<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen Mya began conceptualizing<\/a> what would become her ninth album \u201cRetrospect,\u201d she knew she needed to subsume herself in a sound that both played to her performance strengths and spoke to where she\u2019s at in life. \u201cI wanted to turn it up a notch,\u201d she tells Variety<\/em> of the funk-powered record that arrived last Friday. \u201cI feel like in my career I haven\u2019t had the type of tempo music that supports one of the greatest assets of Mya<\/a>. I\u2019m a party girl, but people wouldn\u2019t know it because I\u2019m so laid back. I\u2019m still the same girl from \u2018Case of the Ex.\u2019 I\u2019m just in my grown era.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cRetrospect\u201d forgoes the languid pace of Mya\u2019s last album, 2018\u2019s \u201cT.K.O. (The Knock Out),\u201d in favor of the R&B and funk of the late \u201970s and early \u201980s. Now 46, the singer draws inspiration from the music that inspired her, name-checking Prince and the Gap Band, for a spate of upbeat tunes dotted by glittery synths, pummeling 808s and plucky bass notes. On the Snoop Dogg-featuring standout \u201cNo Pressure,\u201d for instance, Mya invokes the carefree feeling of loping around a roller rink as she sings of taking things slow with someone she just met, horns blasting alongside her.<\/p>\n \n\tMya recorded the lot of \u201cRetrospect\u201d in Los Angeles, amassing songs that she tinkered with over the course of several years. She co-executive produced the album alongside Lamar \u201cMyGuyMars\u201d Edwards, a member of 1500 or Nothin\u2019 who has worked with everyone from T.I. and Snoop Dogg to Jay-Z and Drake. Now an independent artist \u2014\u00a0she released her first four albums through Interscope and Universal Motown, up until 2008\u2019s \u201cSugar & Spice\u201d via her own shingle Planet 9 \u2014\u00a0Mya revels in being completely hands-on, producing her own vocals and managing day-to-day operations like booking studio sessions and selecting press photos.<\/p>\n \n\tExercising that control, she says, has been an ethos applied to all her projects for nearly two decades. \u201cWhen I didn\u2019t necessarily have the creative freedom over, I\u2019ll say, control of the files, I tended to be very dissatisfied with the outcome,\u201d she explains. She points to her 2003 album \u201cMoodring\u201d as an example where her vocals were often \u201cprocessed\u201d or had \u201ctoo much Auto-Tune,\u201d and that she prefers \u201cimperfections.\u201d \u201cWhen I went independent, I began playing in a space of being satisfied with the work. And I would not come out or put anything out into the universe until it was the way I wanted it. Being independent empowers me to say, alright, we\u2019re good here.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPrince played a significant role as inspiration for Mya on \u201cRetrospect,\u201d as the sound of Minneapolis Funk casts a long shadow over the record. From the pulsating bass lines on \u201cMasterpiece\u201d to the clattering synth notes of \u201cLife Is What You Make It,\u201d \u201cRetrospect\u201d pays homage to the Purple One, who once imparted wisdom to Mya on navigating her career as an indie artist.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cObviously, the independence, he was a huge advocate for it,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThere was a sense of protection in some of those conversations and protecting your art. There was also investment in living below your means, not going after materialism but truly building a space as an athlete would to train as a recording artist, having your own studio, having your own place where you can rehearse so that you can literally pour into your craft because the outcome is based on what you\u2019re putting in. And that\u2019s just investment, practicing. He comes from a school where there are no shortcuts.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMya, of course, has taken the long road to arrive at such a contented creative space. Since debuting with her self-titled album in 1998, she carved a path for herself by playing the major label game, sending hits like \u201cCase of the Ex\u201d and \u201cMy Love Is Like\u2026 Wo\u201d to the upper reaches of the charts. But after her label bungled the release of her fourth album \u201cLiberation,\u201d she took the reins of her career and charged onward, learning how to sharpen her business acumen in real time.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe world is yours. It\u2019s a free playground where you can experiment and explore in your own time, really deep dive,\u201d she says. \u201cTest records before you invest, develop relationships that last a long time, build teams, offer opportunities, internships, etcetera. You\u2019re literally learning so many things as you go, but also meeting so many people because you are in need of those who can move the needle. And it\u2019s a wonderful thing to have those moments and then build upon that.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cRetrospect\u201d was initially intended as a precursor to an opening slot on Pussycat Dolls\u2019 reunion tour, \u201cPCD Forever,\u201d but the North American trek was canceled in early May, with some attributing it to ticket sales. Mya says it\u2019s a \u201cbummer\u201d that the tour was called off, but that she wasn\u2019t aware of a specific reason for its cancellation. (\u201cI\u2019m kind of in the dark with everything right now,\u201d she said in this interview, which took place the morning after the announcement. \u201cI haven\u2019t gotten into the nuts and bolts.\u201d)<\/p>\n \n\tInstead, she\u2019s eyeing a fall tour for \u201cRetrospect,\u201d which had always been part of the game plan. After all, \u201cRetrospect\u201d is the culmination of years of fine-tuning and crafting a cohesive vision. For Mya, it\u2019s a testament to her creative spirit and drive, something that\u2019s still as strong as it was when she embarked on this journey decades ago.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere are so many aspects of music that it touches on for life and the human experience, and for me, that\u2019s everything. It can instantly bring healing. It can instantly be a room picker-upper,\u201d she says. \u201cIf we truly pay attention, some sounds can heal and raise your vibration and others can lower it. And so to affect the state of others and hopefully have the positive intention and be on the right side of that is what keeps me going \u2014\u00a0love, healing, all the good things in life that we need to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Mya began conceptualizing what would become her ninth album \u201cRetrospect,\u201d she knew she needed to subsume herself in a sound that both played to her performance strengths and spoke to where she\u2019s at in life. \u201cI wanted to turn it up a notch,\u201d she tells Variety of the funk-powered record that arrived last Friday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2424208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[358060],"class_list":["post-2424207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-mya"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mya-Discusses-New-Album-Retrospect-and-Being-an-Independent-Artist.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2424207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2424209,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2424207\/revisions\/2424209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2424208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2424207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2424207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2424207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}