Conor Maynard Is Healing And Creating New Music

After two difficult breakups, one at the end of 2021, and another last year, Conor Maynard is newly focused on his music. Maynard, known both for his musical talent and his social media prowess is back in the studio where he is free to find catharsis in the sounds he creates.

Maynard has been prolific, writing more than 50 songs. These songs have historically been like the music of the moment. The new work takes more influence from the emotional journey Maynard is traveling as he works out of the loss of successive relationships and back toward his path as a performer.

On June 9^th, 2023 Maynard will release his new project +11 Hours, inspired by his breakup in which the girl lived in Sydney, Australia, a time zone eleven hours away from his home in the UK. The video below is Storage, a ballad from +11 Hours about memories and how they are affected by the breakup of a relationship.

I recently spoke at length with Maynard. He was candid and open while discussing his current work. Writing songs inspired by breakups is difficult. While creating this new music is a way of venting as an artist, it also creates the peril which is if that song becomes popular, you relive the breakup every time you perform it. Everyone wants a hit, but there’s a price paid each time you relive the pain points from your life to date.

After Maynard’s breakup at the end of 2021, he wrote about the effect of that upon him. That song, What I Put You Through, was initially nerve wracking because it engendered negative feelings which made him nervous to perform it live. However, it was popular among his fans. Maynard had to reconcile the thought this song was collateral beauty with the knowledge it came from the painful relationship’s end. He is a perfectionist who tries to articulate exactly what he’s feeling and to convey that in a way which is as real as possible.

The business of music is complex. Old revenue streams are dry. Distribution is a challenge as the world moves to streaming services like Spotify or Apple
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Music. Records are no longer much of a revenue source. So, those who succeed now must find ways to build attention in a space which is ever more crowded.

Maynard’s use of social media has been masterful. He began early, almost fifteen

years ago when internet options were few. But, after starting with YouTube and Google he kept current as new social media platforms opened. That early adaption of audience building using a social interface has delivered to him an audience which is global, such that he is about to play a headline show in Australia to an unusually big crowd, in a country to which he’s never been. His key observation was the internet is broader than local television or radio, it is universal.

There is something else which Maynard found to work. He built audience recording music in tune with the present vibe then pushing it out across his social channels. He also found success in recording covers of popular songs, making certain his versions reflected his own personal style, so that someone who listened to the song initially because they liked the song would come back because they liked the way Maynard had reconceptualized and performed it.

Maynard’s career has taken him in multiple directions. In 2018 he played Charlie on Broadway in Kinky Boots. That two-month run gave him visibility in the New York City theater community. It also was how he was able to interact with Cyndi Lauper who wrote the music and lyrics for Kinky Boots.

The path forward for Maynard is wide open. He’s working without a label now, so he has complete control over his future. He’s been working toward an album or EP for release later this year. On deck is a tour which puts him in front of fans everywhere. Fans first meet artists on the internet or through broadcast media. They bond with artists during live performances. Nothing replaces the way in which music connects the performer with their audience like live shows. And, with a performer who can be broad enough to carry a lead role in a campy Broadway hit, there’s something in that room for everyone who attends.

Maynard is smart, personable, patient and attuned to how the twin processes of creating music and getting attention to it work. Pay attention, he’s been an early adopter for more than a decade. The rooms he’s playing are getting bigger. The social media followings are growing. He continues to write and add to his catalogue. Talent, deliberate strategy, and genuine likeability almost always win out. In one of the most competitive business on earth, success still follows the basic tenents, be good at what you do, be likeable, and stay at it. Maynard learned this early. The steady growth of his audience is the result. It’s a case study about how to build a presence in music levering musical ability through social interaction and diligence.