Guitarist, vocalist and producer Alpha Maid, whose performance at Le Guess Who? 2025 is curated by Valentina Magaletti, has shaped a distinctive sonic language that draws from grunged-out guitar, lo-fi glitch and noise audio sample electronics. The artist now releases her debut album Is this a queue via AD 93.
Originating from a sense of frustration at the predictable and boring narratives and systems that we live under, and the feeling that such rules were the rules of the universe, Alpha Maid formed an interest in particle physics.
“We only know 4% of the universe, there is hope in that and the unknown 96%. I found excitement and wonder in that. The theories I was reading about relied more on the conditions of the present moment, and it made the idea of living in the moment feel more accessible. It started to be possible to see present time from all these different angles, and to have infinite more options to choose where to be next.”
Alpha Maid's guitar remains a constant amongst an array of sonic influences throughout: from dub which honours her Jamaican heritage and the Windrush Generation, to the twinges of an emo love song in On Smoke. Is this a queue revels in the magic of that which we cannot see and coherently understand, and the narratives that have been shrunk down to fit.
Alpha Maid performs at Le Guess Who? 2025 on Friday, 7 November. Also performing at the festival are a.o. V/Z, Jabu, Klein, and many more.
)) ‘Eternity’s Pillars b:w Raise the Chalice & Reverential’.jpg)
