Maddie Zahm - Now That I’ve Been Honest [LP]

Maddie’s 2022 EP, You Might Not Like Her, marked the end of a chapter for Maddie at the same time it marked a beginning for her fans, a teeter-totter of an experience for the singer-songwriter who, at the time of its release, had moved on to writing a new body of work about a new chapter in her life. Having left behind the Boise church community where she long served as a worship leader to move to Los Angeles where she came out as queer and explored what that meant to her for the first tangible time, inspiration was flowing at a moment when some of her most meaningful songs were bringing her back to the past she’d left behind. “It was such a weird whiplash to see people connecting with those songs on such a deep and meaningful level knowing that I’d already processed everything within them months and months ago,” she says. “It was like everyone listening to the songs I was performing was 12 months behind my own healing process – and it was even wilder performing them knowing that I had so many more, newer stories I was just waiting to be able to share.”

Now That I’ve Been Honest lays bare those stories in chronological order, a raw, triumphant, honest and refreshing personal story in her debut album that signals the arrival of one of music’s most important new voices. As sonically textured and layered a debut you’ll find, Now That I’ve Been Honest professes to be a coming-of-age story detailing Maddie’s life since moving to Los Angeles, while continuing to build upon the sound foundation of her early work and the community she’s created and fostered in her music. “The EP was me in a lot of ways deconstructing who I was,” she says. “The album is me saying, ‘Well, now that we've gotten that taken care of…’” The digital album was released October 20th.