Wilby

Wilby releases debut album 'Center of Affection' out now via Hit The North Records.

Wilby, the indie-rock project of songwriter and artist Maria Crawford, today shares her debut album Center of Affection – out now via Hit The North Records. The record features previous singles “Pleaser”, “Spin”, “Experiments”, “Center of Affection”, "Body" and “Care”, which have seen support from KEXP, Northern Transmissions, and more. 

Wilby’s Center of Affection began as a creative practice, a result of morning pages that unfurled like stream of consciousness diary entries.

During previous efforts, when the artist born Maria Crawford would write to prompts, enter the nebulous “album mode,” or search for a theme to spur her creative practice, everything felt forced. It was only in letting go, in a decision to let her strongest ideals bubble from the roots of her subconscious to the top of her mind, that she was able to write her bravest, most beautiful, and strongest effort to date. 

“When I had previously tried to write records with a concept or just a clear prompt, I would end up obfuscating my ideas,” she explains. “It wasn't until I debunked that for myself that I was able to break through and write the songs I wanted to.” The songs flowed very naturally from the routine sparked by her morning pages, where she would jot down ideas uninhibited by direction, feasibility, or vulnerability. “Songs would just flow from that practice, which was very inspiring.” 

Despite the creative wellspring from which these songs emerged, there’s a precision and clarity to Wilby’s songwriting that is fully-formed on Center of Affection. She’s been one of Nashville’s most exciting indie artists since graduating from the city’s Belmont College, but on her debut LP, that promise is fulfilled; there’s an intoxicating splendor to this album, rich and filling both lyrically and sonically.

On projects like 2021’s EP Translucent Beauty and 2023’s EP happiest woman, desires and wants are amplified, projected onto center stage, and ruminated over. On Center of Affection, these urges are still circling, but Crawford is more interested in why they emerged than satisfying them. 

“While writing this record, I was trying to get in touch with myself, I realized I was pretty disconnected from my childhood as well as my current and present self.

I had to understand the ‘why’ that led me to be so disconnected and then understand and have compassion for myself.”

she explains.

Through her acute songwriting and arresting indie-rock soundscapes, Wilby has picked up support from KEXP, Northern Transmissions, RIFF Magazine, Our Culture, Nashville’s Lightning 100 as DJ Pick of the Week and Atwood Magazine’s Artist to Watch among others. 

Wilby will perform headlining shows in Los Angeles and Nashville this fall.

Tour Dates

10/24 -  The Blue Room, Nashville, TN

11/14 - Permanent Records, Los Angeles, CA