MAIUS MOLLIS

THE KIT LIST MAIUS MOLLIS

INTRODUCTION

Maius Mollis is a Northeast based singer-songwriter making tracks into her early career. Gentle and brave in the way she tells stories and drawing listeners in with restrained guitar accompaniment and commanding vocals, Maius Mollis creates a space for emotional catharsis.

No exception to this, her debut single “The Tide Turned” is a sombre and efficacious composition, discussing love, grief, and mental health.

Since the release under label Both Sides Records she has performed prolifically in the North of England, garnering press from well-respected platforms and local radio play.

WASHBURN BT-2

This guitar was kindly given to me by a family friend who hadn’t found a use for it. It is also a short scale which is perfect for my small stature of 5”1. When previously playing electrics, I often found they were just that wee bit too big, but the Washburn feels like an extension of my body; my ultimate goal when playing an instrument. I love this wee guitar and it has quickly become a core part of my sound. I also found out it was bought with a tax rebate in 1997—the year I was born—which felt

BOSS TU-3 + POLYTUNE PEDAL

The Boss TU-3 has been an essential staple for live performances, recording, and rehearsing for me for over 6 years. Tuning pedals have the clever feature of cutting off the signal when on, meaning the audience can’t hear when tuning and you can chat without the distraction of hearing tuning coming back through your monitor. Every now and then I do accidentally leave it on, starting a piece and leaving me with no guitar coming out front, but it’s a small price to pay for the convenience of this piece of kit. They are also highly customisable.

In my other project, Northering, my duo partner, Anna Hughes plays an Indian harmonium that has chaotically slid into 443Hz. While this isn’t a huge disparity from standard 440Hz, we notice it enough to be unsettled. There is a feature to change the Hz so I tune to 443Hz when playing in Northering. Sadly there’s a scarcity of parts to build the TU-3 at the moment, and I needed another pedal when playing two different guitars on stage, so I went for the Polytune—which isn’t my preference as I find it can cause “popping” noises out front when turning on and off—but

SE V7

This is not necessarily essential, but a new preference. Well known as being a mic Billie Eilish uses for picking up the subtleties of a quieter and more nuanced voice. Having a softer voice is something that I have at times had a complex over, but am now embracing, and realising that there is nothing inherently wrong with this in soundchecks and that I just need the right tech. The SE V7 is a supercardioid microphone, whereas your standard SM58 is a cardioid pattern. As I understand it, the main difference between these two is that the SE V7 has a tighter pick-up pattern than a cardioid or sm58. Basically, the SE V7 is more sensitive. This means FOH can hike up gain without me feeding back. I first used one of these a few weeks ago at The Cluny and was refreshed by the clarity I heard back in my monitors.

HERCULES GS402BB GUITAR STAND

Basic but essential. Comes with a drawstring bag and folds up nicely, packing away in a rucksack. This is perfect for venues that might not have a guitar stand, and saves me having to carry around a larger stand, and keeps me neat on stage. Nothing worse than watching a guitar slowly slide and crash to the floor after being lent against a chair.

GIGGING ESSENTIALS

A flask of warm water, headphones and a small blanket.

I am a creature of comfort through sensory experiences. Noise-cancelling headphones help me block out any distracting noise that might be happening pre-gig, a blanket keeps me comfy and warm, ready for the inevitable post-adrenaline temperature dip. And lukewarm water is just about all I can drink before going on stage, so that’s where the flask comes in handy.

‘The Tide Turned’ is released under Both Sides Records and out now on all streaming platforms, along with the official music video