Track-by-track: Irish electronic producer Elaine Mai on second album For Us

Choice Music Prize-nominated Irish electronic producer Elaine Mai’s second album For Us follows on from debut 2021 album Home and explores “resilience, self-growth, and emotional clarity.”

Repeat vocal collaborators MuRli, MayKay, Faye O’Rourke and Sinead White underscoring Mai’s uplifting and widescreen electronic productions and Palestinian children from the Lajee centre also features on previously-released charity single ‘We Are’.

For Us is an album guided by American producer Rick Rubin’s simple idea of making art for yourself, then opening it up to others to shape the balance of personal and collective energy throughout.

Elaine launches the album at Button Factory on October 25th.

Here’s a track-by-track of the album by Elaine.

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1. Hope

Hope is the foundation of the whole record. The main pad sound at the start is actually my voice, with about eight or nine layers stacked and processed until they became a sustained bed of sound for the opening. That sound was the jumping-off point for the album, and as it unfolds, you begin to hear the piano, which is the main thread running through the album. I wrote the piano piece while working in Donegal, and it was the first piece of music I wrote for For Us. This track feels like opening the door on the record and it builds into something really optimistic and full of possibility.

2. Echo (feat. MuRli)

If Hope is the spark, Echo is the moment when the album properly announces itself. This track feels cathartic and full of energy. When the work for the album was at a certain stage, I sent it to collaborators, and I knew this one would be a great fit for MuRli. We’d worked together before, and when he sent back that refrain ‘Echo’, it just clicked. Performing it live with him at Beyond the Pale was a highlight; his presence is so positive and magnetic, he lights up any room. This track carries the optimism of Hope forward into something more relatable and more ‘song, song’. 

3. Aim (feat. Faye O’Rourke)

One of the most important parts of producing and writing is thinking about placement. If I’d finished this album two or three years ago, it would look completely different, because the tracklist reflects where I am right now. That’s why Aim felt like the right move after Echo. I feel like my music always bounces between hope and sorrow. I don’t know if that’s an active choice or not, but it’s definitely something I’ve become aware of. So, the shift in energy here to something more introspective felt right. When I sent Faye the track, she told me the melody and lyrics came instantly. Her lyrics speak about intergenerational trauma, how it impacts and shapes our lives. 

4. Black Mirrors (feat. MuRli)

Coming off Aim, Black Mirrors brings the energy back up, but with tension beneath the surface. Because this album is based around the same melodic structure, technically, you can play parts of tracks in other tracks and it works. I was able to change the emotion here, without needing to change the underlying melody and it was such an interesting way to play with the album.

Lyrically, Black Mirrors is about disconnection, being caught in our screens, in this strange space where everything looks connected but often leaves us feeling more isolated. MuRli captured that balance perfectly: his vocal makes the track feel alive, but what he’s saying cuts to the distortion and distance. It’s one of those songs that feels both energetic and unsettling, again pushing the arc of the album into more introspective territory.

5. Safe Space

Safe Space came from some writing sessions I did in the UK about a year and a half ago. It feels like the pause the record needs. After Aim and Black Mirrors, this track offers a moment of comfort and hope. It’s a necessary pause, a sense of being held in safety, before the music moves into heavier ground. As in life, we need moments of respite, and in For Us, this track provides that. 

6. With Me In It (feat. MayKay)

I think these are some of MayKay’s most beautiful lyrics and that’s saying something! The line “every step I take a step sideways” is so simple and so relatable. There’s vulnerability and fragility here that I adore. It opens the listener up, and for me, it sets the stage for We Are. 

7. We Are (feat. MayKay, Faye O’Rourke & some of the young people from the Lajee Centre in Palestine)

This track is one of the most meaningful that I’ve ever worked on. It started from a conversation with MayKay, who has spent time volunteering at the Lajee Centre in Aida Refugee Camp in Palestine. She had recorded the voices of the children there, their words, their strength, their joy and when she sent them over, I knew they belonged at the heart of this record. Their voices carry so much resilience, even though this was their first time writing and recording. MayKay described working with them as ‘the honour of a lifetime,’ and I feel the same about being able to help share their words on this record.. 

8. We Go On (feat. Sinéad White)

This is the final track I finished for this record, and it felt like the piece that brought everything into focus. On the lyrics, Sinéad said this is what came out in the moment, and that it was the only thing that could. What she captured speaks to where so many of us are right now: overwhelmed by the heaviness of the world, sometimes feeling lost, but still trying to keep moving forward with hope. 

Over the three years it took to write For Us, I feel like this track holds all of that and reflects it back. It doesn’t try to tie things up neatly; it sits with the reality of where we are, holding the tension between hope and despair.