The Unique Sparkle of Indie Musician Daphne Jane
Daphne Jane Maki got a starter guitar for her 11th or 12th birthday. She was inspired by concerts and music festivals in her hometown and popular movies/TV series like Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and Camp Rock. So Maki taught herself some chords and stayed up late learning Taylor Swift songs until her fingers bled from the nylon strings. She honed her writing and performing skills at a music program in her hometown called Rock Camp for the next five summers. She started recording her first album and performing live at local talent shows and gigs when she was around 15 years old.
“Playing guitar and writing came to me in a way that I wasn’t expecting,” she said. “Then, slowly, it became a way for me to process things throughout my life in a creative way that makes sense to me.”
Maki moved from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Minneapolis. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Family Social Sciences and LGBTQ+ Studies.
Now she’s 23 years old and has put out two albums, an EP, and various singles in a genre she calls “bedroom-pop.” The style is characterized by a lo-fi, DIY, and indie sound since the musician usually writes and records at home rather than in an official studio.
“It’s just been incredible to watch her blossom in Minneapolis,” said her mother. “I’m no expert at it, but I feel like her momentum has really kicked into gear in the last year.”
Maki has an audience of 69.7K followers on TikTok and 95.9K streams on Spotify this year. She was also the headline performer on Dec. 30 at the 7th St Entry venue in Minneapolis for her second time.
When she was born, Maki’s mother said the nurses told her, “‘There’s something special about this girl… She sparkles.’”
So she started calling her daughter Daphne Sparkle.
“She is a sparkle in this world, and it makes me cry because she really is an incredible human being,” said her mother.
Maki released three singles this year. “Sleepyhead” and “Months” came out over the summer, and “Clementines” came out in early October. Production was a unique experience for Maki because she recorded each song with different people.
“I usually work with the same producer for my projects, so it was different for me,” she said.
“Sleepyhead” is a dreamy love song Maki wrote about her girlfriend. The poetic lyrics are enhanced with echoey reverb and fairy-like harp sounds.
She recorded it with brothers Ethan and Noah Deetz. They’re producers/mixers based in Chicago and worked with Maki in 2021 on her EP “Dreamland” and her album “I Wish I Was in The Clouds.”
She also released a music video for the song on YouTube with the help of an all-female and non-binary crew. The video captures domestic bliss with saturated colors and home-video-style footage of the couple dancing in the kitchen, picking flowers in a lush field, and playing in the sparkling waves of a beach.
“Filming the music video was such a cool experience and was something I wanted to do since I was literally in high school watching Hayley Kiyoko’s ‘Girls Like Girls,’” Maki said.
Even her songs that aren’t about her romantic life or sexuality are written from the perspective of a queer woman.
It’s “important to me because I feel like all identities should be able to find something that feels relatable to them,” she said.
The other song Maki released over the summer (“Months”) is more energetic with fun drumbeats and guitar riffs. She collaborated with her guitarist, Nate Walker, to write it.
“I came up with that melody one day as I was walking back to my apartment from my car,” said Walker about the chorus.
Maki loved the tune when Walker shared it with her last January.
“The key didn’t fit her voice, so we moved it down a key,” said Walker. “Then her and I recorded a little demo of the chords on her phone so she could … write to it.”
Maki and Walker also worked together on the tracking and recording process. They added guitar, decided on the drum pattern and wrote the bass part together, said Walker.
“She’s a genius when it comes to arrangement, … especially in terms of her ear for harmonies,” said Walker.
Maki said it was her first time co-writing a song and a fun opportunity to grow as a musician.
“Doing that was a really new experience, and I was honestly a little scared,” said Maki. “I have so much emotion attached to my lyrics.”
Walker also added some guitar parts and played bass on Maki’s most recent single, “Clementines.” She recorded it with a local producer named Zack Kahn and experimented with some new sounds.
Maki said the song was inspired by the bittersweet feeling of trying to savor summer before it’s gone, so she released it in early fall to enhance that sensation.
Maki also relies on her unique sense of style to help promote her music. She describes it as “ultra-femme,” “coquette style,” and “cottage-core.”
“All of those TikTok hashtags and aesthetic niches, I’ve kind of always really loved,” Maki said.
Fashion is another way Maki can express her creativity. Her aesthetic interests overlap with her music production. She said it’s one of her favorite parts of releasing new music.
“When I’m creating a song or in the production of a song, oftentimes, it feels like a color to me,” said Maki.
The musician draws in new fans through TikTok. She posts videos of herself choosing outfits and getting ready for dates with her girlfriend.
“She was always kind of a performer,” said her mother. “She was always really into dress-up, fashion, lip-syncing, and music.”
Maki’s parents fully supported her even when she left graduate school to focus on music.
“She can always go back to school, but she can’t go back to being 23 with a band and no other responsibilities in her life,” said her mother.
Maki still felt societal pressure to have a backup plan despite that. So she attended graduate school for a year but said she was always thinking about music instead of class.
“I would … leave feeling empty each day and really unfulfilled,” said Maki. “So I spent that whole year feeling that way, just being so confused on what I was doing and what I wanted to do.”
Maki is now working as a nanny full-time. It allows her to focus on her music and perform on the weekends.
“I’m able to do something that feels really creatively fulfilling for me,” she said. “I didn’t want to live my life and never fully try to do what I would like, what my dream is.”
Maki always dreamed of having a band. She started performing with one in June two years ago after Walker reached out on social media and asked to play guitar for her. He helped her gather a small group of instrumentalists.
“We have so much fun on stage,” said Walker. “We just kind of goof around.”
Maki plans to release some new songs and a music video early this year. Her latest single will be available to stream next Friday (Jan. 19). You can follow her on Spotify and Instagram for updates.
