Singer-Songwriter Maisie Peters Reveals the Greta Gerwig Movie That Inspired Her Latest Album

Lollapalooza 2023 ended on a pretty muddy note. No really; because of intense rain on the penultimate day of the festival, the last day of the festival saw mud puddles that made people slip and slide while heading to some of the stages. Despite that, many fans of British singer-songwriter, Maisie Peters, braved the muddy fields the Sunday of Lolla to see her perform hits from her last album, You Signed Up For This, and her newest one, The Good Witch. This was Peters’s first time performing at an American music festival and she and her fans definitely made it a joyful set. Her songs are truly perfect to scream into Chicago’s summer air.

The 23-year-old singer hails from Steyning, England, and got her start singing in choirs and writing songs at age 12. She took up busking on Brighton’s streets and made waves on her YouTube channel. All of this landed Peters a record deal with Ed Sheeran’s Gingerbread Man Records in 2021, according to MusicWeek. Her latest album just claimed the #1 spot on the UK charts, and the singer is just getting started. Peters spoke with Parade before her set at Lollapalooza in Chicago and talked about her performances, inspirations behind The Good Witch and which of her songs are “Greta Gerwig-coded.”

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Maisie Peters recently performed at her first U.S. festival, Lollapalooza

Sitting on a somewhat-still-wet picnic table bench in the Lollapalooza Press Lounge, Peters shares that she’s “excited” for her first U.S. festival—Chicago’s Lollapalooza. While she’s of course performed at other festivals, like Glastonbury, and opened for Ed Sheeran on his Mathematics Tour this past year, she notes that the Lolla crowds looked fun and the background of the city is a unique moment.

Peters says she can’t “really fathom” the success she’s had so far, but moments like this bring it all into perspective.

“You do have moments like when we drove into Lollapalooza,” she tells Parade. “I had a moment where I just thought it's so cool to be like—as an international artist and someone who didn't grow up over here or has never been to Lollapalooza before—to come and have a slot and a set at a festival like this is so special.”

Peters has a special playlist full of the High School Musical soundtrack, country music and Stormzy that pumps her up before a live performance. This pre-show ritual also includes a “special secret handshake” she does with her band, who are important to her and her success. So important, in fact, that she wrote a special ode to touring with them on The Good Witch called “The Band and I.”

“I think we're just all best friends and we're all family really,” she says. “It goes beyond that and there's such a trust and a love for each other and respect for the musicianship that they have. It's incredible… You can see it when we play live. We just have the most fun.”

Related: 100 Best Breakup Songs of All Time

Her newest album, The Good Witch, is a major hit already

Speaking of The Good Witch, Peters’s second album which came out in June, claimed her first #1 on the UK Album charts, making her the youngest British female solo act since 2014 to claim that spot. It also makes her the youngest artist to claim a #1 since Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour in 2021. That’s a major success, especially considering it's her sophomore album. But to Peters, it’s not something she lingers too much on.

“It doesn't really feel like anything, I think,” she says when asked about how this type of success feels. “Like, you know, not to demean what that is, because it's incredible, and I'm so proud of myself and my team and my fans and everybody for achieving that. Also, I love music, and I love making music; that's what I love. And everything else is like the most, the sweetest bonus ever, but I'll make music regardless of that.”

The album—with imagery that leans into mythology, tarot and (obviously) witchery—is also a deeply personal musical diary of the year Peters recorded it. She said it’s a bit of a break-up album in past interviews and this intimate look at her life all just happened naturally.

“I was writing my life as it was happening and the wheels were in motion. And the album ended up being what it was and my year ended up being what it was,” Peters tells Parade. “But, when I started, I had no idea that it would become The Good Witch, and all those things, and all those songs.”

Peters says she “doubled down” on certain themes and that’s how it became the cohesive break-up album and retelling of the year she recorded it.

“I'm so happy with how it came out,” she says. “It's so special to have a real log and chronicle of the way you spend your time.”

Related: Kelly Clarkson Teases New Breakup Song With Poignant Lyrics

‘The Good Witch’ talks about obsession and loving deeply—and found inspiration from a Greta Gerwig movie too

Again, The Good Witch has been deemed a break-up album, with songs like “Lost The Breakup” and “Body Better” being its lead singles. “Lost The Breakup” is an anthem-like song about how Peters won the breakup in the end (and her ex lost, of course). “Body Better” is about the regrets you might have about a relationship ending: Is it your fault? Why did they leave after you gave them everything? Does their new girlfriend have a better body? You know, just very relatable stuff.

These songs, and others on the album, have this underlying theme of “obsession,” something that women are often categorized as if they’re passionate about something or someone. It’s not always a bad thing and The Good Witch definitely hits on what life is like when you feel things deeply.

“It wasn't something that I was consciously aware of—being obsessed with obsession,” Peters says about how this part came along through the album-making process. “And I think... it’s an obsession, and it's a deep desire to record and chronicle and never forget and remember. And I think obsession runs through all of that… I’m really inspired by obsession meaning, really, that you just feel something intensely or you love something intensely or you hate something intensely, and that's inspiring.”

Along with a “Pinterest board of witches,” Peters says she was inspired by the musicians and literature she loves, which include Joan Didion, Jane Eyre and You're History by Lesley Chow.

Destruction is also a theme in the album, especially in the final song on The Good Witch, called “History of Man.” It features a great line: “Women's hearts are lethal weapons / Did you hold mine and feel threatened?” which touches on the “eternal pain of being a woman” (which is also kind of a half-joke, but she has a point).

“I guess it's—that song and that lyric is like, again, I sort of half-jokingly say, it's the deep joy and the deep pain it is to be a woman nowadays,” she tells Parade. “It's sort of that Jo March—it's the Jo March song.”

Peters immediately references the Jo March monologue, performed by Saoirse Ronan in 2019’s Little Women, and I know exactly what she meant.

“I want to be loved. And I know that’s not the same as loving somebody I know. I just feel like, I just feel like women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they've got ambition, and they've got talent, as well as just beauty. I'm so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I'm so sick of it.”

She calls “History of Man” “Greta Gerwig-coded” and with Gerwig's films—most recently Barbie—dealing with themes of womanhood, pain and societal expectations, that seems spot on.

“It's just sort of the power that comes with those feelings,” Peters says. “How that can be interpreted is it’s dangerous to be loved by somebody like myself. I think that's good though. I think it's good to do something strongly.”

Next up, after you listen to The Good Witch, check out the best Taylor Swift breakup songs based on your zodiac sign.