Songwriting at the age of five started as Maya Belot’s own gratification and turned into a complete obsession. She went from songwriting to self-taught guitarist by the age of 7 before getting accepted into the BRIT school at the age of 14.

“Thankfully the fates aligned for me and I was lucky enough to get [accepted], which to this day has had an extremely positive impact on me as a person and a musician,” she said. “I honestly believe that you can only be the best version of yourself if you have a supportive team of people around you.”

She acknowledges the warm, talented individuals she met throughout her time at the school as people who gave her the confidence to become the musician she is today.

“I am and will be forever grateful to those people, many of them I’m sure will impact this world as wonderfully as they did my life.”

Her EP, City Parks, is a collection of songs from two years of her life, ages 16-18. The title comes from the amount of songwriting she did while sitting in parks around London while the concept is very much a public diary. She decided that if she was going to put out her first piece of art, she wanted listeners to know her and understand her.

“The music I love the most is honest, and removes the barrier in between audience and artist; if just one listener heard one of my songs and felt they could resonate with the topic or story then that makes recording it and putting it out worthwhile,” she said.

Belot compares the EP’s honesty to the honesty she shares with her best friends. Although risking vulnerability, it’s ideally the sense of comfort that triumphs. Everyone falls in and out of love, everyone makes and loses friends; everyone goes through the same motions, and that’s who this EP is for. It’s the same conversations she would have with a group of friends, and the same conversations she isn’t afraid to dive into.

“At the end of the day, if any of the songs means anything to anyone then I have done my job, so I will live in hope!” she said. “I also think that there aren’t enough women in the music industry right now – the main stream one anyway – holding a guitar surrounded by a big band and I would love to be one of the women breaking that boundary.”