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Mae Simpson’s voice can bring down the house, and it’s front and center on her debut album

A woman with a backwards hat singing into a microphone on stage with a band behind her.
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Mae Simpson
Mae Simpson performing in 2023.

The album is a mixture of catchy pop, funk and soul that gives the singer plenty of opportunities to showcase her vocals.

MINNEAPOLIS — Arriving five years after forming a band, Chandelier & Bloom is Minneapolis vocalist Mae Simpson’s debut album.

Right away, it’s her powerful vocals that stand out, soaring over her seven-piece band that includes trumpet and saxophone.

“I didn’t do any sort of lessons or anything like that,” Simpson said on Centerstage Minnesota. “This is just who I am.”

The album is a mixture of catchy pop, funk and soul that gives the singer plenty of opportunities to showcase her vocals. But this is not how the group started.

Five people posing in front of a painted brick wall. The wall features floating blocks and small mushrooms with faces. The scene is based on the video game Mario.
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Mae Simpson
Mae Simpson and her band in 2023.
"I can’t explain where it came from or how it happened. I just know that I have to put 110% of me in every single song."
Mae Simpson

“It really started acoustically and really an Americana kind of vibe,” Simpson said. “I knew I always wanted horns. I wanted a rock band. So that’s what I have now.”

The Americana beginnings can still be heard on tracks like “Half Like a Shadow” and “Mountains,” and Simpson says the future might hold more of that.

Whatever style the band pursues next, expect to hear her singing her heart out.

“I can’t explain where it came from or how it happened,” Simpson said, “I just know that I have to put 110% of me in every single song.”


Centerstage Minnesota, Fridays at 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. on KAXE/KBXE, is made possible by the citizens of Minnesota through the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.

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Malachy started his radio career at a college radio station, where he played weird music in the middle of the night to possibly no one. On a good night maybe his parents were listening. Nonetheless, he was hooked on public radio and is still doing it today. He joined Northern Community Radio in 2022, where he gets to share his passion for local music as Producer of Centerstage Minnesota, an all Minnesota music show airing Fridays at 2pm.