“It takes a lot of work to heal your guardian angel—your instincts—and to make it so you can trust them again. Chaos Angel, the title of my new record, is the name that I gave to the little guardian who helped me through my pendulum of good and bad patterns. Making this album was a process of building new patterns— and finding a way toward more peace.”
-Maya Hawke, episode 372 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
On the heels of her breakout role in Stranger Things, Maya Hawke has gone her own way as an artist— both as an actor and singer-songwriter. That’s especially true on her striking new record, Chaos Angel.
We begin our conversation by diving into this third record of hers (5:37), the ‘emotional pendulum’ that guided her creative process (9:15), and how director Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia inspired the first track (16:12). Then, Maya discusses a piece by novelist Flannery O’Connor (21:20) that shaped her portrayal of the Southern Gothic writer in the new film, Wildcat (25:28), directed by her father (Ethan Hawke).
On the back-half, we sit with Hawke’s childhood growing up in a household of actors (41:55), a passage from her father reflecting on Before Midnight (45:10), the connective tissue between her latest projects (55:10), and how she’s recently found a place of peace in the aftermath of her new album, Chaos Angel (59:36).
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Show-notes:
- Listen to Maya’s new album Chaos Angel, and hear her previous records Moss and Blush.
- See her in the film Wildcat, directed by Ethan Hawke.
- Watch her recent work in Stranger Things, Maestro, Asteroid City, and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
- Learn more on her website, and follow Maya on Instagram.
- For more talks, hear our conversations with Weyes Blood, David Byrne, Ethan Hawke, Laufey, Tom Hanks, and Lorde.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
Illustrations by Krishna Shenoi. Reference photograph by Andrew Lyman.
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