Maggie Rogers

Maggie Rogers grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland along the banks of the Miles River in Easton, Maryland. Her father is a now-retired Ford Motor Company dealer and her mother, a former nurse, is now an end-of-life doula.[3] She began playing harp at age seven and loved the music of Gustav Holst and Antonio Vivaldi. Her mother would play neo-soul artists such as Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill. By the time she was in middle school, Rogers had added piano and guitar to her repertoire and began songwriting in eighth grade.[4] For high school, she attended The Gunston School before attending and graduating from St. Andrew's School, a boarding school in Middletown, Delaware. At school, she played harp in the orchestra, sang in the choir, joined a jazz band, learned banjo and became interested in folk music, and taught herself how to program. She also spent many summers at a rural camp in Maine.[5]

The summer after her junior year in high school, Rogers attended a Berklee College of Music program and won the program's songwriting contest, which spurred her to focus on writing.[4] During her high school senior year, she recorded what became her first album, The Echo (2012). Rogers included her demos as part of her application to the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, was accepted, and started in 2012.[3]

At NYU, Rogers considered a career in music journalism, and in her first year, Rogers interned for music journalist Lizzy Goodman for whom she transcribed and edited hundreds of hours of interviews with major musicians and journalists, which were compiled into Goodman's 2017 book Meet Me in the Bathroom.[6]

She formed a band called Del Water Gap with a singer-songwriter S. Holden Jaffe.[7] The reason they split was because they both wanted to explore more of their solo work. Their song called "New Song" appears on Notes from the Archive: Recordings 2011–2016 (2020).

Rogers released another folk album, Blood Ballet (2014), during her second year at the school. Folk blog EarToTheGround Music explained that the album "...begs for listeners to confront deep personal emotions."[8]

Rogers studied abroad in France while at NYU and after friends convinced her to go clubbing while they were in Berlin, she discovered a love for dance music. When she returned home, Rogers started distilling elements of dance music into her work.[9][10]

In 2016, after two years of writer's block,[6] Rogers wrote "Alaska", a song she wrote in fifteen minutes about a National Outdoor Leadership School course. She played the song for Pharrell Williams, an artist-in-residence who visited her class to critique student work.[11][12][3] Williams said of the song: "I've never heard anything that sounds like that".[13] A video of a visibly moved Williams listening to the song went viral that June, resulting in millions of views as well as hundreds of thousands of plays of The Echo and Blood Ballet.[3][14]

Rogers graduated from New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in May 2016 with a degree in music engineering and production and English.[15][5][16]

In September 2021, Rogers tweeted that she had started graduate school at Harvard Divinity School, where she was "studying the spirituality of public gatherings and the ethics of power in pop culture" and to learn "how to keep art sacred".[17][18][19] She graduated in May 2022 with a master's degree in religion and public life, writing a thesis which "examined cultural consciousness, the spirituality of public gathering and the ethics of pop power". Her 2022 studio album, Surrender, was a component of the thesis.[17][20]

Rogers performing live in October 2018

Rogers performing live at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, California, 2019

After the Pharrell video went viral in 2016, several record labels tried to sign Rogers.[3] She signed a recording contract with Capitol Records where "she licenses her music to them through her own imprint, Debay Sounds." As a result, she has more control over her sound and image than many artists at a similar place in their music careers.[6]

Rogers' EP, Now That the Light Is Fading, was released on February 17, 2017. She released her major-label debut studio album, Heard It in a Past Life, on January 18, 2019. The album debuted at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200.[21][22]

Rogers made her television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on February 15, 2017, Saturday Night Live debut on November 3, 2018, and Today Show debut on July 12, 2019.[23]

In April 2019, Rogers covered the Taylor Swift song "Tim McGraw" as a Spotify Single.[24]

On November 1, 2019, she guested with Dead & Company, a rock band consisting of former Grateful Dead members, performing cover versions of the latter's "Friend of the Devil" and the Band's "The Weight" at Madison Square Garden in New York.[25]

In November 2019, Rogers earned a nomination for Best New Artist at the 62nd Grammy Awards.[26]

Rogers performed during the 2020 Democratic National Convention, appearing remotely from Scarborough, Maine due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. She was introduced by Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and 2020 United States Senate election in Maine candidate Sara Gideon.[27]

On November 13, 2020, Rogers collaborated with Phoebe Bridgers on a cover version of the Goo Goo Dolls' 1998 single "Iris", which Bridgers said she would make if Donald Trump lost the 2020 United States elections.[28][29] The song was released as a one-day exclusive on Bandcamp and was downloaded 28,000 times at a pay what you want cost, with all proceeds going to Fair Fight Action.[30][31] Despite only being available for purchase for one day, the song debuted at number one on the Digital Songs chart and No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it both artists' first entry on the latter chart.[32] The song also charted in Australia, New Zealand, and Scotland.[33][34][35]

On December 18, 2020, Rogers released Notes from the Archive: Recordings 2011–2016 via her label Debay Sounds. The album is a compilation of songs she wrote and recorded in the previous ten years of her recording career. Some of the songs are from her first two independently released albums: The Echo (2012) and Blood Ballet (2014). Other songs are from her previously unreleased 2016 rock EP and a band she was previously in with Holden Jaffe, Del Water Gap. The album was released along with a deluxe version in which Rogers provides an auditory commentary talking through each stage of her music career that the songs in that section reflect.[36]

Her second studio album, Surrender, was released on July 29, 2022. It includes the singles "That's Where I Am", "Want Want", and "Horses". The track "Shatter" features Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine providing additional vocals and playing tambourine, and "I've Got a Friend" features Clairo and Claud speaking.[37]

On 24 June 2023, Rogers played Glastonbury Festival, in Somerset, UK.[38]

Headliner

• Heard It in a Past Life World Tour (2019) (supported by Empress Of, Jacob Banks, Melanie Faye, and Now, Now)
  • Included stops at Coachella, Shaky Knees Music Festival, Forecastle Festival, and Newport Folk Festival[41]
• The Feral Joy Tour (2022) (supported by Samia & Del Water Gap)
• Summer of '23 Tour (2023) (supported by Soccer Mommy & Alvvays)

Opening act

• Haim — Sister Sister Sister Tour (2018)
• Kacey Musgraves — Oh, What a World: Tour II (October 25, 2019)[42]
• Mumford & Sons — Delta Tour (2018)
  • Leg 1 in Europe and Leg 2 in North America

Rogers has performed at festivals including:[43]

• United States: Coachella, Governors Ball Music Festival, Lollapalooza, South by Southwest, Boston Calling Music Festival, Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, Firefly Music Festival, Newport Folk Festival, and Shaky Knees Music Festival.
• Europe: Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, Somerset, England; Rock Werchter in Werchter, Belgium; Latitude Festival in Henham Park, UK; Citadel Festival in London; Down the Rabbit Hole in Ewijk, Netherlands; and at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France
• Canada: Osheaga Festival in Montreal, Canada Sommo Festival in Cavendish, PEI, Canada
• Australia: Splendour in the Grass Festival in Byron Bay, New South Wales

Her song "Give a Little" was penned on the same day the National School Walkout demanded congressional action on gun control. She was inspired by the activism of students across the nation, and wrote "Give a Little" about empathy and unity.[47]

Rogers has donated proceeds from certain merchandise and shows to the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood. She has raised funds by charging pay what you want for certain song downloads, with all proceeds going to charities such as the pro-choice Brigid Alliance and Fair Fight Action, which supports suffrage.[48] She has stated that she is "proudly, loudly and distinctly pro-choice".[49][50]

Rogers performed at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.[51] In a post on Twitter that night, she endorsed Sara Gideon, who introduced her performance, in the 2020 United States Senate election in Maine.[52]