Olympia is one of Washington’s biggest musical hotspots from bands to soloists. Olympia is full of different creative types either born and raised in Oly or coming from all over.

Maggie Neatherlink is on of those creative types. She has grown up around music her whole life and has recently had her first album release party.

To get insight on how she made it this far, I sat down and asked her a few questions.

Q: What genre of music does your album most fall under?

A: I’d say it falls under Indie Rock, but I’m that pretentious artist that’s like “oh, my music doesn’t really have a genre, it kind of goes all over the place…” nah, it’s pretty Indie Rock.

Q: What struggles did you face in both the creative process and the business process?

A: In the creative process… honestly, figuring out the album cover was really difficult. I did all of the original art on it and it took me forever to find a design that really spoke to me. I think most people would probably expect writing the songs would be the most difficult challenge, but all the songs had already been written…I just chose which ones I thought went together and which ones I really loved.

Businesswise…luckily, Tom has been doing this for a long time, so he was able to step me through all of the difficulties and intricacies of the business. However, there was a bit of a roadblock at the very beginning.

I had planned on playing with a friend of mine who played drums initially, but three days before we went in to record, he texted me to tell me he was stepping out of the project. I frantically emailed Tom, mildly freaking out about not having a drummer, and within 24 hours he found me 3 possible drummers. I had about one email exchange with each of them and settled on a guy named Charles Thompson. We met the first time on our first day of recording, and we clicked instantly. One song, Heart of the Artist, I had written the day before, so when I brought it in, not only had he never played it before, but he had never even heard it before. We got it on the second take. Charlie is really incredible. He adds so much to the album.

A similar thing happened with Corey Mahler, the bassist on the album. He wasn’t brought in until we had almost wrapped the recording entirely, and he picked up the songs instantly. I love both of them and they added so much, musically and personally, to this project for me. I really look forward to playing with them again.

Q: Do you plan on doing this again?

A: Definitely! I have so many more songs, and I’m writing more constantly. I have a whole list of possible album names in my iPhone notes. I’m currently traveling on an independent study of sociology in music, but when I get back I am psyched to start working on my next record.

Q: Are you satisfied with how it turned out?

A: Obviously, there’s things that I would change if I could. There will always be things I think I could tweak or improve on, but I’ve tried really hard to let that sort of thing go. I’m really proud of the work I put in and the quality of the final product, and I’m excited for people to hear it. All the feedback I’ve received has been positive, and I’m happy that people are connecting to the music the way I do. Even if I was less pleased with the actual sound, this has been such an amazing experience and I’ve grown so much as an artist. It’s pushed me in new ways and expanded my understanding of the music community, so, yes. I’m very satisfied with how it turned out.

You can find the album, Maybe I’m Still Just Peter, on Spotify, iTunes, and Bandcamp. You can also order the physical CD from Green Monkey Records online. You can also find Maggie on Instagram @maggiemade.art or on Facebook @Maggie Made.