For our summer issue, musician, actor, and overall polymath Maya Hawke introduces AltPress to Chaos Angel, her heartstrings-tugging third studio album, and grants us access to the inner sanctum of inspiration that gave way to it. The Stranger Things star outlines her eclectic musical influences, from Miley Cyrus to the Great American Songbook, and the spiritual journey she underwent for her role as Flannery O’Connor in the 2023 film Wildcat, which ultimately led to the inception of Chaos Angel, the character and concept guiding her new album.
“This angel thought she was an angel of love, and came down to Earth to try to be one — only to find that everywhere she was trying to create love, she created chaos.” Hawke reveals. “First she hated herself, and then hated her maker… And then, she realized that in all the places that she thought that she’d created chaos, beauty was growing back.”
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Across 10 tracks, Hawke lays bare her relationships. Through the lens of the angel, she unravels the often uneasy complexities of humanity, and human connection — which she serves us with urgent, romantic lyricism, and a raw, honest sonic landscape peppered with air whistling against teeth, tiny gulps, and soft inhales.
“This is a record about codependency, self-actualization, and self-forgiveness,” she says. “It is sonically explorative while keeping you in an indie-rock comfort zone. And more than my other records, it has more drums and real moments of pace but remains, as a whole, dreamy and confessional.”
Her confessions continue in our summer issue, where Hawke opens up to Alternative Press. Also in AP’s 2024 Summer Issue, find features on Wallows, Remi Wolf, Luke Hemmings, and more.
Photography by Dani Aphrodite
Styling by Ashley Abtahie
Hair by Peter Butler
Makeup by Mary Wiles
Set design by Michael Newton
Set design assistance by Vivian Swift
