Wilby, the indie-rock moniker of songwriter and multidisciplinary artist Maria Crawford, has released the debut album Center of Affection, out now via Hit The North Records.The album charts Crawford’s evolution as both writer and performer. According to the press release, Wilby’s Center of Affection began as a creative practice, a result of morning pages that unfurled like stream of consciousness diary entries. During previous efforts, when the artist born Maria Crawford would write to prompts, enter the nebulous “album mode,” or search for a theme to spur her creative practice, everything felt forced. It was only in letting go, in a decision to let her strongest ideals bubble from the roots of her subconscious to the top of her mind, that she was able to write her bravest, most beautiful, and strongest effort to date.
“When I had previously tried to write records with a concept or just a clear prompt, I would end up obfuscating my ideas,” she explains. “It wasn’t until I debunked that for myself that I was able to break through and write the songs I wanted to.” The songs flowed very naturally from the routine sparked by her morning pages, where she would jot down ideas uninhibited by direction, feasibility, or vulnerability. “Songs would just flow from that practice, which was very inspiring.
Listen below.
