Envy Of None’s Maiah Wynne Speaks To Getting In The Band, Making Music With A Rush Legend, & More

The third time was a charm! After a couple of near misses, I finally hooked up with Maiah on Zoom. She's the singer of the newly formed band, Envy of None, featuring RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson.

The obvious question is: how did she get into the band? "Honestly, it's so funny. And it really just happened kind of out of dumb luck, I feel like, on my part. But I had been entering a lot of song contests. And this was years ago now. I think I was around 19 when I entered the song contest. And I ended up winning. And one of my prizes was a Zoom mentorship call with Andy Curran." Andy is a Canadian musician known best for his band Cooney Hatch. She went on, "So we got to talking, we talked about collaborating. And we ended up working on some music together. And then, eventually, Andy brought Alex into the mix. But he and Alf had been working on some music already, so at the beginning, it was kind of Alf, Andy, and I working on some songs. And then Alex joined afterwards."

How do you tell your parents you're now in a band with a member of RUSH? "My parents are big Rush fans. So they're very excited for me. They actually didn't believe me at first when I told them I was collaborating with Alex. My dad thought I was being scammed. And he's like, Are you? Who is this man? Who are you talking to? So they're very excited for me."

Because she had won a contest which led to her joining the band, I asked her if she'd ever tried out for any of the TV singing shows. "I have been scouted by them. I think a lot of their casting agents will kind of scour the internet for people who are singers and try to cast people on the show. And I've been scouted for The Voice and America's Got Talent, and American Idol over the years. I almost did American Idol. I went and did an unofficial audition for the producers and got, like, an unofficial golden ticket and then was, like, really freaked out by the contract and decided not to do it." That's not the only time she'd felt that way. "And then I had a similar experience with America's Got Talent. They scare you into, like, not talking about anything, so I'm scared to talk about it now. But it was a good experience."

Since Maiah is the main lyricist, I had to ask her about writing lyrics in a band with a guy who was in a band whose lyric writing was done by the legendary Neil Peart. "I think I just threw everything out of the back of my mind because it's more helpful that way. But also, I think it does help that we are so different. Like the genres that we're working in, and my life experience and where I'm coming from is so different as well. And so I think while there's obviously universal themes in so many of Rush's songs that anyone can relate to, but I still feel like thematically and kind of interpersonally, I think we just relate in very different ways. And it kind of makes it easy not to sit there and compare them too much."

With the announcement of RUSH touring next year, what about EON hitting the road? "We've talked about it a lot. We have a lot of desire to tour. And I think it's just about finding the right time because we would need a lot of time to rehearse and kind of plan what our show was going to be. Because we've never really performed together live ever. Which is so funny. But it would be really fun. And we all, I think, would really enjoy it. So we've talked about it a lot."

As for the chance she'll see RUSH at a stop or two next year, she said she's looking forward to it. "Yes. I hope I can get extra tickets. I am very excited. It'll be my first time seeing RUSH live. So I'm very excited about the opportunity.
And, um, it's just, it's already becoming such a huge tour that I just know it's going to be such a beautiful experience. And, I know they have such incredible fans, too. Like everybody that I've talked to who has been a long-time RUSH fan is like, I've seen them 87 times. Wow, that's so amazing!"

It was fantastic to speak with Maiah. The 12-inch The Thrill single is available on November 1st. For more info, punch up the site below.