is the opening line and i truly did tweet ‘in my reputation era’ and then proceed to write half a dozen songs about how sad and stupid i felt, which is deeply funny in hindsight. i was desperate and mainly bored and obsessively checking his instagram and drinking a lot of joe and the juice smoothies and listening to a lot of gwen stefani and alanis morrisette, but i got this song about it so all in all i’d consider it a win :)
this acoustic clip is when i first got some of the lyrics that became watch a few weeks later (be warned it sounds very different now), ur all gonna die when u hear the final thing 🥹 so this one goes out to anyone who’s ever been hurt by someone with a VHS camcorder <3”
“Body Better”
“fourth track on the album, body better!! the first single from tgw, and one of the saddest songs on this album it is good to start on a high :’)
i wrote this song in bergen w matias and ines after we literally flew from amsterdam after playing shows there and went straight to the studio in our matching ed sheeran hoodies. from the writing of, to the filming of the cemetery voodoo doll picnic music video in la to playing it live throughout australia and asia, this song has just become more and more special to me. the way u have all taken it in and made it ur own, the way u literally scream the middle 8, i am so so grateful for how this song launched this album.
here are some pictures from the music video i never posted which the amazing @caitytakesphotos took - the sun drenched graveyard was the most surreal day, arriving there at 5:30am the morning after i flew from london felt like a fever dream, and i hope the ghosts of the graveyard appreciated the show.”
“Want You Back”
“track 5. want you back. buckle up. joe and i wrote this song very late one night in decoy studios, where we went for a week last october to work on the album. we were actually sat in the living room of the residential part of the studio just playing around, and i remember i played the verse melody and guitar part pretty exactly as it is. the whole chorus lyric then just sort of poured out and joe and i looked at eachother and were like is this our best song ever maybe.
this song is about a time in my life when i would have given anything to have back what i’d lost, even though i knew it wasn’t right, wasn’t possible, didn’t exist any longer. it’s about that little voice in ur head that says as much as you know better, if they called, you’d pick up immediately. it was how i’d felt all summer, and how i’d just began to stop feeling, which i think gave me the ability and perspective to write it.
i wrote the verses and the choruses that midnight in decoy and the middle 8 sat on the steps outside the studio the next day under an autumn sun. we tracked it later in joe’s studio in london and i wanted it to feel warm and close and stinging.
as a final touch, i asked ed sheran if he wanted to sing and play guitar on it, because even though we didn’t end up writing anything on this album together (too busy on our international tour) i still wanted him to be a part of it in some way, as he’s been such a huge part of my career the last few years :’) so ed tracked his parts and then it was done! i love this song, it has some of my favourite lyrics on the album, and i can’t wait to sing it with u all and have it take on a whole new beautiful life.”
“The Band and I”
“song 6! the band and i! actually maybe my favourite on the whole album 🥲
this song. where do i begin. it essentially tells the story of the first ysuft tour, in north america march 2022. that tour was so special to me for a lot of reasons, the shows the bus the people i met. u all. the songs. the nights the mornings. amarillo roller blading little rock laundry cookie shop girl in salt lake pontiac highway snowstorms dom getting into juliard like!!! literally an unending list of memories i could go on forever. and i did in this song.
i started in the week after the tour finished, with @afterhrs_ in la where i was staying for a little while. then i came home and a few months later i played that very early demo to @ines.dunn on the train on the way back from joe’s wedding. we then agreed it was special so decided to try finish it, but could never find time until! she came to the last ed stadium show of that run in europe and we wrote the chorus in the dressing room (still taking a break to watch galway girl of course) after my set. then we wrote the outro in my house i had just moved into the day before and then a month or two later i went back to north america on tour and after the la show i raced to vocal it back with ian and andrew in malibu late one night because i knew the album had to be handed in imminently but i also just knew this song was special and important and needed to be on this record. and now it is :’)))))
the band also had never heard it until i got them to the studio under the guise of recording stuff for the album and then played it to them in full. then of course i got them to play on it, so the drums in the song are all jack, joel did all the guitar solos in the mid8 and tina plays all the piano parts. i love this song because i know i will never make another song like it; the story it tells is one that was and is so formative to my life, and it’s maybe the only real love song on this album. its about the band and i, but also it’s about the magic of live music, and about all of us.”
“You’re Just a Boy (And I’m Kinda the Man)”
“song 7 (my lucky number). you’re just a boy (and i’m kinda the man).
we wrote this song inbetween ed sheran tour dates - i was back in london for a few days and it was my first time in the studio with @matiastellez. i got in and was talking about shania’s song man i feel like a woman, which was our walk out song on tour for all of last year, and how unbelievable it was and how i wanted to make a song that felt like that. and so we started playing around with ideas and guitar parts and it was sort of simmering along nicely and very directionlessly until i suddenly just had a true lightning magic moment and sang the whole chorus, essentially in one, on the piano. i just knew immediately it was good and important and real and honest and we finished the song that day.
this song is one i absolutely could not have written as a teenager - there’s too much self respect in it quite frankly lol. it feels determined and empowered and like a foot down moment, a you really disappointed me and im really cut up about it but you know what i have a world tour to get on with and i refuse to mope (i did a lot of moping anyway don’t worry)!!!!!! kind of moment. we’ve been playing it on tour for the last few shows and it’s so full of fun and energy i can’t wait for u to know all the words. whilst i make u wait for the studio version, swipe for some lyrics for u to get memorising.”
“Lost The Breakup”
“track 8! lost the breakup! my baby! written in stockholm with @oscar_gorres, one of my most favourites on this album. also i think a defining song of this record and era of my life.
i’ve said a lot about this already, but i do just truly think it is world changing and i’m not even really joking. the spirit of this song, the feelings i put into it, the joy and heart and sadness and love is just so so present to me when i listen, it sounds exactly how it feels. i had the lyric idea for losing the breakup for ages just sat in my notes app, and then that morning i went into the studio w oscar, which was also the penultimate session in stockholm for the album before i went home, the whole song came so easy it was like i’d already written it in my head. the next day we did the middle 8 and i just knew it was special because i loved it so so much; it’s funny but i kind of feel like a lot of things that happened last year were worth it because it meant i got to write this song, and sing it forever. lost the breakup is petty but at least she knows it - she’s hurt and bitter and a little crazy, and while she knows she’ll get over it, she just isn’t over it quite yet.
making the video in tokyo was a literal unforgettable experience i cannot even begin - walking through a busy tokyo road with a huge cat mascot beside me pretending to have an intellectual conversation is a true core memory. this song feels like everything i’ve always wanted to make, and i think we will all be tied together by lost the breakup for a long time. our song!!!!!! ours!!!!!!”
“Wendy”
“track 9. wendy :’) wendy is one of five songs i wrote in decoy studios in suffolk during a week last october. for some reason the story of peter pan and the character of wendy had been rattling round my mind - something about her story felt compelling and untold to me, and so that night when brad, jez joe and i went back to the studio after dinner to try some other ideas, i had this funny little thought in the back of my head that maybe now was the time to write the wendy song.
this song is about a lot of things - it’s about believing in lost boys always, about being someone who wants to see the best in something or someone against all odds, wilfully blinding yourself to the truth because the magic feels better. it’s also about paths in life; how u can look at one path, and know there is a version of you that could take it, and be somewhat happy in it - it’s then also knowing that that path isn’t the right one, no matter how hard you could convince yourself it is. it’s about knowing when not to make sacrifices even though u want to, about drawing a line and shutting the window and putting your own future first, instead of trying to help someone else find theirs. because what about my wings! what about wendy! so for anyone who’s ever been a wendy, this one’s for you <3”
“Run”
“track 10! run! buckle up. normally i would provide videos of us making it but with this one i don’t think i want to give much away hehe. i will say that it’s one of the oldest songs on the album - @ines.dunn @twoinchpunch and i wrote it jan 2022, pre a lot of the events of this record unfolding, and even more crucially, pre becoming a blonde.
@twoinchpunch and i wrote you to you on my first EP together, and my song smile that was on the birds of prey soundtrack - ines and i wrote body better, the band and i, therapy, rockstar and run, and when i write with her it feels like writing with an extension of my own brain, so in sync are we. getting to work with my best friends was one of the best things about making this album, and i’m so happy that the people i worked with when i was 16 and stupid are still the people i work with now, aged 22 and still stupid <3
this song is a mantra and a way of life, and definitely one for the girls who have quite simply had enough. it really does get straight to the point, and was inspired by not one, but several different people 🥰 it’s also a fun fact that i wrote this song and then proceeded to go on a first date right after and read the lyrics to him, iconic in hindsight. RIP!”
“Two Weeks Ago”
“track 11! two weeks ago :’) this song is the epitome of bittersweet - i wrote it post heartbreak when i just kept wishing it was two weeks ago. it’s about the drive to the airport when u can’t stop crying, and wishing you’d told someone how you felt when you felt it.
i wrote the song with brad and jez, in the same studio we wrote place we were made, favourite ex, best i’ll ever sing - like all of those songs, it was our last attempt of the day, a final hail mary before i went to finsbury park for dinner with my friends. jez started playing the chorus music and i was humming different ideas, i even tried to vocal a verse, but nothing was really working; then i went and sat by the piano, turned the verse id been working on into a chorus, and the whole song appeared. i’d had the idea for ‘i wish it was two weeks ago’ floating around my head, had also written an entirely different song with that thought (see slide 2), but it wasn’t until that moment in that room that all the pieces fell into place. i remember going home that night and writing in my journal that i’d written this song, and that it felt important and special, and that i hoped it would find a home. and it did.
i got my dear friend @grettaray to sing backing vocals on it and she truly bought it a whole other level - i almost choked up on the bus when i heard her arrangements :’) this song is sweet and sad and pure and maybe one of the most simple i’ve ever written, and you’re all going to hear it a lot sooner than you think. i’ll leave u with that”
“BSC”
“track 12! bsc!!! my unravelling <3 one of my favourites on this album, i wrote bsc in decoy with @joerubel @bradbaloo and @jezashurst. we’d already written another song that day that was sad and reflective and pining, and had an hour to kill before dinner so decided to try working on one other thing. i left the room to do an interview for half an hour and when i came back the guys were playing the music u hear, and i just sort of immediately sang the first verse almost word for word.
this song is absolutely about being in ur most unhinged, most irrational, most deranged mental state; it’s saying all the things you never said because even you knew they were too crazy 🤡 with every new line i wrote i was like ‘is this too far?’ and then i just proceeded to go further and further - i leant into chaos and fury and petty, how deeply tragic and stupid and hilarious it is to be so heartbroken, how ridiculous it all is. it also features some of my favourite lyrics on this album, including maybe the most defining: ‘i can write you out the way i wrote you in’. if the whole album is my universe as the good witch, then this song is maybe where i use my powers for evil. only a little bit. 😈
i read a lot of joan didion whilst making this album, and a quote i thought a lot about is ‘joan didn’t waste any bullets’; without revealing too much more, that’s how i’d like to describe this song. it’s also going to be such an important song for my live shows, and getting the band in to record all the parts bought it so truly to life - it feels like one of the most me songs i’ve ever made, like i’m trying’s delusional evil older sister. let the games begin 😌”
“Therapy”
“one of the last songs we wrote for the album! and my baby @ines.dunn favourite of all the songs we’ve written together 😚
this idea started as a text between us, when we were talking about some boy and i texted the immortal line, im going ‘from his arms straight to therapy’. we then found ourselves in the studio a few weeks later with @thenocturns and were talking about our favourite country songs and the genius of the winner takes it all and were like maybe we should write that therapy idea and low and behold, write it we did.
this song is about how sometimes it’s worse to be loved so well, because you can’t hate or blame anyone when it’s over but yourself. it’s also about sinking into the worst version of yourself, the resigned acceptance of being back to who you thought you wouldn’t have to be anymore. it’s about sleepless nights and doors that won’t open again, and when i listen back to it it feels like a fever dream; the double edged sword of a good thing is a good thing when it’s gone, and this song is the embodiment of that.
the middle 8 live is going to end lives and i truly can’t wait. therapy, written by two girls who very much need therapy, coming to u so soon ❤️🩹”
“There It Goes”
“there it goes was the last song i wrote for the album, and is absolutely the last chapter of the story. if this album is a novel of my year, there it goes is the final page, the conclusion, the ribbon that ties it up and bitter sweetly gives it to whoever needs it most.
i wrote there it goes in bergen with @matiastellez and @defonbrune - a lot of this record felt like fate, and the creation of this song is maybe the most fateful of all. i initially cancelled this trip because i got so ill after spending the week at decoy, but i went home and went to yoga and to the flower market and recovered enough to decide to fly out for a final two days to write. i got there and pretty much threw there it goes up onto the page; i think i had this subconscious need to musically and lyrically close this era of my life, and i remember singing ‘i’m back in london’ just into the room and thinking. ah. i know what song i’m writing.
it’s a song about closure and healing and the power of friendship and flowers and flights and wine fuelled kisses with strangers. it’s a song about coming home to yourself after months of fighting your own shadow, a song about finally being happy exactly where you are, no longer wishing yourself back into a past you couldn’t have even if you wanted it. about realising you don’t really want it anymore anyway.
it’s a song about letting go, truly and properly, and the magic that can surround you when you do.”
“History of Man”
“history of man is the first song we wrote when @joerubel and i went to decoy last october. we arrived at the studio, put our bags down and sat in the little living room just talking about music and the album and life, not planning on writing anything that evening. however because we are the people we are, we ended up writing the whole of history of man :’)
this song is about so many things it’s hard to even distill into a tarot card paragraph. it’s about the power i feel as a songwriter, and the deep true magic i believe exists within love, even when that love has been lost. i wanted it to be the album closer because it encapsulates a lot of the themes i explore within the good witch, but also because it sums up a large part of the feminine experience as i have felt it. this song feels deep and complex and important, like something bigger than me perhaps.
melodically we end back at the beginning, and i hope when u get to this song u will know me better, and maybe yourself too. i can’t believe this is the final tarot card, and i can’t believe you will have the entire album to make your own next week. this is only the very beginning and i’m just so excited and honoured to bring the good witch universe to life with you all <3 the countdown begins ♥️”
