Who do you want to be when you grow up? This is one of the central questions we all face as we attempt to piece together the puzzle of our own identity. And truth be told, few of us ever find a satisfactory answer. At age 12, however, Maggie Schneider decided she wanted to become a musician and soon started learning guitar and piano to turn her dream into reality. In her early teenage years, she started playing gigs at the old Masquerade (may it rest in peace) and other local venues that typically didn’t allow for underage performers. But Schneider was passionate and persistent, and these initial shows helped spark a love of creating and performing that have allowed her to blossom as an artist. And lately, it seems all those pieces Schneider has been gathering along her journey have started snapping into place.
Last Friday, Schneider shared the video for “Don’t Tell Me,” a song that digs deep into the idea of staying true to oneself and ignoring the noise of others who don’t harmonize with the melody of your life. The release is the culmination of years of work wonderfully packaged into a sparkling, heartfelt tune that marries energetic emo pop with a positive message for anyone struggling with issues of identity and standing firm in the face of adversity.
“‘Don’t Tell Me’ is definitely one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written,” Schneider told Substream Magazine, who premiered the video. “It’s all about my journey in realizing the importance of standing up for myself, and not allowing anyone to tell me what to do or who to be. I was tossing and turning one night because I had a lot of stuff on my mind. Random lyrics kept popping into my head: lines about how I was feeling, things that were said to me, things I wish that I had said in the moment, etc. It’s incredibly difficult to respond to someone who doesn’t understand you, or puts you down, and this track is my response to them.”
Watch/listen above.
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