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Mæhila: Five Steps to Making a Record

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Mahila was studying Performing Arts in Brighton, UK until the global pandemic forced her to temporarily live with her parents in Luxembourg. There she had to replace the dance studio for the living room where she spent her time trying to learn choreography amongst her parents’ furniture until she could be back in Brighton for her final year at Uni. Thanks to a cocktail of Mahila’s R&B covers online, a video shoot and “relaxed” covid-19 restrictions; Mahila’s music project Mæhila was born. Mahila had a chat with us at Skyn8 to let us know how her track Gentle was inspired and how she released it to the world.

Musical Theatre and Staying Open to Discipline

I never wanted to focus on one main thing because I want to stay open to any discipline. I chose musical theatre, mainly because I wanted to study all three topics; acting, singing and dancing.

Music has always been something in my life but I didn’t really have the tools to create them. So when Sacha offered me a way of creating music by producing for me, I thought that was an amazing opportunity and I have to take that chance.

Mæhila Five Steps to Making a Record 

Step One: Always be writing

I have always kinda just written text, sometimes in my diary. It’s never really lyrics, sometimes I wake at 4am with an idea and jot it down. During our collab-ing Sacha showed me this one track that he made and I loved it instantly and could imagine some of the lyrics I had written in my diary instantly.

Step Two: Get out there and be seen

I met Sacha because I was a dancer in one of his music videos. I had been uploading videos of myself singing covers to my instagram and Sacha had come across them and told me “you sing great, I am a producer and do you want to work with me”.

Step Three: Find yourself a great producer

was a bit lost at first but Sacha made me super comfortable with the whole process and we really gelled together. He made me super comfortable and it felt like no idea I had was ever wrong. It felt like two friends sharing music together and it made me feel more confident. Sometimes Sacha would make the changes I wanted to make without myself even vocalizing them.

Step Four: Take Your Time

Gentle took around 3 or 4 days of 8 hour sessions. It included a lot of time just hanging out, getting inspired, finding the melodies.

Step Five: Be Vocal


Sacha produced the track but I am a perfectionist so I gave ideas of how to change the instrumentals. I don’t know much about producing music at all but I still really want to get my fingerprints on the track. 

Releasing Music To The World For First Timers

I had never released music before so I thought it worked a little differently. I assumed you could just upload it immediately as soon as we finished the track but we had to wait for a couple of months for the release radar and to upload it to streaming platforms like Spotify.

How to get your track on Spotify’s “Release Radar”

  • Spotify doesn’t include a song in a listener’s Release Radar if they’ve already listened to it.
  • Spotify only include songs where you’re a main or featured artist (not remixer)
  • Spotify don’t include songs by Various Artists
  • Spotify don’t include re-releases of songs already on Spotify
  • Each listener only gets one song per artist per week
  • They include a song for up to 4 weeks if a listener hasn’t heard it

I scheduled the release for the track via DistroKid for a date when I knew I would be in Madrid with all my friends because I wanted to be around people and party and have fun when it happens. It was on the 5th of December and we had champagne, it was a really fun process and it helped me not get inside my head and be like “what now” so I put my phone away and my friends loved the track and we were just vibing.

Music Distributors to upload your music to streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music etc:

  1. DistroKid
  2. CD Baby
  3. EmuBands
  4. Record Union
  5. Vydia
  6. 6. iGroove

New Goals and Staying Fresh

Yes we’re working on new songs but I don’t want to just have one genre, I wanna try loads of different stuff and see what works best for me. The goal is that I really want to surprise people with my songs, instead of just releasing the same stuff.

The Eye Opener

Last summer after my second year of university, I was like I don’t wanna do anything right now and had a period where I was unmotivated. I believe that unproductive moment ended up inspiring me to shake it off and be more productive.  I think everything happens for a reason as cheesy as it sounds and I think it was the best for me because thanks to the pandemic I was in Luxembourg and I was able to produce this song.

“I think everything happens for a reason as cheesy as it sounds and I think it was the best for me because thanks to the pandemic I was in Luxembourg and I was able to produce this song.”

Mahila on the pandemic.

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