TA L K O F T H E T- D O C K
Major Saints pride for Maggie Rogers ’12:
this spring, she shared an incredible moment with Grammy-winning producer, songwriter and artist Pharrell Williams in a music masterclass at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Pharrell led the masterclass, listened to and critiqued students’ music, and offered insights into the nature of the creative process. After listening to Maggie’s song Alaska, Pharrell said: “Wow. Wow. I have zero, zero, zero notes on that. And I’ll tell you why: it is because you’re doing your own thing. It’s singular. It’s like when the Wu-Tang Clan came out—it’s singular. You either liked it, or you didn’t, but you couldn’t compare it to anything else and that is such a special quality. All of us possess that ability, but you have to be willing to seek. You have to be willing to be real frank in your music and in your choices. Sometimes—most of the time people will say ‘I’m going to make this kind of song,’ so it ends up sounding like something we’ve heard before or felt before. I feel like—your whole story, I can hear it in the music... And I love your singer-songwriter verses. Singer songwriters are the best. I love them. That’s what I love about Stevie Wonder’s music. As much as his music was huge and pop, he was a singer-songwriter. He really told stories. And I felt that just then. But I felt—I’ve never heard anyone like you before, and I’ve never heard anything that sounds like that. That’s a drug for me. That was cool.” As of press time, Maggie has three original songs in the Spotify United States Viral Top 50 chart: Resonate Body, Satellite, and James. She wrote Satellite in an SAS classroom when she was 17, and the trumpet player on the song is fellow Saint James Craig ’12 (who is also the person about whom she wrote the song James). When we let Maggie know that we played the video of her working with Pharrell at a school meeting in late March, she replied in a return email to photography teacher Joshua Meier (who has created some of her album art): “It’s impossible to put into words what the support of this community has meant to me over the past few days, but really it’s the past eight years. St. Andrew’s for me is a place and a community that dared me to experiment, asked for me to rise to every challenge, and expected me to be no one else but myself. It taught me that if you’re open and honest and work hard every day, that you will inherently do the work you are called to do and that itself has the power to change the world. Sending all my love to you guys. Keep supporting each other in everything you do—it’s the Saints way. I wouldn’t be me without my classmates. Have an extra cookie for me at lunch.” Much love from your St. Andrew’s Fan Club, Maggie! To listen to or purchase Maggie’s music, visit http://listentomaggie.com/.
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