Name: Tori Zietsch aka Maple Glider
Nationality: Australian
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Current release: Maple Glider's new album I Get Into Trouble is out October 13th 2023 via Partisan.

If you enjoyed this Maple Glider interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

All of my songs are inspired by personal relationships and personal experience. My song ‘Dinah’ taken from my new album I Get Into Trouble was inspired by a children’s version of a Bible story that I was read as a kid where a woman named Dinah is sexually assaulted, and then her brother murder’s her attacker.



The story states that Dinah is to blame because she was associating with people who don’t believe in the same God that she does. The story also states that the only reason the assault is wrong is because her and her attacker are not married.

When I re-read the story as an adult I was horrified. It inspired me to write a lot of songs, it probably also fuelled me to write ‘Don’t Kiss Me’, which is also on my new record.



For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

It’s all chance, baby. I have to sit down and play. I don’t spend too much time trying to finish anything before I’ve even started, I prefer to drag it out from start to end!

I usually don’t know what’s going to come, so I just arrive and begin. I guess in a sense, once I know what I’m writing about, I feel like the direction is a lot clearer.

So I guess my ‘visualisation’ of the finished work is more often thematic than sonic.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

I love the ritual of having coffee so I’ll often make a coffee, have plenty of water and make myself comfortable. Most of the time I write it’s on my bed, on the floor, or outside.

I wrote most of ‘You At The Top Of The Driveway’ and ‘Baby You’re Gonna Be A Daddy’ in a backyard under a mulberry tree that reminded me of a mulberry tree we had on my street when I was a kid.



If I feel stuck, I usually make progress after I’ve had a walk or sat outside for a moment.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

It’s different every time. Sometimes it’s the opening line and sometimes it’s a chorus or just something that pieces the song together. The first idea is usually something I get when I’m doing something else, and I make a point of stopping to record a voice memo.

I actually get a lot of inspiration when I’m in the studio recording other songs, or driving, or camping. I always want the first line to be strong though.

Sometimes it’s nice to tap into a sense. My song ‘Swimming’ starts with me sitting and watching surfers at Birling Gap at Seven Sisters near Brighton in the UK.



When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Lyrics are a big part of what makes my music what it is so they are usually one of the first elements that come into view, though very rarely they arrive without a melody.

I’ll often get a lyric locked into a melody immediately, and then I build around it and make changes if it feels right to as I’m moving through the song. The melody and the lyrics kind of feed each other.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

I’m not really sure whether I can really create ideas? But I can find them if I’m looking. I guess by looking I mean by writing as a practice.

I believe all songwriters are just searching really.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

No I’m not strict when I’m writing, and if I am I think I don’t enjoy it. I like to keep things open, find my intention, and allow whatever comes to pass through. In this way,

I still feel in control, I’m just conscious that there could be more possibilities for the song than I am necessarily able to see at one given point.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

If I can, I explore it all and record everything. Sometimes you get multiple songs out of it.

My songs ‘Two Years’ and ‘As Tradition’ came about this way.



There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

To me writing kind of feels like floating on a wave, moving in and above the water, little dips and lifts until a big wave crashes and makes an impact and all the seafoam spreads everywhere and forms all these rushing temporary ideas that you have to take notice of so quickly or else they’ll be gone in such a hurry and you’ll be left trying to make sense of the residual pieces and hoping that they hold enough clarity to evoke what you are meaning to say.

From my experience it’s about paying attention long enough to reach that place, and being open to just going along with it.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

I think taking space from a new song is really important. I often take a walk, take a few hours, or days, sometimes even years.

Some songs need a long time to develop. I’ve experienced that time can offer invaluable perspectives to situations that have given my songs new depth.

The first version of a song I wrote in the lead up to writing ‘Friend’ was quite an angry and vicious song. I needed space to sit in my feelings and process the anger before I could write something with clarity, compassion, and perspective.



After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

There is definitely tiredness!

For me, taking space in nature, seeing my friends, watching live music, listening to albums, reading and exercising all help to recover my mind and body so that I can work myself back into a healthy creative state.